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DOWAGIAC — With 2023 officially in the books, Dowagiac City Manager Kevin Anderson was proud of what the city was able to accomplish.

Anderson said Dowagiac experienced several accomplishments in 2023 – the 175th in Dowagiac’s storied history – and expects many of them to carry on into 2024.

Anderson reeled off a laundry list of significant developments from this past year, including:

• The start of the Lincoln School demolition project. With work finishing this month, Anderson said the site will be used for the construction of six single-family housing lots.
• The groundbreaking of the new Dowagiac Fire Department. Expected to finish completion this year, the new facility will have five bays for fire department vehicles and equipment, a space for indoor training, an outdoor training area, a dedicated area for our firefighters to decontaminate gear and more. Frederick Construction will serve as construction manager on the project.
• The completion of its $10 million sewer improvement project, which consisted of improving the wastewater treatment plant, the city’s sewer system as well as its aging manholes, some of which Anderson estimated to be 100 years old.
• The dedication of Burling Park in honor of Dr. Charles Burling, who served on the Dowagiac City Council for 16 years.
• The Dowagiac Area History Museum completed its Collections Storage Addition project. a two-story height pole-style structure with a mezzanine on the north end to provide additional storage space for museum artifacts while allowing open areas in the front for public viewing from the glass doors in the exhibit gallery.
• The construction of a Michigan State Housing Development Authority modular home on Andrews Street. The city hopes the Andrews Street modular home will become a catalyst for additional private investment like it did in the Spruce Street area.
• The opening of several new businesses including Nitro Zone – a family fun center located in the former Shopko building – and Twisted Bee, Dowagiac’s first cannabis dispensary.

2023 also saw a pair of young Dowagiac natives find their way to the bright lights of the national National Football League with Caleb Murphy signing with the Tennessee Titans and Jacki W.J. making the 2023 Detroit Lions Cheerleading team.

What to look for in 2024:

• The city has several redevelopment projects in the works, including a planned multi-family development on a four-acre site located on the 500 block of South Front Street. Rivers Edge Apartments LLC plans to construct five eight-unit apartment buildings – a total of 40 units – to provide attainable housing and continue to attract workforce talent to the city of Dowagiac. 
• The city completed a lease agreement with Corewell Health for the first floor of the Donald Lyons Health Center, 520 Main St. Corewell plans to renovate the first floor and hopes to have its family care services available to the community in May 2024.
• The city approved a Professional Services Agreement with Abonmarche for the purpose of preparing a grant application for Michigan’s new Community Technical, Managerial, and Financial Support for its Lead Line Replacement Grant Program. The pursuit of the grant is a proactive measures to ensure the community’s safety after lead was found to be above the Action Level in a 2022 sample of 17 city homes.
• The council also authorized the construction of a new modular home on Spruce Street where other modular homes have been built using grant funds in previous years.

While 2023 was challenging in many ways, Anderson remains optimistic that 2024 will be a prosperous year for the city.

“Everything we do in the city as we look into the future is built upon the past,” Anderson said. “You see the investments that are being made are continued investments people have been making in this community for 175 years. As we look to what we’ve been doing, we hope that our stewardship of this last year has continued to lay a base, so that the next 175 can be good, strong and successful for whoever follows.”