County hosts ribbon cutting for Dodd Park improvements

Published 8:00 am Friday, October 13, 2017

By Ted Yoakum

In spite of hitting some rough waters along the way, the Cass County Parks and Recreation Department’s journey to fulfill its vision for a better Arthur Dodd Park has finally reached its destination.

The county parks department hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday afternoon to celebrate the recent completion of its series of recent improvements to the riverside park, located in Pokagon Township.

More than 30 officials attended the event, including those representing the county and township, as well as several regional agencies and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Over the past several months, the parks department has overseen the construction of a series of new amenities to Dodd Park, in an effort to transform the grounds into a water trail head for the Dowagiac River, which crosses through the property. The improvements included the construction of a handicap accessible canoe/kayak launch, additional parking spaces, a second bridge crossing the river, a pair of 12-by-24 foot cabins that guests may rent out for camping and a new set of waterless bathrooms.

The project was funded through a $375,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund, awarded to the county in 2015.

As Cass County Parks Director Scott Wyman told guests Thursday, he and others in the county had envisioned these improvements to the park for far longer than just the last several years. The parks and recreation board has been seeking to transform Dodd Park into a destination for people across the area to gather and enjoy the beauty of the Dowagiac River. Having developed a five-year master plan for the park several years earlier, county leaders have looked to add places for people to camp out, more spaces for people to park and other features to the park to fulfill that goal, Wyman said.

“A lot of you, if not all of you, had input into that master plan,” Wyman said to the audience. “These improvements were not spurred on by Scott Wyman or the county parks board. It was spurred on by you, the people who use this park.”

Turning that vision into reality was not a straight forward endeavor, however. The park’s department’s first grant application to the DNR trust fund in 2014 for funding was denied, prompting leaders to reach out to help from the Southwestern Michigan Planning Commission on their second attempt the following year.

Even after that grant was accepted, the two-year gap between developing plans on the project and groundbreaking resulted in a $180,000 price gap between the department’s estimates and the actual price the project would cost. Thanks to a loan from the county’s delinquent tax fund, however, the project was able to get back on track earlier this year, with construction taking place through the summer and early fall.

During the presentation, Jay Wesley, the basin coordinator with the Michigan DNR’s Southern Lake Michigan Management Unit, unveiled a plaque signifying the trust fund’s contribution to the water trail project.

“This [the trust fund] grant allows small departments like ours to dream big and accomplish those dreams,” Wyman said.

Among those in the audience Thursday was Niles’ Donald Dodd, the grandson of Arthur Dodd, the former Cass County commissioner for whom the park is named for. Donald said that his grandfather had always seen the potential of the Pokagon Township property and had been a tireless advocate for its development, hence why the grounds were eventually named in his honor in 1976.

“He would have loved it [the improvements],” Donald said. “He’d be totally surprised. When he passed away, there was very little here at the park. I didn’t think he had any idea what was to come.”

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