Posted on August 20, 2020
A stretch of shoreline along the southwest side of Lake Mitchell will be undergoing changes following the Mitchell City Council’s approval of the design on Monday.
The shoreline project along the lake is intended to promote future growth of cattails, which act as a natural filter for absorbing sediment and phosphorus in the lake water. With the council’s unanimous approval during Monday’s meeting, the city will be utilizing Brosz Engineering to design the construction plans for the project at a cost of $12,655.
“We want to get a design started at the West End Bridge and go east around the south side of the lake,” Croce said. “We understand that previous dredging work was done in that area and took out a lot of cattails in that area.”
Dating back several decades, the area along the West End Bridge where the shoreline improvement will take place had a swath of cattails. But after the area began developing into a residential neighborhood over the years, the cattails were removed.
According to Croce, the shoreline will be graded at an acceptable slope to the water’s edge where a “shelf” will be constructed for cattail growth.
“We think that getting a design for a shelf that would mimic what is existing on the north side of the lake would be beneficial to the lake water clean up efforts,” Croce said.
Croce said the shoreline project would be funded through an earmarked $85,000 in the city’s general fund that was allocated for shoreline improvements.
The shoreline improvement work is another step the city is taking in hopes to enhance the algae-laden water quality of the lake.
A little over a year ago, the city purchased 371 acres of land just 2 miles west of the lake to begin the creation of a wetland aimed at improving the water quality. As part of the wetland project along Firesteel Creek, city officials stated they intend to plant cattails in the wetlands to help filter out the papers and sediment flowing into the lake through the creek.
Considering the lake shoreline where the city is working to improve for future cattail growth is adjacent to the main inlet of Firesteel Creek, Croce said the project will complement the wetland.
“We could get a lot of this work done by the end of this year,” Croce said.
Source: Mitchell Republic
