Adrian commission tables downtown bike‑loop and presses for MOU and updated budgets

Adrian City Commission members on March 2 deferred a decision on a contentious downtown walk‑and‑bike loop, saying they needed clearer budgets and a signed memorandum of understanding with Lenawee Now before accepting major design and funding commitments.

The commission’s pause came after in‑chamber public comment and lengthy staff briefings that laid out trade‑offs between accepting state TAP grant funding tied to the current design and redesigning the corridor to address safety concerns. "Make no mistake, moving forward with this project with the proposed design, will result in serious injury or death to those using the Downtown Bike Loop," said Jerrick Timm, an Adrian resident and board chair of Re Bicycle Lenawee, urging commissioners to send the plan back for redesign.

City Administrator Chad Baugh told the commission the city has design work completed and that Lenawee Now is serving as the grant’s third‑party administrator. Baugh said staff and the city attorney are working to secure protections for the city and that the city needs more information before making irreversible commitments. "You need more information, in my opinion, to make any decisions," Baugh said.

Community development staff described the project history and funding structure. Staff said the design work was contracted to SmithGroup and that, under the current scopes presented to the commission, state funding is available for the project; staff warned that removing the bike loop entirely or materially changing the project purpose could risk losing state TAP funds. "If we did not partake in the bike loop, we would lose the $5,000,000 that the state is offering," the city engineer said, explaining that scaling back could reduce but not necessarily eliminate state support.

Commissioners and staff repeatedly flagged two related problems: (1) the city does not yet have a signed memorandum of understanding with Lenawee Now that clearly assigns roles, responsibilities and protections; and (2) the enhancement grant budget available for the downtown bike loop and town square projects in the packet differs from figures some commissioners said they ran independently. Commissioner Roberts said she reviewed an enhancement‑grant budget that showed only $270,000 remaining for the Winter Street demo and no money earmarked for the bike loop, and she said she was "very hesitant to move forward with projects...not knowing that for sure the city of Adrian residents are not going to be on the hook for any of the funding."

Community development staff responded that some budget figures in the packet predated later subcommittee decisions and that the enhancement grant subcommittee recommended several smaller allocations, including $250,000 for a façade program and $25,000 for a downtown clock. Staff and commissioners also discussed the practical costs of redesign: engineers said a major redesign would require discarding earlier design work and could jeopardize funds already spent.

After extended discussion and public comments, the commission voted to table Resolution R26‑024 (support for the downtown walk‑and‑bike loop) and move it to the next meeting to allow staff to secure a signed MOU, updated budgets from Lenawee Now, and clearer cost estimates. Several commissioners said they supported smaller, well‑defined items (for example the $25,000 clock or $250,000 façade allocation) while reserving judgment on larger infrastructure pieces until protections were in place.

Next steps: staff was directed to pursue a signed MOU with Lenawee Now, obtain an updated enhancement‑grant budget showing allocations and remaining uncommitted funds, and return to the commission with those documents. The commission set the next meeting as the earliest time to reconsider the tabled resolution, with the possibility of a special meeting if staff obtains timely clarification.