After early successes, the tides appeared to have turned against the county’s plans to improve public accessibility to the Dowagiac River at Arthur Dodd Memorial Park.

Anticipated construction costs, well in excess of initial estimates, have stalled the Cass County Parks and Recreation Department’s planned improvements to the riverside park, according to a presentation delivered by parks director Scott Wyman at the regular meeting of the Cass County Board of Commissioners Thursday evening. Wyman anticipates construction to cost around $510,000, around $180,000 more than the $330,000 worth of state and local funds set aside for building.

“The construction environment is trending up at a dramatic rate,” Wyman said about the cause of the price increase. “Our bids came back higher than expected, and we are trying to mitigate this issue.”

The setback is a reversal of fortunes for the Dodd Park Water Trail Development Project, which until this point had experienced smooth sailing over the last several years.

Wyman and others with the parks department have sought to make drastic improvements to the park, located at 61437 Creek Road in Niles, since 2015. The leaders have focused their attentions on enhancing Dodd due to the fact the park contains 90 percent of the public access to the Dowagiac River, which could see a resurgence following the planned demolition of Niles’ Pucker Street Dam.

“When it comes down, it will bring more people to the park, especially fishermen,” Wyman said. “The large game fish will be able to go all the way up the Dowagiac River, towards Decatur.”

This boon could in turn make Dodd an even more attractive site for fishermen, kayakers and campers, Wyman said.

To fund its ambitions, the parks department successfully applied for a $375,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which it received in 2016. The state is providing $277,500 for the project, while the county is providing a 26 percent match, worth $97,500.

The planned improvements include the establishment of a water trail along the river, complete with a new universally assessable kayak and canoe launch, interpretive signage and a new bridge that will cross the Dowagiac River. The parks department also planed to build a camping area on the park grounds, which would include two cabins, picnic grills and fire rings, along with increased parking.

Expecting estimates to come back higher than initial cost estimates, the parks department decided to scale back the scope of the project before sending it out for bid in January, Wyman said.

These changes included reducing the size of the bridge from 10 feet to 8 feet; expanding the parking lot to the west instead of the north; changing the size and material for the new bathroom structure; removing one of the cabins from the plan; switching the canoe launch from precast concrete to timber; and having some trees and fencing removed by volunteers rather than the contractor.

“That’s how we are doing things [to drive down costs],” Wyman said. “We are trying to think outside the box. We are trying to be innovative, using volunteers or horse trading or whatever we else we can do.”

In spite of these cost saving measures, all three contractors that bid on the project returned estimates higher than the $330,000 set aside for construction.

In order to save the project, Wyman asked the board to consider one of several proposed solutions to make up the difference in funding without having to turn down the DNR grant dollars. These solutions included measures such as further pairing back the planned improvements (including removing the expanded parking lot), drawing money from the park’s fund balance and taking out a loan from the county’s delinquent tax fund.

The commissioners are expected to vote one of these potential fixes during their next meeting March 16.