Civil Municipal Magazine - Nov 2023

131 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11 SAGINAW, MICHIGAN its regenerative goals is its recent designation as the host city for the 2024 Memorial Cup, the 104th iteration of the Canadian Hockey League’s four-team, round-robin, ice hockey tournament that will be held at the Dow Event Center, in late May and early June of next year. “Once we found out that we had the Memorial Cup in 2024, we formed an internal committee with members from engineering, public services, traffic and planning, code inspection, and the fire marshal,” Zimmerman says. “It meets regularly to discuss things that we need to tackle in the area. We talked about buildings that maybe weren’t meeting building code that we need to put more pressure on.” “We’re talking about different landscaping elements like decorative fencing, more signage, as well as a few murals going in around that area. We’re focused on where visitors may wander and making sure those areas are in top shape. One area is an alleyway that runs adjacent to our outdoor event park, another is a side street that is under redevelopment currently to be transformed in a food truck alley. We have well over $1 million of city projects that we’re working on. Some have been completed, some are underway, and some will be done by the end of this year or the beginning of next year. “ “We also have a project that was started by the Riverfront Development Commission that will upgrade one of our water access points right in the downtown with some of the American Rescue Plan Act money that came as COVID relief to the city,” she continues. “The city council designated $200,000 to make sure that project could be moved up and completed before the Memorial Cup. That will be creating a riverfront gateway – right on the Iron Belle Trail and our riverfront walk, and right by the SVRC Marketplace.” “On the business side, we’re going to pull together meetings between the city, businesses, and the Memorial Cup folks, as well as our transit organization, to make sure that everyone will be fully aware of what’s going to be happening and when. This is expected to bring about $25 million in