Grand Traverse County commissioners refused Wednesday night to accept an offer from the GT County Road Commission to pay for close to $500,000 for a Cass Road bridge replacement in 2016. The Road Commission voted in a special meeting last week to cover the required five percent local match for the project, which county commissioners have worried the county could not afford.

But several commissioners – while acknowledging the Road Commission’s gesture – also expressed frustration that the proposed agreement terms prohibited the board from approaching the Road Commission in the future for funding other phases of the Boardman River Dams Project. “We’re in a multi-year project,” Commissioner Alisa Kroupa told Road Commission Manager Jim Cook, noting that the $3.1 million Cass Road bridge replacement will be followed in future years by the $7.1 million removal of the Boardman Dam (including road reconstruction) and the $4 million removal of the Sabin Dam. “We need to look to you to be a partner in the future...and these amendments preclude that from happening.”

Commissioner Christine Maxbauer said she wouldn’t support the offer “as a matter of principal” since the Road Commission hadn’t met with county commissioners as requested to discuss funding for all stages of the Dams Project. “I’m not approving anything until we have a discussion,” she said. Maxbauer also said she had several concerns about Road Commission operations and wanted to explore the possibility of putting that board under the oversight of the county commission. “I think we need to take a serious look at what’s going on at the Road Commission,” she said.

Commissioners voted unanimously to set up a meeting with the Road Commission to further discuss funding options in the coming weeks.