The Batavia City Council has voted to let the Illinois Department of Natural Resources tear down the North Batavia dam and replace it with five structures to reduce narrowing of the waterway.
But Mayor Jeff Schielke said the vote does not make the project a done deal.
“I don’t see any closure here except that the city made a decision and sent it forward to the state,” Schielke said. “Whether this ever gets done or not is in their court. Given the state of their finances, I remain skeptical that it’s going to happen anytime soon.”
Under the plan, approved Thursday in an 8-6 vote, the agency plans to remove the crumbling, 100-year-old dam, which was originally built to generate power for the Challenge Windmill Co., and put in the structures, called riffles, at a cost of more than $9 million.
The project also includes landscaping exposed riverbanks and building a berm with a pump to preserve Depot Pond, a finger of the Fox River that wraps around Island Park and which engineers predict would dry up once the dam is gone. It would cost the city about $4,400 per year to run the pump and maintain the berm.
Controversy over the project began in 1994, when Batavia deeded the dam to the agency so the state would take over its maintenance. In 2000, department officials announced they wanted to remove the dam, sparking protests that narrowing the river at that point would drain Depot Pond and replace scenic Riverwalk vistas with mudflats. A 2002 advisory referendum showed voters favored keeping the dam by a 2-1 margin.
The Save the Dam Committee, which put the measure on the ballot, says the city should take back the dam and spend about $1.9 million to repair it. Another citizens group, Batavians for a Healthy River, says the dam should be removed and the exposed riverbank landscaped with prairie plants to improve the river’s ecosystem. Both groups have made multiple presentations at City Council meetings over the last two years.
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“People can keep talking about this if they want, but it’s out of our hands now,” Schielke said.