Contact: Laura Heintzelman
Executive Director
231-723-7269
Issued on Behalf of the Manistee County Community Foundation by 
the Alliance for Economic Success

For Immediate Release

$18,000 GRANT TO HELP IMPLEMENT ONEKAMA COMMUNITY MASTER PLAN AND PORTAGE LAKE FOREVER WATERSHED PLAN

Manistee, Michigan – The Michigan Coastal Management Program has approved an $18,000 grant for 2009 to help implement a community master plan that is now being completed jointly by the Village of Onekama and Onekama Township in Manistee County. The grant application was prepared by a Deanna Draze, a consultant to the Manistee County Community Foundation. The grant will be administered by the Alliance for Economic Success that has helped to facilitate the joint planning effort with the Village and Township.

A Leadership Team from the Onekama area is working with the firm Beckett & Raeder to draft the plan that is now available for review. Once finalized, the Onekama Community Master Plan will identify priorities for funding under the Coastal Management Program grant, including development of ordinances and an administrative structure to implement the joint plan. The draft plan includes many of the recommendations from the Portage Lake Watershed Forever Plan that was recently approved by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The draft Community Master Plan also includes a number of recommendations to support economic development, job creation and community development in the Onekama area.

“The effort in Onekama will pay big dividends for that community and is a wonderful learning experience about the benefits of local government cooperation,” said Laura Heintzelman, Executive Director of the Community Foundation. “As a part of the Coastal Management Program grant, an evaluation of the Onekama planning process will be completed and widely disseminated so that others can benefit from this remarkably progressive initiative.”

Heintzelman noted that a recent report issued by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan provides examples and recommendations for collaboration and the sharing of services among local governments.

Heintzelman said that the Coastal Management Grant will be used to fund implementation activities to support the Community Master Plan as well as the Portage Lake Watershed Forever Plan that was recently approved by the State Department of Environmental Quality.

The State Coastal Management Program, Oleson Foundation and Manistee County Community Foundation have made a series of grants to support the development of the Portage Lake Watershed Forever Plan and Onekama Community Master Plan as part of a broader effort to implement Envision Manistee County, a county-wide visioning process completed in 2006.

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