CLEARFIELD – Repairs to Raftman’s Memorial Dam have put Clearfield Borough in a tough spot.
At Thursday’s meeting, the Clearfield Borough Council discussed their options in what to do about the dam.
According to previously published GANT News articles, a portion of the R. Dudley Tonkin Memorial Timber Dam, also known as the Raftmen’s Memorial Dam, has broken away and is on the concrete footer of the dam. A portion of the dam floated off and hung up further out in the river. While it may have occurred due to “wear and tear” on the dam, the borough engineers are not for sure what caused it to break away.
Borough Operations Manager Leslie Stott said the borough was notified of problems with the dam on Sept. 11. Since then, the engineers, along with the borough street department, have been down to inspect the damage. She said now that the water levels have fallen, the amount of wear and tear the dam has suffered is “very evident.”
Stott said that Engineer Todd Banks of Stiffler, McGraw and Associates, believes that a “bandage repair” of the dam could be done by the street department. This repair would give Clearfield and the surrounding areas enough time to conduct a capital campaign to raise enough money to fully repair the dam.
“The dam is having a great impact on the surrounding areas,” Stott said. “If we don’t bandage this right now, the whole dam will fail. It will not last through the winter and spring. We don’t want to put more burden on the street crew, but this needs to be done.”
She said the project would be very “weather dependent.”
When asked his opinion of the project, Todd Kling, the street crew foreman, said he believes the crew can perform the work.
“We’re here for the community,” Kling said. “We want people to know we’re here to serve the community, but we also don’t want to be criticized because there are other things that aren’t going to get done right away. The eight guys on the crew really care about the community and we want to do it if this is what the board wants.”
Stott recommended that the council vote to remove Sept. 26 and Oct. 3 from the fall clean-up schedule. She said the leaves on the trees are showing no signs of falling any time soon and the extra time would free up the crew to do the repairs on the dam. She is also going to contact CareerLink to see if they have any programs to provide workers for the fall clean up. She said she is open to any ideas anyone may have to help free up the street department.
Another problem the borough is facing is acquiring the right materials for the repairs. Stott said the dam was originally constructed of white oak, but white oak is in very high demand and very expensive. She said she is looking at purchasing red oak for the project and is trying to get prices as soon as possible.
She said once the borough is able to get the materials and approval for the project from the Department of Environmental Protection, work can begin immediately.
On a positive note, Stott said there have been volunteers already stepping forward to help head up a capital campaign to make the dam “bigger and better than ever.”
“We have to get our priorities straight and find the best way to use the tax payers’ money. The dam has to come first,” Board member Dave Gallaher said.