CITY OF BUCHANAN ANNOUNCES SUBSTANTIAL TRAIL EXPANSION PROJECT

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

ST. JOSEPH – Parks and trails are once again taking center stage at the state, county and local levels with news of grant awards, grant submissions and a new county trail master plan.
As is the case every December, the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund advisory board makes its recommendations as to what projects should get trust fund grants. The recommendations are traditionally approved by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor the following spring.
This year’s recommendations include a $300,000 grant for the city of Buchanan to extend the McCoy’s Creek Trail project to the River St. Joe Brewery on Walton Road.
In all, the trust fund advisory board this year is recommending 15 acquisition grants totaling just over $15 million and 30 development grants totaling $8.3 million. The grant awards are funded from revenue from oil, gas and mineral leases in the state.
Buchanan city officials reported last week that the trust fund grant is the last piece of the funding puzzle to extend the trail to the River St. Joe Brewery. Construction is expected to start in 2023 and be done in 2024.
Buchanan Community Development Director Rich Murphy noted that the city’s grant application received the third highest score in the ranking of grant applications. A total of 100 grant applications were received.
He said the city’s grant application emphasized the trail extension will be “a catalyst to spur other economic and quality of life benefits and opportunities.” “What other project with just one new half mile trail extension can ‘knit together’ so many high quality and significant cultural assets and experiences into one?” the application asked.
“The trail extension will allow Historic Downtown Buchanan to leverage itself as a conduit to Pure Michigan by creating a non-motorized connection to high quality ‘green and blue trails activities’ including fishing, boating, kayaking at Buchanan public access areas on the river as well as destination dining and leisure experiences at River St. Joe Brewery and the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program at Flatwater Farms,” Murphy said.
“Further, Downtown Buchanan will connect itself to ‘the Gateway to Michigan Wine Country’ and other burgeoning afro-tourism opportunities. The ‘Big Picture’ is that the trail extension sets up the opportunity for a trail connection all the way to Niles, Michigan, taking a large leap forward to the vision of a regionalized trail system,” he said.
The existing McCoy’s Creek Trail is approximately five miles in length that runs along McCoy’s Creek from the south side of the city to the St. Joseph River. This trail extension will extend the trial a half mile across the river into Buchanan Township with the eventual goal of linking it up to the Indiana-Michigan River Valley Trail as it goes north from Niles.
The Buchanan project comes at a good time when the focus is on trails at the county level. The Berrien County Board of Commissioners heard a presentation about the new Berrien County Trails Master Plan in mid-November and have since approved the plan.
Friends of Berrien County Trails President Gary Wood and planner Marcy Hamilton of the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission presented details of the new plan to the county board. The Friends group has been working on the plan for the last year. It can be found at www.berrientrails.org/bcmasterplan.asp

Wood reported the trail master plan was developed with funding support from 22 of 39 municipalities in the county along with other organizations. The plan was developed after input from local governmental leaders, other stakeholders and the public. The public input came about through open houses and surveys.
“This plan sets us up to have a common vision of where we’re going based on the best information we have now,” Hamilton said. She noted that 71,000 county residents are within a five minute walk of a trail now and the goal is to have 104,000 people within a five minute walk of a trail as the plan is implemented.
Wood said that key findings in the new plan including completing more of the Marquette Greenway/Red Arrow/Lakeview trail corridor along Lake Michigan, creating an east-west trail corridor from Niles to New Buffalo, utilizing road shoulders when appropriate and encouraging wider use of trails.
Wood said people are also in favor of extending existing trails such as the Indiana-Michigan River Valley Trail going north from Niles and connecting the Buchanan area McCoy’s Creek Trail north to the River Valley Trail as well as eventually making connections north to the Kal-Haven Trail in Van Buren County.
In addition to approving the county trails master plan, County Commissioners have also approved the submission of new Spark grant applications. The Spark grant program has set aside $65 million in state Covid-related funds for outdoor recreation projects.
Grant applications to be submitted include ones for Silver Beach County Park improvements as well as the construction and development of the Lakeview Trail project along Lake Michigan in the Twin Cities.