LOWER GIRARD LAKE Extension request for dam rejected

The state says Girard's new deadline for scheduling dam work is May 24.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has rejected the city's request to give it until the end of the year to schedule work on the Lower Girard Lake dam.
What's more, the Ohio attorney general's office is threatening to take the city to court if it doesn't come up with a schedule to either breach or repair the unsafe structure.
"It looks like they are drawing a line in the sand," Mayor James J. Melfi said of the attorney general's office.
The latest development in the long-running dam issue is contained in a March 25 letter from Atty. Joan I. Fishel, an assistant attorney general representing ODNR's Division of Water.
Richard S. Bartz, chief of the water division, issued a Jan. 12 directive requiring the city to come up with a schedule indicating how it intends to remedy the safety problem by March 15.
City council subsequently asked that the deadline be extended to Dec. 31.
In her letter, Fishel wrote that the division, which is her client, has rejected the request. The division issued a new deadline of May 24.
Fishel said "a schedule will keep a project such as this on track and moving toward completion."
Court involvement
Without the schedule, she advised that she may tell ODNR to consider taking the lack of compliance to Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to enforce the Jan. 12 order.
"An extension to the end of the year is not acceptable to my client," Fishel wrote.
Although recognizing the city's financial shortcomings, Fishel said she knows that considerable time has been spent debating breaching or repairing the dam and finding funding sources.
The Army Corps of Engineers has said that if the dam topples, six homes with an estimated 18 residents and some industry along the Mahoning River would be damaged with probable loss of life.
The city administration and council have asked for $5.5 million in federal funds to partially breach the dam. The work would consist of removing 12.5 feet from the top of the dam to lower the water pressure behind it.
The total project, according to the request, will cost $8 million. The city's local match of $2.5 million would be the $2.5 million the city has already received in federal funds, but spent.
The request was sent to U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and Ohio's two Republican U.S. Sens. George Voinovich and Michael DeWine at the request of Voinovich.
What's being tried
Councilman John Moliterno, D-at large, chairman of the buildings and grounds committee, said he hopes ODNR will back off and realize that the congressional delegation is attempting to get the funding.
Moliterno pointed out, though, that ODNR has been very fair with the city during the years of discussions.
He explained that the $8 million is more than the project will actually cost, but it is the amount the federal delegation has said it will seek.
Melfi said he agreed with council to seek the $5.5 million as a last-ditch effort to get dam funding.
Kathleen J. Anderson, project manager for the Corps of Engineers, said the city will not receive $1.14 million if the dam is not demolished. That amount of money, which would be in addition to the $8 million, was programmed years ago by the Army Corps of Engineers for work on the dam.
The congressional authorization for partial breaching doesn't exist, Anderson explained.
yovich@vindy.com