After several years of disappointments, expiring grants and a parade of township officials come-and-gone fighting to make the project happen, bids to construct the Fred Meijer/Berry Junction Bike Trail are set to be awarded this coming Thursday, March 3.
The six-mile stretch of bike trail, running from White Lake Drive to Dalton Township’s Beegle Field on Tyler Road and following the former C & O railroad bed, is expected to cost $1.1 million. Coupled with a $9,500 investment by Dalton and Fruitland townships, the project is also being funded by a crazy-quilt of sources, including a half-million dollar federal grant, a near-matching grant from the West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition, and a $90,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
“We’re still shooting for a July completion date,” said Fruitland Township Supervisor Sam St. Amour, who sits on the Fred Meijer/Berry Junction Bike Trail board. The board is headed by Dalton Township Supervisor Chris Hall. The project was initiated by former Dalton Township Supervisor Scott Hladki, who also was committee chair of the Berry Junction board.
For more info, see the newspaper article.
