DDA focusing on water recreation with tourism grant

The mill pond north of Main Street will be the site of the development of a new riverfront park this summer and the focus of water recreation tourism projects.

At last Wednesday’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) meeting, vice-chairman Ray Berg presented on this year’s CTAP grant. CTAP, which stands for Community Tourism Action Plan, is money available to communities from the Washtenaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau to promote tourism. In the past, CTAP grants have been used to print tourist brochures, build a website, design the “Make it Manchester” logo, partially fund the Sesquicentennial, install historical information plaques around the village, and pay for way-finding signs pointing to parks along the multi-use trail and to the Leonard preserve (which will be installed in the next few months), as well as more. This year the DDA is focusing on promoting water recreation tourism with the CTAP grant.

The focus on water recreation tourism coincides with development of the River Raisin Park on the east bank of the Raisin River, on the north side of the Main Street Bridge in the Village. The first step in development will be dredging the mill pond to make boat access to the shore easier. Although it was supposed to occur last fall, it is now scheduled to take place starting July 1st.

This year’s CTAP grant will be used for three projects:

These canoe and kayak lockers built on the shore of the Huron River in Bandemer Park last summer have served as the inspiration for DDA to build canoe and kayak lockers for River Raisin Park. Photo credit: Huron River Watershed Council

First, the DDA will build a 4-unit metal cage locker for canoes & kayaks that will sit on the shore of the River Raisin Park. They will require a quarter to use. The intent is that those traveling via canoes and kayaks down the river will be able to lock-up their water crafts, walk around downtown, and get lunch or an ice cream cone.

The second project will be a map of the Raisin River and show the water trail for canoeing and kayaking from Sharon Mills to the River Raisin Park. The DDA is working with both Washtenaw County, who operates Sharon Mills Park, and the River Raisin Watershed Council.

The third project will be the production of video advertisements for the village. While the format, number and length of the advertisements haven’t been decided on yet, the DDA has decided that drone footage and footage of special events in held in the Village like the Chicken Broil, the fair, and Independence Day Fireworks will be used.

The CTAP grant will be for $10,000 and required $2,000 in matching funds. The Village Council has approved supplying the matching funds at its March 19 meeting. While these projects were enthusiastically pre-approved by the Washtenaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau in March, they do have to go through one more round of approval before becoming official.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.