GOOD HOPE — The off-ramp view is quickly changing for I-65 motorists heading off the highway at Good Hope’s County Road 222 exit. After first breaking ground in February of last year, the city’s new Love’s travel center is beginning to take structural shape, with McDonald’s, its key restaurant tenant, already conducting job interviews.

Both the restaurant and the full travel center are projected to be open and ready for customers before Thanksgiving of this year, said Good Hope Mayor Jerry Bartlett, noting that the lighting for the exit’s southbound ramp also is expected to be installed soon.

“It’s coming along like crazy,” he said. “Love’s is paying for the actual lights on that southbound side, and those have to be operational before the travel center opens. That’s a $300,000 expense. All the city has to do after that is pay the light bill.”

City leaders, though, are shelling out to help facilitate the super-sized project at Exit 305. Good Hope already has replaced the area’s former 3’’ sewer line with a new 8’’ line that can accommodate the travel center as well as additional commercial development, and is putting up a required local match for a $1 million federal grant that will eventually fund a full suite of exit ramp lighting at all four corners of the intersection.

In the meantime, McDonald’s is partnering with the city to help hasten its staffing needs ahead of the restaurant’s November opening date. “They have a representative in our office at City Hall who’s meeting with applicants,” Bartlett said, adding that the company also has placed a convenient QR code atop a mounted sign near the intersection of Alabama Highway 69 and Good Hope School Road — in other words — the ideal place for students and other job seekers to kick off the application process.

Contact the City of Good Hope at 256-739-3757 to learn more about the ongoing McDonald’s interview availability at city hall.