Bonita Lake repairs could begin soon

By By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
May 7, 2003
Repair work on the dam of the lower lake at Bonita could begin soon but officials don't know exactly when the lake will be filled again with water.
On Tuesday, the Meridian City Council sped the process by voting to hire Mobile, Ala.-based Malcolm Pirnie Inc. to proceed with engineering work for the project.
When pressed by councilmen for an exact time on when the work could begin, Klotz said, "as soon as we can get the plans in place and the decision is made as to what the public works staff can do."
Tuesday's action comes more than a year after city workers began slowly draining the lower lake to look for possible leaks in the dam near the spillway.
The reason: Officials with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's Dam Inspection Division found leaks in the dam during a routine inspection two years ago.
Since then, city workers have been monitoring the dam and its leakage. Malcolm Pirnie has been working on the project since June when the firm was hired by the city to use special devices to find the source of the leak.
Meanwhile, the lake, once the main fixture at the Bonita park, has grown unsightly. Since it's been drained, parts of the lake have become covered with patches of dry mud and weeds.
City officials hope that will change soon when the repair work to the dam is complete. The repairs were made possible last year when the city received a $500,000 grant from the federal government.
Mayor John Robert Smith said once the work begins, he plans to propose changes to the lower lake that would create "fingers of land" and provide fishing areas for the physically handicapped.
While those, and other, plans are drawn up, city officials hope to repair the dam as soon as possible. Klotz said he expects contracts to be granted in the next few months.