Columbia Association President Phillip Nelson wants to put $500,000 a year aside for future dredging of the town's three man-made lakes, even as a $15 million scouring of the lake bottoms continues.
"We just don't want to let [the cost] build up until it's $10 [million] to $15 million again," Nelson said about asking the CA board to approve the idea as part of the new capital budget that takes effect May 1. Although Wilde Lake, the smallest of the three, has been dredged several times since it was built, the huge work at 27-acre Lake Kittamaqundi and 37-acre Lake Elkhorn represents the first systematic dredging since they were built in the years just after Columbia's founding in the late 1960s.
If approved, Nelson's proposal would be an addition to the homeowners association's capital budget, joining projects such as renovation or replacement of the more than 40-year-old Hobbit's Glen Golf Course clubhouse and creation of a dog park. This year's discussions involve relatively few changes to a two-year budget approved in February 2010. At that time, the board approved $61 million in operating expenses and $10 million for capital projects in fiscal 2012. The board will debate and vote on any changes late next month, Nelson said.
There had been talk about more frequent dredging during the years of planning for the current project, especially as the expense kept rising, but Nelson's proposal is the first concrete evidence of that intent. The board approved added money for the projects in September, and is now facing a $1 million lawsuit for alleged nonpayment and breach of contract filed last month by the Pennsylvania firm dredging Lake Elkhorn. Work at Elkhorn and Kittamaqundi has stopped because of winter weather that has frozen the lake surfaces.
Nelson said he doesn't expect to use any of the money until 2013 but sees it as a way to keep small ponds near the source of the two larger lakes as effective sediment traps that prevent more muck from flowing into the main lakes during heavy storms. In addition, the annual amounts can be used over time to remove sediment from areas even the current projects won't touch.
"We want to do it on an annual or biannual basis," Nelson said about the maintenance dredging. CA also hired a watershed manager last year to work on longer-term solutions to sediment and algae problems in the lakes — a hire the board members insisted on amid charges that CA has neglected the lakes for years.
Elaine Pardoe, founder of CLEER, the Committee for Lake Elkhorn's Environmental Restoration, was happy to hear about Nelson's idea. "I'm all for it," she said. "This is a wonderful idea."
Several board members also agreed with Nelson's move.
"I think all of us feel that waiting 40 years is too long," said Cynthia Coyle, the CA board president who represents Harper's Choice village. "If we can do more to be more preventative, we won't have huge bills," she said. Maintaining the lakes is a "necessity," she said. "I think they've been neglected."
Suzanne Waller, whose Town Center district includes Lake Kittamaqundi, was equally approving. "I think it's a great idea, she said. "We've really been waiting for something like this. Our lakes are a wonderful asset, but they were built as sediment ponds. They add tremendous value" to Columbia and to the people's lives who visit them, she said.
Andy Stack, who represents Owen Brown where Lake Elkhorn is located and Philip Kirsch, of Wilde Lake, said they too approve of Nelson's idea.
Shari Zaret, the King's Contrivance board member, agreed. "We know we're going to be facing the ongoing maintenance issue," she said. "That's just something we've learned through our experience with this."
The other issues are not as easy to decide. The board was to tour the Hobbit's clubhouse Thursday to help them decide among five expensive options, from various levels of renovation and expansion to demolition and a new building. Club members have told the board they are bothered by persistent foul odors, and feel the building is an embarrassment for visiting golfers and restaurant patrons.
Coyle said even the dog park, a fenced field where pet owners could bring their dogs to run free, involves expenses for maintenance and supervision. The idea has proved very popular among residents, who have testified that the town should establish a park to match one Howard County operates in Ellicott City.
Coyle said both topics were funded for study in this year's budget, and now the board must decide what to do.