Potential removal of the Fox River dam in St. Charles was in the spotlight Thursday night as a task force created to examine the issue met for the first time at St. Charles City Hall.
The Fox River Dam Joint Task Force, which includes members from the city of St. Charles, the St. Charles Park District and the River Corridor Foundation, is charged with examining “the potential environmental, economic and recreational impacts” if the dam is removed, according to a press release about the group.
The issue of possibly removing the dam in St. Charles came to the forefront in the fall, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a draft report which recommends removal of a number of dams along the Fox River, including those in Carpentersville, Elgin, South Elgin, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, North Aurora, Aurora and Montgomery.
St. Charles City Administrator Heather McGuire said the task force is specifically targeted for St. Charles.
“There are other communities along the river that are affected but this involves whether or not we in St. Charles agree with the Army Corps of Engineers recommendation to remove the dam, specifically the one located in St. Charles,” McGuire said. “We are not discussing any of the other dams located along the Fox River.”
St. Charles Mayor Lora Vitek said the work of the task force is important.
“The Fox River is at the very heart of our community and I don’t feel like the issues pertinent to St. Charles were adequately addressed in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ report,” Vitek said in a press release. “I think it is important to gather more information specific to the economic and recreational impacts surrounding dam removal, and to solicit public feedback before any decisions are made.”
The first meeting of the task force mainly involved organizational issues for the group.
John Rabchuk, a director with the River Corridor Foundation and a member of the new task force, said the major goals Thursday were to elect officers for the board and “decide when we’re going to meet.”
He said the task force will be working to gather information concerning the impact removal of the dam in St. Charles would have in the city.
“The City Council is the one that is going to have to make the decision as to what the future of the dam is or the approach for the river,” he said.
He said the task force’s job “is to provide as many facts as we can” to those making the decision.
At the meeting, St. Charles Park Board Commissioner Jim Cooke agreed to serve as chair with local resident Conrad Newell chosen as vice chair of the task force.
No meeting times were established pending task force members submitting their calendars to McGuire, who will then arrange the best days for the task force to meet.
McGuire said her expectation was the “meetings would be monthly if not more frequent” and would take place over the coming year.
“As we get into setting goals, we will add consultants and engineers or other environmental consultants to participate,” she said. “We do expect some public engagement as we go along and get their input. With the release of the Army Corps report I feel interest is increasing and people are very tied to it for a lot of different reasons whether it be the tradition and the history of the dam or the actual environmental impacts.
“There are people vested in it, knowledgeable, and interested in the outcome,” she said.
Margaret Valley and her husband Wayne of St. Charles attended Thursday’s meeting and both expressed concerns about the dam “because it’s right there by us,” and noted the importance of the Fox River to the city.
“There is a lot of recreational activity and fishing and the river has gotten cleaner over the years,” Wayne Valley said. “We’ve been here 36 years and it’s really cleaned up and is a recreational area with boating, water skiing and jet skiing and it brings people into the city.”
Rick Spiers of St. Charles said he came to Thursday’s meeting “because I’m interested in the river and the dam because there are parts of the dam that would be better to keep and others not,” he said. “I just wanted to see what they are talking about today. As far as dams and being all or none, that’s a good question as it affects communities up and down the river.”
At the meeting, a resident from Geneva asked if there “was a way all of the communities could work together” concerning the issue of dam removal on the Fox River.
Rabchuk said because the “issues with the dams for each community are different it would be pretty tough to get a commonality of answers that would address things.”
Once the date of the next meeting is determined, Rabchuk said it would will likely focus “on the list of issues the task force needs to address including water level, pollution, structural integrity of the surrounding walls and identify those and what information or consulting group do we have to hire that can give us an answer for this.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
