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City takes over dangerous dam

By LEE WILLIAMS
lwilliams@TheCitizenNews.com

The owners of Fayetteville’s Pye Lake dam have agreed to turn over the property to the city so $1.5 million in improvements can be made at the city’s expense.

City Engineer Don Easterbrook confirmed the owners Harriet and Ronald Parham have agreed to turn over the dam to the city. However, final negotiations are still underway, City Manager Joe Morton explained.

“We haven’t met with the Parhams today,” Morton said during a Nov. 18 Fayetteville City Council meeting. “We are working out an agreement.”

In September, Georgia’s Safe Dams program determined the Pye Lake dam needed extensive repairs that if un-repaired could endanger residents downstream.

If repairs are not made, the state would likely seek court action to remove the dam, drain the lake and remove the flood hazard, state’s Safe Dams Program officials said. The Environmental Protection Division also could fine the owner and impose penalties to ensure the dam is fixed, officials said.

Ronald Parham initially blamed the city for the lake’s woes saying a lot of the silt coming from development has reduced the lake’s capacity.

Fayetteville City Mayor Ken Steele agreed the city should pay for some of the improvements to the dam as part of its work to control flooding in the Gingercreek basin.

After much discussion, the city agreed to pay for all of the repairs.

The city will pay for a large portion of the repairs through the money collected through stormwater fees, Easterbrook said. The city will apply for a hazardous mitigation grant or appeal to the U.S. Corps of Engineers for assistance to cover the remaining costs, he added.

“They would help pay for it if we could find a grant program that meets their needs and our needs,” Easterbrook said.

City officials originally thought it would cost $750,000 to repair the dam. That estimate jumped to the tune of $1.5 million, according to the latest dam estimate, he said.

To absorb the costs, the city will do the repairs piecemeal, Easterbrook said.

“We are looking at doing it in phases,” he said. “We will look at (the) Safe Dams (program officials) to maintain a safe structure until the permanent improvements are made.”

Pye Lake’s dam is classified as a Category I dam, which means it has the potential to endanger at least one life, state Safe Dams officials said. The state only determines whether one life would be at risk and does not estimate the total number of deaths a dam breach flood could cause or the number of homes that would be affected, officials said.