GIRARD Partial draining of lake gets nod

GIRARD -- With the clock ticking toward the Army Corps of Engineers' Wednesday deadline to use $1.14 million to breach Lower Girard Lake dam, members of a city council committee want to preserve the city's options for dam repair.
Council's Property Research Committee voted Thursday to adopt a lake area development proposal that calls for partially draining the lake pending repair of the badly deteriorated, 1920-vintage dam, building a water treatment plant and providing a water source for Trumbull County communities.
The development proposal came from a Citizens Committee on Property Research.
Voting in favor were Councilman Charles Doran, D-4th, who is the council committee chairman, and Councilman Clyde Wagner, D-3rd. Councilman John Moliterno, D-at large, abstained because he said he agrees with some parts of the proposal but not others. The matter goes before the full city council at 7 p.m. Monday.
"A property that surrounds a lake is far more valuable than a property that surrounds a mud hole. Would you rather live next to a wetland or a lake? Pretty much everybody would say a lake," Doran said, referring to the economic development implications of dam repair.
Moliterno said he has suggested, and Mayor James J. Melfi has agreed, to write a letter asking the Corps to extend the deadline to permit the Corps to study whether the city can partially breach the dam and yet enable a financially feasible repair and restoration. Melfi has said the city, which has been under state-imposed fiscal emergency since August, is approaching a crossroads where it must sell both lakes to maintain services.
Here's the reasoning
A partial breach would offer the financially troubled city a better opportunity to raise funds for repairs than complete dam removal, Moliterno explained. Breaching means removal of a significant part of the dam so it won't impound water during a storm. The state generally considers a dam nonhazardous after it has been breached.
The citizens committee proposal envisions applying for grants from state and federal sources for dam repair. It also calls for enhancing that fund-raising effort by associating the lake water treatment project with regional economic development efforts, such as a proposed indoor racetrack, future development spurred by construction of the 711 connector, and providing new water and sewer service.
The proposal envisions building a greenhouse, a regional outdoor high school natural science laboratory and a residential community, business retreat and community recreation center on land around Upper and Lower Girard Lakes.
The proposal says building the water treatment plant could increase water pressure to customers, reduce water cost for city residents, allow the city to derive revenue from selling excess water to regional customers and attract new business to the city through reduced water rates.