By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
Addison Township is looking to upgrade Lake George Park with an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant trail.
“The grant is to make an ADA compliant path down from the parking lot to the lake where we will be putting a dock in so that people can launch their kayaks,” Bruce Pearson, township supervisor, said. “It is kind of on a steep bank so it has to be a zig-zag path down so it makes the 3% grade, so that is what we put the grant in for.”
Approved by the Board of Trustees at the Jan. 18 meeting, the township is looking to match up to $24,000 in hopes of receiving up to $85,000 for the project overall from Oakland County Parks.
Work will begin this spring or summer should the grant be awarded, Pearson said. “We are already moving forward with putting a dock in . . . This path will meet where the dock goes in.”
Lake George Park has been the subject of several upgrades over the past decade. Canada-based oil pipeline operator Enbridge donated $15,000 to create an ADA compliant dock in 2015, debris was removed from the park’s parking lot in order to have a welcome and rules sign erected in 2017 and Ford-UAW workers donated an ADA compliant dual-purpose hunting blind/deck in 2019.
Addison Township acquired Lake George Park in 2009 via the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund for $428,000. According to Pearson, the idea behind the acquisition was to make the park ADA compliant.
“Slow but sure we are doing it,” Pearson said. “It is just that we do not have a big parks and recreation budget. We do not have a millage; we do it all with donations and volunteer work and we get a lot done that way.”