Downtown Covington will soon have stars placed around the square to note where Hollywood made its mark while filming in the Covington and Newton County areas.

The Covington Convention and Visitor Bureau will soon launch their Hollywood Walk of Stars program, after Covington city council members unanimously approved for the bureau to begin the process of placing pavers (decorative pave stones) downtown at the Sept. 17 meeting.

Clara Deemer, director of tourism, said concrete pavers, featuring notable actors, films and television series filmed in Covington/ Newton County, would be placed around the downtown square in order to bring more foot traffic to the area.

She said the plan is to place the pavers in locations used for filming. For venues that were not filmed in downtown, pavers would be placed around the perimeter of the square. Deemer said tourism board will then produce a brochure listing all the pavers and their locations, so visitors can take tours of where filming took place.

Deemer said the Walk of Stars program was a vision of Jo McLaney and Irene Smith since 1996 and the board is excited to bring their vision to fruition.

She also said the pavers are being created by Jim Williams of Designed Instillations. She said a committee formed by the tourism board recently looked at a model of one the pavers and they are reworking the model to make sure the pavers are suitable to place on the square. At the Sept. 17 city council meeting, Deemer told council that the pavers would cost $175 to $200 a piece depending on the wording placed on the pavers. She said the pavers will be funded through hotel/motel tax.