DDA applies for placemaking grant; projects include mural, phone booth and See My Legacy software

The Lapeer City Downtown Development Authority reported that it has submitted a placemaking grant application for a downtown project that includes a community mural, an English-style phone booth for holiday programming, cigarette-collection receptacles that also function as voting kiosks, and a See My Legacy software package to support walking tours and volunteer/fund development.

Board members said the total project cost, including the DDA match, comes in under $18,000 and that the grant applied for is for $15,000. The board expects to hear whether the grant is awarded in June.

The mural component would be based on community artwork from the Center for the Arts and would include history plaques and a proposed history walk with before-and-after photos and information about building owners and notable residents. The phone booth was described as a child-friendly holiday attraction with a “direct line to the North Pole” for short recorded messages or stories; the cigarette receptacles were described as a hybrid litter-control and public-engagement device that can host short surveys.

The placemaking package also includes See My Legacy, a software tool the board said would support walking-tour content, volunteer recruitment and fund-development features the DDA may use to grow downtown programming.

Separately, the DDA received a draft design for the PICS theater mural (an old-business agenda item) but said artists requested tweaks; no final rendering was available and board members expect to review revised artwork at the next meeting.