ROSCOMMON —The Village of Roscommon is unveiling the new Hiawatha Park. It will be on the same side of the street across from Wallace Park on the other side of the AuSable River. It’s a popular place to launch canoes and kayaks.
Jim Periellis, the director of economic development for the Village of Roscommon said the addition will increase space for people in the area and is part of a push to bring in more tourism dollars.
“We really felt it was important to add an accessible canoe launch and kayak launch. And so having this little peninsula and river over here behind me allowed for us to put a second canoe launch in at these two parks,” said Periellis.
Periellis said it gets really crowded at the boat launch, with people waiting to launch and a number were struggling.
“It was always busy. It was very difficult to get in. And then because generally there are people waiting behind you to get in as well. It caused that, you know, expediency of, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get in and oh, I’ve got bad knees and oh, now it’s fallen in the water,” said Periellis.
He said the launch is ramped all the way down and helps add a layer of stability by having arm railings and a mechanism that can lower you into the water.
“One of the difficult things for handicapped folks, people who are older or have bad knees and so forth, is trying to get into the canoe while it’s in the water. It’s a little unstable,” said Periellis.
Periellis said the new park is part of an initiative to draw more people to the Village of Roscommon.
It also features restrooms and other perks.
“There was a house over here on this peninsula. We cleared that out for the new gazebo. We also have these wonderful picnic tables and umbrellas that we’re sitting at,” said Pierellis.
This push comes after a Michigan State University extension tourism study for Roscommon County.
“We were looking at ways of not only connecting our resort communities of Higgins, Lake Houghton Lake and Lake Saint Helen, but a way to promote the different things and activities and restaurants,” said Periellis.
Periiellis said the village has already started to develop a good tourism base, bringing people downtown in the past few years. This just adds to it.
“It was just these little things that this tourism study identified, such as, you know, hey, you need to see more garbage cans, maybe some benches and handicap accessibility at the parks and the trailhead and so on and so forth,” said Pierellis.
The ribbon cutting is set for October 4th. He said Roscommon and the surrounding area may be a bit off the beaten path, but they have their own style.
“We don’t need to be Mackinaw City. We don’t need to be Petoskey by any stretch. You know, we’re not that big and we don’t have that kind of capacity, but we want to be able to serve our locals to the best of our ability and share our beautiful community with visitors as well,” said Periellis.