Willey steps down as Lake Delhi association president

An abrupt change in leadership of the Lake Delhi Recreation Association will not affect the timetable for rebuilding the group's breached dam and restoring its vanished lake, according to a member of the group's board of directors.

Larry Burger said the board is grateful for the efforts of Jim Willey, who resigned Friday as the group's president.

“We simply had some strategic disagreements moving forward about how to best communicate our message to potential funders,” Burger said.

Willey, who also resigned from the group's board of directors, said board restrictions on his communications, imposed at its Thursday evening meeting, prompted his resignations.

The board also passed a resolution of support for the Lake Delhi Watershed Committee, which describes itself as a “community grass roots coalition to help get the public lake back quickly.”

The communications restrictions and the Watershed Committee endorsement, Willey said, are part of a board effort to invest more authority in the recently formed Watershed Committee, which has taken an active role in securing support for the dam rebuilding effort.

“We don't believe the effort is stalled… These efforts to secure millions of dollars take a considerable amount of time,” said Todd Gifford, a leader of the Watershed Committee.

The committee has hired Oelwein lobbyist Larry Murphy to represent lake association interests in the Legislature, and committee leaders last week urged members of an Iowa Senate appropriations subcommittee to authorize $350,000 for a pre-construction engineering study needed to define the scope of the project.

The board of the Combined Lake Delhi Benefited Recreational Lake and Water Quality District, which administers proceeds from a special property tax paid by lake district residents, also passed a formal resolution of support for the Watershed Committee this week.

Willey said he was resigning “not as a concession to those who seek control, but because it is my opinion that given the restrictions imposed by the LDRA Board of Directors … I cannot function effectively as president…”

As recently as last fall, Lake Delhi officials expressed hope that the dam would be rebuilt yet this year, but the lack of progress in recent months bespeaks a longer wait.

Willey said the lake group faces many challenges in its efforts to secure financial support for rebuilding the dam.

Key among them, he said, is the group's pending appeal of a Federal Emergency Management Agency decision that it is not eligible for flood recovery assistance, which could have provided as much as 75 percent of the money needed to rebuild the dam.

In denying the association's eligibility, FEMA also de-obligated previously approved funding for repairing damage caused by 2008 flooding.

“We are still counting on that FEMA money for the restoration of Lake Delhi,” Willey said.

Willey said initial estimates of $6 million to rebuild the dam and $4 million to prepare the dam for hydroelectric generation remain valid if the Department of Natural Resources can be convinced the dam should be rated as a moderate rather than a high hazard facility.

Rebuilding the dam to meet high hazard specifications could cost as much as $24 million, he said.

Before that determination can even be made, a battery of engineering, archaeological and hydrological studies must be completed at an estimated cost of $802,000, Willey said.

Besides their request for $350,000 to get that pre-construction study under way, Lake Delhi property owners are also asking the Legislature to authorize the lake taxing district to increase its levy - on top of local property taxes - above the current cap of $4 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

Most of the proceeds of that levy go toward repayment of a bond for a 2006 lake dredging project that was undone by floods in 2008 and 2010.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

Jan. 28 -- Lake Delhi official makes pitch to lawmakers for state help

Dec. 12 -- Lake Delhi residents outline 'plan forward'