By Jim Bloch
“We don’t need all the roads we’ve got, folks.”
Those were the words of Port Huron City Manager James Freed at the regular meeting of the city council Jan. 26 during which the council approved abandoning portions of Bard Street and Stone Street and giving them to St. Clair County Community College. The college will remove the pavement on the streets and turn them into nonmotorized walkways.
“We want to find a more pedestrian and safe way to traverse downtown,” said Freed. “Our vison is that from one river to the other river, we create a nonmotorized, beautiful parkway/pathway, connecting the St. Clair River through downtown, through SC4, to the Black River. (Bard Street) will be the first step. This will be removing a piece of roadway that is currently near the (Marian) Manor, which they own.”
The plan is ultimately to remove the pavement on Bard Street from Merchant Street, just off the St. Clar River, all the way west to Erie Street at the edge of the SC4 campus and make it a nonmotorized, pedestrian corridor.
A second resolution called for the removal of the pavement on Stone Street, near the western edge of the main campus, from River Street north to Glenwood at the north boundary of campus.
The right-of-way on Bard Street will remain in the city’s possession to provide access to utilities within the corridor. Under the agreement, the college will be responsible for the cost of electricity and the maintenance of the lighting within the Bard Street Corridor. The city will be responsible for the maintenance of the storm sewer within the Bard Street right-of-way; the storm sewer north of Bard will be the responsibility of the college.
The college will be responsible for pavement repairs, lawn maintenance, snow removal and the lighting within the Bard Street right-of-way between Michigan Street to Fort Street.
515 Stone Street was address of the old Central Fire Station, which was demolished last year. Without the fire station, the street is longer a critical route for public safety vehicles and has already been blocked off to through-traffic.
The city and college will share responsibilities for Stone Street like they are doing for Bard Street.
Both agreements include the caveat that “the city may at any time reinstall the roadway pavement” at which time the agreements would become void.
The council approved both resolutions 5-0. Sherry Archibald, the mayor pro tem, and council member Robert Mozurak were absent.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
