County says Mano Park lake restoration paused over engineering, regulatory and funding obstacles

Commissioners and county staff said the planned rehabilitation of Mano Park’s lake is effectively paused while the county resolves regulatory, engineering and funding hurdles.

Dale, the commissioner who has been shepherding the project, told the council the county secured Lake and River Enhancement (LARE) grants of $100,000 in 2024 and $100,000 in 2025 but was notified last week that the county’s 2026 application was not selected. ‘‘You are encouraged to reapply during the next funding cycle with applications due January 15, 2027,’’ he read from the denial letter, and added that the denial “freezes the funding for a year.”

The council has debated how to remove sediment and rehabilitate the lake. Dale said hydraulic dredging would require stripping the roughly 20 acres of tillable ground used by the long-term lessee, the Fayette County Conservation Club, to construct retention ponds and store slurry. For that reason the county instead planned mechanical dredging to reduce disruption to campground operations and to preserve that tillable acreage.

But a more immediate barrier, he said, is the dam’s regulatory classification. Dale told the council that state records show the facility holds about 225 acre-feet and a watershed of roughly 1.04 square miles, which would put it in DNR’s regulated category; county measurements showed a lower figure (~79.57 acre-feet and a ~1.02-square-mile watershed). ‘‘I think the only way to effectively challenge the DNR on these points would be through legal action,’’ he said, and added that legal suits would conflict with requests for state project funding.

Another constraint is the scarcity of engineering bids. County staff described repeated attempts to get firms to price an engineered plan for the dam and spillway; Dale said he is on his fifth attempt and estimated the engineering work for the dam-and-spillway scope at roughly $175,000. He said some firms find the job too small to justify the paperwork and percentage-based fee structure used by engineering consultants.

The combination of the denied 2026 grant, the DNR classification and the inability so far to secure an engineering firm led multiple council members to conclude the project must pause until an engineering proposal can be obtained or the state provides a pathway to adjust the regulatory status. Dale emphasized the county has approximately $200,000 in LARE credit that must be spent under program rules or an extension requested.

Looking ahead, county staff said they will reapply next funding cycle and continue pursuing engineering proposals. The council noted that Nulltown Bridge was being prioritized in future rounds and that some roads funding from a recent state CCMG legislative allocation will move forward on a first-come basis. For the Mano Park project the next procedural steps are obtaining a firm price for the required engineering plan and seeking either a DNR-approved engineered plan for cutting/repairing the dam or securing alternate funding and approvals to proceed.

The council did not take a formal motion to change the project status; members agreed the work remains on hold pending the engineering and funding clarifications.