Lower Girard Lake Dam cannot be saved by city

Girard Mayor James Melfi, who is successfully guiding city government through a major economic crisis, has an offer for anyone in the community or even the Mahoning Valley who believes that Lower Girard Lake Dam must be saved: Bring your checkbook.
"If someone wants to drop $5 million, $10 million, $15 million I would be willing to restore the dam," the mayor said last week, in the wake of a consent decree the city has signed with the Ohio Attorney General's Office. "But I will not jeopardize city funds."
No, Melfi isn't being obstinate; just realistic. As he has long argued, the city does not have the $10 million to $15 million it would take to repair the dam to its current height -- let alone the $4.5 million to $5 million needed to reduce the dam's height by about 15 feet. Such a reduction would create a lake of 74 acres instead of the former 99.
What the city does have is $1.1 million in federal funds that can be used to breach the dam. Removing the crumbling structure would simply mean that the natural setting which came into existence with the draining of the lower lake would flourish. It is worth noting that before the construction of the Upper Lake and Lower Lake dams, there was a natural habitat, instead of water.
No pot of gold
Given that the state attorney general's office has forced the issue by going to court to ensure that deadlines in the consent decree are met, members of city council should disabuse themselves of the notion that there is a pot of gold in Columbus or Washington that can be accessed to pay for the restoration of the Lower Lake dam to state and federal standards.
Melfi has asked council to join him in declaring the dam beyond repair and to begin the process of tearing it down. Absent any proof that money is available to save the structure, the responsible thing for lawmakers to do is give Melfi their backing.
After all, just about every analysis that has been done has focused on an issue city government can ill afford to ignore: safety.
In the lawsuit filed by the attorney general to force Girard to meet the deadlines for taking action, reference was made to a 1999 final environmental assessment of the dam by the Army Corps of Engineers. It warned that between 100 and 300 people downstream of the dam are at risk from a sudden failure.
Such a warning must be taken seriously by the city, not only because people could be in harm's way, but because government could be in legal jeopardy if something bad happened.
At this late date, the responsible thing to do is for the city to cut its potential losses. It's time to breach the dam -- unless someone with deep pockets steps forward.