By Julie Johansen
According to Tracy Behling, president of the Ferron Canal Company, the reconstruction of Millsite Dam has been postponed for approximately one year. When notified on April 1 by the state NRCS they were assured that both state and federal funding was secure. As with many government programs sometimes it takes longer than expected to get specs through “peer review.” The canal company is grateful that this reconstruction is going to happen.
It is now expected that the bidding process will begin in late fall and bids will be awarded in November or December. Construction is expected to begin in August of 2017. This added time will allow for more competitive bidding and once the bids are awarded contractors will have six months to prepare. The construction schedule will follow as was outlined last fall at a presentation by the NRCS.
Irrigation allocations are now going to be much like last year as they will not need to lower the reservoir levels until construction begins. It will pretty much be business as usual both with irrigation and at the golf course for this season at least.