The City of Vandalia discussed some recent work to repair some cracks at the Vandalia Lake Dam. And, they are hoping to get some more work completed soon.
During Monday’s Vandalia City Council meeting, Lake Manager Scott Workman discussed some recent work and information in regards to the Vandalia Lake Dam. Workman says they recently had a diver come out to dive down and examine the River’s water intake. He says there was a little algae and moss around it but it was taken care of by the diver. The diver did discover a 1980’s motorcycle while down below and did recommend having someone go down once a year to check the intake. Also, the diver examined the bottom of the dam as there had been some concerns about water potentially going under the dam. But, the diver said the dam appears to have been poured on top of crushed concrete–acting much like riprap–so that does not appear to be an issue.
As for some dam repair work, Workman said his crew along with the City’s Public Works crew and others did work on taking care of any dam cracks in the areas that will not be touched by water. As for the area that will be touched by water, there is a window of opportunity at this time because of the water level being very low to get some additional area on the dam repaired. And, Workman says a company was out recently and gave them a partial proposal on some work to fix any cracks with the dam.
The material costs would be about $26,000 for the repairs, but no full bid is available at this time. Because of concerns over more rains coming to take away the opportunity to get the work done at this time the Vandalia City Council discussed deeming this an emergency to allow them to proceed with the bid from the company and not having to get other bids so they could get the work done as quickly as possible. City Attorney Ryan Connor says they can do that, but not something you would want to do on a regular basis.
The City Council eventually approved to move forward with the project as an emergency and give Mayor Doug Knebel the power to approve or reject the bid from the company. During our podcast “Talking about Vandalia,” Mayor Knebel discusses why the City Council decided to go in this route.
The concern is that more rains will come in the next couple of weeks and take away the opportunity to get the repairs completed at this time.
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