SPOTSWOOD–Mayor Edward Seely and Borough Engineer Bruce Knoch informed residents about the municipality’s plans to restore Devoe Lake.
On June 5, the Borough Council approved a resolution authorizing officials to execute a $2.5 million grant contract with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the restoration of Devoe Lake.
“Through the years, silt and sediment have built up to a level that allows the water foliage to grow at such a rate of speed the lake is overrun within months. It also limits the amount of water that can be retained, which ultimately affects the flood plain both up and downstream,” Seely said during the Oct. 7 council meeting.
Devoe Lake in Spotswood was created in 1935 after the construction of the dam on the Manalapan Brook.
The shallow depth of the 38-acre lake, in addition to the accumulation of sediment, has resulted in flooding after storms, according to a statement provided by the New Jersey Legislative Democrats.
The grant will facilitate the borough’s ability to have the lake dredged, alleviating future flooding.
Additionally, the borough hopes to make some aesthetic improvements to the landscaping and lighting around the lake and to open the area to public recreation, according to the statement.
Seely said he, Knoch, Councilman Jose Rivera and Senator Linda Greenstein sat down with officials from the DEP for more information on the funding. He said he was told by DEP representatives that the borough is going to have to come up with the rest of the money to fund the project.
“Well, when we got to the next meeting, what a completely different tone. Turns out we were given a lot of misinformation by the last group,” Seely said. “Currently, we are allowed to use the money and we are going to start the project by doing a section and work our way through the sections.”
Seely said the borough plans to start at the lakeside section of the lake and work its way back.
“Two-and-a-half million doesn’t get you far, but it does get you pretty far when you think about distance. … So it turns out that we are getting the money we just have to turn in receipts like we do,” Seely said. “While we were there they also set us up with Green Acres because Green Acres also has funding for the lake [and] there could be avenues to go through to get that money.”
Seely said hopefully within the next five or six years, the borough will see Devoe Lake newly restored.
Having only partial funding for the project, Knoch said, “At this point, I have spoken with a contractor and I have looked at different costs associated with it. Taking the soil to a facility that treats it, you could probably do about 30,000 cubic yards if we were able to get the landfill to take it at a reduced cost then we would pay to be able to have it treated; elsewhere, you might be able to do a little bit more. That’s an avenue that the borough could consider looking into.”
While using a colored map of Devoe Lake, Knoch said that at the beachfront section of the lake, which is along Devoe Avenue, the borough can hire a contractor to excavate it down to the depth of eight feet, which is what was originally proposed.
“If we were to reduce that to six feet it could go out further into the lake to cover more area. That’s a decision the governing body can think about. I would also like to see if we can do some of the work … [in the wetlands area] that we can remove,” Knoch said. “The reason I think that’s valuable is because some water does break down … but if we could be more water coming into the main body along Devoe Avenue … it could be much more productive for the lake.”
In order to find out how much silt they will have to remove, Knoch said professionals will have to go out on the lake with a boat with navigation systems and measuring sticks and actually move around the lake so that the borough can know better what the true top of the elevation of the silt is.
Knoch said that by knowing how much silt is there, it will help the borough better determine how far it can go with the money it has.
After speaking with a contractor, Knoch said in the winter the soil does not drain, therefore the borough would be paying to cart that soil by the ton. Thus, the contractor has recommended that the project should start in June or July.
Seely said the borough will have the grant funding from the DEP for two years.
For more information, visit www.spotswoodboro.com/borough-council.
Contact Vashti Harris at vharris@newspapermediagroup.com.
