GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A plan to restore the rapids that Grand Rapids was named for would get $2.4 million under the city’s preliminary budget proposal for the 2019 fiscal year.
That funding would go toward developing and rolling out the Grand River restoration project over five years.
The project has hit numerous roadblocks over the years, including when someone discovered the endangered snuffbox mussel in the river at Riverside Park. Last month, the nonprofit group Grand Rapids Whitewater said it had raised about 30 percent of the cash needed for the $44 million project.
Grand Rapids’ Interim City Manager Eric DeLong unveiled the budget proposal on Tuesday, which he said was created with community input from dozens of meetings. The proposed $586.5 million spending plan also includes:
- $4.2 million for repairing and reconstructing eight city-owned parks and researching how to best restore the lodge at Martin Luther King Jr. Park
- Approximately $20 million in converting streetlights to LEDs and an electrical distribution system
- $400,000 to address the backlog of unhealthy trees slated for removal within seven years, and begin a proactive tree maintenance management plan
- $250,000 to continue to improve bus shelters throughout the city
- Investing in streetscape features along the Southtown, South Division and Grandville corridors for five years
- $50,000 to support creating a process that reduces economic disparities and improve racial equity across all city departments
- $17.5 million to Vital Streets asset management and debt retirement
- $740,000 invested in the Affordable Housing Fund
- Continuing the $1 million already set aside to improve community and police relations through the 2022 fiscal year
- Creating an office of communications