Concerns grow for cost, details of potential Lake Contrary plan

By Cameron Montemayor

Lingering unknowns surrounding a Lake Contrary dredging project and its long-term financial feasibility are sparking concerns among current and former county officials.

In recent months, the Buchanan County Commission has taken steps toward a potential dredging project at Lake Contrary, including analyzing soil samples, reviewing lakebed ownership and considering necessary equipment among other moves.

Buchanan County Auditor Tara Horn said at this point she has not seen nearly enough information to show if such a project would be successful and financially sustainable for the county and ultimately the taxpayer long term. Buchanan County Commissioners have not yet confirmed if the project will happen and, if so, how it will be financed.

“I don’t have anything against a project, but I want to know how much it’s going to cost us up front. I want to know how much it’s going to cost us to maintain,” Horn said. “And then, where does that money come from? Because as it stands, there is not a revenue source to cover the lake.”

Horn has heard estimates that dredging alone could cost $8 million at a minimum, which would be just over 8% of the county’s entire $94.9 million 2024 budget. Dredging proposals back in 2007 ranged from $6 to $11 million depending on depth and removal methods.

Horn adds she has serious concerns about the unknowns of a potentially unpredictable expense like Lake Contrary and its long-term impact on other vital county resources, such as providing competitive employee salaries.

That’s magnified in the face of seemingly endless heights for expenses like employee health insurance premiums and project construction costs, she said. For example, a county bill costing $2,500 on average came in nearly four times over budget recently.

“I’m thinking big picture and it has to make sense and it has to not put us in a financial crisis on down the road when we say, ‘Shoot, the cost of oil has gone up, the cost to everything has gone up,’” she said. “I want to know all the facts upfront and I think that the taxpayers deserve that.”

County commissioners have previously said they are in the process of doing cost assessments on a potential project but no figures have been confirmed. The county is set to host a meeting on Aug. 1 with Opterra Solutions to explain the functionality of a proposed enzyme treatment for clearing the lakebed of vegetation, a key step before dredging could begin.

“We’ve included and involved the Department of Natural Resources and the Corps of Engineers, but the (Department of) Natural Resources is a big one because they’re going to give us the go-ahead,” Western District Commissioner Ron Hook said.

The county is also awaiting the test results of soil samples from the lake area, which will be sent to the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies to determine if dredged material would be safe to dump.

In a letter to the editor to News-Press NOW, Hook said dredging the lake is about more than just recreation. He said it also would allow for Lake Contrary’s underground relief well infrastructure to take pressure off a levee in that area, which is not possible without water in the lake.

“Providing a lake with water and a place for the relief wells to drain the underground water pressure on the levee would be a part of a levee project,” Hook said. “This is why we are doing our research on all aspects of a dredging project.”

Additional relief wells were installed by the Corps of Engineers after sand boils were discovered near the levee following high water events in 2010 and 2011. Boils are a sign of a possible weakening of the levee system.

Former Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner Lee Sawyer said a critical assessment needs to be made of all the needs in the county before committing to a multi-million project with taxpayer money and potentially large ramifications.

Over the last five to 10 years, a series of changes within the county — combined with large increases in sales tax revenue from rising inflation — have allowed it to get back on better financial footing after years of challenges, he said.

“I would just hate to see that much taxpayer money thrown at a project like this just because the county is better off financially than it had been in the past,” he said. “I know there’ll be a lot of study done, a lot of research done and that’s what needs to be done in a critical way.”

The development of two hotels and plans for new upscale apartments by the Shoppes at North Village are examples of current county projects designed to address areas of need for the county with long-term benefits.

In the case of Lake Contrary, Sawyer said exploring funding sources largely outside of taxpayer dollars needs to be pursued if the project moves forward, whether with state and federal grants to dredge it or the creation of a homeowners’ association to help maintain it, a strategy utilized by many other successful lakes.

“If you spend a lot of money on this, you’re basically taking away from other possibilities and you just need to weigh out, what’s the most important thing for the taxpayers of Buchanan County?” he said.

With as many moves as have taken place to seemingly inch closer to dredging, Horn isn’t convinced enough questions have been answered yet to justify the project as it stands.

“Is it going to keep water in it or do you dredge it out and it keeps water for four years, but we spent millions doing it? That doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “I don’t want to do a project that takes us backwards.”

Check out the other four parts of this special report series here: https://www.newspressnow.com/lake-contrary-special-report-series/collection_de16ea2a-38b8-11ef-82fa-1fe6ea5b639c.html.