Century-old dam that keeps Lake Lansing homes from flooding needs major repairs

HASLETT — A century-old dam that controls the water level on Lake Lansing, and helps prevent hundreds of shoreline homes from flooding, is in need of a major fix soon.

The dam's overflow control valve was found to be damaged during a December inspection and must be fixed before the next review in December 2025, said Paul Pratt, Ingham County's deputy drain commissioner.

The cost is not clear, Pratt said. A consultant is being hired to determine the scope of problems and the expected price of any fixes, he added. Property owners expect to have to share a portion of the cost and want to make sure repairs don't end up costing millions of dollars, said Steve Carpenter, president of the Lake Lansing Property Owners Association.

The valve helps to release water when the lake gets too high, and if that valve is not fixed some lakefront homes could flood, he said. The lake is shallow, 34 feet at its deepest, and can quickly go from "feast to famine" water levels, Pratt said.

"The overflow valve is broken, making it much more difficult to maintain the court-ordered lake levels. Though failure of the dam is not imminent, its usefulness is declining," Pratt wrote, in a memo requesting the county start the process by hiring a consultant to give a scope of the work needed.

Decades-old litigation mandates acceptable levels for the lake.

MORE: Then and Now: Lake Lansing Park through the years

He said the failure by the county to maintain acceptable levels could open a door for residents to bring lawsuits.

The dam was last repaired in the mid-1970s, said Carpenter. Pratt said the dam is long overdue for repairs.

Once known as the Olds Dam, it was built by R.E. Olds in the 1920s and eventually deeded to the county. A major lake dredging and maintenance project in the mid-1970s included a $10,000 repair of the dam in 1976 after it was damaged in a spring storm. The broader lake upgrades were paid for by the county, the federal government and a series of fundraisers, starting with a bluegrass festival starring Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys.

Fixing the dam will have substantial costs that won't be determined until a consultant looks into the dam, he said.

"We want to make sure this is done correctly, to make sure this is done without going into exorbitant costs pointing to the millions of dollars," Carpenter said. He said the roughly 250 lake property owners anticipate they will be sharing a portion of the cost.

Pratt said grants would be explored and the funding would likely come from the county, the drain commission and local property owners.

The dam is inspected every three years and won't pass the December 2025 inspection without significant changes, according to the December 2022 report by the drain commission.

The spillway at the top of the dam has vegetation including shrubs and at least one tree, growing out of it and needs trimming and concrete sealing potentially quicker than the more comprehensive fix, Carpenter said.

But the comprehensive fix is needed to keep the lake as a major regional draw, he said.

The drain commission asked, and received on Tuesday, a County Services Committee authorization to spend $44,900 to hire consultant firm Spicer Group for the first step of the repairs, which is an evaluation of what needs to be done.

The drain commission recommended the cheapest of four bids.

Drain Commissioner Patrick Lindemann wrote in a memo that he had worked with the two lowest bid companies before and would not hesitate to do so again. He agreed to recommend East Lansing-based Spicer Group's $44,900 bid over Grand Haven-based Eng. Inc. Engineering & Surveying's $55,680 bid. The remaining bids were nearly double, or more than triple, the Spicer Group's bid, which Lindemann noted.

"It will be paid for, the lake is clearly a benefit to the entire region, and nobody is going to let that fail because failure is not an option here," he said.

Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Century-old dam that keeps Lake Lansing homes from flooding needs major repairs