Rock County wants help with Indianford Dam
(Published
Friday, January 14, 2000 11:42:06 AM CST)
By Catherine W. Idzerda/The Janesville Gazette Staff
We've got the dam, but
they've got the lake.
A review of the Indianford Dam economic
impact study has strengthened the resolve of Rock County officials
to seek a financial commitment from Jefferson County to help repair
the dam.
A UW Extension study made public Tuesday estimates
that about $23 million would be lost in local property values if the
Indianford Dam was removed. The dam backs up the Rock River and
creates Lake Koshkonong, which at 10,400 acres is the state's
eighth-largest lake.
Lakefront properties average about
$150,000, the study's authors estimated.
"About 84 percent of
the estimated decline in local property values will occur in
Jefferson County," UW Extension Community Development Joe Moskal
told the Rock County Board on Thursday. "Another 11 percent will
occur in Rock County, and about 5 percent will occur in Dane
County."
An overhead map clearly illustrated Moskal's point:
More than 75 percent of Lake Koshkonong is in Jefferson
County.
A drop in property values would translate into big
money for towns.
About $469,322 in property taxes would be
lost if the dam was taken out.
--The town of Milton would
lose about $50,336.
--The towns of Sumner and Koshkonong in
Jefferson County would lose $314,589 and $85,972,
respectively.
--The town of Albion in Dane County would lose
about $18,603.
Removing the dam would lower Lake Koshkonong's
water level by 3 feet, Moskal said.
Along with a steep
decline in property values, more than 1,500 jobs would be lost, many
businesses would close, and the region's economy would have to
adjust, the study said.
For many Rock County Board members,
the report confirmed what they have said all along: Repairing the
dam is as important--or even more so--to Jefferson
County.
After Moskal's presentation, Rock County Corporation
Counsel Tom Schroeder told the group that, to the best of his
knowledge, the dam was not on any Jefferson County Board
agendas.
"Now there's a surprise," Evansville Supervisor
Scott Feldt said in an audible undertone.
Other board members
appeared to share Feldt's sentiments, laughing and shaking their
heads.
Jefferson County Board Chairman Wendell Wilson said
officials in his county are concerned about the dam, but they aren't
willing to commit to a payment until they know how much it will
cost.
"Rock County Chair Terry Maybee has been to our board a
couple of times to talk about it," Wilson said in an interview
Thursday afternoon. " But we need a number, something that's
concrete. I can't go to my county board and ask for 25 percent or 75
percent of repair costs. My board's going to say: '25 percent of
what?'"
At a meeting Tuesday, Dane County officials said they
would make a one-time payment of $3,000 toward the dam's
repair.
Jefferson County would only be interested in a
one-time payment as well, Wilson said.
"Most of our county
doesn't benefit," said Wilson. "We've got a township up here that
doesn't even have a creek running through it. Why should they have
to pay?"
Yearly upkeep on the dam could cost between $50,000
and $75,000, Rock County Parks Director Tom Kautz
said.
Estimates are that repairing the dam would cost more
than $600,000, and about $90,000 of that work has been down.
Removing the dam would cost more than $800,000, according to a 1999
study.
Watertown businessman Tom Reiss said he would
reimburse the county $75,000 if he receives the necessary federal
permits to generate electricity at the dam.
Later this month,
attorneys from Jefferson and Rock counties and the Rock Koshkonong
Lake District will meet to hammer out a financial settlement and
discuss future ownership of the dam.
Jefferson County's
response will help Rock County officials decide what to do with the
dam.
Early in 1999, Rock County received three official
notices from the Department of Natural Resources: fix or remove the
dam or pay fines up to $1,000 a day.
Jammed wicket gates,
structural damages to the dam and an aging powerhouse needed to be
repaired to bring the dam into compliance, the DNR said. |
|