The City of Batavia asked the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to help with the crumbling dam problem and IDNR has made a commitment to remove a crumbling dam and restore our riverfront.

IDNR spent several years studying the situation, held numerous meetings with the City and citizens and explored several options.

A strong majority of the Batavia City Council voted for full dam removal  after thoroughly studying the issues.

They realized that:
 Depot Pond will be retained and better than ever.
Fishing and canoeing will be better than ever.
 This portion of the river will be healthier.

We support the aldermen who voted for dam removal.
We think dam REMOVAL is common sense.
The representative for the group that advocated "keeping" the north Batavia dam said at the Batavia League of Women Voters forum that they would like to keep this dam (repair is NOT an option) and let nature take its course. Yet they want to "preserve" the beauty of the Batavia riverfront and "save our community."

We ask Batavia citizens to realize that if we do let nature take its course and there is a catastrophic failure of the dam in the future:
Uncontrolled sediment would wash downstream
Mudflats would definitely be created
Depot Pond would drain
Riverfront property owners in Batavia would find drastic, uncontrolled change to their part of the river
 The Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) would no longer have funds designated for removal of the damaged structure and shoreline restoration --- as they NOW have
It would then be up to the Batavia taxpayers to correct and pay for this problem
 
3-24-03 The Daily Herald's Endorsement of Dam Removal

Opponents too late; vote 'yes' on dam removal
 For as long as any Batavia resident can remember, there has been a north dam on the Fox River. The first one was built out of wood and rock in the late 1830s, and it was replaced by the current concrete structure in the early 1900s.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has plans to tear down the dam because it has been breached in several places. A few months ago, Batavia residents collected enough signatures to put a question on the April ballot asking whether the dam should be removed.

But there were plenty of opportunities for residents to weigh in on the issue in the two years before last summer's decision by a majority of city council members to remove the dam.

Also, voting to keep the dam isn't going to save a lot of taxpayer money.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources already has spent $1 million on the plan, which is now in its design phase. The project - which includes preservation of the depot pond - is expected to start in the summer of 2004 at the earliest. It will cost $8.6 million, but $6 million of that has been appropriated by the state already.

The DNR acknowledges the river will be narrower once the dam is gone, but it has plans to landscape the sides of the river up to the Fabyan Parkway bridge.

What would a "no" vote do? It would put pressure on the city council to change its decision and then try to persuade the DNR to shelve its project. But there is nothing to force the city council to vote again. And there is no guarantee the state would agree to stop the project even if the city council changed its stance.

We recommend a "yes" vote. This issue has been studied, debated and voted on. The dam is attractive to many - whether it is because of beauty or fishing - but it's too bad some of this passion wasn't stirred before the project was decided.

Letters to the Editor in support of dam removal           Information about dam removal