The Apex festival committee is donating $18,000 for the memorial, which will honor emergency workers, military veterans and victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It will feature a 6-inch cube of steel recovered from the south tower of the World Trade Center.

Construction of the $60,000 memorial at the corner of Salem and Saunders streets is expected to start in May.

“Downtown Apex is such a focal point, we just wanted to support a worthy addition that would help draw more people downtown and beautify the area,” said Jeff Hastings, chairman of the festival committee.

The Apex Festival Committee is a nonprofit, so it gives away its profits each year as grants for area groups. Typically, those grants are for $500 to $1,000, Hastings said.

Last spring, the group gave out $11,000 in grants to 14 organizations, including the Apex Downtown Business Association, the Apex Historical Society, the YMCA We Build People campaign, Triangle Flight Basketball, WakeMed’s Safe Kids Wake County and Western Wake Crisis Ministry.

The Peakfest group is donating to the memorial in two $9,000 installments, the first of which was paid Feb. 19.

Apex is also trying to get the community involved in the project. The town is selling 300 to 400 engraved bricks to help pay for the monument. Each $200 brick will display the name of a veteran, active military member or public-safety worker.

So far, the town has raised a total $45,835, and about $9,000 came from brick sales. The rest was from donors, said Town Manager Bruce Radford.

Each of the five sides of the 5-foot-tall memorial will feature a tribute. One side will be dedicated to the victims at the World Trade Center, while another will be for the 9/11 victims in Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon. A third side will feature a tribute to those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, while the fourth will honor all veterans. The last will be dedicated to all emergency and public-safety workers who serve around the country.

Plans also include a brick seating wall and a 10-foot town clock engraved with the words, “Take time to remember.”