Dam at Lake Solitude under reconstruction ?A

[biloutback]

Anyone know what they are going to do there. Parking lot is blocked off, heavy equipment there....along the river is marked off and boundaries and hay bales installed....to controll sediment runoff...hope they dont screw it up.

 

[tomfly]

They are reparing the dam

High Bridge ready to fix Lake Solitude dam | NJ.com

 

[MACFLY]

Read the article. Never mentioned a reason for not breaching the dam instead of repairing. Anyone know the reason

They are reparing the dam

High Bridge ready to fix Lake Solitude dam | NJ.com

 

[bkill]

Read the article. Never mentioned a reason for not breaching the dam instead of repairing. Anyone know the reason

Local Politics at its finest...There are 2 homes on the Lake but look who owns the largest with most frontage...(hint: research past mayors)...

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Local Politics at its finest...There are 2 homes on the Lake but look who owns the largest with most frontage...(hint: research past mayors)...

What Dan said is the real truth. It was couched in "preservation of an historic dam" and the town took the effort to condemn the land from its rightful owner under eminent domain only to lead a fight to keep and restore the dam as its owner was considering removal at the time. The courts ruled the eminent domain to be an unlawful taking, forcing the town of High Bridge to repay the owner for his lost land, plus accrued interest. That move and the town's meddling with a town-owned golf course led to runaway tax increases and the ouster of the mayor (same mayor whose house overlooks the "lake").

To make matters worse, they convinced the town's people that they could now generate hydro electric power from the dam. Although some from the town did reach out to experts on this such as myself and others, and were told hydro on the scale available from a river the size of the SBR was a money loser, they went ahead and kept that fact to themselves until they did the research on their own. And now they admit the maximum yield in terms of power generation would work out to an average of $30,000/year. Now factor in that the FERC required license will take 6.3 years (current "fast track" time for exempt permit which is required) that will cost at least a hundred thousand (assuming they have fully repaired the dam first), and the cost of the hydro electric generation equipment (add over $1 million) and you can easily see how this is a smelly turd of an investment. So that will never happen and will just be one more lie told to cover the embarrassment of a failed eminent domain takeover by a failed local and well-connected politician with a no-interest loan to rehabilitate an obsolete dam that will now forever (in our lifetime) continue to screw up a great NJ river. :down:

 

[tompg]

Where are Seldom Seen Smith and George Hayduke when you need them?

 

[tomfly]

The Dam is relic from a past that is far removed from the necessities of today. The Dam was constructed Taylor-Wharton steel mill to provide power to the facility. Probably at the time that the Steel Mill was in service the South Branch had better flow to it. Today with many wells tapping into the aquifer that supplies the springs that feed the SB, the flow becomes compromised in times of dry weather. It is totally inadequate to expert the river to provide power. The only thing repairing this antiquated dam will achieve and what it always has achieved is to be a silt trap. You can blame Union Forge Heritage Association the architects of this financial debacle .

“According to Mike Gronsky, President of the Union Forge Heritage Association, William DePillo, a former plant manager from Great Falls Hydroelectric Station in Paterson who represents companies involved in hydro power, and Mountain Property Resources, a hydroelectric power redevelopment company based in Colorado, contacted Union Forge after hearing about the borough’s interest in looking at alternative energy. The Council was scheduled to meet in closed session Tuesday night with Mr. DePillo, according to Mayor Mark Desire. Mr. Gronsky called the idea of restoring hydroelectric power at Solitude Dam a ‘great opportunity,’ but added that the borough needs to make sure it won’t take away from the character of the dam and lake. Mayor Desire said Council plans to hold a townwide meeting, probably in May, where all options related to the dam and lake will be discussed. Tonight’s Council meeting will be at the firehouse, 7 Maryland Ave where the Union Forge Heritage Association will make a presentation to the Council about the history of the Dam.”

http://preservationnj.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/historic-dam-may-be-reused-for-hydro/

 

[gadfly]

I believe the speed bump the town hit with regard to their eminent domain claim was that the judge threw out their appraisals, and set his own values for the property at a MUCH higher amount.

Any time a government entity take land through condemnation, they have to pay "fair market value" for it as determined by appraisals. The landowner can appeal the value, and in this case they did so very successfully, and the town paid way more than they expected to (or could afford to). A friend involved in town politics told me that the town's appraisal discounted the value of the property by the cost of the dam repair, and the judge chose to use a value that did not take into account the repair cost. This last detail about the valuation makes sense to me, but I haven't been able to verify it.

 

[CMoser]

That move and the town's meddling with a town-owned golf course led to runaway tax increases and the ouster of the mayor (same mayor whose house overlooks the "lake").

Why is it that jack ass govt officials like this are allowed W/O responsibility to cost the tax payers huge sums of money. That SOB should be made financially responsible for his actions and do some time. The ex. mayor in my town did something similar and now he's gone and left us holding the bag.

 

[Trouser Trout]

ok...i've read the critique's, now what is the sensible solution....

 

[MACFLY]

ok...i've read the critique's, now what is the sensible solution....

Sounds like breaching the dam is the most sensible solution

 

[biloutback]

thank u all for your replies...what a f'en shame....too bad my little private stream has been invaded by progress...time to move on and search for new home waters.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

ok...i've read the critique's, now what is the sensible solution....

The sensible solution would have been to remove the dam and restore the river's channel. But that didn't happen, instead, the town is rebuilding this dam as we speak and there is no longer anything we can do about it. Maybe our kids will be more successful in getting the newly rebuilt and completely useless dam removed one day long from now...

 

[Agust]

I was actually called to testify in the case. The deal is the town offered to pay 2.2 M for the land and then withheld 1.75 M to "repair" the dam. The problem is that the previous owner was fairly deep into negotiations to breach the dam for around 0.5 M. The court determined that the town unfairly withheld the 1.25 M and owed it to the landowner. They could have paid it and ended the game right there, but decided to not do so for a fairly long while with interest accruing. Driving their penalty up to over 2M.

In addition they hired an engineering company to price Repair vs. Breach. As you might expect they chose a company with lots of experience repairing and no experience breaching. Resulting in a bid to repair that was less than breach. (Even though in the entire rest of the country breach is typically only 30% of the cost to repair.)

TU and the SBWA offered numerous times to assist in getting grants to help breach, warning all the while that repair the town would have to foot the bill themselves. The losers in this are the taxpayers and the river. There appears to be few winners, a landowner who abuts the lake and a misguided historical buff who thinks history began in 1900 instead of when God carved a river through the valley.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

There appears to be few winners, a landowner who abuts the lake and a misguided historical buff who thinks history began in 1900 instead of when God carved a river through the valley.

Amen.


Funny how history begins for so many once European settlers inhabited America. What about what happened prior to our settling this country??? Ah screw it, time to fish the Green Drake hatch tomorrow........

Agust fought a great fight as did all of NJ TU, but this is one we lost. Truth be told, we lose most of these battles even though "history" always proves us correct in the end. The one thing I've learned, first as a TU grassroots volunteer and now as an employee, is that you better have thick skin because you're going to lose against Big Brother more often than you defeat him. But that makes the victories we gain only that much sweeter. In time, High Bridge townspeople will come to realize this dam rehabilitation was a serious boondoggle. I can only hope that it will happen in my lifetime although I hold out little hope. So we turn our attention to the next battle and fight like hell. If there is one truism, it's that stupidity wins far too often over common sense, but that's no reason to give up hope...