By: Deborah Johnson Wood
The City of Whitehall is investing nearly $160,000 in improvements at Goodrich Park, the nine-acre green space anchoring the 50-slip municipal marina. The park is located at the junction of Lake and River Streets where the bridge connects Whitehall and Montague.
“There's not a day that goes by there's not a couple of hundred people going through there,” says City Manager Scott Huebler. “Our Maritime Festival is a three-day event in August and a few thousand people are there every day.”
Last month, the $29,000 handicap accessible play structure with a toddler slide, spiral slide, two bridges, a firefighter’s pole, monkey bars, and more, was in place and kid ready. Twelve inches of compacted wood chips form a spongy cushion under the equipment to help protect kids when they fall, it enables wheelchair access, and it’s porous for rainwater drainage.
Several other attractions are progressing toward completion of this $129,000 phase of the project. A 30-foot by 64-foot picnic pavilion and two restrooms replace older facilities. Plans call for a 16-foot by 12-foot fishing deck just off the walkway at the lake’s edge. New sidewalks along the roadway edge of the park will connect with the White Lake Pathway, a walking and biking trail that runs through the city.
Huebler expects completion by July 13.
A $90,500 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and money from Whitehall’s Tax Increment and Finance Authority funded the project.
Source: Scott Huebler, City of Whitehall
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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