There were smiles and cookies and muffins as county and township officials and local residents celebrated the reopening of two of three Western Washtenaw bridges in Lima and Sharon townships Monday afternoon.

Although the Lima Center and Dancer Road bridges in Lima Township and Waldo Road Bridge in Sharon Township opened for traffic Friday, this afternoon officials were on hand to stand on two of the three rural bridges, cut a ribbon and witness the Washtenaw County Road Commission projects first-hand.

All the structures received beam and bridge deck replacement, road approach improvements, as well as abutment repairs.

“There was good cooperation from everyone,” said Road Commissioner Fred Veigel, referring to shared funding for the three projects between the Road Commission and the townships.

The Lima Center Road Bridge cost $100,000 to replace, while Dancer Road was $120,000 and Waldo Road cost $100,000.

Lima Township Supervisor Ken Unterbrink said these two bridges were chosen after discussions with Chelsea Area Fire Chief Jim Payeur, who said today “the reopening of these two bridges will provide access from multiple directions for any major incident of any kind.”

“It will improve response time and make any fire runs more direct,” he said.

With the bridge’s 40-ton limit, if needed, firefighters also can set a truck here, Payeur said, and pump water from the Mill Creek that runs underneath the bridges.

Unterbrink said local farmer and Lima Township Trustee Don Laier already has used the bridge 12 times to access farm fields during this fall’s harvest.

Lima Center and Dancer Road bridges are two of the four closed bridges over Mill Creek in Lima Township. The Road Commission has applied for state and federal funding to replace the Liberty Road Bridge.

Liberty Road and the Klinger Road Bridge remain closed.

In Sharon Township, the Waldo Road Bridge reopening was cause for celebration for Renee and John Kozminski, who have a tree farm just past the bridge.

“We are very grateful to see the bridge open,” said Renee Kozminski, because when the bridge closed, it also closed down the couple’s tree farm.

John Kozminski had nothing but praise for Kelly Jones, an engineer from the Road Commission. He read a thank you letter that said in part, Jones was the neighbors' link to "everything that happened from the day the bridge was closed last May until today."

They grow 8,000 state-inspected Norway, Colorado and Back Hills spruce trees, and customers were not able to easily access their business while the bridge was closed.

“The detour made it prohibitive,” Renee Kozminski said. Monday was a happy day for Sharon Township Supervisor John Frey as well. “This means we’re trying to keep up with the township’s infrastructure … We’re just a small township and I’m thankful to everyone (that we were able to do this), especially for the elderly people who live up the road.”

The Road Commission and the townships shared the cost of the bridge replacements.

There are 11 families on Waldo Road Bridge who for more than a year have had to take the long way around on winding roads to access M-52.

“It’s with a great sense of accomplishment that were we able to replace three bridges (and open them ahead of schedule) with the assistance of the townships and residents,” said Aaron Berkholz, the Road Commission engineer on the project.

Lisa Allmendinger is a regional reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Chelsea area stories, visit our Chelsea page.