News
Ohio Controlling Board Supports Dam Repair Project
By: Sara Nealeigh
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The Ohio Controlling Board has released more than $30,000 to help upgrade and repair emergency safety measures for a Morgan County dam.
State Representative Debbie Phillips (D-Athens) announced Monday that the funds will repair the Muskingum River Parkway Lock and Dam No. 7 in McConnelsville.
"These funds are a positive step towards improving the emergency measures that will make our local residents safer. I am also pleased that this money has brought a new construction project to the McConnelsville area," said Phillips.
Mike Jarvis, assistant park manager at the Muskingum River Parkway Complex, said the repair project is needed because parts of Dam No. 7 have started to deteriorate and fall away.
Damaged sections of the Muskingum River Complex will be restored and new safety improvements will be installed throughout different areas of the dam and upstream.
Jarvis said the dam repairs are not critical, but the park thought it was important to be proactive in fixing the damage.
"We just wanted to make sure it was a sound structure that would not cause any downstream or upstream hazards," said Jarvis. "Those dams being low-end dams, we don't perceive when we do inundation mapping that those would have downstream effects like a typical dam would."
Jarvis said that if problems were to arise from the damage, the public’s safety would not be at risk.
"It would be more loss of property than loss of life," he said.