City receives grant to fix dam at pond by Ian Stepleton, Editor, Ripon Press
The city of Ripon has known it would need to invest tens of thousands of dollars into the Mill Pond dam to stabilize it for the future.
On Tuesday, the city found out it won’t have to do so alone.
The DNR announced this week that Ripon was one of 15 municipalities from around the state to receive matching grants that would enable the communities to “maintain, repair, abandon or remove the municipally owned structures.”
Ripon received a matching grant from the DNR. The city was approved for a $156,000 grant, plus another 40 percent for contingency. The city, meanwhile, budgeted $160,000 of its own dollars to match the state funds.
City Engineer Travis Drake was optimistic about getting the grant.
“I had more or less expected it,” he said.
According to a DNR press release, Ripon’s dam was considered the eighth-highest priority dam for receiving funds statewide.
It’s been on both the state and the city’s radar since 2008, when heavy rains led to flooding around the city and at the dam.
Read the full story in the Jan. 5, 2012 edition of the Ripon Commonwealth Press.
Excerpted from the Ripon Press website: http://riponpress.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubsectionID=35&ArticleID=3713