July 14, 2026 <\/p>\n
\n Jessica Mathews \/ news@whmi.com <\/p>\n
A massive crowd gathered despite the heat Monday afternoon for the City of Howell\u2019s big Fire & Ice Depot District project. <\/p>\n
The ribbon-cutting event marked the completion of the long-anticipated project between Walnut Street and Michigan Ave. It features a public gathering space with a playable water feature, revamped Summit Gardens park, and all-purpose pavilion that houses the ice-skating rink in the winter. <\/p>\n
City Manager Kristi Troy said \u201cit is an absolute honor to stand here today and see this vision truly realized\u201d. She said when they first broke ground on the project, their goal was to build a true four-season anchor for downtown Howell \u2013 they didn\u2019t just want a pavilion but \u201ca vibrant hub that changes with all of the Michigan seasons\u201d. <\/p>\n
Troy said \u201cthis space will completely transform how we experience our community throughout the entire year\u2026and this represents an investment in the long-term vitality of Howell\u201d. She said it gives downtown businesses a year-round boost by drawing regional visitors to the historic depot area, but \u201cmost importantly, it preserves and elevates the unique character of our city\u201d. <\/p>\n
In the summer, the interactive fountain will come alive and give kids a playable, well-lit water feature to play in. Then in the winter, the space will transform to a premier ice rink for public skating, surrounded by fire pits to keep warm. <\/p>\n
City Council, staff, former staff, stakeholders, residents, community members, and others were all recognized for their hard work and support in taking the project from \u201cblueprint to reality\u201d. <\/p>\n
Mayor Nikolas Hertrich told WHMI \u201cit\u2019s an exciting day\u201d as the project has been in the works for many years and now it\u2019s here \u2013 saying \u201cit would be nice to have some of that ice though cause there\u2019s a lot of fire it seems like today\u201d. He said it\u2019s exciting to see the fountain flowing, the ice finisher out there, and they are \u201cvery lucky to have a gathering place like this for the community\u201d. <\/p>\n
Hertrich added it\u2019s always been his objective and vision to have someplace for the community to gather, relax and enjoy and he wants it to be the \u201cfocal point of Howell\u201d. He estimated a few hundred people were in attendance \u2013 which \u201cgoes to show the anticipation everyone was looking forward to this\u201d. Over 160 RSVP\u2019d alone. <\/p>\n
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by some refreshments, guided tours, photo opportunities, and lots of kids splashing around in the new water feature to cool off on the hot summer day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 14, 2026 Jessica Mathews \/ news@whmi.com A massive crowd gathered despite the heat Monday afternoon for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216,8860],"class_list":["post-762312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-whmi-radio-93-5-livingston-michigan-news-weather-traffic-sports-classic-rock-howell-brighton-fenton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}