The water level at the Manawa Dam on July 12, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
MANAWA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Manawa Mill Pond will return after the dam breach that occurred earlier this month.
“Lot of fishing was done here, lot of people with canoes, kayaks, inner tubes would come down portage the river and go down and continue. They always had a nice little ice fishing tournament here in January using the Veterans Park,” said Mayor Mike Frazier, about the pond’s popularity.
The Manawa Common Council voted unanimously to return the Manawa Mill Pond to where it was prior to flash flooding on July 5.
“It was just a recommendation and with still a lot of questions to go yet and answers to hopefully be answered,” said Mayor Mike Frazier.
The Manawa mayor says he’s not entirely sure what that process entails. The city will have to work with the DNR, along with other local, state and federal partners to come up with a restoration plan.
According to Frazier, “We met with the DNR dam Monday morning in a video conference call and there’s some things we need to do but there’s still a lot more questions, lot more people to be involved to get the correct answers and the right path to go on.”
It’s unclear how long the restoration project would take, but Mayor Frazier said, ” I’m hoping, to be honest, by 2026 that something can be started. Lot of moving parts to this and a lot of steps that I don’t think all of were aware of until this actually happened.”
And with no specific path on how to move forward, it’s unclear how much the restoration would cost. When asked if the restoration could potentially become cost prohibitive, the Mayor said, ” That is very true. That’s where it would be nice if the federal government would step in and say here’s some money for you because no one really plans for this when they do their budget.”
The city is in the process of setting up a community meeting with the Wisconsin DNR Dam personnel and DNR Fish and Wildlife personnel.
When a date and time is determined, that information will be released publicly.
The city says this will be a long process, so the community is asked to be patient.
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