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BUCHANAN — Buchanan city officials answered questions Monday night about not only the $19.4 million downtown reconstruction project but also the nearly completed extension of the McCoy Creek Trail.

    Monday’s meeting was held at the Buchanan Area Senior Center on Rynearson due to construction around City Hall. The commission meeting will be back at City Hall for the July meetings.

      While the downtown construction won’t be done until late November at the earliest, Buchanan City Manager Tony McGhee said navigating around town should get a little better by the end of August when the infrastructure work on Red Bud Trail will be done and the street repaved.

      “The downtown is moving along,” McGhee said. “The sewer lines and manholes will be set Wednesday and then the road crews will come in behind. Once they get to Front Street, they can go to town. The water lines are done.”

      He did acknowledge that some contamination has been found near the intersection of Red Bud and Front Street but doesn’t think it will hold things up too much.

      He said that the last of the $500,000 worth of road work on local streets the City Commission approved earlier this year should wrap up later this week. Sections of Liberty Street have already been repaved and River Street will be done this week, he said.

      Work will also be done either this week or next on the trail extension project on Schirmer Parkway.

“Once we get through this week and next, everything will be done but the downtown,” he said.

      City officials have been criticized by some for doing the trail extension work on Schirmer Parkway and closing down that road at the same time the downtown streets have been torn up. Having Schirmer closed eliminated one of the routes people would normally use to get around the construction.

Monday, one local resident didn’t criticize the road closure but did question why the trail is so wide and taking so much of people’s front yards and the road right of way.

“Why was Schirmer designed the way it was?” Jeanne Harris asked. “I know it’s a trail but it’s taking up half the right of way.”

McGhee said the width of the trail, which is 10 feet, isn’t something the city asked for but is what the state calls for in its grant requirements. He said the traffic lanes are each the normal 11 feet wide and only seem narrower because the trail has taken up some of the shoulders of the road.

The trail extension takes the trail out of the city via Schirmer Parkway across the River Street bridge to Walton Road. The project was funded with a number of grants including from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

He said he would post information about the situation on the city’s website and Facebook page so people have a better understanding of what’s going on.

City Commissioner Dan Vigansky commiserated with Harris.

“A four foot sidewalk would be sufficient but these are our politicians,” he said. “It’s an absolute debacle.”

Overall, city commissioners again stressed patience to residents with the downtown construction and said the work is actually going faster here than similar work has gone in other communities.

“It’s going extremely fast,” Vigansky said.

Commissioner Larry Money noted that similar work in Vicksburg took a year and a half.

“In my opinion, it’s moving well,” he said.

In other action Monday, commissioners approved a resolution in support of a local restaurant’s application to be part of the downtown social district. McCoy Creek Tavern at 215 E. Front St. becomes the latest downtown business to sign on to the social district.

Community Development Director Rich Murphy said more and more businesses are interested in participating in the social district which the city established more than a year ago.

“I have had conversations with other businesses in the district,” he said. “The hope is to increase the vibrancy of the downtown.”

      Commissioners approved one last budget amendment for the 2024-25 fiscal year before the new fiscal year starts July 1. McGhee said that most departments came in under budget which softened the blow from $1 million worth of unexpected projects like the Days Avenue culvert repair and the Front Street retaining wall.

      He said the budget came in over budget by $415,000 which he called good considering the extra culvert and retaining wall expenses.

      In other news related to the budget, the commission approved the annual health care insurance resolution. The city is once again approving an 80-20 plan with employees paying 20 percent of their health care insurance costs.

The city is also going with a new provider, Priority Health, rather than Blue Cross Blue Shield and will save the city $15,345 for the coming year. McGhee said Priority Health offers better service at a lower cost and the change is acceptable to employees.