Spring Lake Dam focus of meeting on Monday
The popular swimming hole Spring Lake Dam has been behind a fence for about three years. And now, Texas State University and the city of San Marcos are slated to give an update on plans to repair the dam and reopen the area around it to the public.
University and city staff will present a community update on the university’s Spring Lake Dam Stabilization Project at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow at the City Park Rec Hall, 170 Charles Austin Dr.
The university owns the 160-year-old dam, which has been damaged repeatedly by flooding and was fenced off after the 2015 floods. A city press release states that the dam does not currently meet state standards. The city has been included in project discussions as an outside stakeholder.
University spokesman Jayme Blaschke said that Mayor John Thomaides requested the public meeting to inform the community about the status of the dam. Texas State University Vice President for Finance and Support Services Eric Algoe will give the presentation, Blaschke said. City staff will be available at the meeting to answer questions about floodplain issues and endangered species habitat, while university staff will answer questions about the project itself.
The Spring Lake Dam project is included in Texas State’s 2017-2027 Campus Master Plan as a recommended short-term infrastructure project. The plan gives an estimated cost of $4.5 million for the project. Algoe said that amount covers the university’s short-term plan.
“There’s really two phases of the dam repair,” he said. The first is stabilizing the dam and the area around it to make it safe for the foreseeable future. Algoe said that phase is what will cost $4.5 million.
“Longer term is actually to build a new, modern dam there,” he said, which will cost more.
Algoe said that there is no discussion of removing the dam, which forms Spring Lake.
Because of the seven endangered species living in or near the dam, he said, even initial repairs have involved numerous state and federal agencies to make sure the endangered species stay safe during work on the structure.
“This is why it has taken so long,” he said. “... There’s a whole alphabet of different agencies involved.”
Algoe said that the university expects to send out requests for proposals for a construction firm to do the work on the dam within the next month.
