Raildude's dad

The pond was designed to have the run off to infiltrate into the ground That caused adjacent residential wells to have elevated chloride levels The pond's ability to infiltrate has declined. During heavy or prolonged rains the pond is in danger of over flowing and flooding homes downstream in GR Township. All the contributing area of the pond is in the City of Grand Rapids so the City is paying for the pump and haul. There's a pond between Bird and the Beltline that has to be pumped and hauled when the pond can't infiltrate fast enough. There are no any storm sewers readily available to the river or a stream for either pond.The Knapp's Corner pond would need more area for infiltration. There's no quick, easy, and inexpensive solution. Under the Drain Code, the developed land will pay the cost of redesign.

I went by there about 4pm to day. They have the temporary big block base in place and 2-3 sections of tower in place. Sorry no photos. Looks like it will red:) Looking at the concept drawing, are they going to make Lafayette one was southbound?

Cecil Houghton. Somehow, his unique tax views didn't make his obituary. https://www.sleddogcentral.com/obituaries/houghton_cecil.htm

Not one of those folks depicted could give one fat rat's arze about the tracks and the Grand Rapids Press (what's a newspaper? , the existing building has been renamed). The city couldn't wait to get the Bond St spur abandoned. Pull the concrete cap off the loading dock, remove the sand fill, concrete the rails in the new walkway and get rid of all the steps. It looks nice in the rendering but in reality it will be a concrete tunnel even if painted. Pedestrians will use it as a shortcut under the freeway no more. What kind of business would proper there? Yes, I'm a pessimist about this

Seems like there would be some salvage value in 4 roof top AC units rather than just demoing them. I assume they were all working before they closed up shop there. With long lead times on everything, I would think a good working used unit would make a good repair option.

DEG Development owns it already according AccessKent. DEG is a Visser Bros. company. It was originally Atlantic Mills a discount department store before KMart etc. I heard it was used to garage Greyhound buses for a while. At one point the roof sagged and the trusses on top were installed to restore the structural integrity of the interior trusses.

My daughter and son in law are good friends with one of the Versluis. They have been there 5 generations. Based on my conversations with him, they are not interested in selling out. He really enjoys what he does on and with the land.

Good Will is a Meijer real estate company. But they are not consistent in what name the properties are in.

The only way I can get 31 acres is to include all the land from Fulton to Wealthy and from Market to to the river. That includes the the 11 acres just sold by the city. The 31 acres are bisected by the freeway and the railroad tracks. The freeway isn't accurately portrayed in the rendering and the RR tracks are not shown at all.

Amway is not the big user, King Milling is. They get 20-30 cars at a time of western wheat. They recently shipped out a few cars of flour , first time in 30? years. I don't see rucks as an alternative for inbound wheat. I've looked at the RR property for a trail. for a number of years. There's a lot of area where the track bed is in wetlands. Can't build a trail there unless it's boardwalk and IF and that's a big IF, the RR will allow it. Boar walks are $$ to build, slippery when wet and need maintenance. There is a good location for a trail. My boss and I have both scoped it out :).

No this track does not go to the airport. Former Grand trunk that went to Durand. Now ends in Lowell. They run 2-3 times a week to Amway in Ada (not much traffic) and to King Milling in Lowell. Rails to Trails means the rails get removed and a trail built. The RR is not receptive to a trail on their property.

Great Lakes Capital owns 2 strip malls and a 297,000 sft spec building at 4 Mile & Hendershot in the Grand Rapids area. It looks like a different type of investment for them.

I'm not sure I'd name it the "Ada House". I remember the Ada House in the 70's. Walker: Do you remember the Ada House?

I've said for years that all the good building sites are gone. Homes are getting built in all the poor locations / terrain / wetland areas. And the new storm runoff regs from EGLE are going to make it almost impossible to develop heavy clay soils which Kent County has an abundance. As for the small farms, 50 years ago, a person could make a decent income farming 200 acres. Those days are long gone. Last Thursday I drove 28th St from East Paris to US 131. it's been a while and I was amazed at all the vacant store fronts. Some areas almost reminded me of a desert. No signs of human activity.

The "Ridge" is very conducive to growing apples due to the terrain and I think the temperature moderating effect of Lake Michigan. Sewer and water is available along 4 Mile all thwe way west to Fruit Ridge. Sewer went to Grand Rapids until the township joined the North Kent Sewer Authority. The township then installed a forcemain from Fruit Ridge back east to Comstock Park

I've had 5 orthopedic spine surgeries in the past 6 years. I had my choice of Butterworth, Blodgett , or Metro M. I picked Blodgett since it was a guaranteed private room:) I still say Spectrum does not have a long tern plan. Which ever practice / program want's a new building / the latest and greatest, gets one.

I think I would have avoided naming it Bold Advanced Medical Future or BAMF for short

Alpine is currently reviewing a proposal for developing Gracewil. They also are reviewing a proposal to develop the driving range plus at Alpine Ave and Alpine Church Rd.

I checked with my source LOL. No lighting Fuller to EBL, MDOT deems it a "rural" area. She laid out EB 96 to WB 196 when she was working on the "Flip" to make sure it will work when MDOT pulls the trigger to build it. She did the concept lay out for 3 lanes M-21 to 28th a couple years ago and it's been quiet since. As for the M-21 interchange, another consultant is working on that so no details :). Her and a coworker have been doing layouts for Wealthy south on 131 but it's not a project that will get built soon. As for the Beltline going 6 lanes, I think that's a long ways out.

Drove thru today. Still working on barrier wall installation where the crossovers were. I'd say a couple more weeks. I heard the "singing" noise eastbound. Weird

It's laying asphalt, pouring concrete. They were painting lines this morning when I drove Maryland Ave over about 9:30am so maybe today?:)

There were 2 railyards there. Pennsylvania came from the south and was from Burton to Hall.. The New York Central came from the SE from Jackson, along the east side of the Pennsy with their yard between Hall and Franklin. The Pennsys went north to Mackinac City via the Blue Bridge and up the Westside where the existing tracks are. Both yards were busy in the 50's and once the freeway was built, their access was off Hynes. The only access from the east was Graham. Fast forward until Bob Grooter's wanted to build "Union Station". NYC and Pennsy had merged into Penn Central, then Conrail and the Conrail assets in GR became Norfolk Southern. NS doesn't sell anything so John Engler leaned heavy on NS (He had the heavy part LOL) and low and behold, NS sold. Somewhere along the line Albany got extend public across the 2 tracks but not to Hynes.

131was put where it was for several reasons. The city fathers wanted it right to downtown so people could get to downtown. Rogers Plaza was being built - the first enclosed mall in the area and the downtown businesses were worried. The railroad yard offered a path of least resistance. No homes, at least very few, were displaced, in fact the rail yard was re-orientated with highway funds to accommodate the highway. The city wanted it bad enough to help pay for the "freeway". Even north of Bridge Street the highway was put close to the businesses along the river and only removed houses on the east side of Turner to the river. and then thru the old dumps on the east side of Turner north of Ann.

I would ask where are all these vehicles going to go? Division Ave, Grandville Ave? There's over 100,000 drivers every day that choose this route. Don't forget there's probably 10,000 maybe more trucks in that count. I drove thru there yesterday. All the rain has certainly slowed down the progress. Lots to do yet. And it's raining again today.

Somebody has to hook the cable and unfasten the boom from the tower. LOL Ah don't drop your wrench