City of Wakefield battles river, lake surges

By P.J. GLISSON

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Wakefield - Sunday Lake and Little Black River overflowed their banks Wednesday, causing street closures and concerted work by City of Wakefield employees who tackled the issue at several locations in town.

By mid-day, water on the south side of the lake had reached U.S. 2, although it did not pool on the highway. The area around the Krist Food Mart and gas station, however, became an extension of the lake, with that stretch of Lakeshore Drive and the southern end of Ascherman Avenue engulfed.

"The lake is oversurged with water, so it's starting to come over the banks," said city manager Bob Brown in an afternoon phone call with the Globe.

"The lake level is up dramatically between the rain we got and the snow melting and the water in the ground," he said, adding that the lake's dam is "flowing like a torrent."

The city manager added that city workers made a "valiant effort" to drop sand bags in the area as a means of controlling the surge.

"I think the guys did a great job," said Brown, who claimed that water then began receding quickly.

City clerk Sue Ahonen said students from Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 School also helped with the effort.

According to Brown, city workers also closed Eddy Street, as well as the area of Sunday Lake and Charles Street, on Wednesday morning.

Brown said workers unplugged at least one storm water outlet, and said they had planned to leave the closures in place overnight until they can evaluate the related roads today.

"As far as I know, no homes have been inundated," said Brown.

In referring to the forecast of several dry days, he concluded, "If we don't get rain, I think we've seen the worst of it."

Brown said the city, already on Monday, also had released "untreated, highly diluted, raw sewage" into the storm water system, which he said flows into Planters Creek.

"There was no discharge into Sunday Lake this time," he said, referring to a previous discharge earlier in the spring.

In a separate press release issued Wednesday morning, Brown stated that the discharge posed no health risk in relation to city drinking water or any other issue.

He explained that the action was necessary "to prevent and lessen diluted, untreated sewage from backing up into basements."

"The city is in the early process of developing a multi-year strategic plan to improve the capability, capacity, and reliability of our sanitary sewer system," stated Brown in the release.

He concluded that the city "continues to coordinate with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Gogebic Health Department."