Mlive.com, April 9, 2019
By Brian McVicar | bmcvicar@mlive.com
WEST OLIVE, MI — Ottawa County officials on Tuesday questioned the cost and environmental impact of a project that aims to create a power boat link between Grand Rapids and Lake Michigan by dredging part of a 23-mile stretch of the Grand River.
A 2017 state-contracted study conducted by Edgewater Resources, a waterfront plaining and design firm with offices in Michigan and Florida, estimated it would cost $2.1 million to dredge the river and another $165,000 in annual maintenance costs.
But the county’s sheriff and water resources commissioner challenged that figure.
They said the total does not include the cost of buying additional boats and paying part-time sheriff’s deputies to patrol the area. Nor, they said, does it include the cost of cleaning up trees and other debris in the river.