By Ken Wyatt
If this week’s events don’t mean the end of the Concord Mill Pond, they are a clear wake-up call: Fix the dam or lose the mill pond for good.
Tuesday’s Concord Village Council meeting focused attention on serious deterioration of the dam, which is privately owned by the Joers family. Gaps had developed in the twin panels of 3-inch-thick planks. They were allowing water to drain through, not over, the dam.
At that point, drainage was slowly lowering the pond level – but so noticeably that residents were discussing the situation on social media.
A call Thursday morning from former Pulaski supervisor Bob Jones was blunt: The dam was failing, better get there and take some photos. That was just after 9 a.m. On arrival, the pond was noticeably reduced from the day before. Upstream, the north branch of the Kalamazoo River had fallen to a point that the pond looked more like a sprawling river. Downstream, water was gushing from beneath Main Street and the dam, giving the appearance of a wild river.
Others stopped by to look at what was occurring. A woman whose husband played Santa Claus last December at Concord’s “Christmas Corner” had heard about the situation and had to stop by to see for herself.
Freddie Naegele, arriving for work at his automotive repair shop across the street, walked over for his own review. He thought someone should get some concrete barriers used in highway construction and have them dropped in front of the dam to stabilize it.
Normally, the pond level reaches a high-water level and pours over the top of the dam. No more. Over the course of the week, the water level had been dropping so much that water was pouring through holes in the dam, and the level Thursday was well below the top of the dam.
That was about 9:30 a.m. By noon, a second visit coincided with a visit by Jack Ripstra, whose earlier inspection had been reported in the village council meeting, along with that of a visit by state inspectors on Monday.
Ripstra is also working with a private group interested in acquiring ownership of the dam in order to preserve it. That group is with Concord’s Hubbard Memorial Museum Foundation.
Ripstra had inspected the situation both from the upstream and downstream sides. Downstream, the water level made it difficult to get a good view. On the dam side, he crouched down to take a fresh measurement of how far the water level had fallen below the top of the original dam “logs” as he called them. At noon, the water was more than 30 inches below the top of the dam.
Ripstra spoke knowledgeably about the situation. He also has been involved in the inspection of other area dams. In appearances, the Concord Mill Pond seemed to be disappearing. But once gone, was it gone for good?
Not at all, Ripstra said. He had been in contact with the state’s dam inspection officials and said that they were supportive of remedial action. But that would entail replacing at least one set of those 3-inch-thick boards. That would be a challenging process for whoever does it.
Right now, other interested parties have used steel plates and even some plywood boards to help hold back the pond water. But those are only stop-gap solutions, and they are not solving the problem — a primitive dam structure that is giving out.
Based on the failure of the Homer mill pond dam in the early 20th century, some had worried about the downriver impact of a failure of the Concord Mill Pond. However, the drainage this week has been so gradual that downriver checks showed no serious problem. At the Warner Road bridge, for instance, the river level was not overflowing any of the river banks.
That bears out what The Recorder was told by a state dam inspector in 2020. There had been two major dam failures that year in Michigan, which raised questions concerning other dams in the state. Nick Assendelft, a media relations specialist with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy looked into the matter at The Recorder’s request. He said the Concord dam was considered to be a low-hazard structure. And that, he explained, has to do with the potential impact of a dam failure downstream.
“Since it is low hazard,” he continued, “it is on our radar screen – but with only two dam inspectors, we have to prioritize.”
Meanwhile, the Concord Mill Pond is at the point of decision. Depending on what is, or isn’t, done, the pond could become history. Or, it could be preserved.
And that, as DPW director Jason Blossom told the village council Tuesday, “is the dam news.”
