The city of Buchanan has been awarded a $230,000 Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant to construct a new boat launch on the St. Joseph River at Riverfront Park.
Buchanan Community Development Director Richard Murphy tells us this comes as the city seeks to revitalize its downtown and offer more amenities to attract residents. He says this new boat launch will be state of the art, the nicest on the river for about 25 miles.
“Users, it matters to them how they pull in, in back in, and if there’s enough room, and all that matters in terms of the functionality of the space,” Murphy said. “So with our engineers at Abonmarche, we kind of sweated the details on that and came up with a user-friendly design where they can come in, back in, launch into the majestic St. Joseph River, and then park in parking spaces for the trailer and vehicles.”
The boar launch award comes on the heels of last year’s $230,000 Natural Resources Trust Fund grant for an ADA-accessible kayak launch at Riverfront Park to be built this spring. Murphy says the goal is to attract more young families that may be seeking things like recreational opportunities near their homes. Also, he says revitalizing the riverfront helps Buchanan get back to its roots as a community that was founded because of the St. Joseph River.
The new $230,000 grant requires a 20% match from the city, for which it has budgeted. Construction on the boat launch could start next year.
