County discusses possible vote, timeline to dredge Lake Contrary

By Chris Fortune

A decision to dredge Lake Contrary may ultimately rest in the hands of voters this year.

The Buchanan County commissioners met with Fritz Ambrozi, a managing member of Ambrozi Contracting, on Thursday to discuss the project and a possible timeline.

Ambrozi Contracting serves in a consulting and advisory role, but they do not currently have a contract with the county.

“This is something that we think can be done, and to get it to fruition, you know, there’s a lot of legwork and a lot of things that need to be done to get it to that point,” Ambrozi said. “So that’s just what we’re doing right now, is working to just make sure that it’s a viable project and to help the county get it to a point of operation.”

Some citizens were concerned about the initial step of the operation, which involves spraying an aerial herbicide to deal with vegetation.

Ambrozi said regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and Missouri Department of Natural Resources do not allow chemicals or pesticides to be sprayed in the waterway.

“The process that’s being looked at to accomplish this is to spray it with an enzyme,” he said. “And that enzyme will actually break down the plant and turn it into a viable biodegradable product.”

The commissioners rejected a bid on Monday to spray the substance, and Ambrozi anticipates the county will rebid to spray in September and begin the dredging process in the spring of 2025.

Commissioner Scott Burnham said he prefers to put the decision on a ballot to let voters decide, and it will give the county more time to finalize possible ballot language.

Commissioner Ron Hook said he is fine with letting voters decide, and the next step would be getting their finances in line and figuring out if the public supports the three-year project.

“If they think that it is worthwhile to have and to spend the ($7 million) to $9 million to get the project completed, we’ll move forward with it,” Hook said. “And I think over a three-year period, we’ll be able to either generate the money to do it or find some way of getting it done and completed.”

The county would initially look at the August election for voters to decide whether to move forward with the project.

“If not, we’d have to do November, which is a presidential election time, as is August for primaries,” he said. “But I’d hate to get it clouded up with presidential and local officeholder elections.”

Dredging permits have already been issued by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers. The county will have to wait for a final permit to put the silt from the lake into the Missouri River before they start dredging.

“We just welcome any comments about it, individuals’ feelings, you know, it means a lot to us if the community wants it or not,” he said. “That’s our big thing, it’s will the community support what we’re thinking about doing?”