The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
City moves closer to repairs
Reservoir revamp plan needs action soon, officials say
Plans are shaping up to change the landscape around a watery site that combines Oberlin history, nature and recreation.
Oberlin city officials and consultant Environmental Design Group have unveiled plans to transform the Morgan Street Reservoir.
The 12.5-acre park has two ponds, dating from the early 1900s, that once were part of the first lime-soda water softening treatment system in the nation.
In April, Oberlin City Council and the city’s Open Space & Visual Environment Commission held online meetings to discuss details with Ryan Bentley, a project manager for Environmental Design Group. The designs are not final, but need to be soon. The city has a goal to bid the project for construction by the end of this year, Bentley said.
The Morgan Street Reservoirs have a place in Oberlin’s history of public works.
“The complex of structures on Morgan Street, known as the Water Works, tells the history of Oberlin’s growth as a city, continuous efforts to problem-solve through science and engineering, and leadership in civic improvements when it installed the first municipal lime and soda water softening plant in the nation,” said Oberlin Heritage Center Executive Director Liz Schultz.
In 2019, Schultz published a history of the site, still recognizable for “stone tower, brick gabled pumping station, and grassy basin.”
She tracked down a number of written and oral descriptions of the progress there and Environmental Design Group’s study includes site history.
Inspections start
For years, the site was a popular spot for swimming, fishing, walking and watching birds.
The plants and animals grew during a period of benign neglect by city leaders, said Diana Steele and Rob Calhoun, who both live nearby.
But then, no one could explain noticeable changes in the pools’ water levels, including an overnight drop in the western reservoir, Calhoun said.
The embankments of the ponds technically are dams holding water back from nearby Plum Creek.
“It’s easy to not see this as a dam, but it is,” Calhoun said atop a southern embankment during a morning walk around the ponds with Steele.
Those changes, eventually, prompted state action, Calhoun and Steele said.
In late 2018, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Water Resources performed a dam safety Inspection, “which noted numerous required remedial measures,” the Environmental Design Group summary said.
“To comply with this inspection, significant modifications need to be performed on both dams,” the summary concluded.
Drafting plans
The April 27 discussion included city Public Works Director Jeff Baumann and Sylvan Long, chairman of the Open Space & Visual Environment Commission.
The default option would be to cut down the trees to make the reservoirs compliant with ODNR rules, Long said.
Instead, the draft plans call for other significant changes to the reservoirs, including removing trees in spots, planting trees elsewhere, adding paths and lowering the embankments.
The larger eastern pool, known as Reservoir 1, will have its water level lowered about 18 inches, Bentley said.
That will expose five to six horizontal feet of land that will get new topsoil, grass seed and benches to create observation stations.
The smaller western Reservoir 2 will become a constructed wetland.
Its water level will be seven to eight feet lower and the watery area will have a maximum depth of two feet, Bentley said.
In commission
In the Open Space & Visual Environment Commission, no one flatly opposed the project.
The placement of the lawn spurred the most discussion, and there were a number of other suggestions.
As climate change causes temperatures to rise, the project should include plants that will grow in warmer weather, said Pete Richards, who lives on Morgan Street.
Resident Kate Pilacky suggested planting paw paw trees, which are good for wildlife, and Bentley agreed.
“Those are cool trees,” he said.
Shrubbery along the shoreline is crucial habitat, offering shelter, food and access to water for migratory birds, said Steele, who is northeast regional director of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
She and resident Martin Ackermann said the project design should shrink the lawn and increase native grasses and shrubs.
Resident Peter Thomas said there was no need for a lawn.
Tanya Rosen-Jones, chairwoman of the city’s Recreation Commission, countered that the grassy area could allow access for people who cannot walk the trails, or for classes of students to meet before exploring the trails.
Ian Yarber, city recreational superintendent, called it an opportunity for a city known as an educational community from the college level to local youth.
“I really like the ways that the design incorporates human access, while also creating a wetland space that has habitat benefits,” Long said. “This is not a completely wild space, in my opinion; it is a public park, so having some limited human access to enjoy that nature along with the wildlife that’s living there, I think is beneficial.”
But, there are differences of opinion, even on the Open Space & Visual Environment Commission, he said.