State Grant Helps Fix Up Emmett Township Road, Support 66 New Jobs

A grant from the Michigan Department of Transportation to fix up a road in Calhoun County is designed to help support economic development.

MDOT says in a release that the Transportation Economic Development Fund grant will go towards repairing a stretch of F Drive North in Emmett Township, where Flex-N-Gate Battle Creek is located. The road is in poor condition, and is only expected to worsen after Flex-N-Gate's expansion project to their facility. Almost $300,000 from MDOT, along with almost $200,000 from the Calhoun County Road Department, will go towards widening and resurfacing F Drive North.

Flex-N-Gate says that this roadway improvement is part of the reason they chose to expand in the Battle Creek area, as opposed to their facilities in other states; the expansion created around 66 new jobs. MDOT has given out TEDF grants since 1987, to finance projects that are “critical to the movement of people and products”.

More info about the TEDF program can be found at the state's website.