BLUE EARTH COUNTY HEARS PROPOSALS FOR RAPIDAN DAM REMOVAL

It’s been almost two years since flooding damaged the Rapidan Dam and the Blue Earth River Dam and Blue Earth County officials continue to hear proposals on dam removal.  The County Road 9 bridge was removed last year and the county has been presented with two options for removing the dam ranging from $18 to $23 million.  The dam removal is pretty straightforward but reconstruction of the riverbed and surrounding area is where it gets complicated.  The question is how much of the landscape will be reconstructed and how it will connect to previously established campgrounds and parks.  Funding talks with FEMA have progressed and a final design should be ready this fall with bidding hopefully starting in the winter.  The county hopes to start building a new County Road 9 bridge later this summer.  That would be a two-year project.