Iowa House budget has no funds for restoring Lake Delhi dam

Funding for the restoration of the Lake Delhi dam is still up in the air and may be part of end-of-session budget negotiations between the Iowa House and Senate.

The House budget for the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund includes no funding for reconstruction of the dam at Lake Delhi on the Maquoketa River in Delaware County. The dam was severely damaged in flooding two years ago.

The House RIIF budget, at $190.2 million, is slightly higher than the version approved by the Senate last week. That version appropriated $182 million, including $5 million over two years for the Delhi dam.

The funding was conditioned on submission of a plan to the Legislature by Dec. 31 addressing increased public access to the lake and wastewater treatment systems for homeowners on the lake.

The House proposal is not the final word on the RIIF budget or the funding for the dam, according to people close to the dam reconstruction effort. The fact funding is included in the Senate proposal, as well as Gov. Terry Branstad's budget, is a good sign, they say.

It's expected the differences between the budgets will be worked out in a House-Senate conference committee.

Lawmakers earlier indicated they want to see support from the local community. The local Lake Delhi taxing district has approved bonding for as much as $6 million, private fundraising has yielded about $1.7 million and the Delaware County Board of Supervisors has approved issuing up to $3 million in bonds to support the work.

The House version does not include the $150,000 the Senate appropriated for the Grout Museum and Sullivan Brothers Veterans Museum for its oral history exhibit associated with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The House plan matches the Senate's $25.1 million for tuition replacement at regents universities, but does not address Senate lines items for the Iowa State University biosystems engineering complex, University of Iowa dental school building or the University of Northern Iowa's Bartlett Hall improvements and Baker Hall demolition.