A volunteer group in Chikaming Township, Michigan was awarded a nearly $2.5 million grant to help expand the public property at Cherry Beach.
The Cherry Beach Project is a group of community members whose goal is to raise enough money to purchase private property adjacent to Cherry Beach Park. They want to preserve the wooded shoreline area and keep it from ending up in the wrong hands.
Now, with a combination of grant money, pledges from people in the community, and help from the seller, they believe they have the financial means to purchase the property.
This purchase will add another 400 feet of beach - doubling the current size.
Peggy McTigue is on the Cherry Beach Committee. She said the community support has been overwhelming.
“Everybody rallied for support because there’s so little public land in our community along the lake," she said. "What this purchase does is it gives us a little more land for people to just enjoy nature.”
Now the committee needs to make sure people back the pledges they made. McTigue says she’s confident that will happen and hopes the deal will close by the end of 2020.
Contact Annacaroline at acaruso@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @AnnacarolineC16
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