2 approvals are essential, Lake Delhi residents told

DELHI - “Yes” votes in two elections next month are critical to the effort to put water back in Lake Delhi, residents of the rural Delaware County community were told Sunday.

If Lake Delhi Recreational Association members do not approve transferring ownership of the failed dam to the community's official governing body on Nov. 6, and if residents of the Lake Delhi taxing district do not vote to assume more than $6 million in debt on Nov. 8, it will be “virtually impossible” to rebuild the dam, said Gary Grant, a lobbyist working to secure state and county financial support for the rebuilding effort.

“All levels of government are experiencing extreme shortages of revenue and great pressure to reduce spending,” said Grant, who works with Oelwein lobbyist Larry Murphy on behalf of the Lake Delhi residents.

Noting that lobbyists rarely speak in absolutes, Grant said that without approval of the two upcoming measures, “you can count on no help from the state or county.”

Several of the more than 100 people gathered at Maquoketa Valley High School for the informational meeting called approval of the two measures “a no-brainer.”

“We don't have any choice. Otherwise you can forget about your property values,” said Paul Atherton, whose family has had a home on the Maquoketa River impoundment for the past 62 years.

On Nov. 6, members of the Lake Delhi Recreation Association, which owns the failed dam and other property around the former lake, will be asked to give the association's board the authority to transfer ownership to the official governing body, the Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District.

That entity's board was expanded from three to seven members under recent legislation that also gave the taxing district the authority to issue general obligation bonds.

“We have heard from the governor, from legislators, from FEMA and from the Delaware County supervisors that we need to transfer ownership of the dam to a public entity” in order to get consideration of financial assistance in rebuilding the dam, said Jim Locke, a member of the association's board of directors.

That position was clearly stated in December, when the state-appointed Lake Delhi Recover and Rebuild Task Force said “unambiguous public ownership and control of the dam” should be a precondition for the allocation of public funds to the project.

Two days after the ownership vote, the 832 owners of property in the taxing district will be eligible to vote on a proposal to issue up to $6,091,104 in general obligation bonds to help pay for the dam rebuilding. A 60 percent supermajority will be required for passage.

The amount of the proposed bond is the maximum allowable under a law that limits general obligation bonds to 5 percent of the borrowing entity's assessed value, according to Larry Burger of Speer Financial, the Waterloo firm hired to help the taxing district secure the bonds.

The current assessed value of property in the taxing district is $121.8 million. As a result of the dewatered lake, the assessed value will shrink by 38 percent to $75.5 million in the next fiscal year, meaning the debt limit will be correspondingly reduced to $3.7 million.

Residents of the taxing district already pay $4 per $1,000 of assessed valuation under a special levy whose proceeds are used primarily to retire debt from previous lake dredging projects.

Based on assessed property values after the upcoming devaluation, Speer said the owner of a $25,000 house would pay an additional $146 per year if the bond issue is approved. For the owner of a $50,000 house, the property tax increase would be $293 per year, while the owner of a $100,000 house would pay an additional $586 per year.

Steve Leonard, president of the taxing district board, said Stanley Engineering of Muscatine is expected to make its final design recommendation, along with estimated costs for the rebuilt dam, by the end of November.