COLUMBUS – The owners of stores, marinas, bars and restaurants around Buckeye Lake have cause to celebrate this Memorial Day weekend: The 3,100-acre lake will be ready for boaters this summer.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
Safety improvements to the deteriorating dam that allows the lake to form have been in eight months, nearly a year ahead of schedule allowing the water depth in the lake to be raised to about five feet, close to the normal summer depth of six feet, Ohio Department of Natural Resources director James Zehringer announced at Buckeye Lake State Park Thursday morning, just ahead of the three-day weekend that signals the unofficial start of summer.
Workers closed the spillway gates at 7:30 Thursday morning, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch, to allow the lake to start refilling.
Zehringer says boaters will be able to reach most businesses around the lake at idle speeds but boating at full throttle will not be allowed for now.
Owners of bars, restaurants, marinas, bait shops and other businesses in the lake region that ring up most of their sales in the busy summer season say the lake’s lower “winter pool” level has hurt their businesses badly.
The 4.1-mile earthen dam is nearly 180 years old and was weakened by several hundred homes, docks and other structures built into it. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded the dam was at risk of failing, and the state has kept the water level low as a precaution.
The dam replacement project is scheduled for completion in 2019.