Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

BUCHANAN — Buchanan city officials are looking to the future as the $19 million downtown infrastructure project draws to a close, but they’re going to have to do it at the same time they fill two unexpected vacancies on the new Downtown Development Authority.

City Manager Tony McGhee reported that work is progressing to get streets paved and completed in the next few weeks. A ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 21 at 10:30 a.m. at Front Street and Days Avenue with a community celebration later that day from 3-6 p.m.

      He said that the project will be “functionally complete” in November with some work will be left to do next spring such as putting in trees and landscaping as well as streetscape furniture. When everything is done, people will see wider sidewalks on Front Street, he said.

      “I am so ready for the construction to be over,” Commissioner Raquell George said. “I hope everyone will be pleased on how it looks.”

      Mayor Mark Weedon said he thinks people will like how it looks when everything is done. “Restaurants and other businesses will be able to have tables and chairs on the sidewalk,” he said. “It will give the downtown social district a community feel and I know restaurants are super excited. It’s huge how much it has changed the landscape downtown.”

In other business, news came Monday that DDA chairman Richard Paniagua and DDA board member Jeffrey Antisdel had resigned at a special DDA meeting Friday. Buchanan City Commissioners accepted the resignations at Monday night’s meeting and McGhee reported that the city will be taking applications to fill those two vacancies.

      The city commission reinstated the DDA earlier this year after it had been disbanded in 2020 when differences arose between DDA members and city officials. Paniagua and Antisdel were among seven people appointed to the board in the spring. Paniagua is the owner of Cannavista Wellness while Antisdel owns Precept Partners.

      DDA members have been meeting since the summer to handle a variety of tasks including formalizing bylaws, setting up committees and establishing tax increment financing with the help of Berrien County Community Development Director Dan Fette.

      Paniagua and Antisdel did not attend Monday’s meeting. When contacted about their decision to resign, Paniagua said that his decision was “in the best interest for everyone.” 

“The time required to do the job properly and the lack of aligned principles and support was not going to be productive or reconcile with my values,” he said.

      McGhee said after Monday’s meeting that there had been some problems with getting “everyone on the same page.” He said the goal of last Friday’s special DDA board meeting had been to find the best way forward and that Paniagua and Antisdel had resigned at that time.

      One of the points of contention appears to be the DDA budget and what the DDA should be spending money on. McGhee said that the city is asking the DDA to pay for things like the Farmer’s Market and downtown improvements that the DDA had traditionally paid for in the past but that the city has paid for in the years the DDA wasn’t active.

Also Monday, commissioners approved a contract with the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission to help the city update the master plan and accepted the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant for the second phase of the Riverfront Park project.

      The master plan contract is for $20,099. Southwest Michigan Planning Commission Senior Planner Marcy Hamilton noted that her organization has been assisting the city on its master plan for decades. The city is looking to get started on the process as the current plan expires in 2026.

      With the trust fund grant, McGhee said that it is the grant the city applied for in April, 2024 and is for the second phase of the riverfront park project. The city applied for another trust fund grant in April, 2025 for the third phase involving a new fishing platform and pit toilets and is waiting to hear back whether that one will be funded.

      State funding for the 2024 grant was just recently authorized by the legislature and signed by the governor. The city will be getting $231,000 from the state and put up a $99,000 local match.

      McGhee said the city has already been doing preliminary work on the project and will bid out both this phase and the first phase at the same time this winter with work done next spring. The first phase covered a handicapped accessible kayak launch with the second phase covering a new boat launch and skid pier.