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Lake Margaret Manor Drainage Project

First off, thank you…neighborhood detention pond is an erroneous and misleading statement. Pond (as defined in Black's Law Dictionary 6th Edition) is "a stagnant body of water without an outlet, larger than a puddle and smaller than a lake; or a like body of water with a small outlet." Lake Margaret is a privately owned, spring-fed lake, and plotted as such. And whether manmade or not makes no difference. (There is daily outflow from this Lake it does not require rain or run off and is not stagnant.)

At present there is "sheet flow" ingress (inflow) at 23rd and 24th Streets. The inflow at 23rd needs to be fixed (not changed/ upgraded), as it has degraded over the years and is, at present, eroding the bank. This is the City's responsibility, and to insinuate anything else is, at the least, wrong.

Piped in waters, as proposed at 23rd and 24th Streets, is a change in easement. Neither needed, nor wanted or agreed to, as this most certainly is on "First Flows" (rains when it hasn't rained for some period of time) would bring more pollutants into Lake Margaret. Specific events need to be looked at, not overall averages.

Also piping water will, on specific events, bring in more volume of water, which may cause flooding of private properties around the lake. As for instances such as the July 4th weekend when McKay Creek overflowed its banks, and thus leaves Lake Margaret no where to outflow. Thus the proposed extra outflow would serve no purpose in reality. The present single outflow, along with present "sheet flow" inflows, has done the job for years. As well as there are no terms of easement neither granted, given, nor implied for a new outflow.

Waters might be piped down 7th Ave. to 25th St. and could solve the problem, and probably at less expense, with definite plans and dates from the City to repair the existing 23rd St. inflow. This solution would leave Lake Margaret as it is. Lake Margaret, a privately owned spring-fed lake, and not turn it into a polluted stagnant pond.

Thank you

Richard Hagan

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