The Three Rivers City Commission will meet Tuesday, March 5 at 6 p.m. at Three Rivers City Hall (333 W. Michigan Ave.) with an agenda that includes a proposed loan agreement between the city and Three Rivers DDA to develop and build an outdoor amphitheater.
For a full accounting of Tuesday’s agenda (as of publication time on Monday, March 4), see it below or visit the city’s website for further details.
Downtown outdoor amphitheater
Back in April of last year the commission approved a resolution to apply for a Michigan Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for its Public Gathering Spaces Initiative (PGSI) to help pay for a downtown outdoor amphitheater on the Portage River.
The $1,953,445 grant stipulates that the DDA would be required to commit 10 percent of the project costs of $195,345. At an earlier April 2023 city commission meeting, City Manager Joe Bippus said the DDA did not have the matched money for the grant, and the city could work out a payment option with the DDA to ensure the organization would not be hurt financially.
“They’re coming into a point where they had some debt that’s coming off, and so they’re going to be able to use cash or tax revenue in their budget, which I want them to have that open flexibility to be able to spend downtown,” Bippus said at a meeting on April 4, 2023. “We could take $10,000 or $15,000 a year to help pay us back, and I assume no interest, if we get this grant.”
The money would come from the city’s general fund, and the DDA would pay back the loan via one initial payment of $13,345, and 14 additional annual installments of $13,000. The city won’t charge the DDA an interest rate, and the expected maturation date of the loan is July 30, 2038.
At its last meeting, the commission approved pre-agreements to hire Viridis Design Company to conduct environmental and engineering reviews of the future location of the amphitheater.
Alek Haak-Frost is executive editor and publisher of Watershed Voice.
