City, residents praised at dam dedication event

City officials, state and federal departments, and a handful of Libby residents gathered at the Flower Creek Dam Wednesday for the official dedication of the project completed in spring.

The new dam stands approximately 74-feet high and stretches about 320-feet across the eastern end of reservoir containing 220 acre-feet of water. Construction crews used 11,000 cubic square yards of concrete in building the structure. Those who spoke at Wednesday’s dedication event hailed the dam as an indication of security for the town’s drinking water and public safety.

The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in 2009 determined the original Flower Creek Dam, built nearly 70 years ago, was on the verge of collapse if an earthquake were to hit the area. Core samples of the concrete produced powder and surveyors found the dam had been built without reinforcement-bar support.

“That’s why we had to do what we did here,” Libby Mayor Doug Roll, first to speak at Wednesday’s dedication, said.

After sifting through options on how to proceed with the dam, the city chose to simply rebuild the dam. The city sought and secured grant and loan funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, and the state Board of Investments, Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and Department of Commerce, accumulating $14,620,000 toward the project, including more than $6.4 million in grants funding. The final cost of the dam was $11.5 million, but the undertaking also included fixing the city’s leaking water distribution project, as required by the USDA before the department would give a loan to the city.

In his speech, Roll thanked the agencies, departments, contractors, subcontractors and offices for their work in the past seven years, noting the project, the largest public works undertaking in Libby history, was completed within the expected schedule and even under budget.

Next spoke John Tubbs, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The department refinanced some outstanding debt for the community, opening additional space for the remaining $4.5 million in loans to proceed with the project as the 70-year-old structure continued to deteriorate south of town.

In a powerfully ironic moment during Tubbs’ speech, a short breeze knocked over a few large posters depicting the original, tattered Flower Creek Dam.

“That’s what could have happened,” Tubbs said to a few laughs. “But we don’t have that now; we have a solid dam. It really does secure the city’s water supply for 50-100 years. The dam safety improvement here is tremendous. If there was a failure, loss of life was a potential.”

Lad Barney of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development underlined the timeline required to complete the project, noting that several people involved with the project at the beginning had moved on to other projects during the last few years.

“Many of those people in those organizations have moved on. It takes an army to make a project like this happen,” Barney said.

Before USDA officials approved the project for funding, they wanted some insurance that the project couldn’t soon cause major negative effects on the city’s water distribution system. The city replaced the broken system two years ago, Roll said, and jumped back into the race of competitive loan and grant funding.

“To get the public support around you and finish a project like this is nothing short of Herculean,” Barney said. “All these guys stepped up.”

Barney said the Rural Development Center contributed $9.2 million in funding toward the total cost of the dam.

Barney, like those who spoke before him, thanked the Libby residents for their own contribution to the project.

Bob Morrison, president of Morrison-Maierle, the main contractor for the Flower Creek Dam, also thanked the city for bringing them onto the project. He also thanked Wilson Constructors, the subcontractor from Helena and emphasized the dam project as a rare opportunity.

“There are very few dam projects in the U.S., so to do this project was very special,” Morrison said.

Ryan Jones, Morrison-Maierle’s project manager for the Flower Creek Dam project, is actually a Libby native. He is also serving as the operations manager for the firm’s Kalispell office.

“I’m glad we could get it done for the community, it’s a good project,” Jones said after the dedication speeches.

Roll before the dedication speech said that he plans invite the public for a viewing of the completed dam later this year through the public works department. He said the limited amount of space prompted concern of large crowds overbearing the facilities.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.