Commissioners approve parks grant applications, delay approval for recycling center grant

OTTAWA COUNTY — Applications for a pair of grants supporting Ottawa County Parks are moving forward after receiving county board approval, while a grant for building a new recycling center is on hold.

The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners discussed approvals for several grants and applications during a pair of committee meetings — planning and policy and finance and administration — Tuesday, March 7.

During the planning and policy meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to forward a pair of parks grant applications to the full board for approval next week.

The first grant is for $1.64 million from the Michigan DNR Trust Fund for the second phase of an expansion at Rosy Mound. A first phase, equaling half of the total grant amount from the state, was approved in December.

Ottawa County Parks is working on acquiring 127 acres of property to the north and east of the current Rosy Mound property to expand the park. The property is a former sand mine and includes more than 100 acres of critical dunes.

More:County seeks to add 127 acres to Rosy Mound Natural Area

A second grant application to the MDNR Trust Fund for the Upper Macatawa Natural Area Greenway Trailhead was sent to the full board, as well.

The project would add modern restrooms to the day-use area of the park off 84th Avenue in Zeeland Township. The park is a popular access point for several trails, according to Parks Director Jason Shamblin.

The grant would bring in $275,000 for the project, to be used with $290,975 allocated in the parks capital improvement plan.

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In the finance and administration meeting, commissioners delayed approval for a grant that would build a new Environmental Sustainability Center on the campus of Grand Valley State University in a split vote.

The grant is for $1 million from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, with a $250,000 match from the county.

If built, the center in Allendale Township would provide a “drop-off location for recycling and hard to recycle items” for county residents, including GVSU and local apartment complexes. It would also serve as a “hub” for the county’s existing recycling centers, located in Holland, Grand Haven, Coopersville and Georgetown Township.

Committee Chair Gretchen Cosby and Commissioners Joe Moss, Sylvia Rhodea, Allison Miedema, Roger Belknap and Lucy Ebel voted in support of pushing the approval until the next committee meeting. Commissioners Jacob Bonnema, Rebekah Curran and Doug Zylstra voted against the delay.

Moss brought forward the motion to postpone the vote, citing an ongoing renegotiation of tipping fees from the county’s landfills, which could affect operation funding for the recycling site once it's built.

Tipping fees are paid from the landfills to the county. Currently two percent of funds that come to the landfills are paid to the county, which generates around $500,000 annually and is held in its own special use fund, according to Fiscal Services Director Karen Karasinski.

The county’s tipping fund would be drawn to pay for operation of the new center.

“Personally I’d like to see that process completed first before we proceed with this,” Moss said before making the motion. “If we’re going to be adding additional expense into those tipping fees, I think we need to know what those tipping fees are going to be.”

There's a hearing on the matter later this week, according to Moss and County Administrator John Gibbs, with a public comment period closing March 20.

Commissioners who voted against the delay said they didn’t see a downside to approving the grant Tuesday, as Environmental Health Supervisor Kim Wolters said it wouldn’t bind the county to spend any money, but rather allow for the start of the data gathering and planning process.

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“I don’t see the downside here,” Bonnema said, adding he understands the desire for more information. “I value what Commissioner Moss is saying, but I don’t think that this forces our hand in any way to make those decisions in a negative impact way in the future. We can change our model of what we’re doing based on the results of those tipping fees as they are determined.”

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Wolters added she’s not aware of any deadlines that would be missed or funding that would be lost if approval was delayed until next month.

The next finance and administration committee meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 4.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Commissioners OK parks grant applications, wait on recycling center grant