Dear neighbors,
We hope all of you have managed the storm on Tuesday and that the effects of this most recent mini-flood have not caused you new problems to deal with. We know some of you lost docks or other items to the flooding, and if you can let us know, we will put together a Facebook campaign to help locate them downstream if we can. If you pulled something out or saved one of those floating docks, snap a picture, let us know, and we'll try to find its owner. Meanwhile, forecasts predict another big rain event tomorrow, with 24 hours of rain starting tomorrow afternoon, all night, and into Saturday. Please take precautions!
Now let's get to it:
1. Today is the First-Year Anniversary of the Dam Failure. One year ago today, all of our lives changed significantly when the dam failed about 8 am on May 14, 2019. The video made national news, and highlighted infrastructure challenges across the US. For us in this community though, this past year has been one in which ordinary people have come together to do extraordinary things. We now have a WCID and a plan approved by both the Lake Dunlap WCID and the GBRA boards that can restore our lake once and for all. One day, soon we hope, we'll all remember this day as the day we all realized our common interests and came together.
A year later, now we have a solid active community-- one in which we see examples almost on a daily basis of neighbors helping neighbors, of people making plans for the future, and yes, many of us drinking the lemonade we made from the lemons the dam failure left us with. For us here at the PLDA, today marks a time for us to be grateful that we live here, on Lake Dunlap, amongst all of you. This journey is one we are all making, and I am so proud to be part of this "can do," "get 'er done" amazing group of people.
2. Two quick recaps of good-news headlines from the April 29th Update: 1)The GBRA and the Lake Dunlap WCID boards have reached agreement on the contract to finance and manage the dam repairs and ongoing operations. Both boards voted unanimously to approve the 30-page agreement, which was reviewed by both the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the Attorney General. 2) In other good news, the engineering for the dam is now 100% complete. The WCID has teams involved in all levels of discussions around construction, bidding, and more, and this will continue as one of the core terms of our contract with GBRA. See the April 29th update for more details.
3. Please encourage your neighbors and friends to join the PLDA! We are planning to start up the annual PLDA membership drive in the next few weeks, which will culminate with the Annual Membership Meeting which we hope can be held in late summer or early fall. We'd like everyone on the lake to be a member, especially now, when it is so hard to get information in a timely way. This is where being a member of the PLDA definitely helps people stay in the loop.
The PLDA provides regular written updates on the progress of the dam project on all levels, delivered right to your inbox. If you are reading this because it was shared by a friend and would like these updates sent to you, please consider joining the PLDA (PLDA.org). That is the best way to get the most accurate and up to date info. Since the dam failed a year ago today, we've sent more than 50 updates directly to PLDA members, an average of one per week. Basically, as soon as we have something to report, we want to let members know -- as a matter of principle.
4. PLDA Town Hall to be rescheduled. With the election now moved into the fall (November 3), PLDA plans to reschedule the Town Hall sometime in September. With the additional time, we expect that much more information will be in place and that we will be able to provide pretty accurate estimates of both costs and taxes well ahead of the election. If that is not possible for whatever reason, we have a plan B to do it in smaller sessions, or even neighborhood by neighborhood or online if need be.
I guess that is enough for now. From us here at PLDA, we hope you and your families are safe and managing things as best you can. Once things open back up, we look forward to seeing all of you again. In the meantime, please know we are all still working hard to bring back our lake.
J Harmon President PLDA jrharmon123@yahoo.com