At its July 8, 2024, meeting, Dexter City Council unanimously voted to rename the Mill Creek Trail to commemorate Paul and Pat Cousins as recommended by the Parks and Recreation Commission. 

Pat and Paul were deeply involved in the Dexter community. Paul is known for being a teacher, restaurant owner, city councilmember and prominent community advocate and leader. Pat, a 36-year med tech, is known for her involvement in many Dexter organizations including the Dexter Library Board and Garden Club.

The “Pat and Paul Cousins Memorial Trail” will receive a plaque in their honor with wording to be determined by council and Parks and Recreation Commission after further discussion with the Cousins’s family.

The renaming of the trail comes after an effort by City Council in December 2022 to rename First Street Park after Paul that received pushback from Paul’s family. City Council voted to reconsider the naming two weeks later to work with the Cousins family to find a better way to honor Pat and Paul. 

Citizens and organizations during public comment as well as council members during discussion of the proposal spoke about what Pat and Paul meant to them and in support of honoring their legacy through Mill Creek Park’ Trail’s new name.

Kevin Cousins, Paul and Pat’s son, supported the renaming during public comment and said his dad loved Mill Creek as well as the Huron River connected to the creekshed while his mom loved the library. 

“His (Paul’s) passion was not horseshoes, his passion was the environment,” Kevin said. “His passion was Dexter and making Dexter a much more enjoyable, livable place by improving the environment… The other end of the trail is the library. That was my mother’s passion. I have no idea how many books she read in her lifetime. I lost count. I knew if there was a book I wanted to talk about, she was the one to talk about it with because she had probably read it. There’s nothing that I believe that truly says honor Pat and Paul Cousins(‘s nearly 60 years of commitment to this town) as renaming that section of the trail as the ‘Pat and Paul Memorial Trail.’”

Rotary Club President Sherry Simpson expressed the club’s support for the proposal, as Paul was a charter member when it formed in 1998.

“Paul and Pat were special people, passionate about their causes, kind, caring and welcoming,” Simpson said. “Renaming the Mill Creek Trail fits Paul and Pat like a glove. The trail begins near the library, an important point in Pat’s involvement in community, and ends near the middle school, a path along which Paul was instrumental in establishing an outdoor lab for youth to learn about and care about our environment. It seems like a full circle moment to honor Paul and Pat in this way.”

Caryl Burke, president of the Dexter Historical Society, said she was honored to know Pat and Paul.

“When I think about all the things I love about Dexter, I find Paul and Pat’s fingerprints in many of them,” said Burke. “Mill Creek restoration of the trail and park next to it, the library, Encore Theatre, Gordon Hall Historic Mansion, Dexter Area Historical Society, Garden Club, Cousins Heritage Inn, Paul and Pat were incredibly influential in making Dexter the great place it is today.”

Multiple councilmembers gave accounts of experiences with Paul and Pat.

“Whenever Paul was at a council meeting and he was going to miss another council meeting because he was going to be out of town traveling or something like that, he’d always say ‘take care of my village while I’m gone,’” Councilmember Joseph Semifero said. “We will keep on doing what we can to take care of it, and hopefully this is a step in that direction.”