Freedom — Thursday, October 14, 2009 — Water level was at 407.25’ (above sea level) plan on Monday, Columbus Day, and is now on the way down to the winter level of 404.5’. Today the level is down just below 407’ and continuing to drop at a rate of approximately a foot every 5 – 6 days. The plan is to be at 406’ by early November and 405’ by mid December.

The level was at 407.25′ through much of October, and then we had some widespread rain. The level reached a high of 408.2′ last Wednesday and, reluctantly the south side dam was opened.

The dam had remained closed to protect a 407.25′ level for Columbus Day weekend in sympathy for us die hards who held out to the last hour to get our boats out – a little more protection than we needed. It worked good for me because I got my floating docks up on the beach with very little winching on a warm fall day.

I visited the dam this morning and was lucky enough to meet and talk with the Surveyor and Consulting Engineer who are working on a plan to replace the north side (Berry Bay) Dam. This project was outlined in an Alliance report released April 29th, 2009.

The next phase of this project is to bring in drilling equipment on the downstream side of the Berry Bay dam and do test borings. Water level needs to be below 405’ level so that no water is coming over the spillway for at least a week.

The plan is to start drilling in early November. Concord is working on a plan to accomplish this early level drop. For now, plan that the level will continue to go down and expect the rate may be greater than in previous years.

My advice to the contractor was to put a big rope on all equipment they place below the dam and tie it to some big trees because we almost always have a flood between now and Christmas.