Bald Eagle Lake Bridge / Dam replacement needed

The damn dam at the north end of the lake is in dire need of replacement. It is failing and the corrugated culverts under the road are rusted out and leaking.  Last summer it caused a sink hole in the road that needed to be repaired. Hugo added liners to the culverts as a short term fix.  Since 2008, Hugo has been working on a plan to replace the dam. Recently, they have asked us to get involved to help organize support for their plan.  At present, Hugo has invested $100K for full engineering plans for the replacement of the bridge and dam. They have also gotten partial funding from MNDOT.  The last cog in the wheel is to get funding from a MN DNR dam safety grant.  This grant program was set up, specifically, for this purpose.  Hugo just recently applied for the grant.  The DNR is in initial conversations with Hugo to go over the details of the application.  I am feeling good that they will get the funding to move forward with this project next summer after the water has dropped below the current dam, but to be safe, we need to cover our bases.

To help make sure this moves forward, Chuck Haas of the Hugo City Council contacted me last week to talk about the project and talk to us about how we can help.  It turned out that I had already scheduled a meeting with the board for last Wednesday to discuss the damn dam.  Chuck was nice enough to join us at our meeting and to enlighten us on the history and current situation.  Board member Rick Gwynn will be setting up a meeting at the beginning of the new year for the board to meet with Hugo city staff and go over the plan.

One of the items that Chuck asked us to do is to write a letter of support for the project and send it to the appropriate DNR representative, which we will do.  We will also be contacting other government organizations and representatives to have them express their support to the DNR.

On Hugo's end, everything is ready to go.  They just need the funding to get it done.

We are on the way to a new bridge and dam that should last another hundred years.

I will keep you posted on the progress of this project.

I took this video last June 30th when I heard that there were issues with the dam.  The water was really flowing, at the time.

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-Jim