Breach plans for dam sent to ODNR

Additional funds to save the dam may come with
a matching-funds stipulation.

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

GIRARD — City officials have submitted plans for a breach of the lower Girard Lakes Dam to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as prescribed in an earlier agreement, but some are hopeful that additional funds secured by two state officials will ultimately save the structure.

According to Safety Service Director Jerry Lambert, the city submitted plans detailing how it would breach the dam to ODNR officials at the beginning of August. The state now has 45 days to let city officials know if those plans have been accepted.

Lambert would not divulge what is in the plans, saying the plans must be approved by the state before being released to the public.

“Basically, our plans are showing that we are meeting their criteria for breaching the dam, but they still must approve those plans and send them back to us,” he said.

The city has a consent agreement with the Ohio attorney general's office to either repair or breach the dam by October 2008.

Mayor James Melfi was unavailable to comment late Monday.

Potential for help

Councilman Tom Seidler said there may be some hope to avoid breaching the dam and ultimately save the structure after an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 that changes a $3.2 million grant the city received several years ago to $16 million. Those funds, however, must still be appropriated, he said.

“Based on an e-mail I received from Congressman Tim Ryan, they are looking at some time before January to secure those funds through appropriations, but that is still up in the air,” he said. “This merely changes the allotted amount from $3.2 million to $16 million.”

The city still has $937,000 from the original $3.2 million allotment at its disposal. The rest of the initial allotment was used in planning.

According to Seidler, the additional funds would come with a stipulation requiring the city to provide a 20 percent to 30 percent share.

Seidler said he has always been an advocate of saving the dam, but getting the local share could pose a problem for the city, which has been in fiscal emergency since 2001.

“This raises a problem for the city. Seeing that we are close to coming out of fiscal emergency, where is that money going to come from?” he said.