Gene DeRossett, Michigan's rural development director, signs a ceremonial check for the upcoming sewer project. Photo by Hadley Robinson

MANCELONA - With the signing of a check for $1,986,000 from the USDA last Friday, the Mancelona Area Water and Sewer Project is finally set to break ground.

USDA rural development officials, representatives of state congressmen, village and township trustees all joined with MAWSA in the momentous and long-awaited ceremony.

The money, $1,286,000 of which is grant money, will pay for a pump station, an aeration package sewer treatment plant and 13,000 feet of eight-inch gravity collection sewer.

The sewer will service the US-131 corridor, the downtown area and the schools - in total, 63 properties will be tied in.

The engineering firm for this project, Gourdie Fraser of Traverse City, plans to break ground in the next week or two. Though weather will determine the time span it takes, Joseph Elliot, project engineer, said they plan to be up and running by next summer.

The engineers from Gourdie Fraser have worked on designing the project, assigning districts, writing grants and providing overall support to MAWSA for two years, and until last Friday, they hadn't earned a penny.

While receiving the ceremonial check from Gene DeRossett, Michigan's director of USDA Rural Development, MAWSA also made its first payment to the engineering firm.

Before DeRossett signed the check over, he touched on the importance of boosting the quality of life in rural areas.

"Rural development is the entity that gives communities the opportunity to expand and grow," he said. "Our department is one government agency that brings federal dollars back to the people."

Those involved in the project are hoping its benefits will be many. The goal is to enhance economic development, bringing more business into town. Those involved expect the project will bring more employment and increase the tax base in the long term.

The sewer project is also a matter of public safety and environmental protection.

Though talks of a sewer system in Mancelona go back even further, the prospect started being talked about in earnest seven years ago when a tar leak from Dura Automotive caused a major groundwater problem. Dura donated $5,000 toward MAWSA for the project.

Gary Knapp, executive director of MAWSA until just a few weeks ago, has been working with the project for the last seven years. He said the road has been long and difficult, but that can be put behind them now that the project is on its way.

"It's all been worth it," he said.

According to Knapp, when the project was first introduced MAWSA ran into a "wall of opposition" from residents. After that, dragging the project through the political process took time and effort.

Knapp said one big difficulty was misinformation being spread and that if he could do it over he would begin by initiating a massive public education campaign, detailing why the sewer project should be done and how it is beneficial.

"I think people have learned to work better together," Knapp said about the community during this process. "This is one of the hardest grants to get. If this community can do this, everything else will be so much easier."

Shelly Fuller, area director for USDA rural development, has been through the tumultuous process of bringing the Mancelona sewer project to fruition for the last seven years too.

"It's been a long road with a lot of discussion from citizens, lots of participation and interest, right up until bid openings," she said.

When the bids for the project came in to Mancelona, they were higher than Michigan's rural development department anticipated and budgeted.

The USDA in Michigan invests $401 million per year in rural development initiatives, and when the group came up short, officials had to go lobby their national office in Washington D.C. to come up with the extra money.

But they secured the funding. "We had to take funding out of a pool from another state that hadn't used it," Fuller said.

With funding secured and the project moving forward, most speakers echoed the same sentiment as Elliot: "It's a good day for the community."

Hadley Robinson can be reached at hrobinson@michigannewspapers.com or by calling 231-533-8523.