Town of Laurel vies for HGTV ‘Home Town Takeover’

LAUREL, Del. – On Saturday, residents in Laurel joined forces to send one message: reimagine Laurel.

This message was taped in the hopes of catching the attention of Erin Napier and her husband Ben, an HGTV couple who’s on the hunt for small towns they can makeover for their upcoming series Home Town Takeover.

“We’ve got plenty of opportunity for help,” said the Mayor of Laurel John Shwed.

“We’re not afraid to ask for help and we really could use it,” said Shwed.

The Mayor of Laurel says they are doing everything they can to revitalize the town, but he says there simply isn’t enough money and that is where Hometown Takeover would step in.

“We have areas along this waterfront where we’re trying to build some beautiful nature parks, so we could use help to try to get the nature park going and redoing some of the small businesses,” said Shwed.

Residents say one thing they would like to see is the restoration of some of the town’s historic buildings.

“They would look so nice if we could just get some of the historic back to how they looked formerly when they were built,” said Shwed.

“It would add so much beauty to our community,” said Shwed.

Residents say they hope Laurel is chosen to be featured on this new series because they believe a revitalization would keep more families in town.

“We had the older people that built the town and they’ve passed on and now we need a new generation and to come back with that new blood and pump us up,” said Frank Calio.

Ultimately, residents say they will do whatever they can to make their town a more enjoyable place to live for future generations.

Hometown Takeover is set to premiere next year. Submissions are due February 7th.