Otsego Township officials expect paving 19th Street to be the main road project for next year.
Last week, township clerk Cindy Hunt said township board members discussed the township’s five-year road construction and maintenance plans at their meeting Sept. 12.
“We just finished reconstructing 19th Street this year,” Hunt said. “We’re probably going to pave it next year.”
The nearly $400,000 reconstruction began in July along 1 mile of 19th Street north of 108th Avenue.
Hunt said the township budgets approximately $400,000 annually for road work and maintenance; about half of that is revenue from the township’s dedicated road millage.
Hunt said board members are hoping a federal grant will help reconstruct and pave a gravel section of 108th Avenue in a joint effort with Gun Plain Township. She said the township currently estimates it may have to set aside $260,000 in matching money for its portion of the project.
The approximately 0.75-mile section of road runs between 11th Street and the entrance to the gravel pit to the west.
Allegan County Road Commission managing director Larry Brown said his office would submit the application in March to the Michigan Department of Transportation, which is dispersing the federal grant money.
“Then it’s a statewide competition for these safety projects,” Brown said. “We won’t know the results of that until about September of 2017.”
Contact Ryan Lewis at rmlewis@allegannews.com or (269) 673-5534.
For the complete story, pick up a copy of the Sept. 19 issue of The Union Enterprise or subscribe to the e-edition.