Civil and Municipal - Jan 22

76 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 including paddling, fishing and get-togethers” All of the Township parks will receive new signage to draw visitors in from the highway and guide them throughout the parks. A new master plan is also in the works for Van Buren Park in 2022, which will see two of the three pavilions demolished and replaced. Elizabeth Renaud, Director of Community Services, reports, “There is a shift in the Township Board’s priorities for capital improvements and our capital improvement line item in the budget (not including the community center) more than tripled for this year. So they’re really reaffirming their interest in investing in our parks, bringing out the community to them, just completely revamping a lot of them.” The Iron Belle Trail is a statewide hiking and bicycling trail system from Ironwood, Michigan, in the upper peninsula, down to Belle Isle Park near Detroit. Zaenglein explains, “It goes right through Van Buren Township, but there are spaces (six to seven miles) missing from west to east and we’re trying to connect those pieces. Thanks to a grant, this past summer we were able to complete a big chunk of the trail in the park that we call The Saddle (of Van Buren Park). It was a major project for us because it had to be completely reconstructed – culverts were failing, a lot of erosion was happening because it’s right along the lake. Once each section is connected, the project will finish the Van Buren Township link of the Iron Belle Trail. This will allow people to travel safely from east to west, on the trail, throughout the Township and have full trail access to many of our lovely parks for our citizens and visitors.” Van Buren Township Community Center Born out of the needs of the community in Van Buren Township, there was a lot of due diligence and research done over the past couple years about building a Township Community Center.