State hands down 3 Heater's Pond mandates

OGDENSBURG — Mayor Steve Ciasullo updated the Ogdensburg Council at their meeting, July 25, regarding three new state Heater's Pond Dam requirements. He also said the state has not yet approved the Heater's Pond Dam engineering plans. The Council has waited for final state approval since last spring.
Ciasullo said the state required Ogdensburg to send a letter acknowledging three new responsibilities regarding the dam: 1. dredging within the lake bed area, which then could cause the water level to be unacceptable in the future; 2. a formal dam safety inspection; and 3. if changes in the land use render the water level reduction unwarranted, it will be the responsibility of the borough to modify Heater's Pond Dam to provide additional spillway capacity.
Ciasullo said the borough already has a dam safety inspection every two years, costing between $1,500 and $2,000. He will clarify what “formal” means.
Officials agreed “the number three requirement” was very “vague.” President George Hutnick asked, “What does that mean?”
Ciasullo said tongue-in-cheek, “Years ago, before the dam was deemed not enough to hold back the water, that's been there for 60 years, they talked about an increased spillway, a hundred yard spillway.” He continued the cost was almost as much as the dam, including a concrete spillway, engineered to control the water for a much longer distance than currently. As of now, the dam cost is over $500,000.
Ciasullo continued he had been worried if they fixed the dam, per state requirement, then the state could add more, like additional spillway. He said the state did say there can be more.
Ciasullo said he hopes to have more detailed descriptions of the new requirements by the next meeting, before the council even decides.
“The last bullet concerns me, in light of everything that's going on in Sparta Mountain,” Councilman David Astor said.
He speculated, although they [the state] reassured them, in writing, there would be no changes.
“Now they're basically saying, 'Yeah, but if there is something, you're on the hook.' It sounds like they know something's coming up, and they're going to turn around and put the blame on us.” Astpr said.
Ciasullo said hopefully additional information would be enough to raise a red flag or not. He said maybe if it is “not pretty,” they could go back to the referendum regarding the dam.
Ciasullo also added they did not have the new information for the meeting last summer in the firehouse and agreed with Astor, the state said Ogdensburg did not have to be concerned about the project going on up above, the Sparta Mountain Management Plan.
“It's not going to affect Heater's Pond; and now they want us to put this together,” Ciasullo said.