Posted on November 26, 2018
After many resident comments on the proposed public navigational dredging of the Bark River inlet area of Lake Nagawicka, the common council decided not to include the project in the 2019 capital budget.
The council debated the subject, which was proposed to improve public access in that area of the lake, for half an hour and voted to scrap the project, 4-3. According to the proposed city budget document, the project would have cost $500,000 for construction and an additional $50,000 for engineering, bidding and construction management.
Most of the residents who spoke at the meeting supported the project, but Laura Schult didn’t think the city should include it in the budget.
“I contacted the DNR and nowhere in the state are other cities, towns and villages requiring all their taxing entities to pay for dredging,” Schult said. “The most common way is either by private lake owners or by the formation on the lake district.”
Documents stated, “The scope of the project as proposed by the mayor is to remove as much sediment from the inlet area as possible for the proposed $500,000 construction expenditure.”
“Of all the dredging projects that have been done in the lake, private citizens have spent $1,133,000 million in private dredging on this lake to improve the water quality,” Mayor Kent Attwell said during the meeting. “This is the one spot where the city of Delafield needs to step up and take care of their responsibilities.”
The documents also stated no preliminary design or permitting had been performed.
Resident Dixon Benz said dredging is needed.
“It’s really getting bad,” Benz said. “It has gotten to the point where we can’t have people over to enjoy the lake. In the middle of summer, the way the water comes in with the leaves, the silt, it backs up and it is absolutely stagnant.”
Alderman Wayne Dehn, who made the motion to remove the item from the budget, said there wasn’t enough information on the project to make a final decision.
“I’m not denying there’s a problem there,” Dehn said. “I just think this was poorly put in here like this. I question if it’s a capital expense because I have not seen anything other than lake persons saying, ‘Oh, it will last.’ I don’t see anything saying that this is a long-term solution to solve this.”
Alderman Jim Behrend was one of three members of the council to support the project.
“I think this is a residual problem that needs to be removed,” Behrend said. “In the interest of the folks here, there’s some urgency; it’s getting worse and worse.”
Alderman Jeff Krickhahn called it a safety issue.
“I’ve heard the stories from my district and the people that have ropes and things get wrapped up in the propeller,” Krickhahn said. “It’s just a matter of time before someone loses a hand, a arm, a leg or worse trying to pull a boat out of this silt.”
Source: journal sentinel
