Renns Lake residents hire attorney

A small creek continues to run through the heart of what was once Renn’s Lake, which is now overgrown with native grasses, reeds and small trees. Heavy equipment operators from Cole County Public Works have begun the process of breaching the dam at the south end of Renn’s Lake. Photo by Julie Smith.

By Jeff Haldiman, Gerry Tritz

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

As Cole County starts returning the former Renns Lake to a stream, some residents there say they’ve have hired an attorney to seek compensation from Cole County government for their losses in property values.

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The county’s action this week culminates close to three years of discussions, mostly between the Cole County Commission and the approximately 50 property owners around the lake, on how to resolve the problems created by damage to the dam that created the lake.

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him 9 months, 1 week ago

I believe the lake should have been restored by the county. Its rediculous there is even an issue about this. It would cost the county either way. Their bids were high. Residents should save their money, pool together and get their own bid which would be more in line with actual costs and build the lake themselves

Paroquet 9 months, 1 week ago

Dumb.

The property owners would have better served themselves hiring a consultant in order to assess the potential value of the abandoned lake bed as "wetland credits" and put them on the market for developers. Probably that'd be the first thing I did if I were the responding attorney. Could be that property values were, in fact, increased. If such is demonstrated, they just shot themselves in the foot.

ethomas56 9 months, 1 week ago

Sure as heck had the equipment and money to cut the stream in 2 days didnt they? so after 3 years they've spent 20,000 to breach the 'emergency', 40,000 for an engineering study, and 20,000 to cut the new hole plus whatever they did to maintain it for 3 years and end up with a stream/swamp. yeah, good work cole county commission. good luck in the upcoming elections

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