State Rep. Bud Cook supports saving crumbling Marianna dam
MARIANNA – State Rep. Bud Cook said safety will be key in determining whether or not the crumbling Marianna dam can be saved, something he supports.
“That dam is the heart of this community,” Cook said Thursday at a town hall meeting he hosted in the Marianna Volunteer Fire Department in nearby West Bethlehem Township. “We want to keep the dam,” said Cook, R-Daisytown, at the meeting attended by nearly 80 people.
Marianna Council has met with heated opposition after it voted in April to allow the conservation group American Rivers to demolish the 110-yeaar-old dam next year and restore the stream at no cost taxpayers. Council earlier this month agreed to reconsider the dam removal project, giving Councilman Jeremy Berardinelli two weeks to identify grant sources to repair the dam, a deadline that expired Wednesday, Council President Wes Silva said prior to Cook’s meeting.
Berardinelli said he identified four grant sources, including those from state and federal sources.
Cook also said he was “working on it” when he was asked if any money was found to repair the dam built to create a reservoir for the local public water supply. The dam no longer serves as purpose after the water plant closed in 2014.
Cook said his research lead him to believe the last time the dam was inspected by the state was in 2015. The inspection called for trees to be removed from the top of the dam’s concrete wall and repairs to a sidewall.
“If the dam is not safe then we have a differing set of problems,” he said.
Silva said council discussed the inspection report in 2015 and concluded the borough could not afford to repair the dam, “but there were funds out there to remove it.”
His remarks were interrupted by Marianna resident Ferd Matula, who complained Silva had no right to decide the fate of the dam as a newcomer to town.
“The best that you can do is sit down and shut up,” Matula said.
Later, Ken W. Dufalla of Clarksville said local residents need to wait to hear the facts about the dam’s condition before rushing to a decision.
“Each one of you is going to have to search your souls,” Dufalla said. “There are pros for open rivers and there are pros for lakes,” he said. “Let’s go where the facts lead us.”