There’s still time for residents, businesses and civic groups to make a lasting impression on the Memorial Drive roundabout. The deadline to buy a personalized engraved clay brick or granite stone for the Memorial Drive Sculpture Buy-A-Brick Campaign has been extended to July 29.

"It provides the community an opportunity to provide a lasting imprint on Hinesville," Hinesville Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Vicki Davis said. "Some people are buying bricks in celebration of their family, like an anniversary, or in honor of parents and grandparents, some as memoriam to loved ones and soldiers. Businesses, schools and organizations have purchased bricks to promote their groups; there are many different uses."

Engraved bricks and granite stones will be used to decoratively pave the base of a planned sculpture for the center of the Memorial Drive traffic circle. The sculpture, a bronze globe encircled by an abstract steel bell sweep titled "Resonance," was designed by Savannah College of Art and Design students Christopher Crowe, Capucine Gros and Brian Rogers. The city held a design competition among SCAD students for the sculpture last year.

HDDA offers several brick purchase options. A 4-inch-by-8-inch brick with two text lines of 16 characters each costs $50.

"We’re proud that we’ve come up with a plan that just about anyone (can afford)," Davis said.

The more expensive options include an 8-inch-by-8-inch brick with up to three engraved text lines for $100 or a 10-inch-by-10-granite stone with up to five lines for $500 or two text lines and space for a logo.

The campaign was suggested by the Memorial Drive project committee to raise the necessary funds for the $70,000 project, according to Davis. Project expenses include materials and labor, she said.

"The city didn’t have it in their capital budget for this year," Davis said.

Matthew Barrow, of PC Simonton & Associates, was the project manager for the Memorial Drive realignment and coordinated the sculpture contest with SCAD. Barrow has previously told the Courier the 16-foot globe-like sculpture will be added to the traffic circle when the budget allows.

Davis said fewer bricks and granite stones were sold than was anticipated. The disappointing dip in expected sales was not due to lack of interest, rather HDDA needed more time to promote the Buy-A-Brick Campaign, according to Davis.

"If necessary we will go to rounds of ordering," she said.