Leonard Village’s historic mill just got a boost from the Home Depot Foundation.

A $2,000 grant was awarded to the municipality to aid its ongoing efforts to preserve the 19th-century mill and transform the 0.28-acre parcel on which it sits into a public park.

“We’re very happy,” said village President Mike McDonald. “It was a thrill.”

About half of the grant will be spent on three picnic tables and about a dozen planters filled with annuals, according to Alana Hart, a representative from the Home Depot store in Orion Township.

“The rest of that money (about $1,000) will go towards the renovation,” she said.

The goal is to beautify the mill site and make it accessible to the public.

“We’re hoping to get this done before the Strawberry Festival (on July 16),” McDonald said.

The mill is located at E. Elmwood and Division streets, adjacent to the Polly Ann Trail.

These new elements will be placed in front of the mill where the old beanery stood until it was demolished last year because it was an eyesore and structurally unsound.

“Ideally, that’s where we’d like to have a trail-side rest stop,” McDonald said.

But before that can happen, McDonald said the area needs to be filled in with dirt and leveled.

According to McDonald, this grant “is probably one of the best things” that could have happened right now because it will allow the public to actually use and enjoy the property. “I think it’s kind of a benchmark event for us,” he said.

Until now, progress in the mill preservation/park project had been strictly limited to demolition work, clean-up and installing a new corrugated metal roof on the structure.

Employees from the Orion Home Depot store are expected to install the picnic tables and planters at the mill site on July 7.

“We’ll have about 12 volunteers (out there to) get it ready and beautiful for the big festival,” Hart said.

“We’ll provide whatever they need,” McDonald noted. “The only thing they’ve asked of us is that we feed them. I think that’s a fair and even trade.”

McDonald is grateful for the help Orion Home Depot representatives provided to obtain the grant. “They coached the village through the application process and we got a really quick turnaround on it,” he said.

To Hart, “every community has a different need,” so it’s all about determining what it is, then offering help. In Leonard’s case, she said the village is trying to preserve a piece of history and an educational tool that’s important to not only the community, but the county and state as well.

Built in the late 1800s, Leonard’s mill ceased operations in 2004. Community efforts to save it began in 2010. Leonard purchased the mill site in May 2014 using a mix of municipal funds and grant money from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.

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

Because of the small village’s very limited budget, the mill project relies entirely on grants and donations.

Currently, the project has $2,355 in cash available for use, according to McDonald.

“However, we have yet to pay for the dumpster used on the April 23 work day, so that amount will be lower after that payment,” he noted.

A fund-raising page entitled “Save the Leonard Elevator/Mill” was set up last August on the GoFundMe.com website.

The page has raised $820 in nine months.

“The progress (of the mill project) is about what you would expect for this area – it’s slow and relatively steady,” McDonald said. “We’re just trying to keep it moving.”