Marquette Township Recreation Committee Chairman Mike Springer, left, gives an update to the Marquette Township Board at its March 20 meeting about the upcoming trail project at Lions Field Recreation Area. The township will pay for the $59,450 project out of its Solid Waste Fund before being reimbursed by a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Recreation Passport grant. (Journal photo by Lisa Bowers)

MARQUETTE — The Marquette Township Board voted to approve a trail project at the Lions Field Recreation Area at a recent regular meeting.

Board members voted unanimously to award the $59,450 bid for the project to Oberstar Inc. at their March 20 meeting. The plan consists of a loop trail around Lions Field, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as amenities like picnic tables, benches and trash receptacles.

The project will ultimately be paid for by a 2015 Michigan Department of Natural Resources Recreation Passport grant, but because the township will have to wait until the work is completed to be reimbursed, the funds will initially come out of the township’s solid waste fund.

The township was unable to advance money from its general fund due to a depleted fund balance, Marquette Township Manager Randy Girard said.

“We can’t keep spending the fund balance down,” he told board members. “You are down to two months now. I have been warning you about that. You get one more, one more tax tribunal … The bottom line is that I don’t have any money to advance for it.”

Several retailers in the township have appealed to the Michigan Tax Tribunal arguing for reduced taxable values on commercial properties since 2014.

Marquette Township Recreation Committee Chairman Mike Springer said the work was scheduled to be completed in 2017, but the township requested an extension from the DNR last year.

“They give you two years to do that, but last year with all the other stuff going on and the construction we were not able to even start the (project) at Lions recreation area,” Springer said. “This summer is when we planned to put in this walkway to the pathway around the park that we built in 2015.”

Township Trustee Dave Wiegand, who is also on the recreation committee, said the project will likely start at the beginning of April.

“We should be able to apply for reimbursement, I would hope, by the end of April,” he said.