In the spring of 2023, a young resident noticed a small hole under the water near the spillway. A couple of weeks later, when she noticed it had grown larger, she notified her mother, a BLDMD Board Member, and unwittingly kicked off the Great Sinkhole Crisis of 2023. Erin, the Gatekeeper immediately lowered the lake (and then battled the water level for months to prevent any further damage) and called PARE engineers who came out and verified that we did in fact have a small sinkhole a couple of feet in diameter. The BLDMD Board was given the choice of doing a small targeted repair which would cost a few thousand dollars (and we could do it on our own) or repairing the whole length of the spillway which would cause 10's of thousands of dollars. We chose the targeted repair and planned to complete it ASAP. ASAP turned into months later due to having to wait for specific materials and then because it RAINED EVERY WEEKEND FOR ABOUT THE WHOLE SUMMER!! Finally, the Retired Over the Hill Gang decided it was up to them to fix it during the week, and on a sunny Thursday in September, they finally fixed it. The lake is now raised and everyone lived happily ever after.
Thank you to Doug, Tony, Angela, Rick, Harry, Erin, Becky, Josh, and Nadia (who found the hole), and everyone else who helped out in various ways including by simply paying their taxes so we had the money for the repair.