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Local News

Barry Commissioners okay emergency funding to address Crooked Lake flooding

At a special meeting Monday, the Barry County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to advance emergency funding for a proposed short term solution to the weeks long flooding of homes on Crooked Lake. Lake residents have been at several county commission meetings and talking to their commissioners about fighting off the flooding that was causing them severe hardships and possible loss of their homes.

 

The resolution, the only item on the agenda, committed the county to advance $500,000 to the Watson Drain District to immediately address the flooding in the lake basin and fund the preliminary design of the Watson Drain project to be repaid by the drainage district with the final bonding of the Watson Drain project.

 

The short term fix includes draining water from Crooked Lake into present irrigation systems on two area farms by renting pumps, other equipment and using the expertise of a pump company. Stopping the flow out of Mud Lake was already done in June. Also, they will stop the flow in the culvert on M-43, backing the water into 300 acres of wetlands.

 

Drain Commissioner Jim Dull said hopefully, the $500,000 would carry them through the engineering design and short term fix costs to the construction loan for the long term fix for the Watson Drain.

Engineer Brian Cenci, who has worked for the county on drain issues since 2009, said Crooked Lake was an unusual situation with no natural outlet, so no place for the water to go. He cautioned they still need DEQ permits, so it is still technically a proposal and not a project, though he said the DEQ has been, “very responsive” in their dealings with them.

 

He and Dull developed 15 plans to handle lowering the lake level, with all but nine rejected for a variety of reasons. The nine were sent to the DEQ, some combinations of short and later long term solutions. “This proposal is worthwhile…talking with the DEQ and landowners, I think we can get there,” Cenci said.

He sympathized with lake property owners not getting information on progress, but said the situation could, and sometimes did, change daily. “I would propose something and the next day it’s gone... It’s very difficult.”

 

The option of interim financing as too expensive and at four to six weeks, too long to get, was considered and rejected, attorney Doug Kelly said. Kelly, with 30 years’ experience specializing in all aspects of water issues, including funding, said there is grant money available for water projects, but none they pursued were for short term solutions, he said.

 

Commissioner David Jackson offered any help the county could give. He said he hears lake residents who are frustrated by lack of information and the process taking so long.

“We have to move them from the frustration to the hope stage. We’ve got to get the water out of there now. We’ve got to figure out how to move this in the right direction,” he said to applause from the crowd gathered at the Tyden Center.

 

The proposal forwarded to commissioners is the most feasible in terms of cost, time and permitting, Kelly said. The goal is to withdraw a total of 300 million gallons of water out of the lakes, estimating Crooked Lake would be one foot lower by Sept. 1.

 

Cenci said the DEQ has been working with them, noting the short term fix has less impact on the DEQ, so permits are easier to get. He is confident they can get the project done within a 90-day special DEQ exemption on the amount of water that can be diverted.

 

The Watson Drain District encompasses 7,000 acres and notices of a May Board of Determination meeting to permit a long term fix were sent to 1,200 residents of the district, Dull said.

“Trying to do three to five years’ work in three to five weeks puts a lot of pressure on us and on the land owners, but they understand,” Cenci said.

 

 

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