YORKTOWN — Yorktown resident Paul Powers probably summed up the feeling Yorktown and Delaware County residents have about the proposed Mounds Lake reservoir.
“This is a great deal for Anderson and Madison County,” Powers said. “This is a bad deal for Yorktown and Daleville and Delaware County.”
Powers and about 300 other people gathered inside the Yorktown High School auditorium Tuesday to hear from people on both sides of the controversial lake proposal.
Members of the Heart of the River coalition spoke first followed by proponents for the reservoir, led by Rob Sparks who has been spearheading the Mounds Lake project.
The meeting was a prelude to the Yorktown Town Council meeting on Aug. 17 when the council can decide whether or not to join the Mounds Lake Commission.
The commission, if everyone joins, would be comprised of local elected officials from Anderson, Daleville, Chesterfield, Yorktown, Madison County and Delaware County. The commission would be responsible for taking over the next phases of the reservoir plan and continuing to see if building the lake is feasible and makes sense for every community.
Opponents spent a lot of time talking about why the lake didn’t make any sense from several different areas.
Michael Hicks, an economics professor at Ball State University, said the lake was simply not viable from an economic standpoint. He said he thought the final cost would be much more than the current estimate of $440 million. He said he thought it could be as close to $1 billion when all was said and done. Whatever the ultimate cost ended up being, Hicks said he didn’t think the economic impact would be great enough to justify the cost.
“This isn’t going to help Yorktown or Daleville,” Hicks said.
Sparks and Jonathan Laturner, of DLZ, an architecture and engineering firm helping with the Mounds Lake study, disputed Hicks’ claim that the lake could cost $1 billion.
Sparks reminded the audience that joining the commission was the best way to stay in control of the project.
“This is a marathon with hurdles,” Sparks said. “Setting up the commission is just one of the hurdles.”
Sparks freely admitted they didn’t know all the answers about the proposed reservoir. He said it was the job of the commission to continue the studies and see if the lake made sense.
After the presentations, there was an hour left for Yorktown residents to ask questions of the speakers. The Q&A morphed into part question-and-answer session and part residents telling people why they thought the lake was a bad idea.
“I hope the Town Council remembers who they work for,” Steve Cooper said. “They work for the citizens.”
All of the residents who got up in the hour time frame were against the lake, feeling it offered little to no benefit to the community.
“This is one of the worst things I’ve ever heard of for this community,” longtime resident Martha Richards said.
The Town Council members were in the audience but did not take questions or take part in the question-and-answer session.