WAYLAND, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made a stop in West Michigan Monday morning.
Her trip to Wayland Township was focused on visiting and inspecting the construction of the US-131/M-179 Interchange near Gun Lake Casino.
During her visit, she answered questions about the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I have not made decisions on COVID based on politics," Whitmer said. "We're still following the data. Right now our numbers are high but they look like they're slowing. We also know that we're doing 63,000 tests a day."
Gov. Whitmer said all of the states have been given a lot of resources, and she wants to use Michigan's wisely.
"We have an incredible opportunity," said Whitmer. "We've got a lot of resources that have been sent to all the states."
"Michigan is sitting on about $5 billion," she added, "and it will be almost $10 billion if you add up everything from the Trump administration and the Biden administration...We've got to make sure that we deploy these resources in a way that gets our kids back in school, helps people get connected to skills, cleans up water, builds roads and sets us up for long-term success and economic health."
The governor did not allude to another shutdown, but rather said she feels that what the state is doing now is sufficient as long as Michiganders continue to stay safe.
"We're in a very different moment than we were 15 months ago," she said. "And if we all do our part, we're going to get there. It just shows that COVID is still a very real threat."
Gov. Whitmer said Michigan still has some of the strongest protocols in the nation with the mask mandate, capacity restrictions and the continued curfew.
"And yet we know," Whitmer said, "that because we have some of the variants and because we were very successful at keeping this virus from spreading so out of control, we have reservoirs of people that don't have antibodies."
The governor also mentioned the Hudsonville Public School District, after reports surfaced last week of parents asking for masks to be optional at a school board meeting. Some people were turned away at the door.
"Anyone who saw what happened at Hudsonville schools the other day knows that we are still very divided," Whitmer said. "And that's why we're calling on everyone to take this seriously and do your part."
The governor also discussed the administration’s Rebuilding Michigan plan and the $300 million Bridge Bundling proposal that would address our crumbling bridges and make a greater investment in our infrastructure.
The US-131/M-179 project will update the interchange to a single point urban interchange and resurface US-131 from 120th Avenue to 133rd Avenue in Allegan County. The cost of the project is approximately $26 million, with the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi funding 80 percent of the costs. The two-year project kicked off March 1 and is scheduled to open to traffic in November of 2022.
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