The repairs and renovations to JSC’s Lower Pond are complete, the remaining task of filling the campus landmark now falling to Mother Nature.
JSC drained the pond in the summer of 2011 after a routine inspection by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Division of Dam Safety determined the pond did not meet its requirements. Once drained, the VANR determined that extensive and costly repairs would be required. The Lower Pond has remained empty for over a year.
JSC’s administration faced a tricky decision according to Dean of Administration, Sharron Scott: to simply remove the pond as had been done with the old Upper Pond, a viable and cost effective option, but one that surely would have angered many members of the JSC community who revere the campus oasis; or to restore the pond as it was which would have left the retaining dam open to yearly inspections by the VANR and JSC open to the possibility of expensive future repairs.
A third option was chosen, to reduce the volume of water impounded by the dam and so mitigate the potential hazards from a possible dam failure. The new, smaller Lower Pond will no longer be scrutinized by the VANR with the goal for the college being to avoid a similar financial hit in the future.
Shortly after the administration began to pursue this more frugal plan last August, however, another potential money robbing problem popped up. Tropical Storm Irene hammered the region and drove the cost of work with earth-moving equipment through the roof. Cost estimates soared to triple pre-Irene estimates according to Scott.
Given the premium that excavating firms were charging, the administration decided to postpone repairs until spring 2012, in the hope that costs might settle back down.
The administration’s two-pronged gambit has worked. The now-completed Lower Pond is no longer on the VANR’s yearly checklist, and the work was completed below the originally estimated cost of $250,000.
“The pond was well within budget. In fact it gave us enough money… to be able to do the retaining wall that’s…between Stearns and Arthur Hall,” said Scott.
The irony is that while last hurricane season’s abundance of rain rendered the pond empty for homecoming 2011, this season’s lack of rain might be the culprit this year.
As of Monday Sept 3, the pond remained nearly empty, a beautifully landscaped, grass-lined bowl with a thriving wetlands at its bottom complete with reeds, cattails, songbirds and muddy water . “We just need a few more feet of rain,” said Scott.
As if on cue, the nighttime torrents of Tuesday, Sept. 4, delivered a pond. It is not a full pond. But, in these troubled economic times, half a pond is better than nothing, and time remains until Homecoming.
