DNR orders Fairfield not to drain Walton Lake, pending review

FAIRFIELD – The DNR is putting the brakes on Fairfield’s plan to drain Walton Lake.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has ordered the city not to drain the lake as part of its plan to replace the golf cart bridge. In a letter that was sent Friday, Aug. 29 and shared with The Union, DNR Land Quality Bureau Chief Amie Davidson wrote to the City of Fairfield that resident Ed Noyes had appealed the DNR’s approval of draining Walton Lake, and that the DNR had granted Noyes’s request for a stay.

This means that the project is on hold until the matter goes before the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, or until the DNR lifts the stay for “other authorized reasons.” The city had planned to begin draining the lake this week.

Noyes filed his appeal of the DNR’s decision to approve the drawdown after learning it had been awarded, which was announced at the Aug. 11 Fairfield City Council meeting. Noyes argues the city’s plan to drain the lake and replace the bridge is unconstitutional because the project serves primarily a private purpose (the Walton Club), rather than a genuine public interest, thereby violating the “public use doctrine,” Article I, Chapter 18 of the Iowa Constitution.

“The City has also wrongfully interpreted a 2015 lease with the Walton [Club] that required the City to ‘maintain’ the bridge to require that the City build a new bridge, or equivalent. This is also an impermissible interpretation that is without legal authority,” Noyes wrote in his notice of appeal and request for contested case hearing.

Noyes wrote in his demand for legal review that “maintenance” of the bridge does not imply that the city must replace the bridge, since both of the bridges previously built for the club were done by the club.

“In fact, when the issue first came up about the need to replace the bridge, the Walton Club assumed it was their responsibility to rebuild the bridge,” he wrote. “Somehow, the City assumed otherwise. No legal opinion has ever been offered to justify this interpretation.”

Fairfield City Attorney John Morrissey could not be reached by press time to comment on this matter, though Fairfield City Engineer and Public Works Director Melanie Carlson wrote in an email that the city attorney disagrees with any claims that the project to replace the golf cart bridge over Walton Lake does not serve a public purpose.

“In addition to this project being beneficial to the lake (with the culvert being higher than the bottom of the lake, the dam will act as a silt dam), the project is entirely on city property; the city (and other cities like us) has several membership-only community assets that receive city funds: pools, gyms, and civic centers,” Carlson wrote.

Noyes said the council can take steps at its next meeting on Sept. 8 to resolve these issues by passing a motion to update the city’s lease with the Walton Club to assume responsibility for building and maintaining the golf cart bridge adjacent to its clubhouse. He said that Drish Construction, which the city hired to install a box culvert to replace the bridge, could instead be directed to merely remove the existing bridge. This would avoid having to drain the lake at all, and after the responsibility of the bridge is turned over to the Walton Club, the club could pursue cheaper options for bridge replacement, Noyes said. Noyes said that, after a member of the club spoke with golfer Ed Hipp about the issue, they found a company in Missouri that could build a satisfactory bridge costing between $30,000-$37,000.

  Buy Photo

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

  Buy Photo