L’ANSE – The Village of L’Anse will soon be getting to work on nearly $600,000 in improvements to its village marina and waterfront park. On Monday, the Village Board approved minor changes to its recreation plan that make it eligible for $305,000 in pre-approved Department of Natural Resources grant money to help pay for the project.

Village Manager Bob LaFave said improvements to the marina will include a new floating pier, upgraded electric and water utilities for boaters, new bathrooms with showers to serve both the marina and park, and a new fueling station for boats. About $60,000 will go to expanding the park’s splash pad interactive fountain, which LaFave said is already a popular attraction drawing families to the waterfront.

“With the splash pad, the idea is to add some features to make it a bit more adult-friendly, get parents to play with their kids more,” LaFave said. “There will be more features to allow kids to play as well.”

The grants will require a $290,000 local match, which LaFave said will be financed by the L’Anse Downtown Development Authority, a tax district he said is designed to give business owners a greater say in how tax money is used for development.

Trustee Kerri Sikkila said the matching funds appear to be a good investment for the village.

“I think so, because we’re trying to better our downtown, to bring more people in and make it a better place for our community,” she said.

U.P. Engineers and Architects engineer Greg Kingstrom, who works with the village on grants and planning, said the $45,000 DNR Passport grant for the splash pad had been expected. He’d been planning on a much smaller DNR Waterways grant, however, rather than the entire $260,000 grant eventually offered, pending the recreation plan changes.

He said he’d expected enough funding just for the new floating pier, and instead had been offered enough to hopefully complete the entire Phase 1 of the village’s long-term marina improvement plan.

“It should be full speed ahead on getting the grant this winter,” Kingstrom said.

LaFave said the most pressing need at the marina is for the new floating pier. The current dock, he said, is nearly 20 years old. It’s largely kept afloat by foam and has become home to several “muskrat hotels.”

The bathroom building, he said, will have separate sets of facilities, one with showers for marina guests and one for the park’s day users.

Currently, he said, the marina doesn’t offer gas or diesel fuel.

“We’d like to offer that to boaters, with a system that’s convenient to manage for staff as well,” he said.

LaFave said it’s unlikely the upgrades will be completed this summer, but now that the village recreation plan has been upgraded to reflect the changes, the grants can be finalized and engineers can get started bidding out construction contracts.