Hello, Collar City! This is Issue 23, dated Feb. 22, 2019.



Greetings! In this issue: an unexpected quantity of sediment, a potential printmaking studio in South Troy, "a bit of artist-designed neon," a sanctuary city resolution update, and more. Enjoy!



The city held a well-attended meeting Wednesday night at the Italian Community Center on the status and future of the failing Mt. Ida Lake Dam, which, as you may already know, the city has been authorized by the state to partially breach in order to blunt the impact of a possible collapse.A failure of the dam, under the best of circumstances, still would release "a good deal of sediment" and significantly damage the privately owned hydroelectric plant downstream, Mayor Patrick Madden said Wednesday. And if the stream's water level was particularly high at the time of collapse, a surge of water could damage property and bridges in South Troy.The contractors performing the emergency deconstruction, authorized by the state Department of Environmental Conservation in mid-January , had intended first to use a hydroshovel to remove sediment behind the dam to prevent it from traveling downstream (and impacting the hydroelectric facility) once the impoundment is partly removed. But earlier this month they discovered an issue with that plan: The volume of sediment "is much more than what we ever imagined," Chris Wheland, the city's superintendant of public utilities, said Wednesday. "We're talking maybe 10 to 15 tandem dump truck loads."The city now anticipates excavating the sediment—a change that will require DEC approval and likely a more substantial expenditure of public funds. (An earlier estimate pegged the cost of the emergency work at $60,000.) The presence of this unexpectedly large amount of sediment might mean that, in the event of an uncontrolled breach, "it doesn't cause a flood; it causes a mudslide," Wheland said. "The cleanup of that would be much worse than just water."As the city works toward executing an amended (and DEC-approved) plan to deconstruct the dam, it will also continue to seek public input on whether or not to rebuild the dam (and to what specifications, if it opts for the rebuild). At the next city-organized meeting, Friends of Ida Lake, a group that wants to preserve the pond/lake the dam creates, will give a presentation on its future vision for the area, deputy mayor Monica Kurzejeski said. The city will also introduce a study by a firm that considered potential recreational opportunities near or along the Poesten Kill.Riverkeeper, a nonprofit that advocates for the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, will screen a dam-decommissioning-related documentary in the city on April 9, the deputy mayor said. A member of the group spoke out against rebuilding the Mt. Ida Lake Dam at a city council committee meeting last month.The city also has apparently gained some clarity on comments from the state Historic Preservation Office, which previously told the city's engineering firm that it recommended "plans be developed to retain a dam" at the site. "Through further evaluation, it was determined that [SHPO] cannot require a dam be there, but they do want some sort of historic monument in that area that designates that a dam was once there," Wheland said.In April and May, the city will start trying to develop a consensus-backed plan regarding the future of the dam, the deputy mayor said."We want to approach this thoughtfully," Mayor Madden said at the outset of Wednesday's meeting. "Streams, waterfalls, [and] ponds can be terrific public amenities for urban environments. The problem that we have—this broken dam—might actually be an opportunity for us to envision the Poesten Kill pathway, as it meanders through the city, not merely as a geologic feature, but an amenity...for the neighborhoods that abut the stream bed."