Planning Commission Gives Out Awards

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Some awards to recognize those who have worked to improve infrastructure in the past year around southwest Michigan have been announced by the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission. Associate planner Kris Martin tells WSJM News the group’s board has given its annual Graham Woodhouse Intergovernmental Effort Award to the entities who worked on the Sink Road Bridge Replacement Project in Cass County’s Pokagon Township.

“There were so many different parties at play here, and it was a long process of redoing a whole bridge, relocating access to the Dowagiac River, improving safety components, and just taking a really good approach to a bridge project,” Martin said.

There were more than six different partners involved in that bridge replacement project. They included the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Martin says the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission has also given its Welch-Lackey Leadership Award for the year to Don Hanson, the commission board’s chair.