Posted on July 17, 2023
Four months before then-House Speaker Jason Wentworth secured a $25 million grant for a Clare health campus led by his former aide, the lawmaker secured $6.8 million for dam repairs and dredging at a Clare lake where the same aide lives, records show.
Statewide, 65 dams statewide were in worse condition than the one on Lake Shamrock and also would cause significant damage downriver if they failed, state records show.
But Michigan law allows lawmakers to allocate money for pet projects — often in their districts — with little oversight, allowing Wentworth to bypass dams in greater need of repair.
