Village Board to vote on future of dam at next meeting
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
After asking community members to step up and be part of the dam committee to help form a plan for the future of East Troy Dam and the surrounding area, the Village Board last week tabled the formation of the committee until the Aug. 20 meeting.
The board decided it needed to make a decision on whether to repair or remove the dam before forming the committee to give the members more direction on what would ultimately be done with the area.
When the agenda item came up to appoint the committee, Trustee John Jacoby said they were just “kicking the can down the road” again and thought the board should be making a decision on the future of the dam first.
Village Board President Scott Seager said the committee was about more than the dam and it would be involved in forming the plan for the entire corridor into the village.
“It’s a large amount of money we’re talking about investing in that area, not just the $400,000 for the dam,” Seager said.
“We’re asking more people to get involved or re-involved again; it’s time to make a decision,” Jacoby stressed.
He added that there was a “lack of diversity” in the people who submitted applications to be on the dam committee, which troubled him.
“To me, that means it’s (the dam decision) pretty obvious,” Trustee Matt Johnson said.
Trustee Alan Boyes expressed concerns that if the Village Board didn’t create a comprehensive plan for the area, the only thing that would get done was the repair or removal of the dam.
“This has to be an ongoing process from day one,” Boyes said. “If we don’t have a committee to do the plan, if we don’t have a vision, this is the one thing that gets done.”
Village engineer, Sarah Nunn of Lynch and Associates, told the board she could bring some options to improve the look of the dam to the next meeting and asked if the board wanted her to do that.
That led to the start of a discussion about the dam’s aesthetics, which Seager put an end to because the topic wasn’t part of the agenda.
The board voted to have the decision for the dam’s future and appointment of the dam committee at the next meeting – 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 20, at Village Hall.
