The Route 66 town of Pontiac, Ill., has come up with a novel way to decorate its downtown, reports the Bloomington Pantagraph:
The Pontiac City Council voted Monday to spend about $8,000 to purchase nine fiberglass models of 1957 convertibles, three of 1930s-era pickup trucks and artist supplies. The cars will be about 5½ feet long and 2½ feet tall, and the trucks will be about 4½ long and 3 feet tall.
The money will come from the city’s tax increment financing district.
Lori Fairfield, executive director of Pontiac Redeveloping Our United Downtown, said that nine local artists, the art classes at Pontiac Township High School and Pontiac Junior High School and the Route 66 Association will be responsible for painting the vehicles.
Officials hope to have them installed by early May to coincide with the state’s Red Carpet Corridor weekend in celebration of Route 66.
The decor is an offshoot of previous art installations in Pontiac that have featured decorated fiberglass dogs and doors.
The cost of the fiberglass vehicles is slated at $13,000, but $5,000 of that will be covered by proceeds of an auction of the fiberglass dogs.