Chrysler Beach getting $470,000 in improvements

MARYSVILLE – Nearly $500,000 of state and city funds will bring another phase of improvements to Chrysler Beach this summer.

Work this summer will include a new fish-cleaning station and handicapped accessible bathrooms, a concessions stand, patio-like benches and picnic tables with umbrellas and a nautical-themed playscape for kids.

Barry Kreiner, director of public services, said work will begin the second week of August. Grant funding stipulates 90 percent of the project must be completed by Nov. 15.

“The majority of anything they’ll be able to use this year are some of the additional benches, picnic tables, and things like that because once we get started down there it’ll be a construction site until the end of November,” Kreiner said.

“Almost everything will still be open. Current restrooms down there won’t be open. That’s because the new ones are going in the same footprint.”

Marysville City Council members approved a $472,861 bid from Michigan Recreational Construction of Brighton on Monday for the improvements.

Councilman Wayne Pyden was the only member to vote against the decision, adding the city’s recreation board should have been consulted before the council approved financing a project partially funded by the recreation department.

Annette DeMaria is a senior engineer at Environmental Consulting & Technology, which completed a master plan for the city’s waterfront a few years ago. She said about half of the funding for the next phase of improvements – a near $239,900 grant – is through Michigan Department of Natural Resources trust funds.

Kreiner said some of the remaining city-funded portion will be covered by in-kind labor from public works employees.

Kreiner said the city is waiting to find out if it will receive another grant in October to construct a fishing pier at Chrysler Beach.

DeMaria said the pier, if it moves forward, would be funded through a coastal zone management program grant through the Department of Environmental Quality.

“That would be the final piece of the puzzle that we’re missing,” Kreiner said.

Late Monday afternoon, Chrysler Beach was filled with residents and visitors enjoying the weather, swimming and fishing.

Marysville native Jennifer Nummer watched her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, fill her water gun with water at the shoreline. Visiting the beach is a regular activity for them each year, she said, when she visits family up from Madison Heights.

“The bathrooms need to be upgraded …” she said. “The bathrooms have been like this for as long as I’ve been coming, which is the last 14-15 years.”

Nummer also said a new playground would be nice for children.

Port Huron resident Rosa Galarza, who visited the Marysville beach Monday with her son Malachi, 3, and other family members, also said “more adventures” and equipment for kids would be of benefit to beach-goers.

Also on Monday, City Council members approved a more than $1.5 million bid from Marysville’s Raymond Excavating that will give several Marysville streets a facelift by the end of November.

The project had been slated not to exceed $2 million, with funds coming from existing road funds.

Kreiner said public works staff members surveyed city roads, bringing back a specific to-do list for resurfacing, and one road’s rebuild, because “we felt they would give the most bang for our buck.”

The following roads will be resurfaced:

•St. Lawrence and Lynwood streets between Gratiot Boulevard and Busha Highway.

•New Hampshire Avenue from 18th Street to Huron Boulevard.

•Vermont Avenue from Huron Boulevard to 17th Street.

•Delaware Avenue from Gratiot Boulevard to Busha Highway.

•Virginia and Indiana avenues and Eighth Street, which are joined north of Ninth Street, will be “total rebuilds,” Kreiner said.

The tentative start date for work is Monday, with the projects to be completed by Nov. 13.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.