GREENFIELD — Super Bowl visitors who stay in Hancock County in the days before the game will be able to ride a trolley to visit restaurants, shops and other attractions around town.
The trolley service will be a key connector between the hotel cluster near Interstate 70 and attractions that are farther away, such as downtown.
The Hancock County Visitors Bureau agreed to chip in $3,600 to fund the service.
The visitors bureau already is underwriting the $17,000 cost of bus service between Greenfield and downtown Indianapolis on Super Bowl weekend.
Local organizers say that because it would be too expensive to have the two large buses make additional stops around town, the trolley system will help ensure that visitors can safely get to and from attractions in Greenfield, such as restaurant and the NFL-themed race car that will be on display in Greenfield-Central’s fieldhouse.
“It will be a fun addition to the in-town service,” said Super Celebration committee member Jean Howell.
Howell said that without a local transportation service, visitors might not be able to find attractions outside the area immediately around the hotels.
“That’s why $3,600 of tourism money that got invested in the trolley service will be returned in multiples,” Howell said, “because more people will actually now go to our restaurants in Greenfield, because they can.”
The Super Celebration committee originally approached the Hancock County Tourism Commission for the funds, but the newly formed commission’s 2012 budget has not yet been approved by the Hancock County Council. The tourism commission will not have access to any funds and thus cannot award any grants for tourism activities, until at least Feb. 8, when its budget goes before the county council.
It would have been a dead end for the trolley service, except a number of visitors bureau board members happened to be at the tourism commission meeting last week.
Since the commission could not fund the request, the visitors bureau agreed to on the spot.
“It’s all a technicality,” said Greg Carwein, who serves on both the tourism commission and the visitors bureau board. “The money won’t be in (the tourism commission’s) hands until after the Super Bowl, so there was no other money to give except with (the visitors bureau) because we had money left.”
While the visitors bureau was not planning to fund such a service, Carwein said it was happy to do so.
“We want people to stay in this community and spend their dollars here,” he said.
The buses to Indianapolis and the local trolley will run Feb. 2 through Feb. 4, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The trolley will run throughout Greenfield, and the buses will run a continuous loop between the hotel cluster in Greenfield and downtown Indianapolis, transporting visitors to and from for free.
The bus service will also offer game-day transportation for $15. On Super Bowl Sunday, the buses will take one trip into Indianapolis, around 2 p.m. and one trip back after the game. Bus tickets will first be offered to guests at local hotels. What remains of the 106 seats will then be offered to non-hotel guests and local residents.