“If at first you don’t succeed try, try again.”
That was the lesson Independence Township Trustee David Lohmeier learned, April 19, when his first motion for a pedestrian bridge project over I-75 at Waldon Road failed, 3-2. Lohmeier and Trustee Andrea Schroeder were the only “yes” votes. Trustees Jose Aliaga and Ron Richie were absent.
While the majority of the board wasn’t in favor of authorizing around $2.1 million toward the approximate $4.1 million project, Schroeder suggested a second motion reducing the cost to the township to $1.5 million. That suggestion got a 5-0 vote.

“I was very happy with the way it ended,” Lohmeier said. “I’m more than a little nervous at the participation level. I wished we would have passed it at 60 percent. I think it’s a really high risk to get the contribution with the township doing 40 percent. Clearly I couldn’t get people over the hurdle at 60 percent.”
Schroeder’s motion reduces the township’s match toward the TAP, Transportation Alternatives Program, grant from 60 percent, which is $1.962 million, to 40 percent, $1.308 million.
If they don’t get matching funding, Lohmeier said it will be tough because it’s a big issue to fix. However, he said he’sreached out to State Representative Jim Tedder and other state reps along with county commissioners to write letters of support to send in with their proposal.
“We’re putting the best package we can together and we’re going to hope that they see the logic we saw,” he said.
Schroeder said she was originally in favor of the project because she thought it was both an appropriate use of general fund monies, according to the state’s definition, as well as a “best use” of the money.
Treasurer Paul Brown had originally turned the proposal down not because he didn’t think it was a need, but because he wished it was higher up on the Safety Path Committee’s priority list.
“If this project was at the top of the safety path’s committee’s list (and they said) ‘but we’ll use up all the money,’ I would vote right now to put more general fund into it to make sure it got done,” he said. “If we were going to utilize more general fund money to do safety path projects, I don’t want us to rush into it. I’d rather see us take the $2.1 million and do the first five things that are on it, if that’s really where the highest priorities are. And suddenly the Waldon Street Bridge becomes a project that’s going to happen in two to three years.”
However, once the figures were redone in the second motion, Brown thought it would be more appealing to the Safety Path Committee.
“If I think about what the safety path committee would think about us putting a proposal out to get $2.6 million of free money, I think they’d be unhappy if we didn’t try it,” he said. “It costs us nothing if they don’t take (our proposal).”
Clerk Barb Pallotta was in full support of the project, but she said the thought of taking out $2.1 million out of the general fund caused her “heartburn.”
“It definitely is a need, but do we need it right now? That’s where the gray area is,” Pallotta said. “With this May 1 deadline it adds additional pressure in making a decision.”
And while she is not a gambling woman, Pallotta said she decided to “roll the dice” after the township’s contribution was lowered.
“I’m thinking we don’t have a chance to get this, but sometimes you have got to take a risk,” she said.
Supervisor Pat Kittle also agreed the bridge “is a need.” However, like Pallotta he couldn’t justify the original price tag contribution from the township
“I love the idea, I really loved it when it was 20 percent of $3million. I just think timing right now is the biggest issue with me,” Kittle said. “If I was asked to vote on this right now I would vote ‘no.’ In a couple years I would give you a different answer.”
He also pointed out other areas where the money could be spent, such as paying down lifetime retirement costs.
But when the new numbers were rolled out, he too, thought it was acceptable.
“I like the numbers well enough,” he said. “I am very anxious to see if the Safety Path Committee will swallow half a million dollars.”
Resident support
David Pew, who lives in the Waldon Creek subdivision, said he’s been a Clarkston resident his whole life and wants his children to enjoy the same pleasures he had, which included riding his bike to Rudy’s and other stores downtown.
“If you’ve driven out and seen the bridge, there is no question it’s unsafe. I won’t let my kids go that way, so that really limits our options. We can really only go all the way around to Clintonville, over to Maybee and by then that’s a decent bike ride, so you’re turning around and coming back. You’re not going to downtown Clarkston from there,” he said. “It would be a great thing to have (a bridge) and I think you’d see a lot of people using it.”
Fellow Waldon Creek resident Mike Wilson agreed.
“We have three children. I watched my kids grow up. They have all attended Pine Knob Elementary and I find it ironic that there is absolutely no way for us to walk to school,” he said. “I’ve crossed the bridge myself a number of times on bicycle, never on foot, it would be absolutely terrifying, but it’s equally terrifying on bicycle.”
Wilson noted that he was shocked that there was no consideration for a pedestrian bridge when the I-75 bridge was under construction in 2004.
“I’ve lived on both sides of I-75. We lived five years on Church Street and we felt apart of the community and felt like I had access to downtown,” Wilson added. “On the other side we really don’t.”
Even though Allen Road resident Pat Bayley doesn’t live close to the bridge, he was in support.
“Those people that live on that other side and there are hundreds of families and children. They pay taxes for this Clarkston corridor expansion, the town, the development and they really don’t have a safe access for their kids to get across to the schools, the library, the township hall and all the activities, and the jobs that are there,” Bayley said. “Kids today, they want to be independent, they want to walk they want to bike and their families are working. It’s really a good opportunity for you to service hundreds and hundreds of families on the other side. And they really have a right to a safety path. I just think it should be one of the high priorities of your safety path if there is some money available that gets it going.”
The township should know within 60 days after the May 1 deadline whether they will receive the 60 percent match in TAP grants or not.
It’s either going to be all or nothing,” Lohmeier said. “It’s not like they’ll come back and say we’ll do 20 percent.”