As river recovers, Manawa pushes to rebuild failed dam

MANAWA – Local municipalities are moving forward with plans to reconstruct the failed Manawa Dam and restore the millpond, even as some residents and conservationists push to let the Little Wolf River permanently return to its natural, free-flowing state.

The dam, which had stood for 133 years, failed in the summer of 2024 when a storm and subsequent flooding breached its north embankment. The failure completely drained the 180-acre Manawa Millpond, rendering the hydroelectric facility inoperable and leaving the Little Wolf River to carve a natural, free-flowing channel through the empty basin.

Now, the joint Little Wolf/Manawa Dam Committee is navigating a series of regulatory, legal and data setbacks to fast-track an estimated $8.4 million restoration project.

The plan, however, has run into challenges. At an August Town of Little Wolf meeting, it was noted that the Department of Natural Resources indicated that the digital model of the dam had disappeared from its hard drive, which could delay engineering studies and soil borings that were expected to be complete last month.

Dam Committee Chair Jim Roenz said the studies were not yet completed as of late last week, but that the committee will have a conceptual design and cost estimates ready by their mid-October deadline to present to state legislators in hopes of securing state funding.

Because Manawa is already at its state-mandated debt limit, securing state-level aid is considered the only viable pathway to rebuild the dam without triggering tax hikes.

“Everybody on that committee is a taxpayer and nobody wants to raise taxes,” Roenz said.

Another roadblock involves the municipalities’ plan to issue a combined “Design and Build” Request for Proposals (RFP). Roenz said legal advisers warned that combining the engineering design and construction work into one RFP would not meet public works requirements for “equal and fair bidding.” Instead, the municipalities must first hire and pay an engineer to complete the dam’s design. Once the design is complete, the construction project can be put out for competitive bidding.

At the same time, Wiscons8 LLC, the private owner of the dam’s powerhouse, is moving forward with decommissioning its hydroelectric operations to clear the path for the city’s eventual ownership of the site. Dwight Shanak of Wiscons8 has agreed to demolish the powerhouse building from the ground level up, allowing him to salvage and retain the power-generation equipment he owns inside.

Resolving the federal hydroelectric license is a prerequisite for finalizing the city’s $57,500 purchase of the powerhouse property, which Shanak is holding the title to until decommissioning is complete.

That process involves an environmental assessment recently completed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last month. The federal report issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact” for decommissioning the dam’s former hydroelectric license, noting that the river has reclaimed its original channel and that native vegetation is returning to the banks.

The FERC assessment states that the river’s reestablished natural channel has created “favorable conditions” and “aesthetic enhancement” for the nearby Manawa Area Veterans Freedom Park.

Federal biologists also documented that lake sturgeon, which were blocked for over a century by the dam, are now migrating further up the Little Wolf River, expanding their spawning habitat as far upstream as the Big Falls Dam.

FERC identified two endangered species in the project area: the gray wolf and snuffbox mussel. The commission also identified the salamander mussel as a proposed endangered species and the monarch butterfly as a proposed threatened species, but concluded that decommissioning the project would not affect any of the species.

As the joint dam committee moves forward with plans to rebuild the dam, advocates say the river’s current free-flowing state is already creating new recreational and ecological opportunities for the community.

Ben Hlaban and Nick Heise, co-founders of the local advocacy group Friends of the Little Wolf River, co-guided a public paddle event in June in partnership with the River Alliance of Wisconsin. The event drew a couple dozen kayakers and canoeists who launched their boats at Bridge Road, traveling directly through the former millpond bed and navigating past the remaining dam structures to experience the free-flowing channel firsthand.

Hlaban, who has a background in trout stream restoration, recalled the former millpond as a sediment-filled, weed-choked basin that smelled bad. He argued that turning the river back into a stagnant basin is a financial “boondoggle” for a city already near its debt limit.

“The opportunities for Manawa to become a hub for biking, kayaking, healthy living type pastimes are fantastic,” Hlaban said, pointing to plans to extend the Tomorrow River Trail over an old railroad bridge that crosses the river.

Heise, who grew up on the river, recalled the old millpond as nearly “unusable” during the summer due to heavy algae, Eurasian milfoil and curly pond weed.

“Right now, the river is cutting its channel. It’s fixing itself. It’s repairing itself,” Heise said. “Personally, I would rather look at a river that’s clean and healthy versus a stagnant gross millpond that had duckweed all over the top of it and just stunk.”

During the June event, paddlers stopped for lunch catered by Sunrise Cafe and ice cream at Linda Mae’s. Heise said the event demonstrated the potential for Manawa to embrace river-based “silent sports” tourism, including kayaking and canoeing.

Heise, who has experience with native plants and habitat creation, said he envisions a “pollinator park” in the former millpond area featuring native wildflowers and habitat for bees and monarch butterflies.

Supporters of the dam rebuild argue that restoring the millpond is both an economic and cultural necessity. Among them are Deb and Dave Sarna, who live upstream from the dam and founded the Little Wolf River Coalition shortly after the flooding to support the community’s rebuilding efforts.

Deb Sarna contends that the millpond is a vital asset for the community and warns that property values will suffer for the 111 residents living along the shoreline from Manawa to Symco if the dam is not rebuilt.

“The overall view is Manawa lost a part of its heritage, and if that can be brought back, then why wouldn’t you want that?” Sarna said. “It affects the whole town. You don’t have people coming to town to fish and then stop in at the cafe and eat. It affects everybody.”

Heise disagrees on the property value impact, asserting that a clean, healthy river remains an immense draw.

“As long as there’s still water frontage, they basically have a clean river versus an old stagnant pond,” Heise said.

Heise also warned that climate change makes a rebuild financially risky, pointing to the trend of heavy, sudden storms sometimes called “rain bombs,” which he said makes a future dam failure inevitable.

“To set Manawa up for that again, spend all that money just to have it happen again, just seems so foolish,” Heise said. “Mother nature did it right to begin with. Let’s go back to that and just leave it alone.”

For Roenz and the joint dam committee, the focus remains on restoring what they see as a vital community centerpiece.

“The committee feels that the millpond is a very important part of our community. It brings in business,” Roenz said.

Still, Roenz acknowledged that not everyone is on board with the plan.

“It’s great that others have differing viewpoints and some of their opinions have a lot of validity,” he said. “It’s hard. You can’t have it both ways, really.”