Grand Beach Village Council discusses MDOT proposal for Marquette Greenway

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Grand Beach Village Council discusses MDOT proposal for Marquette Greenway

Plans for the nonmotorized 60-mile Marquette Greenway are moving forward, members of the Grand Beach Village Council learned at their Wednesday, Dec. 15, meeting.

Council president Deborah Lindley said that Southwest Michigan Planning Commission Senior Planner Marcy Hamilton contacted her to discuss the egress over the Grand Beach Road railroad tracks, as the greenway will be crossing over them.

New Buffalo Township Fire Chief Jamie Flick said that a proposal from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) includes a double yellow line that will be on both sides of the track down the middle of the crossing. A white marking line will be on all four sides of the road (two before the tracks and two after the tracks), which will help decide where bike traffic is and vehicle traffic goes.

The proposal also includes what Flick called four “bike parking lots,” with one on each corner of Grand Beach Road and one on each corner of U.S. Highway 12. The “lots” would be concrete pad areas for the bikes to pull off and wait for trains or traffic to clear. Flick added that this proposed work will be done at no cost to the village.

Councilmember Blake O’Halloran said that they’d be “opening themselves up for some trouble” if they didn’t approve the proposal. Board president Deborah Lindley adding that the village could be liable if someone gets hurt and they say no to it, adding that their village charter was “found on safety and police.”

Councilmember Paul Leonard said that he approved of the plan for safety reasons, adding that the markings will “help cyclists be aware of traffic, and it will also help traffic be aware of cyclists.” “When they get the Marquette Greenway done, there’s going to be a lot of cyclists coming out to Grand Beach Road and all the way out at our exit and

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA entrance at Route 12 and we can’t hide from that - at least this gives us some input in the decision-making,” he said.

Leonard said before the council agrees to the plan, he’d like to see a memorandum of understanding with the respective agencies that will assume all the financial responsibility for maintaining all of it “in perpetuity.” Councilmember James Bracewell said if the proposal is a good idea, it’s “good only because they have rejected the best idea – a separate crossover for bicyclists and not to jumble them together with automobiles.”

Bracewell said that the “treatment” of the bike path in Michigan City in front of Nipsco involves separate crossovers, as opposed to putting cyclists “along or over the railroad tracks” – which he said is “safer than what we’re looking at.”

Lindley said that Hamilton told her that’s what Indiana is deciding to do, adding that it’s been difficult getting an agreement with Amtrak to do a crossover.

In a 4-1 vote (Bracewell voted “nay”), councilmembers approved having a memorandum of understanding with the respective agencies with regards to maintenance before approving the plan.

Lindley said she was contacted by Nick Jager from the chief planning branch of the Army Corps of Engineers who said they were ready to proceed with the “next step” with regards to a study to solve the problem at the lakefront.

For the New Buffalo Shoreline Alliance (NBSA) to proceed with the project to do a study, they had to have a municipality support them.

The government would give the Army Corps $50,000 to start the process to initiate the Federal Interest Determination (FID), and the other $50,000 would be funded by the Department of Treasury. After that, the village would have to split cost with the Army Corps to proceed.

Lindley said that she told Jager they could agree to go on with the process, but they don’t have the money to give the 50 percent amount. zShe told him that the village could agree to go on with the process and say they’re not going to pay any money to proceed any further; however, she was told that municipalities “usually agree upfront. “

On Friday, Lindley said she learned that the NBSA filed its lawsuit against the Army Corps and is no longer working with the Corps to solve the problem.

She said she was “nervous about going that far” and if the Shoreline Alliance has dropped their agreement with the Army Corps and they were the ones that the village was sponsoring, she didn’t think that the village should proceed any further.

Lindley said she’ll tell Jager that the village was no longer going to sponsor the study.

Councilmembers approved the village joining the Harbor Country Chamber of Commerce for an annual amount of $100.

Lindley said Jayson Powell became eligible for health insurance Dec. 1. The village has a policy of prorating the HSA contribution for deductibles and copays. Councilmembers approved paying $541.67, which was the prorated amount for December, and $5 to open the account to Powell’s HSA account.

Councilmembers approved salary adjustments for employees, which included a $25 increase for Ryan Layman, Jamie Flick, Bob Dabbs, Dale Powell, and Mary Robertson. Councilmembers approved making the $11,500 payment to MERS prior to Dec. 31, 2021, so the village can get it into this year’s actuary report.

Lindley mentioned putting a dog park in a small area back in the corner next to the driving range of the Grand Beach Nature Preserve, which was recently acquired by the village.