Manchester Township holding public hearing on segment II of Watkins Lake Trail

Early work on the Watkins Lake Trail along Austin Road, starting just west of the Teijin Stamping Plant in Manchester Township in 2021. Mirror file photo.

by Sara Swanson

Manchester Township is holding a public hearing on March 11 at 7pm at the Manchester Township Hall, located at 275 S Macomb St, to solicit public input on the remaining segment of the Watkins Lake Trail. (See public notice in this edition.) 

Currently, a completed county-owned segment runs from the Watkins Lake State Park and County Preserve parking lot on Arnold Road in Norvell Township to Austin Road near the Teijin factory, and a township-owned segment finished in the fall of 2024, known as segment I, runs from Carr Park at the edge of the City to Grossman Road. Segment II will connect these two and allow non-motorized access from the City of Manchester to the State Park and County Preserve.

The vision for this 5-mile trail began almost 10 years ago when Watkins Lake State Park and County Preserve was preparing to open to the public, and it was noted that a disused rail bed ran from inside the park to the edge of what was the Village (and now is the City) of Manchester. 

Village and the township officials worked together to develop a regionwide recreation plan with input from parks commission members and residents of both communities who were overwhelmingly in favor. A community open house and public hearings at both a Village Council meeting and a Township Board meeting were held. Then work got underway.

The remaining segment, segment II, is 3/4 of a mile and is proposed to be a 8ft-to-10ft–wide paved pathway. A Washtenaw County Connecting Communities grant for $366,000 toward segment II was approved a year ago and since then the township has been working to identify the additional funds needed on top of that grant.

The township is preparing to apply for a grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. The community input from this hearing will be used in the grant application. If that is awarded, the township will still need to secure additional funds before construction of the final segment of the trail can begin. 

As of last month, if everything goes right, the trail could be completed in 2027!

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by Sara Swanson

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