WHAT WE BUILD TOGETHER

'How Community, Collaboration & Resourcefulness Are Building A Path For Byron'
Feature Story with Rob Vandemark & Debra Baker-Murph

In small communities, big change rarely begins with big budgets. It begins with people who care deeply enough to imagine what could be. In the Village of Byron, that vision is taking shape through collaboration, resourcefulness, and a commitment to creating greater connection between the community and the place it calls home. For Debra Baker-Murph and Rob Vandemark, the work is about more than a boardwalk. It is about finding the people, partnerships, and possibilities that can help a village move forward without losing what makes it special.

There are places we live, and there are places that become part of who we are. For Rob Vandemark, Byron is both.

He was born and raised there. His family business has been part of the community for nearly 60 years. His children were raised there. His investment in the future of Byron, then, is not simply civic. It is personal.

Rob shared, “I would like other families to enjoy all that our small community has to offer.”

For Debra Baker-Murph, the connection runs through generations as well. Byron is where she lived and raised her children. It is where her husband has roots. Now, another generation of their family is being raised there.

That kind of connection changes the way you look at a community. You don't simply see what exists today. You begin asking what will be there tomorrow.

And in Byron, one of those questions began at the river.


SEEING WHAT WAS ALREADY THERE
In 2012, a major fire destroyed several of the remaining buildings in downtown Byron. In the years that followed, the Village created its Downtown Development Authority, asking Rob to serve as its chair.

The challenge was significant. How does a small community with limited staff, limited resources and no extensive economic development infrastructure begin rebuilding not only its downtown, but a vision for its future?

One answer was hiding in plain sight. Water.

The Shiawassee River runs directly through downtown Byron. With the guidance of Phil Hathaway, who helped the new DDA develop its development and tax increment financing plans, community leaders began looking differently at the natural resource flowing through the center of their village.

Rather than seeing the river as something that simply passed through Byron, they began imagining it as something that could bring people into Byron.

One of the DDA’s first river-focused projects was the installation of a proper canoe and kayak launch on school property.
But the vision continued to grow.

​What if people could do more than launch a kayak?
What if they could walk along the river? Sit beside it? Fish from it? Gather near it?
What if the river could become not only part of Byron’s geography, but part of its community life?

Early concepts explored a much larger riverwalk project, with an estimated price tag of millions of dollars, an intimidating number for a village of fewer than 600 residents.

So the question changed.
Instead of asking, “How do we build all of this?”
They began asking, “What can we build first?”

​STARTING SOMEWHERE
The answer was a small piece of land tucked between buildings downtown. The space already contained an Eagle Scout project, but little activity happened beyond it. Debra and the DDA began imagining what the area might become if it were refreshed and connected more intentionally to the river.

Plans started taking shape in phases: a pocket park. An overlook deck. A fishing platform. A small riverwalk. A pavilion. And, eventually, perhaps the larger riverwalk they had once imagined.

The enormous project became a series of possible projects.
Possibility became something people could begin acting on.

As Debra explained, “We have to actually pull the trigger and do something in order for anything to be different.”

That decision led the DDA to Patronicity, a crowdfunding platform through which Byron would have 60 days to raise $50,000 in order to receive a matching $50,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

For a community Byron’s size, $50,000 was no small goal.
So they did what small communities often do extraordinarily well.
They got creative.

There were sponsorship letters. Wreath-making workshops. Trivia nights. Music. Community events. Facebook posts. Conversations with neighbors. Invitations to participate however people could. Debra remembers standing in the space during one of those early events and wondering what it might look like a year later.

Maybe they wouldn't raise everything.
Maybe the result would only be a bench.
A picnic table.
A small pavilion.
But it would be different.
And sometimes change begins simply by proving that change is possible.

A year after fundraising began, Byron celebrated the ribbon cutting of what is now Eagle Park. The former Eagle Scout project was respectfully relocated to a spot near the cemetery pond, while its original engraved bricks were incorporated into a sitting wall at the entrance of the new park. Landscaping, picnic areas, electricity and a mural celebrating Byron helped transform a once-underused space into somewhere people could actually gather.

But something else was happening too.

The community was beginning to gather around more than a park.
It was gathering around possibility.

​FINDING THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW
Vision alone, however, doesn't navigate grant applications, government funding or environmental permits.
Rob knew Byron needed help.

He first reached out to leaders in other small communities that were successfully investing in their downtowns. Those conversations eventually connected him with Justin Horvath of the Shiawassee Economic Development Corporation, who understood one of Byron’s greatest challenges: the village had ambition, but not necessarily the staff or specialized knowledge required to pursue complex state and federal funding opportunities.

