Spartan Newsroom (https://news.jrn.msu.edu/tag/parks-and-recreation-2/)
East Lansing residents enjoyed a Valentine’s Day-inspired night at the city’s annual Sweetheart Ball on Feb. 8–9 at the East Lansing Hannah Community Center.
Back for the first year since 2020, the dance was hosted by East Lansing Parks, Recreation and Arts.
The entrance to the Meridian Large Dog Park, located at 1990 Central Park Dr. in Okemos, is open to residents of the township and non-residents. Online registration is now available for Meridian Township’s dog parks, including a new off-leash large dog park. The new park, which opened in September, is located behind the mall at Central Park South. The large dog park is for dogs over 30 pounds, while the small dog park, which opened June 2019, is located at Nancy Moore Park at 1960 Gaylord C Smith Ct., East Lansing, is for dogs under 30 pounds. About 100 dogs registered for the large dog park and 250 registered for the small dog park, said Parks and Recreation Director LuAnn Meisner.
Annual park fee
According to a press release, owners registering their dog will pay an annual fee to maintain the parks’ high standards.
During the citizen comments portion of the July 6 Northville City Council meeting, Mayor Brian Turnbull figured he knew what Doris Booth was going to ask about. Nick MaizMayor Turnbull running the July 6 meeting by following the agenda for the day. “I think I know what Doris Booth is going to talk about,” Turnbull said. “Doris, I think you would like to talk about pickleball.”
The July 6 meeting began, as it always does, with citizen comments. And Booth was ready for her turn.
The East Lansing City Council’s June 16 meeting covered a proposed board retreat and the use of police body cameras, but a majority of the council’s time was spent listening to current and future development projects, mainly in the downtown East Lansing development project, as well as improvements to local parks and recreation.
Community and Economic Development Administrator Tom Fehrenbach, updated the public on the status of multiple apartment and housing building developments such as: The Landmark, the Newman Lofts, The Park District, The Abbot and Building C.
“In terms of Center City (The Landmark) the project is essentially complete,” said Fehrenbach. “There’s a few minor repair items, replanting the trees and that sort of thing, but the Landmark has been operational since last fall.”
“The Newman Lofts has similarly been operational, including our parking deck and obviously our open deck dining area,” said Fehrenbach.
According to an article by the Lansing State Journal, The Landmark is a 12-story apartment building, which houses both MSU students, as well as young adults, as its location is convenient for students to be able to access campus.
The Newman lofts on the other hand is a different type of living community. According to an article by The State News, this building is a senior community, meant for residents aged 55 and older. Additionally, this is the first living community like this in the downtown East Lansing. To add to these buildings that have been built, and ready for tenants to move in, Fehrenbach said an additional project that is scheduled to begin the first week of July. A new mural that will be painted by artist Lauren Asta.
“This is the eastern facing wall in the alley between Pinball Pete’s and the project,” said Fehrenbach. Jad Safadi
Between Abbot and Grand River, there is another development in the works. The Park District, which is yet to be completed, although conceptual drawings are available and provided in the meeting. Jad Safadi
“In terms of Park District, obviously with the COVID situation there was a bit of a shutdown and some delay in the project,” said Fehrenbach. “But it is back on track.”
The Abbot, which is on the east side of Grand River is another development mentioned by Fehrenbach. He says it is coming along well, and the work that is being done is smaller things such as bike lanes and curb and gutter work. Finally, he says how inspections are being planned for it, with final safety inspections in the last week of July, and move in planned for late August if all goes as planned.
The final living related project in the downtown development that was discussed during this meeting was Building C, which has been approved according to Fehrenbach. This is a part of a multiple building development, with others being Building A, B, and D.
“They are retooling the design and building team to submit do the work to prep for building plan submittal,” said Fehrenbach. “They are expecting that the team will fire up here in early July, and they are targeting a late fall submittal date, and I think their hope at this point is to break ground by the end of the year on this project.” ”
When opened for discussion, Mayor Pro Tem Aaron Stephens brought up the question to Fehrenbach about plans for spacing out move in for The Abbot this fall, as they do plan to have students living there.
“We are working to try to coordinate all the move ins for the large projects downtown,” said Fehrenbach. “We have requested from each of the Hub, the Center City, and the Abbot their plans, and we’re hoping to bring those folks together, make sure they’re coordinating with each other and make sure they have a plan to stagger the move in to avoid as much as possible the congestion and sort of take into account the things that we learned from last year as well.”
Once the discussion and questions regarding the Downtown Development Project was complete, Mayor Ruth Beier moved the topic over to the next item on the agenda, Parks and Recreation. This was presented by Tim McCaffrey, the director of the Parks, Recreation, and Art department of East Lansing.
McCaffrey presented multiple sports field developments that are currently in the works, or are almost finished. This includes: baseball fields, pickleball courts, tennis courts and basketball courts that will be either renovated or built as part of ongoing, or proposed projects.
“The first project is the Patriarche Park Baseball Field improvement project, which has been sort of on the horizon for several years, and we are moving into completion on that,” said McCaffrey. “It is the four fields that exist in that sort of square were all renovated as part of this particular project.”
In this project, McCaffrey said that fencing, benches and backstops were replaced, as well as bike loops and trash containers being added. Finally two of the four fields had spectator seating added. Funding for this project was displayed through the following graphic.