Commissioners authorize pursuit of grants to implement Spicer inspection recommendations for Leland Dam

The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners on April 21 authorized county administration to pursue grant funding to implement recommendations from the Spicer Group inspection of the Leland Dam.

Commissioner William Bunek initially moved to allow the administrator to apply for a dam restoration grant. Commissioner Alan Campbell pressed for prioritizing a grant to fund installation of a monitoring sensor recommended in the Spicer inspection; Campbell said the sensor should be the first step to determine whether larger repairs are needed. Campbell’s amendment — to apply for the sensor grant and for future dam repairs — was further amended and adopted to authorize the county administrator to pursue any grant necessary to implement the Spicer inspection report.

The final motion, which authorized application for restoration grants and broader grant pursuit to implement the Spicer report, passed unanimously (7–0).

Why it matters: The county is acting on an engineering inspection that identified cracking and the need for monitoring and potential repairs. Commissioners debated whether to start with a monitoring sensor or apply directly for restoration funds; the board chose to authorize pursuit of all appropriate funding avenues.

Next steps: Administration will pursue appropriate grant opportunities and report back to the board on grant applications and any funded projects. No specific project timeline or total repair cost was specified in the meeting minutes; those details remain to be determined pending grant awards and follow-up engineering work.