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After nine years of frustrating give and take, the centerpiece of Libertyville’s most popular park will get a makeover.
While Butler Lake won’t look much different when a dredging and restoration project is complete next year, the changes beneath the surface and along the shoreline will make it healthier and more attractive for recreation.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, who has been in Libertyville’s corner through the protracted process, joined village leaders and others Monday on the north shore of the main lake for the ceremonial start of the $3.2 million project.
Dredging about 30 acres — half the lake area — to a depth of 8 feet is important “to make sure this lake becomes one of the key recreational destinations in Lake County,” Kirk said.
“This will be one of the centerpieces in our environmental restoration of Lake County,” he added.
Kirk helped secure federal funds for the project. Libertyville’s portion is about $1.1 million, or 35 percent of the cost, but includes credits such as management of the prairie restoration portion.
The ecosystem restoration project, which originated in 1996, has spanned the terms of two mayors and countless other local leaders as well as well several staffers, including project managers with the Army Corps of Engineers, which had to approve the plan.
The cost and scope of the work has been revised several times, most recently last month. To cut costs, some aspects, such as woodland restoration, were dropped but village leaders are just happy to get it going.
“We all recognize the importance of this project,” said Mayor Jeff Harger, the third top local official to deal with the plan. “There are a lot of communities that would like to have this lake.”
The project is compensation to the village for easements and land involved with the construction of a levee in North Libertyville Estates in the late 1980s. But a combination of personnel changes, budget cuts, design changes and other details caused years of delays.
“It’s been too long in coming, but I’m very happy it’s here,” said Roy Deda, the Army Corps deputy for project management.
Butler Lake is a natural body of water fed by Bull Creek that was part of the landscape when pioneers arrived. The last major dredging work occurred in the late 1930s and the lake has slowly filled with sediment.
It is now only about 3 to 5 feet deep. Fish kills occasionally have occurred during harsh winters and a lack of oxygen in the water has limited their numbers.
The two-part solution is to dredge the central part of the lake and stabilize and restore a portion of the shoreline on the main lake as well as the entire northern portion across Lake Street by reintroducing prairie grasses and other vegetation.
First, contractors will build a 12-acre earthen bowl, known as a sediment dewatering facility, at the Lake County farm property north of Winchester Road about a half mile away.
In the spring, a large pump will be set on a barge and much like a giant vacuum cleaner will suck sediment off the lake bottom. The nontoxic muck will be pumped through a pipe along Bull Creek and under Winchester to the dewatering facility.
The process will take about three months and will generate about 40,000 cubic yards of sediment — enough to cover 9 acres 5 feet deep. After eight to 12 months, the dried sediment will be spread on the field as fertilizer.
“Two things I want to see before I die is the cupola on the Town Hall and the lake dredged,” said Dean Larson, a long-time village trustee and historian. |
