The Leelanau County Road Commission announced Monday, March 4, that bridge and culvert projects on the Crystal River have been halted.
During the meeting, Leelanau Road Commissioner Manager Brendan Mullane announced that two culvert projects, including the infamous “shoot the tube,” are on indefinite hold after the first two out of four were completed last year.
One was scheduled for the spring and the fall this year, and the project closest to M-22 was slated to begin in April.
“It’s federal funding … We don’t have much information,” Mullane said.
The Grand Traverse Band and Bureau of Indian Affairs, to name a few, are significant funding partners for the project.
This project has been in the works for seven or eight years.
“The Conservation Resource Alliance and the Grand Traverse band have been pushing these projects and funding them in the name of fish passage to improve the health of the creek and the river, and that’s a great thing. We’re happy about it because there’s these big culverts that we could probably never afford to replace either, so it’s been great teamwork,” Mullane said.
Abandonment sought
Roughly 200 feet of an Empire Township road has been put up for abandonment by a local landowner.
A petition of abandonment regarding Karnes Road in Empire Township was forced to a public hearing after local landowner Peter Favors asked for neighbor signatures.
“Instead of us keeping the county road commission to plow. I would do it. I’m trying to do the abandonment process so that becomes a private road,” Favors said.
Favors has 142 acres off M-72 that is about to begin construction for 17 homes split between 5 and 10 acres. Construction is slated to begin this summer, and lots are going up for sale either this week or next, according to Favors.
The Boomer family formerly owned this land. Favors, based in Grand Rapids, sells real estate for Five Star Realtors and owns a home in Glen Arbor.
Pothole Season is upon us The road commission has its pothole indicators on and is looking to fill anything as the thaw has ensued on county roads.
“We’ll fill it up with a cold patch, and it’s transitioning. The ground was frozen, and we got a lot of movement,” Mullane said. “It was a much better year because, in the last couple of years, it would freeze and thaw multiple times. We would get potholes throughout the winter. The nice thing is that it stayed pretty cold this year. So, we didn’t have much of an issue until now; one big thaw is how we prefer it.”
