Alpena Receives Grants To Make Improvements To Its County Parks

There is a variety of city and county parks to visit and some of the county parks will be receiving some upgrades to improve tourism

“Oh, the recreation of the park is great. We’re doing a lot of upgrades now. Sunken Lake’s got a grant from Sparks, we’ve just finished up a grant from the DNR at the Long Lake with the boat launch. They’re going to upgrade and provide six or seven new seasonal sites on the lake shore where the old boat launch was in that area” said Kevin Osbourne, chairman of county parks commission.

In addition to Sunken lake park, Beaver and Long lake park  will also be receiving new enhancements to their sites.

“Beaver Lake Park is working on improving their day area, and so that will be nice, that’s got a couple grants for that from local community organizations and townships. And then Sunken, like I said, you know, has the $475,000 sparks grant that we’re currently working on” said Osbourne.

Included in these improvements are: technology features, additional kayak storage and trails that will be more accessible for people with disabilities.

“Sunken Lake Park, it’s a some upgrades to some of the electrical services that trails are going to be formed, there’s gonna be some ADA compliant things happen like there will be an ADA compliant trail, be an ADA compliant mat to be able to access the Sunken lake so the handicapped people can be pushed in their wheelchair and rolled back out without sinking into the sand and that type of things” said Osbourne

Osbourne says these changes may be small but can make a difference and encourages people to come out and enjoy the parks.