from the Kalamazoo Gazette:
WAYLAND TOWNSHIP — Motorists who are enjoying smooth rides on a section of Sixth Street in Wayland Township can thank the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which helped fund the repaving of the road.
Monte Davis, an environmental specialist for the Gun Lake Band of Potawatomi Indians, said Sixth Street between 126th and 129th avenues was repaved between July 23 and 25. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held there July 28.
Of the project’s $308,000 cost, the township is paying $108,000 and the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Indian Reservation Roads Program is paying $200,000.
Davis said the Gun Lake Band joined the program in 2006. He said he learned in June 2007 that the funding for the Sixth Street project was coming.
“We’re very happy for the tribe, the township and the county. The road was one of the worst roads in Allegan County,” Davis said.
The Allegan County Road Commission’s managing director, William Nelson, said the funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the first contribution for roads that the county will receive from the agency.
“It’s a good thing when we get money from anywhere because our local roads need additional funding,” Nelson said. He said he expects the funding from the bureau to come through by mid-September.
Michigan Paving & Materials Co., of Grand Rapids, was the project’s contractor. Davis said the Gun Lake Band owns a 30-acre rural preserve near Sixth Street.
Band members use Sixth Street to get to the Bradley Indian Cemetery and the Bradley Indian Mission near 128th Avenue. The Gun Lake Band also has a community center, called the Luella Collins Community Center, at 419 126th Ave.
Davis said the band hopes to get funding from the bureau for two other road projects in the township in the coming years, but he declined to identify the roads.
“We thought we would start in the heart of the community (with Sixth Street) and work our way out,” he said.
Turtle Talk 