Pedro – Area residents will get their chance next week to discuss future dam repairs and recreation possibilities at Lake Vesuvius.

Wednesday, April 19, 2000

Pedro – Area residents will get their chance next week to discuss future dam repairs and recreation possibilities at Lake Vesuvius. Wayne National Forest will sponsor a public meeting April 28, 7-9 p.m., at Ohio University Southern Campus’s Bowman Auditorium.

"Basically, they want to explain what they would like to see happen," said Constance Roberts, visitor information specialist at the Wayne’s headquarters in Athens.

The meeting will promote community partnership with the forest and the Wayne’s wish list, she said.

Kim Warner, engineer at the Ironton ranger station, said the meeting stems from the Wayne’s master plan and district ranger Mike Baines’s vision of what can be done at the lake.

Baines and other top Wayne officials are out of town this week at meetings.

Specialists also will discuss plans to bring the Vesuvius dam – an earthen dam built in the late 1930s – up to modern standards, Ms. Warner said.

"The dam itself is structurally fine," she said.

But, in the late 1970s, there were several dam failures in the West, so standards for what flood event dams should be designed for were toughened, Ms. Warner said.

The Vesuvius dam can’t hold enough water to take the brunt of that "design flood," which is considered 37 inches of rain in 72 hours, she said.

"If you look at it, 10 to 12 inches per day is about all it can handle," Ms. Warner said.

Although such a rain is unlikely, the March 1997 came close so it’s not infeasible, she said.

For damage that would lead to the dam’s failure, water would have to run overtop the dam for an extended period of time.

"So we looked at a lot of different ways to increase storage capacity," she said.

The Wayne has proposed "armoring" the face of the dam with roller-compacted concrete and re-covering it with topsoil, Ms. Warner said.

The plan is that if rains ever caused the lake to run over, it might wash away the topsoil but the concrete would keep it from failing, she said.

The Wayne is still pursuing congressional funding but officials have a draft design, with a final expected in the next month, Ms. Warner said.

At the public meeting, though, Wayne officials want to concentrate more on recreational opportunities and the boost new additions can have on tourism in the forest, Ms. Warner said.

"There was a master plan done on the Vesuvius area about six to seven years ago," she said. "We want to start trying to pursue where we’re going and decide want to go for."

Funding still must be sought in Congress but the potential listed in the master plan means extra recreation and more attractions for both lake and forest visitors.

For example, plans list a new horse riding trail camp and a lodge, convention center or other construction as possibilities, Ms. Warner said.

And Baines has said that a suspension bridge connecting the proposed horse camp to a point near the lake’s beach area is another possibility.

Officials want public input on the plans and proposals during the public meeting.

The forest also has maintenance plans for the Vesuvius area, including road upgrades, Ms. Warner said.

"We did get the main access road fixed up and paved but the campground roads have not been paved in 20 years," she said.