By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
While the future of the East Troy Dam is uncertain at the moment, one thing was evident after the Sept. 18 Village Board meeting – the board has a tough decision to make.
More than 50 residents attended the board meeting to voice concerns, provide feedback and listen to the board’s ideas for the future of the dam, which is also known as the Honey Creek Dam.
After the July 12 flooding, when the dam overtopped, the Department of Natural Resources told the village the dam needs to either be repaired and brought up to 100-year flood specifications or removed.
The cost to repair the dam and bring it up to spec is about $712,000. The cost to remove the dam has been projected at about $400,000, but that figure is disputed by several people, including Joyce Ketchpaw Reed, founder and member of the East Troy Lake Association.
Reed addressed the board in citizen participation Monday night and cautioned about the “hidden” costs of removing the dam.
“In 2004 the Village Board considered the removal or repair of the dam. There was a public hearing, after which the board approved an ad hoc committee of village board members and lake residents who researched the costs of both dam removal and dam repair with help from SEWRPC and an independent engineer. The committee found the cost of removal vs. repairing the dam was a wash. We believe this will continue to be the case,” Reed said.
Reed said there were many things to consider other than just the cost of removal vs. repair as the waterway is part of the Fox River waterway. She also brought up the question as to who actually owned the land under the water, saying the answer was “murky at best.”
Reed asked the board to do a complete study on the actual cost of the dam removal before moving forward.
Some residents questioned whether fixing the dam was in the long-term interest of the village as future repair and maintenance costs would still be incurred. They also reminded the board the DNR has expressed a preference for removing the dam.
Other residents asked the board to consider the larger picture and the value of East Troy Lake to the village, including the fact that Mill Pond Park is on the waterway.
Many residents were passionate about their opinions at Monday night’s meeting, whether for or against keeping the dam, but the discussion stayed civil and the Village Board members encouraged residents to share their thoughts and ideas.
“This is one of the largest issues we have facing the village and we have to find some creative ways to fix this,” Village Board President Scott Seager said.
The idea of bringing the decision to the voters in a referendum was also discussed. Village Administrator Eileen Suhm said the timing might be tricky because referendum questions had to be done 70 days in advance of an election and the board was still seeking information to base the question on. But she added it was something they could definitely do, if the board wished.
Trustee Ann Zess motioned to have the feasibility study done saying, “We can’t make an uninformed decision. We need to have all the information.”
A lengthy discussion continued after the motion was seconded.
Seager floated the idea of turning the dam over to the Lake Association, but association member Steve Rostkowski said that had been looked into in the past and the association wasn’t a taxing municipality and he didn’t believe it would qualify to have the village turn the dam over to it. He did add that it could be looked into again and things might be able to be changed to make this happen, but residents in the audience brought up the fact that the village owns the side of the lake Mill Pond Park is on and it would still be on the line for repair costs.
Seager said he understood that and his suggestion was just that, a suggestion and something that maybe should be looked into as a partnership with the village and the Lake Association.
“Whatever decision we decide to go, we have to go into it with our eyes wide open,” Trustee Matt Johnson said.
Johnson said the Village Board was challenged with wanting to upgrade infrastructure, maintain services, and even adding to the police force while facing budgetary limitations.
“It’s hard to do it all,” he said.
Trustee Forty Renucci said while all of that had to be taken into consideration, he wanted the board to “be aware of the impact to the property owners on the lake” and to carefully weigh all the options before making a decision.
The board voted unanimously to have a dam removal feasibility study done.
The board also discussed how to get more community feedback on the issue and Suhm presented a proposal for using Polco Platform for a village-wide survey question on the matter.
She said the online platform is similar to SurveyMonkey, but people would have to register to use it and the village could get the database results broken down in different ways, such as who was a resident and who wasn’t, but the village wouldn’t know who they were, just that they were a resident or nonresident.
Johnson asked Suhm to work on the question to ask in the Polco survey while the feasibility was being done so they would be able to move forward with that quickly when the study was done. The village is up against a DNR deadline to get the dam repaired by fall of 2018. It might possible to get an extension from the DNR should the board choose to go to referendum to ask the public what it wants to do with the dam.
