Committee talks Oliver Reservoir improvements

Scott Brandt first saw the Oliver Reservoir 32 years ago, and he believes the changes being made to how the lake is run will hopefully restore its former glory.

“I came to Kimball 32 years ago…32 years ago was the most vibrant I’ve seen this lake,” he said. “I was amazed. The whole community was involved, young folks to everybody. Everybody took pride in it and it was something everybody got involved in.”

Brandt, a Nebraska game and parks officer, sees the South Platte Natural Resources District taking over the management of the lake as a step in that direction.

“I’m pretty excited about this, because the NRD, the way I see it, they were looking for opportunities for recreation and this will be something they really focus on. I see it as a real positive thing,” he said.

The Oliver Reservoir Advisory Committee, as a subcommittee of the South Platte Natural Resources District, has been meeting for well more than a year to seek community input and devise both short and long term plans. At a public meeting held Thursday night at the Kimball Public Library, members of the committee outlined those plans and discussed a hopeful timetable to accomplish them.

In the next year, the committee hopes to establish wildlife food plots, control cattails, improve the fish habitat and install a new concrete boat ramp. The new boat ramp will be just west of the handicap fishing dock, but far enough away from it that it will not be in the way, said SPNRD assistant manager Galen Wittrock. The committee hopes to install a dump station for recreational vehicles in year two, and install poles and cable boundaries in the next three to five years to prohibit traffic in certain areas.

Year five plans include building a recreation area, including a ball diamond, and installing camping pads and electrical hookups. Wittrock said this was the top priority of those surveyed last year.

“When we surveyed people from the community of Kimball, this was the number one goal, to get some camping pads and electrical hookups out there at the lake,” Wittrock said. “We don’t know how many, we don’t know the location yet, but we feel that if you can get a project leader, the NRD feels that you can do grant funding, NRD budget, maybe we can have a special fundraising events, and it should be pretty easy to get some nice camping pads out there.”

Seven years down the road, the goal is to establish a camp host site. Ten-year goals include creating a walking path around the entire lake, building a shower house and storm shelter, and adding additional fishing piers.

Wittrock said the biggest hindrance to these projects are not funds, but establishing enough volunteer project leaders to make sure they go through.

“The biggest thing right now that’s going to hold any of these things up are project leaders…The biggest thing is anytime you get to these large projects, you know that’s not going to happen overnight,” he said. “The NRD has other responsibilities. I would love to just concentrate on doing this, but I just can’t.”

Wittrock encouraged those present to talk with neighbors and people in the area to chair a different subcommittee for each project.

“We feel we can get funding,” he said. “We need project leaders, is the biggest thing. We need the manpower.”

The South Platte NRD has established a budget for Oliver Reservoir, and that budget will be used to provide supplies to repair picnic tables, chemicals to control the cattails and supplies for various other projects. The SPNRD has purchased new equipment for Oliver, including a new lawn mower, brush hog, utility terrain vehicle, sprayer and dump trailer. Wittrock said they should be in the process of updating fire pits, putting grills out and revamping picnic table in the next few years.

“You guys will see a fair amount of changes out there,” he said.

The current budget is about $230,000, but Wittrock said at least $70-80,000 of that will be saved for each of the next three years to repair the dam. The cost estimate to repair it at this point in a worst case scenario is $250,000, he said. The budget may also not always be that high, depending on the projects that need to be accomplished.

Although Wittrock said funds will be available to help, volunteers are what is needed most. Contact him at 308-254-2377 to volunteer. The first such project is May 15, when picnic tables will be moved throughout the site. Other opportunities to volunteer will be available on other dates.

The SPNRD has also hired seasonal help to be on site between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Kent Matsutani and Randy Gunn, who both have more than 30 years experience in the natural resources field, will be on site throughout the summer.

Committee member Larry Stahla reported that the fish and game department has stocked the lake with 150 northern pike in an attempt to curtail the carp population. They will later add thousands of fingerlings, he said.

Stahla also said the lake was stocked with about 2,800 trout last fall and was stocked with a few thousand catfish. He said eight quarts of perch eggs were also put in the lake, and each quart holds 100,000 eggs. Stahla said the lake will also be stocked with about 10,000 walleye fingerlings soon.

Brandt said the same fishing, boating and hunting regulations are in effect at Oliver Reservoir as are in effect statewide. Fishing and hunting licenses are required, he said.

When asked about last year’s problem with a toxic blue-green algae, Wittrock said it was a rare problem and the experts he talked to “feel that we’ll never see that again.”

“We sample the lake and the Department of Natural Resources also samples the lake. They come out of Lincoln. Each month, the Department of Natural Resources will sample the lake. We sample for a lot of different things,” he said. “Last year, we did run into a hit on the toxic blue-green algae. That lasted several weeks, four or five weeks, maybe a month. We were required to put signs up to let everyone know that there was a hit for toxic blue-green algae, and not to go swimming, not to drink the water, not to let the pets out. That came up clear but we had to have two more sampling events after that. Once we got two more sampling events that were clear, we took down the signs.”

Wittrock said that kind of algae is more present in the eastern part of the state.

As far as the lake level goes, Wittrock said it is really just up to nature.

“As you guys know, the waters really only fill up in Oliver after a heavy storm event because of the watershed, whether it’s heavy rain events or like last year the rapid snow melt before the ground thawed out,” he said. “We just don’t have the inflow from Lodgepole Creek to maintain it. That’s our biggest worry, is the next few years if we see water declines, we’re just really relying on mother nature.”

As the SPNRD gets into gear of operating the lake, Wittrock said it has learned a lot in a little bit of time.

“I think we had a really good year,” said Tim Nolting, advisory committee chairman. “Last summer we had a lot of volunteers that went out and got a lot of things done. This year, you’ll learn that we made a lot of progress.”

And that progress is something Brandt is happy to see, once again.

“I’m very excited about the NRD taking this over,” he said. “I was very ashamed about the way the lake had declined. I’m not putting the blame on anybody, because they’ve all got a lot of other responsibilities, but this is a very positive thing for this lake.”