A concerted effort over three years in the making will spawn a new creekside haven for the village of
Dexter. Last week the city was awarded a $1.24 million contract for the first phase of construction of Mill Creek Park.
Utica, Mich.-based Cedroni Associates, Inc. is expected to start work in mid-July and should be substantially complete by winter of 2012, with finishing touches that spring, says Allison Bishop, community development manager for Dexter.
About $495,000 from various village funds will go towards project costs. The village has also received a $450,000 Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant and $45,000 from the Waterways Infrastructure grant program. Washtenaw County is picking up the remaining $345,000, Bishop says.
The work will extend from Forest Lawn Cemetery north to the Main Street Bridge. The new park will boast a stairway from the park to Alpine Street downtown, a restored stream, enhanced habitat, a fishing dock, a put-in and take-out for boats (one above and one below the Main Street dam), boardwalks and sidewalks, landscaping, an amphitheater, streetscape improvements on Jeffords Street, and a circular path.
The park will be four acres large but work will be spread over a seven-acre plot on both sides of the creek. The property, a large grassy field, was formerly a dam impoundment.
"It's an area that no one has ever been able to have access to and now we're providing a real great opportunity for people to get reconnected with the stream, sit and read a book, and enjoy nature just right outside of the downtown," Bishop says. Mill Creek Park will also link up to the county's Border-to-Border trail system. "It's a great asset to local land and regional trail enthusiasts."
Source: Allison Bishop, community development manager for Dexter
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
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