New proposal for keeping the Reasoner Dam presented
Humboldt District 3 Supervisor Rick Pedersen had questions when the Supervisors were presented with a new proposal to save the current dam and get it stabilized. The estimated cost is $12 million. Pedersen said that 60 percent of that will still need to be funded locally and said that does not include maintenance that will be required if Lake Nokomis is dredged. Read about it in this week's Humboldt Independent.
BY APRIL KELLEY
The R.I.V.E.R Development Group (RDG) and Supervisor Chair Dave Lee presented a Revised Option One for the Reasoner Dam to Supervisors Erik Underberg, Rick Pedersen and Sandy Loney at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday, April 15. Bruce Reimers was not in attendance.
Lee informed the Supervisors that the Revised Option One was very similar to the first one but was streamlined and reworked by Nate Hoogeveen at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) so that it is less expensive, costing only $12 million as opposed to the previous $2o million reported on the Stantec proposal.
“I have talked to Todd (Lee) and he was receptive of it. I talked to Cole (Bockelmann) of the city and the city would get back involved with it. I think if we get the three entities together, I think we could get things going and get this put in for about half the cost,” Lee said.
Supervisor Pedersen asked if funding options had been explored.
“That is the biggest problem with keeping the dam. There is no funding,” Pedersen said.
“The river restoration people are going to do all the funding. They are going to do the fundraising and all we are asking from the conservation is tell us where the grants are. We will fill them out. We will do the grant writing. We will do all the leg work and we will raise the money,” Lee said.
Pedersen stated he has been in touch with several entities including Homeland Security and he has been told they can get Option Two almost 100 percent funded by reducing the flood plain.
Read more about the matter in this week's Humboldt Independent, your trusted source for local news and sports.
