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City Officials In Okoboji Taking Concerns Over High Lake Levels & Related Damage Directly To Governor

July 10, 2024 Steve Schwaller

(Okoboji)– City officials in Okoboji are taking their concerns over ongoing high water levels and shoreline collapses in the Iowa Great Lakes directly to Des Moines. City council members Tuesday evening signed off on a letter to Governor Kim Reynolds requesting immediate action be taken at the state level. Council member Julie Andres says they just can’t wait any longer…

“We had formed together with the other cities in this area, the Dickinson County Emergency Management group, and we were not seeing traction as a result of their efforts. Really we were hearing from the state level that they were not getting the message from the locals and so we just thought that we would take the initiative here and go ahead and echo what the Dickinson County Emergency Management group had come up with some kind of pleas for help, a little bit of debris removal, and some effort towards getting a resolution down there at the Lower Gar bridge area.”

Among other things, the letter requests the Corps of Engineers to “begin reducing the lake’s water level in a manner that ensures drainage without causing detrimental impacts downstream.” It goes on to say “swift action on these requests is imperative to protect public and private property, residents’ livelihoods, as well as our community’s well-being.”

You can read the letter in its entirety by clicking here.