The Twin Lakes Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District Commissioners have approved repairing the dam that controls lake levels on lakes Mary and Elizabeth but not changing the function of that dam.
Changes to the dam have been considered for awhile, but rejected Tuesday night as not improving the function of the dam enough to significantly curtail the number of no-wake days that need to be declared on the lakes due to high water.
Instead the problem of too many high water days has been addressed by the removal of an illegal dam in Illinois about two years ago. Since the removal of the dam, the village has not had a problem with excessive high water, village President Howard Skinner said.
But even without the overhaul of the dam, it still needs some repairs to one end, Skinner said.
Skinner had attempted to roll repairs of the dam and a new policy to not change the removable board heights from its current setting for two years. The motion passed 6 to 1, with Trustee Kevin Fitzgerald voting against. But when Fitzgerald explained his vote as objecting to the no removal of dam boards, other trustees said they did not fully understand the original motion. That motion was reconsidered and Skinner amended his motion to include the dam repairs and keeping the current dam management policy in place while also asking for a recommendation from the lakes Steering Committee on board removal. That amended motion passed unanimously.
