The water level at the Manawa Dam on July 12, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
MANAWA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Last summer, the city of Manawa, Wisconsin was dealt a serious blow after relentless rainfall overflowed the Mill Pond and caused a breach and ultimately a failure of the Manawa Dam. But now, about eight months later, restoration work is finally beginning.
“This is phase one of the shoreline restoration,” explains Manawa Mayor Mike Frazier, standing in the Sturm Memorial Library parking lot, next to massive excavators and construction equipment at the edge of the Wolf River.
It was July 5, 2024, when the 100-year-old dam partially collapsed, sending water all over the city and forcing evacuations and emergency rescues.
The Mill Pond was gone.
“You just think, so many of us had swimming lessons there, canoed, fished, ice fished there, and really good ice fishing, and now to have in a matter of hours [to] be totally gone was just unreal,” Frazer recalls.
Frazier says the first phase of the restoration project finished this week, which consisted mostly of erosion control, removal of old walls, cleanup, and preparation for the next phases. He says it feels good to have work beginning finally.
“It’s step one of many, many steps, but at least you can see some progress of what is a whole lot better than what you saw last spring and summer,” he adds.
Phase 2 will reinforce the river bank, starting on February 28 and lasting until the end of April.
After that, phase 3, which will reseed the shoreline and redo the Sturm Memorial Library Parking lot, will begin in early June and last until mid-July.
The restoration didn’t start sooner for two reasons, Frazier says. The first is DNR and wildlife protections for sturgeon and other fish in the river, and the second is money.
“To find the money to get it because our city just completed $4.5M of projects with 2 street replacements and updating a lift station,” he says. “And with current laws in place, we can only have so much in debt.”
Frazier says the city was nearly at their debt limit. These phases, he says, are being funded through a USDA grant thanks to the Endangered Species Act.
As restoration continues, the city’s engineering firm is drafting plans to rebuild the dam and creating designs for what the area could look like if they don’t rebuild the dam.
All decisions the city council will face in the coming months, and the mayor hopes to see those plans by mid-March.
But Mayor Frazier, a life-long resident, describes the future he envisions.
“A brand new dam, with water behind us so there’s fishing and boating and canoeing, kayaking. . . but to restore it to what it was prior to July 5.”
“Hopefully we can find the funding to bring it all back, it’s going to take a lot of time and money to do it but the word of course is patience,” Frazier adds.
The city says it’s working with the legislature to secure funds for that next phase of construction, but they won’t know until July at the earliest about any future funding.
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