Posted on July 18, 2022
The work on dredging the marina at Mountwood Park is underway.
Crews with Dirt Works of Elizabeth recently started dredging the boat dock area at the park, said Wood County Commission President Blair Couch.
“Our dredging project has finally begun,” he said. “We had to delay it last year.
“I know a lot of people are interested in it. It has been a long time coming.”
Couch said the reason the lake was originally built in the 1970s was to be a catchment for siltation so rainfall would not collect in more narrow areas and to help alleviate some of the flooding issues in the area. The park was put in around the lake, he added.
Wood County Parks Director Jeremy Cross said they had to lower the lake a total of 10 feet, doing a foot a day to allow fish to relocate to deeper water.
“There is still some deep water for the fish,” Couch said. “They moved to other areas.”
Couch said they also let the site dry out for a number of days, even to the point grass started to grow in a few spots.
Crews using heavy equipment are digging down 6 to 10 feet until they hit solid bedrock, Cross said. Even during the work, the lake will remain open and people can have access to put in canoes and other small boats.
“They just won’t be able to do it at the marina,” Cross said.
People will also be able to fish along the shores of the lake, although they may be a few more feet away from the water than they usually are.
All of the material taken out of the marina area will be transported to and dumped at the old softball field up on Games Hill which is where the last dredging material was taken about 10-11 years ago.
The project was originally going to happen last fall, but the company picked to do it wasn’t able to do the job and the onset of colder weather delayed the project until this year.
The current project had to be bid out twice with the contract awarded for $148,000.
“The work is expected to take two to three weeks, depending on the weather,” Cross said.
Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com
