Lockwood Irrigation has been informed that they are being awarded a $35,000 ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) grant, according to Carl Peters, Irrigation District Manager. The grant falls short of the $400,000 requested, said Peters, which means that the district may not be able to go forward with their project.
The District is also dealing with problems involving the construction of Camping World at the end of Rosebud Lane.
Peters explained more about the ARPA grant saying that the board had intended to replace the spillway of the intake where the head gates are. The Irrigation Board has not met since news of the proposed grant was announced so what course the board will take remains in limbo.
Lowering the spillway is necessary because debris and logs do not go over the intake wall very well which creates a log jam. The concrete wall is old and crumbling and needs to be replaced. Previously, DNRC had approved repairing the spillway and the district received a $100,000 grant to do so, but that was in 2010 when exceptionally bad flooding washed out the berm. DNRC approved the district redirecting the grant to do that, so the spillway issue still remains a problem.
Peters also reported that the Irrigation District has been dealing with a problem that has occurred involving the ongoing construction of Camping World. The construction crews of Jacon Constructors of Benton, Arkansas, have taken out about 19 feet of the canal berm.
The Lockwood Water District’s prescriptive right of way for the canal has been in place since 1913.
The construction crew did not realize it was an irrigation canal and thought it was for drainage, said Peters, who made the contractor aware of the problem at the beginning of March. He has since talked with Camping World officials, who said that they would take care of the matter by either installing a pipe or lining the ditch.
The canal is filled by two pumps which together pump 12,000 gallons per minute. The pressure could cause seepage which would stress the integrity of the canal berm, and the weight of the water could cause the ditch bank to give way — not only flooding Camping World, but it could also impact the new construction on Interstate 90.
Peters’ concern is whether the problem is rectified before they have to begin running water down the ditch at the end of May.
