ENGLEWOOD — The Miami Conservancy District announced Tuesday that it is receiving $8.6 million from the federal government to make infrastructure repairs on local flood control dams.
The funding will prioritize rehabilitation work at the Englewood, Germantown, and Taylorsville dams.
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The Englewood Dam is the largest in the state and handles the highest volume of flood events in the region.
More than 600 people signed up to tour the Englewood facility to examine the aging concrete and observe the need for capital investment firsthand.
Sarah Hippensteel Hall, spokeswoman for the Miami Conservancy District, detailed the structural state of the facilities following a century of service.
“It’s really over a hundred-year-old concrete that needs that reinvestment, needs that rehabilitation, so that it stays strong when we do need it to hold back floodwaters,” Hall said.
She emphasized the long-term role of the Englewood structure in protecting surrounding communities. “It’s been working really hard for our region, and now we’re going to need to reinvest to keep it strong for the next 100 years,” Hall said.
Local residents who frequent the site have also observed physical wear on the concrete structure.
Ellen Spinks and her husband, John Spinks, live in Clayton and spend time at the Englewood Dam observing local wildlife. “We are bird watchers. We go over and across the road to see eagles and everything else,” Ellen Spinks said.
Prior to the funding announcement, she sought details on project spending, stating, “I want to know where that money is going, how they’re going to use it.”
John Spinks noted visible deterioration along the dam’s surfaces. “They are crumbling,” John Spinks said. “You’ll often wonder when you see the dams in the condition they are, if we have a significant amount of rain, would they hold up?”
Following the announcement of the federal funding, Ellen Spinks welcomed the planned repairs. “I was thrilled because this one was looking bad,” Ellen Spinks said.
Construction on the dam repair project is expected to begin this spring.
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