MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - At Tuesday night's Township Board meeting, the Daniel's Drain Improvement Project was a hot topic. At the last board meeting, the Board directed that a notice of intent be sent to petition the Ingham County Drain Commissioner to prepare for a potential project for this particular drain.

Assistant Township Manager/Director of Public Works & Engineering Derek Perry stood up and began the discussion.

"In regards to the purpose of the project for those that have not been following along, the Walden Pond is actually a detention pond for the Daniels Drain and the real purpose of the project is to remove some of the sediments that have occurred over time and started to fill in that pond and also attempt to improve the water quality. There have been some issues with the road salts we believe that's been impacting that pond in a detrimental way…and then also there is some infrastructure, some pipes that are failing so thats the main purpose of the project."

Perry mentioned that as far as financing for this drain project goes, its a unique situation.

"It's a chapter 20 drain which is kind of unique because the municipalities such as Meridian Township is the one that has to petition the drain commissioner versus another type of drain that maybe enough residents get together and say we would like to see something happen."

He stated that the most important thing at the meeting is that they hear from members of the public and hear what their opinions are of the project.

"It's not a question of IF the work has to be done, but more of HOW SOON it can be done. I employ you to get the process going as soon as possible to take care of cleaning up this important water basin that impacts so many township residents before it starts poisoning our residents and becomes another news story about citizens having to drink bad water," Resident Margaret Lynch mentioned.

"We ask that you take the steps in the next week to move this project along so the improvements can restore the pond, limit the pollution, replace collapsed pipes, and make other changes that are necessary to control the runoffs so there's no more flooding or pollution problems," a resident noted.

Even some residents were concerned in terms of the expense for these improvements.

"I mean this really was always a bad plant…it was too dense, too heavy, was never a good idea..now I guess what I'm saying is that I don't want to pay for it. I'm concerned about what is this going to cost me."

Perry emphasized to the public and the board that he is unsure of what the exact cost for this project is going to be.

And as far as the next step for these improvements…

"The next step in the process would be presenting a resolution of petition for the board to consider at the next meeting and again if that's the direction that the board would like to move in, we'll have that prepared and ready for ya next week," Perry indicated.