Spring is here and in the Village of Leonard that means one thing – time to get to work on the old mill.

Folks are being sought to help spruce up the historic mill/grain elevator, both inside and out, on Saturday, May 13. The work session will begin at 9 a.m. and end at noon.

“We’re definitely in need of volunteers,” said Leonard Village President Mike McDonald.

Outside the mill, McDonald said, “We’re hoping to spread some topsoil and clean up the north side where the picnic tables are. We want to plant some grass there.”

Clean-up work will also be done inside the mill, which is still quite the mess as time, the elements and neglect have all taken their toll.

Volunteers are asked to wear old clothes and please bring work gloves, shovels and rakes with them.

Constructed in the late 1800s, Leonard’s mill/grain elevator ceased operations in 2004.

Community efforts to save it began in 2010.

“It is a significant piece of the village’s history,” McDonald said. “It’s probably, as far as we know, the last surviving (grain) elevator structure in Oakland County.”

The village purchased the 0.28-acre mill site – located at E. Elmwood and Division streets, adjacent to the Polly Ann Trail – in May 2014. A mix of municipal funds and grant money from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund was used.

Fund-raising efforts to pay for the mill’s restoration are ongoing. Because of the small village’s very limited budget, the project relies entirely on grants and donations to keep moving forward.

Right now, McDonald said the village needs between $25,000 and $30,000 to repair the mill’s stone foundation.

“That’s a project goal that requires skilled labor,” he explained. “It’s not just a matter of getting volunteers and doing stuff. It’s got to be done right and you have to pay for that.”

“It is our overriding priority at this point,” McDonald noted. “Portions of it have weakened and collapsed.”

The issues with the foundation do not currently pose a safety hazard, according to McDonald. He said Ron Campbell, principal planner and preservation architect for Oakland County, assessed the condition and “he’s confident that there’s no danger, per se.”

However, the foundation must be fixed, so other repairs and renovations can proceed.

“We’ve got to make progress on that before we can consider doing anything else,” McDonald said.

McDonald explained the foundation repairs in this case will “probably” be “more expensive” than normal because “we’re looking at maintaining the historic integrity (of the building) as much as possible – or practical.”

“We’re not looking to just put some block in,” he said.

Preserving and restoring the old mill is “a worthwhile project” in the village’s view, according to McDonald, because “it can become an economic generator” for the town “by drawing people to the Polly Ann Trail.”

Used by walkers, runners, hikers, bicyclists, nature-lovers and horseback riders, the Polly Ann Trail runs through Addison, Oxford and Orion townships as well as the villages of Leonard and Oxford.

“We’d like to be (known) as a trail town,” McDonald said. “This would be one more attraction for people to come and see.”

The plan is to someday transform the site into the Leonard Mill Park, complete with restroom facilities, bicycle racks and fix-it stations, picnic area, benches, landscaping, drinking fountains and local history display.

“That is still the goal,” McDonald said.

A fund-raising page entitled “Save the Leonard Elevator/Mill” was set up in August 2015 on the GoFundMe.com website. To date, it’s garnered $1,240 in donations.

In recent years, the mill project has received grants and donations from the Four County Community Foundation ($8,000), The Home Depot Foundation ($2,000), ITC ($5,000) and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson ($1,000).