By By NORMA LERNER / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - Cass County Parks Department is looking for an approximate $35,000 grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to be used for park improvements, particularly Russ Forest Park on Marcellus Highway where a proposed parking lot is planned for the east side for equestrian use.
If received, Parks Director Scott Wyman said on Thursday during a Parks Board meeting that the county will match the grant by 25 percent, or $8,500.
Wyman explained that the parking lot is proposed 50 feet wide by 550 feet long and has already been cleared for graveling. He said the Fox family on nearby Church Street in Volinia Township wants to build a memorial shelter in the proposed parking lot 14-by-16 feet.
This will provide for an additional shelter already on the east end of the park which is widely used. There is also a proposed wooden fence along the lot plus a water well, three security lights, two picnic tables and a handicapped access to the present shelter near the Dowagiac Creek. The board adopted a resolution to support the grant application for development of the park.
Wyman also presented the first-ever volunteer plaque honoring Bob Constable of Jimtown, Ind., who is a mountain bike rider who put it more than 60 hours clearing trees and branches along the bike racing trail at Dr. T. K. Lawless Park in Newberg Township.
Constable thanked the board on behalf of the bike riders for use of the trails. "Everyone appreciates use of the parks," Constable said in receipt of the plaque.
Wyman said without use of volunteers clearing it the park wouldn't be as far along as it is today after two major storms ravaged the area and knocked down trees everywhere.
Parks Board Chairman Robert Powers said, "Keep up the good work."
The board also approved proceeding with the sale of Cozy and Shady parks on North Drive at Shavehead Lake in Porter Township at public auction.
There are two parks department lots and two road commission lots totaling a 100-by-200 foot lot. Nothing has been done with the two parks in 37 years, Powers said, and the Porter Township board offered to donate proceeds of the sale to the parks department.
The board will need township approval to auction it off. The lot has a drop off from the road to the water's edge.
Wyman announced that two nights of tubing on the hill at Lawless Park were canceled this year on Saturday nights in February because of lack of snow.
He also announced that a Boy Scout project for an Eagle Scout award is planned for Lawless Park.
A 30-foot bridge is planned to be built to Hogback Lake.