Milan Parks and Recreation Commission updated on Ford Lake Plans

Ford Lake is a cherished community icon, both for its beauty and for its historic value, as verified by polls conducted about whether to keep the resource as the millpond that it is or let it revert to its natural state as an unimpeded river. Residents of Milan are overwhelmingly on the side of keeping Ford Lake.

Monday night, the Milan Parks and Recreation Commission heard from City Administrator Ben Swayze about the status of a city plan to maintain the lake.

Swayze updated the commission on the Ford Lake Rehabilitation Study ordered by the city council to evaluate the expense and practicality of a project that proposes to dredge the lake and enhance the recreational value through various improvements along its shores.

The study has collected core samples of the sediment beneath the lake, measured lake depth at numerous points, and conducted hazardous material evaluations, among other data that will be submitted to the State of Michigan as part of the process to acquire grant money for the lake’s rehabilitation.

“We are working on a plan for making Ford Lake a viable recreation resource for the city,” said Swayze. “Dredging the lake is only part of the major projects before us to save it, however.”

Currently, work is underway to shore up the dam spillway, but further study of the dam must be undertaken to ascertain what steps are necessary to assure its integrity in the future, Swayze said. A further consideration is what measures will be employed to prevent the sedimentation that has reduced lake depth to six to 18 inches in most areas except the river channel.

“The stabilization of the dam is the other key component in any project to preserve the lake, and that, too, will be an expensive undertaking,” Swayze told the commission. The expense of the improvements to the lake itself and to the dam that makes the lake possible run into the millions of dollars, he said.

“There’s no point in improving the lake without improving the dam,” he said. “That is the two-phase approach that the council is looking at, but the project is long range—sometime in the next 15 to 20 years.”

One of the chief obstacles to obtaining grant money for the dam preservation project is that there is not much interest on the state or federal level in funding dam preservation.

“There are lots of grants out there to help communities remove dams, because that is the current trend, but there are very few to help keep dams in place,” Swayze said.

One difficulty that Milan will avoid that other municipalities have encountered with dam removal, should that option ever be considered, is that the city owns the land under the lake.

“Mr. Ford bought all of the property under the lake,” said Swayze. “So, if it ever comes to the point where the dam is no longer viable, at least the city will acquire acreage that would become a city park along the Saline River.”

Swayze said that he would continue to update the commission on the status of the Ford Lake Rehabilitation Project.

In other business, the commissioners discussed plans for other recreational opportunities for the community in the coming months, with special emphasis on events for young people.

Swayze said that the Thursday concert series last year was an improvement on the previous year and said that he has been contacting bands and musical ensembles to make preliminary scheduling plans for this summer.

“We need to make sure that the bands appeal to the kids,” said commission member Ann Gee. “It’s important that we give them something to do and show them that we’re trying to answer their needs. We might want to think about using the tennis courts as a dance area during the concert,” she said.

Swayze told the commission that discussions with the area soccer league had produced an understanding and asked the commission to consider moving the softball diamond in Wilson Park to another area and replacing it with a soccer field that could also be used for the city youth football program. He said that the softball diamond infield would need to be re-sodded to make the ground suitable for soccer.

Gee also asked that the possibility of a seasonally-installed skating rink be taken into consideration in Wilson Park.

“It’s scary to have the kids skating on Ford Lake, and we have the necessary ingredients close by to make safe skating. The fire department is right there and they could fill-up a temporary rink,” she said.

Commission Chairman Dave Johnson said that the possibilities could be explored and agreed that recreational opportunities for youth should be a top priority.

“Ideally, it would be nice to have something along the lines of a YMCA,” he said, “but that won’t be happening for quite awhile.”

The next meeting of the commission will be Monday, Feb. 14, at 6:30 p.m. in the Senior/Community Center on Neckel Court.