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Dear Vivian and Mr Beagle,
My name is Gary Barge. I am the person that brought the petition of over 200 signatures to the Middletown City Council concerning the canal. Here is a brief history of the canal. The canal was built in the mid 1800's by diverting water with a dam that was built in the river. This diverted water behind Winona St and Wilbraham Rd. The water was used to supply water for various businessess and discharge permits. Since the 1800's the dam that was erected has fell on two different occaisons, in the mid 80's and the mid 90's. In the late 90's the Miami Conservancy came in and built a permanent levy that stopped the flow of water into the canal. The Winona end of the canal is pretty well dried up. Due to the fact that from Rt 4 behind the Wilbraham Rd residents all the way to the old Sorg Paper Co. is the low end of the canal water lays several feet deep and stagnates since it no longer flows. The canal is also blocked at the old Sorg plant by their waste gate. The reason for the petition to the council was for ask for guidance and help over the stagnating and foul smelling water and mosquitos and rodents that the canal harvests. After many appearances before the city council and bringing documentation that it is a City of Middletown issue that I requested that something be done. Dave Duritsch became my contact person. The canal is 2.5 miles long and up to 70 feet wide in some spots. The main goal for the 9.5 million dollars is to correct the problem which lies in limbo. There has been no maintenance, no clean up procedures, or any other recommendation made other than the ones I brought to council. The least expensive way to correct the canal problem is either pipe it or fill it in. At the present time it serves no purpose. The first thing that I had asked was to have the canal up and running but due to the levy that would require about 40 million dollars and there would have to be some regrading of the canal not only that but there has been other building activity around the canal that would make this impossible. Next time you enter Smith Park you will see how unappealing the canal is. I also feel that if I had not brought this issue to the city and the quality of life problems that it causes they would have not even applied for the money since it has been "out of sight out of mind" for many years.
Thanks for everyone's concern. Feel free to contact me at glb@cinci.rr.com
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