ESCANABA — A planned bathroom project at the U.P. State Fairgrounds has stalled, following a decision by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund to cancel a grant for the project, which was announced this week by Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young.

“My disappointment is that we finally had assembled the right team — a team that was moving forward and I believe could have led to project completion by the end of 2025,” Vickie Micheau, who serves as local management agent for the U.P. State Fair, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the Michigan Association of Fairs and Exhibitions.

According to Young, she and the U.P. State Fair management team were notified that the Trust Fund has decided not the approve a request for the grant to be extended. Micheau said Wednesday that the Fair Authority had not yet received an official denial of the extension submitted by the county on behalf of the fair, but that the grant was reportedly canceled “due to what (the Trust Fund) considered a lack of progress and the age of the award.”

“I want to emphasize that we can and will apply for a grant for this project in the future should the Authority decide to do so,” said Micheau.

The $300,000 grant was awarded in mid-December of 2019 to build two bathroom and shower buildings on the fairgrounds and required a $130,000 match. However, a string of hurdles created what Micheau called a “perfect storm” that hindered the ability of the fair authority to get the project off the ground.

First, the U.P. State Fair Operations manager that was employed by the authority when the grant was first submitted moved on from his job and into the private sector. Micheau said his immediate sucessor was not in a position to manage the project, but that Matt Valiquette took on the project while learning his new role after being hired as the operations manager.

The authority had retained the services of Bittner Engineering to serve as the project manager. Not long after, the owner of Bittner Engineering retired and closed the business, prompting another request for proposal to be issued seeking a project manager. Dynamic Design was awarded the contract and, according to Micheau, “were making tremendous progress.”

Outside forces also impacted the project, including a shift in how the grant itself was managed. During the project period, the Delta Conservation District stopped administering DNR Trust Fund grants and Young took over as the local grant administrator.

“Adding to the complexity, we faced COVID-related disruptions and a lack of matching funds shortly after the grant was awarded, making this a perfect storm,” said Micheau.

The project may also have been hindered by the expiration of the county’s five-year recreation plan. A DNR approved five-year recreation plan is required to be eligible for grants through the Trust Fund — a fact that has jeopardized other projects in the county.

“Looking ahead, one key lesson learned is that the Delta County five-year recreation plan should not have been allowed to expire. While this was beyond our control, it’s possible that the department also took this into consideration,” said Michaeu.

Last month, the lack of a recreation plan prompted the county to delay a planned project at O.B. Fuller Park that would have created a day use area, which was required by the Trust Fund grant that was used to purchase the park. Despite the lack of a day use area being the primary reason that the park is out of compliance with the grant, the county has indicated that the Trust Fund encouraged the recreation plan be the county’s first priority on the road to compliance.

The county is currently working on the plan, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 5, 2026.

“We have a very active Park Commission, comprised of diverse representatives, and they are currently undertaking a comprehensive review and update of the five-year recreation plan, demonstrating our commitment to enhancing recreational opportunities for the county,” Young wrote in the portion of her most-recent administrator’s report that discussed the trust fund’s decision not to extend the bathroom facility grant.