County to use COVID money for dam project
Hoping to offset safety and maintenance issues with the Little Dam, a low-head dam in the Valley City area, a motion was passed unanimously by the Barnes County Commission (with one member absent) to allocate $340,000 to the Little Dam Repurposing Project – with one caveat.
“I would make a motion that the county contributes $340,000 out of our (American Rescue Plan Act) fund allocation to the Little Dam project with the stipulation that a memorandum of understanding come into fruition between the city and the county for the city to take over the dam upon completion,” County Commissioner Cindy Schwehr said.
Her motion was seconded by Bill Carlblom, and passed by all other present commissioners. Commissioner Pete Paulson was not in attendance.
Gwen Crawford, Valley City administrator, was also present at the meeting, and while she couldn’t make any unilateral decisions of support, she did say she would recommend the city commission agree to the stipulation. The matter would be added to a future city commission agenda.
“I can’t say that they’d do this for sure, but the way I’d look at this is if this was taken care of ... afterwards the city would take on the responsibility of maintenance,” Crawford said. “I can’t say that, because I’m not a commissioner, but that would be the way I’d look at it.”
The city is currently entangled with its own dam restoration project, concerning the Mill Dam, which was rated by the state as being even more at-risk than the Little Dam. Crawford said that the city’s devoting CARES Act money to the Mill Dam project, which is further ahead than Little Dam and finishing up its design phase. That project will see Mill Dam expanded and widened.
Mike Opat, representing Houston Engineering, who are the engineers with the Barnes County Water Resource Department (WRD), pre
sented the details of the project, which is still in development. Currently they are looking to get the remaining funding of the $1.2 million Little Dam Repurposing Project, a price tag that covers final design and construction. State funding is estimated at around $860,000 and so they were looking to the county to fill in the remainder.
This money allocated by the commission comes from the Federally-provided ARPA monies, specifically from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, which County Auditor Beth Didier said amounts to a little over $1 million – with another $1 million available to the county should they need it.
The dam is one of relics left behind by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which did a number of public works and infrastructure projects back in the 1930s – Little Dam was constructed in 1937. Ownership of the dam was passed on to the Barnes County Water Resource Department (WRD), but they have no means of funding operational and maintenance needs.
The project has been in development for some time – according to documents provided by Opat at the meeting, Little Dam has been a hazard in the past, and is the cause of multiple drownings. Recent inspections revealed issues with abutments, and a feasibility study was completed way back in 2016. this study, funded by the WRD and the state jointly, found three options: full removal of the dam, which would cause hardships to Valley City; removal with rock arch rapids, the option that was preferred for its ability to maintain the city’s reservoir pool; and lastly a version of the second option that also retained a historic portion of the dam. The third option was seen as the most ideal, but was deemed cost-prohibitive, as it’d add hundreds of thousands more to the project cost.
With the local funding allocated, pending the memorandum of understanding with the city, the timeframe for the project remains a bit vague.
“Obviously … it does take time to navigate through the process,” Opat said. “At this point the feasibility study has about a 10 percent level of design. We need to advance that all the way forward to final … best case we’re talking six months and for design it could very well be closer to a year.”
Fortunately, the nature of the project makes it feasible for winter construction.
“A good goal here would be to get it ready for bid by November/ December, and then give the contractor the opportunity to work over the winter of 2022-2023,” Opat said.