Lake Bronson Dam repairs estimated at $25 million

Minnesota DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr, Northwest Regional Director Rita Albrecht, and five other regional DNR representatives met with the Kittson County Board of Commissioners at the regular county board meeting on August 21. Landwehr said they were visiting Kittson and other counties in an attempt to “keep communication open.”

Among the topics discussed were the Lake Bronson Dam and the school trust land south of Karlstad.

Landwehr said the dam is “in worse shape than we thought,” and repairs are now estimated at $24.8 million.

Albrecht said the Lake Bronson Dam continues to be at the top of the priority list, but Commissioner Jo Bouvette said, “The sad part about this is, we started talking about this several years ago. Now it’s grown to $24 million and it was no where near that then.”

Bouvette also asked what are the chances that Lake Bronson would be a top priority when the DNR receives limited funding for repairs to infrastructure like dams, some years only receiving $4 million.

For more, see this week’s North Star News!