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DNR Will Restore O’Neal Lake Dam In Bliss Township

“Well things are looking up,” said David Burfield, president of Friends of O’Neal Lake. “All the money is in place now, or enough money to bid the project now, and that’s great.”

Things are flowing to stop the flow of water once again in Emmet County.

The O’Neal Lake dam failed back in 2014 and has been draining ever since.

After a recent grant, the DNR says they now have enough money to fix rebuild the Bliss Township dam.

But getting to this point wasn’t easy.

Those who live on the lake want it restored.

They’ve been working with the DNR to get a plan in place for about three years.

“To get to this point that’s wonderful instead of making it go away,” said Burfield.

After several meetings and some disagreements about the future of the O’Neal Lake dam, the DNR and community members are ready to move forward with their plans.

“Once we were able to decide what structure we would want to replace there, then it was a matter of getting the engineering done, getting the design done, getting the permit and then most importantly securing adequate funds to allow us to bid this out,” said Richard Hill, district supervisor of Parks and Recreation Division of the Gaylord DNR.

Because of a $200,000 grant, the lake and dam could be restored by the end of the year.

“We were fortunate enough to get a dam management grant last month and we hope in the next coming months to be able to bid the project out to see if we have adequate funds to be able to reconstruct the dam, which has been a goal of the Department of Natural Resources and the local community for some time, and we’re getting closer,” said Hill.

The project will be a combination of rebuilding and restoring.

“Each option comes with challenges and comes with opportunities. Working collaboratively with the community, we came up on the option that we ultimately chose which is a weird design structure but we will also be using the structure that was already there in forms of the cement to potentially include a pedestrian access bridge across it,” said Hill.

Although the DNR says this is not an ideal time to put in a bidding for contractors because most already have jobs lined up…but community members are staying hopeful.

“No, it’s going to happen this year, we’re doing the positive vibe thing,” said Burfield.

If all goes well, the rebuilding and restoration will start this summer.

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