Grants

Specific Objectives and Purposes of the Quiet Water Society
The Quiet Water Society works to educate the public and encourage participation in non-motorized outdoor recreation, to promote public concern and support environmental stewardship and conservation of natural resources of the Great Lakes region, and to plan and execute annual and special events for any or all of these purposes.

Building for the Future
In furtherance of our objectives, the Quiet Water Society uses surplus funds from the Quiet Water Symposium to provide grants. Each year, the Quiet Water Society considers applications for grants from non-profit civic organizations and clubs. As you look through this program booklet, please keep an eye out for project reports from the 2015 grantees. If your organization is in need of financial assistance for projects that are in harmony with our objectives, you are encouraged to visit our website and apply to be one of our 2016 grant awardees.

2015 Distributions
Funds totaling $9,000 were distributed in 2015 for:
  • Land Information Access Association ($2,000),
  • Hiawatha Shore to Shore/North Country Trail ($1,000),
  • Grand Adventure Race ($500),
  • Mid-Michigan Environmental Action Council Stream Monitoring ($500),
  • Chicago Adventure Therapy ($1,500),
  • Spoonville, Michigan, Pedestrian/Bike Bridge ($1,000),
  • City of Eaton Rapids 10 percent qualifying local match ($2,500) for DNR Fisheries Aquatic Habitat Improvement Grant of $25,000.
Look for project descriptions within the pages of this program to see how these industrious groups are doing. Some are still working on some project phase, some are done, while others are still in the planning stage.

The Spoonville Trail
The Spoonville Trail is a 3.8-mile non-motorized pathway located in Crockery Township in O@awa County. The Pathway will connect two east-west regional trails on both sides of the Grand River - the North Bank Trail and the Grand River Greenway Trail. The Pathway will also connect to the M-231 Grand River Bridge Non-Motorized Pathway, which is a .75 mile pathway that rises 45 feet over the River. The Spoonville Trail will be completed in two phases - Phase I is planned for 2016 and Phase II for 2017.

Engineering has been completed for Phase I of the Spoonville Trail. O@awa County is currently awaiting final approval from MDOT before the project can be released for bidding. It is expected that construction will commence this Summer on the Pathway and that it will be completed in the Fall of 2016.

Returning the Rapids to Eaton Rapids Update
We are into our seventh year of the project. The river survey, sediment sampling, data analysis, design phase, HEC-RAS 100 Year Flood Modeling, and our DEQ Permit Application have all been completed. In July, 2014, we received our five year DEQ Permit. Just getting to this point cost roughly $75,000 to have the answers for the DEQ Application questions. The 1,800 tons of donated rocks and boulders have been spread out like pumpkins in October: small, medium, and large. We need 350 in the large+ category or 3’x3’ with an average weight/mass of 1,000 pounds or larger.

In early December 2015 we measured and chalk-marked over 2,000 rocks and boulders but discovered we needed more in the large size to be used as footer and header stones in the first weir. A rock-swap with Crandell Brothers Trucking in Charlotte will ensure that we have enough big rocks and boulders. We are awaiting word from our DEQ Flood Plain Engineer as to when we can begin to transport and stockpile the rock at the dam site. Planning for construction funding began over the summer with a three-pronged approach. Local: 4th of July parade donations, corn hole tournament, bottle and can drive, silent auction; Grants: Capital Region Community Foundation Grant Application as well as Michigan DNR Aquatic Habitat Improvement Grant; and, finally, the October 20-December 18 launch of our Public Spaces and Community Places campaign held in conjunction with the Patronicity Website, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and MSHDA. We established a goal of $50,000. Meet it and MEDC/MSHDA would match it with $50,000 (the maximum funding that can be matched by MEDC). By December 11, we surpassed our goal and ended up with about $56,000. MEDC will now match our goal with their check of $50,000. We also learned that our effort with our 2014 DNR Aquatic Habitat Improvement Grant would be funded at the $25,000 level while the Capital Region Community Foundation funded us at the $10,000 level. (Incidentally, the R.E. Olds Foundation grant of $10,000 paid for the initial and final design phase in 2012.)

This all shakes out to a construction war chest of roughly $130,000 by the time the West Sanitary Low-head Dam is cut out with a diamond saw and excavator breaker-bar some time in July or August and our rocks are placed into the river. There will be four drops of roughly one foot each over a span of roughly 200 feet with a central paddling channel which, incidentally, will be dredged about 30 inches for a total bo@om spoils removal around 750 cubic yards. We’ve been told that the project should take two-three weeks. When completed, a rapids will be back in Eaton Rapids for the first time since a dam surgically removed the rapids in 1844. Connectivity will be restored by removing the dam built in 1918 and now fish will be able to pass upstream, past GAR Island Park, before they are confronted by the base of the State Street Low-head Dam. But that dam and the Smithville Dam, 1.9 miles upstream are not chapters in this book. Those dams will have to wait for another author at another time.