A follow-up meeting on extending Riverside Drive to connect Dowagiac Middle School to Mathews Street is expected July 25, according to City Manager Kevin Anderson.

A two-fold outcome resulted from a June 27 meeting between the city, Pokagon Township, the school district, Cass County Road Commission and law enforcement:

• A preliminary design and cost estimate would be prepared to provide a realistic understanding of cost.

• A variety of funding options would be studied to know if funds are available to assist with cost.

“We’re looking at putting the road in in two different ways,” Anderson said. “One would be to get a road bed in there so you could get in and out for emergency purposes. The other would be to build a full road out there. We’ll have those prices. We’re shooting for a meeting for July 25 to follow up with that group. We’ll have a lot of information and direction in the coming month or two. The consensus of the group is it needs to be done as a shared responsibility.”

“I liked Gary Rohacs’ comment that if you go straight south onto Mathews, there’s some federal or state money. Straight south would probably be easiest and cheapest,” compared to building a road across to Wilbur Hill Road, said Second Ward Councilman James Dodd, who broached the subject at the June 10 council meeting in the wake of a fatal shooting in the woods near the 2005 school. “It was a very good meeting and lasted about an hour.”