MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN - At Tuesday's Township Board meeting, there were two grant applications up as action items.

The first grant application was submitted by Meridian Township to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for improvements to North Meridian Road Park for a universally accessible picnic pavilion. The total cost for the project was $100,000, with $50,000 being funded by the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant, and the other $50,000 being funded by the Meridian Township Park Millage.

The grant request was approved for funding by the Natural Resources Trust Fund Board. The Charter Township of Meridian accepted the terms of the agreement as received from the Michigan DNR.

Trustee John Veenstra read the terms to which the Township Board agrees, which included to appropriate all funds necessary from the park millage, park development fund 208-750-759-974-000 to complete the project during the project period and to provide $50,000 to match the grant authorized by the DNR for improvements to North Meridian Road Park, including construction of an accessible pavilion, grill and picnic tables.

"North Meridian Park is a nice park,' Veenstra said during the meeting. "It has soccer fields, a sledding hill on the west side of Meridian Road, and this is just to further development of North Meridian Park by adding this pavilion picnic to it."

Other terms included to maintain satisfactory financial accounts, documents and records to make them available to the DNR for auditing as reasonable times, to construct the project and provide such funds, services and materials as may be necessary to satisfy the terms of said agreements, regulate the use of the facility constructed and reserved under this agreement to assure the use thereof by the public on equal and reasonable terms and to comply with any and all terms of said agreement.

"It's very nice we can get $50,000 from the Natural Resources Trust Fund to pay half of the cost of adding this picnic pavilion, which is a desirable improvement," Veenstra said.

The board voted unanimously to approve the grant acceptance.

The other grant application up as an action item during the meeting was the Ingham County Trails Millage Grant. In November 2014, Ingham County voters approved a new .5 millage to support the development and maintenance of a county-wide regional trails and parks systems.

Meridian Township applied to obtain funds from the county trail millage for approximately $88,000, and whereas the Township Board supports this application and certifies that the financing is secured, available and committed for use in construction of the project including matching funds.

The application included repairs and rehabilitation of approximately three miles of trails in Meridian Township with an estimated total cost of $88,000 to be funded by the township pedestrian-bicycle pathway millage and the park millage.

However, after Trustee Angela Wilson read off the application, Assistant Township Manager/Director of Public Works & Engineering Derek Perry, asked the board to strike certain wording from the application.

"I would request that in the 'now therefore it be resolved' portion of it, that the 'to be funded by the township pedestrian-bicycle pathway millage and the park millage' be struck," Perry said. "Originally we thought we had to provide a match to this portion of it, but, essentially we do not. It did not get revised to take that out."

The board voted 7-0 to approve the amendment by Perry, which would make the application end after "an estimated cost of $88,000."