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Today's Poll!County: Turn former lake into stream
Thursday, August 30, 2012
After nearly three years, the question about what the Cole County Commission would do with the property that used to be Renns Lake was answered Wednesday.
By a vote of 2-1, county commissioners approved a plan to remove the dam at the old lake, allowing a stream to be re-established through the sediment that had been deposited in the lake.
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Comments
JCLifer 8 months, 3 weeks ago
I smell a lawsuit coming. The residents had a nice lake until the county stuck its nose into the private business. The county owes them a lake to restore their property values.
asb 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Actually, the county only bought the lake when the original developer bailed on repairs needed to repair the flood-torn dam. There are lawsuits in progress against the developer, the homeowners association and the county. Nobody had, or would offer, the cash to fix the dam, so the county is just doing its job. A future dam and lake are feasible, as long as the old lakebed isn't developed. I hope the county holds on to it for that eventuality.
tsig 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Just to clarify: There is not now, nor was there ever been, a homeowners' association. While the lot owners have legal access rights to the lake, they were not given any ownership interestin the lake nor did the owner give them the right to maintain the lake or the dam. The "deal" with the County was worked out between the County and the owner of the lake without input from the surrounding owners; despite the fact that a group of owners were diligently working on solutions. Unfortunately, the deal with the lake's owner and the County was unknown to the surrounding owners until it was done. Keep in mind also that the County only took the lake from the owner. It left the owner with their lakeside property on which their personal residence is located. The County then advised the surrounding owners that the lake could be deeded to an association if the owners first paid all the County's expenses related to the breach and containment of the dam. Considering that the expenses were incurred due to the negligence of the actual owner of the lake, the surrounding owners, as tax paying citizens of the County, were righfully upset that they were not only going to incur the expense of repairing the dam, but also the expense of "makinig the County whole". The County later backed off of the demand for the expense reimbursement, but by then the studies commissioned by the County had more than doubled the cost of rebuilding the dam. Looking in from the outside, it is understandable that the County's taxpayers would question an expenditure that appears to be for a small group of owners. However, the County voluntarily took title to the Lake with no input from the surrounding owners and then wanted to wash its hands of the matter when it realized it had acquired a "money pit". This is a sad situation for all involved, except that it could have been avoided had the lake's owner heeded advice years ago that failure to maintain the vegetation on the dam would eventually lead to its failure. It will be interesting to see how much the "stream" costs the County....or us taxpayers.
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