Posted on April 7, 2019
OAKLAND — Garrett County commissioners have approved a budget reallocation for a Deep Creek Lake dredging evaluation study.
“As you recall, we received a grant from the Department of Natural Resources Waterway Improvement Fund for just over $1 million,” County Administrator Kevin Null said during the commissioners’ public meeting Monday afternoon.
He explained preliminary design work was conducted through Maryland Environmental Service, which identified Arrowhead Cove as the area for a demonstration dredging project.
“There have been a lot of numbers thrown around about the cost of the dredging,” Null said. “[But] we really have not determined the dredging method or any of those details yet.”
In order to determine those factors and, ultimately, the cost, the county first needed to authorize and fund a study, he indicated. Null said the report will look at the preliminary design of the dredging project, evaluate the various dredging methods and make recommendations.
“That work is estimated to cost $254,792,” Null said about the study.
He noted the county’s share of the cost may be as much as half that price, which will be covered through the DNR grant.
The commissioners unanimously authorized expenditure of funds up to $127,396 for MES to conduct the study.
Commissioner Paul Edwards noted the report will give the county the numbers it needs to move forward with the demonstration dredging project.
Friends of Deep Creek Lake Executive Director Barbara Beelar was on hand for the allocation decision.
“I appreciate that the county has chosen to go forward with supporting the MES dredging project,” she said, adding that the county may later have to help pay for the actual dredging.
Beelar noted that an effort during this year’s Maryland General Assembly session to increase funding for the State Lakes Protection and Restoration Fund received support in the Senate. For a second year in row, however, the House Environmental and Transportation Committee opposed the measure.
“We need to work very hard to figure out a way so the county doesn’t end up having to pay for 50 percent of the [dredging] project,” Beelar told the commissioners. “We’re available to work with you in whatever way possible.”
She said the state owns the lake and it owns the sediment; therefore, the state should take the sediment out of the lake.
Beelar described MES’s costs as “outrageously high.”
“But we’d love to work with you,” she told the commissioners, noting that Friends of Deep Creek Lake would be discussing the issue with a state official next week.
In other business:
Appalachian Crossroads currently provides custodial cleaning services for the county. Bowers noted the agency’s bid for FY 2020 was 3 percent higher than FY 2019.
The commissioners’ next regular public session is scheduled Tuesday, April 16, at 4 p.m. in their meeting room at the courthouse.
Source: wvnews.com
