Capac water and infrastructure projects wrapping up

Paving of streets underway; village offices to move

 

CAPAC — There are a lot of good things happening in the tiny village of Capac, all in the name of helping move the community into the future.

Perhaps best known for a street repair debacle years ago that left Main St. crumbling just a short time after completion, action has been taken to not only address that issue, but several others as well.

Village Manager Travis Youatt said the village has been bustling with work on numerous side streets as water infrastructure has been dug up and replaced. More than 10,000 feet of water line has been replaced in the village in recent months.

“It’s going pretty well,” Youatt said when discussing the water project following a village council meeting last week.

“Like with any job in a small community, when you do a project of this caliber, there are a lot of unknowns and things you run in to,” Youatt explained.

“Capac is an old community and it has been a challenge to know where the old infrastructure is when digging,’ he said. “Overall, I’d say we’ve done a pretty good job with this. There’s been a few issues, but we’re making good progress now and nearing the end of this project.”

The water project saw new line laid, along with replacement of several fire hydrants throughout the village. The work has moved to the next phase of street paving and landscape restoration.

“Residents will be seeing paving work done for the next few weeks,” Youatt said in an update. “It’s only going to enhance the village street system, to have all of this work done and it’s going to be nice when it is all done.”

The village manager is looking to keep the ball rolling with the updates throughout the village.

“Once you get the ball rolling with finding revenue sources and the work starts, you just want to keep it rolling and keep making improvements,” Youatt explained.

“Capac has struggled to get a lot of this work done in previous years, because of lack of money, but we have been extremely fortunate to receive various grants that have been a great help and kept the burden off the taxpayers.”

In the time he has been village manager, Youatt has managed to secure over $11 million worth of grants for Capac. The funds have been used on a variety of infrastructure projects as well as helping cover costs of the village purchasing the bank building on Main St. A portion of that building will become home to village offices.

“It’s rare, especially with the way times are now, for a village like Capac to receive so many grants. It’s not typical,” Youatt said.

Quick to not take credit for the numerous awarding of grant dollars, Youatt pointed out, “there have been many people involved in these grants. Planning sessions, discussion on what we hope and want Capac to look like in the future. A lot of work with state and federal agencies. I just write the grant paperwork. Council is very much involved in the process, as is the Planning Commission and other committees.”

The village has also had their eye on the potential purchase of the Choice One Bank building for some time and eventually it became available.

Again, grant funding has made the deal possible for the village, having secured over $275,000 towards the purchase price of the building.

Renovations have been on-going since the first of the year and Youatt expects to move all the village offices to the new location in the coming weeks.

“It’s the first building you really see when coming in to the downtown area from the north,” he said. “There is a lot of parking available and it’s just going to be a great move for us. It’s a beautiful building.”

Youatt said Choice One will continue to rent space in the building.

“Having that income from them, we will be able to pay off the small amount of money we had to put into the purchase, along with the grant.”

Youatt said plans for the new space call for more offices and a larger, more useable meeting room.

“We’ve met downtown for many years, well before I came here and while we’re thankful for the space, the new meeting room is so much better and opens the doors to do so much more. We can host meetings where we really couldn’t before. Plus, we will have several new village offices that we previously didn’t have. We’re all pretty excited about making the move.”

The village manager predicted with the updates and renovations being made both upstairs and downstairs, the building’s value could jump to around $1 million in the coming years.

“The council and I felt it was a good investment for the village and they voted to move forward with it.”