Pembina County officials hope to start building a new temporary access road to Icelandic State Park this fall in order to begin a nearly $7.26 million renovation to Renwick Dam on the Tongue River in the park.
The federal government will provide 65 percent of the project cost. The North Dakota State Water Commission will contribute 17.5 percent. In addition, the Red River Joint Board will add 8.75 percent, according to Neil Fleming, attorney for the Pembina County Water Resource District.
That leaves 8.75 percent local funding, which now totals about $497,500. Pembina County has agreed to pay 85 percent of that total. The county is requesting that Cavalier County contribute 15 percent of that 8.75 percent. Including all costs, Cavalier County's contribution would be about $80,400, according to Fleming.
That amounts to 50 cents to 60 cents per acre for three years for Cavalier County landowners, according to Cavalier County Commission Chairman Richard Flanders.
The local split was incorrect in an article on Monday's Page A5.
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"Even though Cavalier County land is responsible for bringing 57 percent of the drainage, they're only getting hit with 15 percent of the costs," said Fleming, attorney for the Pembina County Water Resource District.
So far, Cavalier County has not agreed to contribute financially to the project. The Cavalier County Commission may discuss the issue at its Sept. 2 meeting.
According to the Natural Resource Conservation Service, 57.5 percent of the Tongue River Watershed lies in Cavalier County, while 42.5 percent is in Pembina County.
The Renwick Dam, built in 1961, is considered a high-
priority project for rehabilitation under the Watershed Rehabilitation Act of 2000. The dam is located just upstream from the city of Cavalier, N.D., a town of 1,500 people.
The project includes retrofitting some new features into the dam, according to Dennis Reep, a civil engineer with the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bismarck. The top of the dam will be raised by 5.4 feet. In addition, a structural emergency spillway will replace a vegetative spillway that is used today.
Construction on the dam is expected to begin in 2009 and finish in 2011.
Access to Icelandic State Park will remain off of North Dakota Highway 5, west of Cavalier, through Labor Day 2009. The access will be detoured to the north through 2010 and possibly a short time in 2011, according to Fleming.
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The northern access to the park will be through a now-abandoned road in Akra Township. The road is about one-half mile long.