That connection eventually introduced Byron to Lionbear Ventures and Ashley Connelly.
For Rob, the difference was immediate.

Ashley understood small communities because she came from one herself. More importantly, Lionbear brought the technical knowledge and persistence necessary to help turn community ideas into projects capable of being funded and completed.

Rob said, “Without these partners, we would still have little to no progress in Byron.”

Through the partnership, Byron has been able to pursue funding for community planning, public amenities and components of its broader riverfront vision.

But getting money is only one part of the process.
Keeping a project moving can require something else entirely.
Resourcefulness.


WHEN THE PLAN CHANGES
Ask Debra about the riverfront project and eventually the conversation reaches one particularly unexpected character:

A snake.

Specifically, the potential presence of the Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake created additional environmental permitting considerations for work near the river.

Plans for the fishing platform and connecting riverwalk could not simply proceed according to the community’s preferred schedule. Permitting requirements, construction limitations and funding deadlines collided.

For Debra, who had stepped into the DDA chair role, that meant confronting a difficult question. If the money could not immediately be used for the project they had planned, could it be used to move another piece of the vision forward?

Rather than surrendering momentum, the team pivoted.

Funding helped advance other public amenities, including the overlook deck and pavilion, while Lionbear continued assisting Byron through the permitting process for future riverfront work.

It wasn't the original sequence. But progress rarely follows a perfectly straight line. Sometimes leadership is not knowing exactly what comes next. Sometimes it is refusing to let an obstacle become an ending.That persistence has produced an extraordinary amount of visible change in a remarkably short period of time.

And perhaps the greatest return has been something no grant application could fully calculate.
People started showing up.


THE SPARK
When Byron held a concert at the new park, something happened that Debra hadn't necessarily planned.
People wanted another one.
As they left, they asked what was next.
Another local musician came to perform. Another band expressed interest. Small vendors began appearing. People walked through the park and out toward the overlook. Families spent time together by the river.

New energy began moving through the village.

A coffee shop opened. Local pop-ups appeared.
People found reasons to linger downtown instead of simply passing through it.

For Debra, Eagle Park had become much more than a completed project.
Debra shared, “That little park was the catalyst that started change in our village.”

Infrastructure had created invitation.
Invitation had created connection.
And connection was beginning to create community in new ways.
Not everyone embraces change immediately. Debra acknowledges that some residents have questioned it. But she has also seen far more people become excited about what Byron could become.

For a community where many residents commute elsewhere for work, creating reasons to come home and stay awhile matters.

Maybe it is an evening concert.
Maybe it is ice cream with the kids.
Maybe it is coffee downtown.
Maybe it is pizza after a walk.
Maybe it is celebrating a milestone under the pavilion.
Or maybe it is simply sitting beside the river and remembering why this place feels like home.

Debra shared, “It has been the most rewarding thing to be part of when you see people out there and enjoying it.”


THE VIEW FROM FIVE YEARS FROM NOW
Ask Rob what he hopes someone experiences walking through Byron five or ten years from now, and his answer doesn't begin with economic development terminology.

It begins with a feeling.

Rob shared, “I hope they see the beauty of the river, hear the quiet sounds of the water moving downstream, see the wildlife and feel the stress of busy life slip away.”

Then, perhaps, they keep walking.
They wander through downtown.
They stop for ice cream or coffee.
They pick up a pizza.
They notice what has changed.
And maybe they find themselves thinking what Rob hopes they will think:
This would be a great place to live.

​That may ultimately be the greatest measure of what Byron is building.

Not simply a park.
Not simply an overlook.
Not simply a pavilion, fishing platform or future boardwalk.

A reason to stay.
A reason to return.
A reason to belong.

Because the story of Byron isn't about one person having a perfect plan or one organization arriving with all the answers. It is about residents, volunteers, local leaders, schools, businesses, economic development partners and organizations like Lionbear Ventures each bringing something different to the table.

One brings the history.
Another brings the idea.

Someone finds the funding.
Someone understands the permits.
Someone organizes the fundraiser.
Someone performs the concert.
Someone opens the coffee shop.
Someone brings their children to the park.
And little by little, a place changes.

Perhaps that is the lesson hidden inside everything Byron has accomplished:
Small communities do not have to think small.

They simply have to start somewhere.
And then keep building.
Together. ∎

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Learn more about the village of Byron: byronmi.com