Lake Emma residents submit dam repair plan to DEQ

by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor

A contingent of Lake Emma residents attended Friday?s meeting of the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners seeking support of a plan to repair and reinforce the existing Lake Emma dam at a considerable cost savings. The alternative would be to pull the dam and build a new structure with a big hit to the pocketbooks of a limited number of lakefront residents. ?We are here because we were attempting to avoid a nice $20,000 per residence, assessment,? said attorney/Lake Emma resident Doug Nelson, appearing before the county board to present a plan a group of Lake residents want to submit to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Drain commissioner Charles Lyon and a half dozen residents met with Jim Pawloski, DEQ dam safety engineer from Gaylord, Friday afternoon at the dam site. They also took a pontoon boat ride on the lake.

WITH THE unanimous blessing of the county board earlier in the day, plans were given to Pawloski during his visit. Preliminarily, the concept seemed to be ?acceptable,? said Lyon. Plans would involve the driving of steel sheetings on each side of the 21-foot spillway, lowering the water level so reinforcement repairs could be made to the existing berm. ?I think the first time we came here, we were concerned about the cost of replacing the dam,? said Nelson at Friday morning?s meeting. ?As part of our investigation, we went back to the DEQ and asked them if we could repair the dam rather than replacing it.? Based on the reports given to the DEQ from a Port Huron engineering firm hired by a Lake Emma resident to assess the structure, officials in Gaylord assured the citizens? group it was possible. The cost estimate is $30,000 for materials only. The group also is proposing the use of volunteer labor to further keep costs down.

?THAT IS A heck’uva lot different than $260,000,? said Nelson. In 2006, the state recommended replacement of the spillway and a follow-up letter from the Dam Safety Division in April 2007 directed the county to begin immediate planning for replacement. The dam is located on private property owned by Ken Wilhelm, who has given assurance that with a phone call; the drain commissioner can call him to receive permission to go on his

property for inspections and/or maintenance. ?There would be no need for a permanent easement across the land,? said Nelson. ?He will give you a limited easement to go in. I think this is a very viable alternative to replacing the whole dam.? ?Everybody was up in arms because they were looking at $20,000 a piece on a tax assessment roll,? said Nelson. ?We are going to get the majority, if not all the residence to contribute to this. If we can?t, we may go back to Mr. Lyon and say, we are going to need a tax assessment roll for that $30,000. That will be something we determine some time between now and the spring.?

THE CITIZENS? group is hoping for approval by spring, while the DEQ would like to get the project going next year and have it completed by about this time next year. Commissioner Stephen Lang expressed his concerns about the project moving forward, the following of bid procedures and about the county being liable for any accidents, since it is a county dam. He also said he wanted to make sure the project was ?done properly.? Tom Lanway, who is chairman of the homeowners group, said the DEQ and drain commissioner will be overseeing the project to make sure it is done right. Lanway also commended the county, Lyon and the people of Lake Emma for working together to come up with the plan this past summer. ?There was a lot of work going on behind the scenes.?