Dear Member,
Six Mile Lake is flooding!! Once again unprecedented snowfall with most of the ground and lake still frozen solid is creating a situation exactly like Spring 2025. We have now had steady rain for 24 hours and more expected. The flooding on Six Mile Lake and St. Clair Lake to the north has been getting worse year after year since 2008. The culvert in Ellsworth is unable to move water effectively any longer due to the silting in at Wooden Shoe Park.
Antrim County Operator of Dams, Leslie Meyers, is attempting to pursue remedy of the flooding situation all along the Chain by seeking funds to replace the Ellsworth Culvert with a wider box culvert, dredge certain channels and improve the Bellaire Dam. The funds would come in the form of a Special Assessment District for the Upper Chain with an expiration date of several years out once work is completed. The holdup seems to be the reluctance of the Charlevoix County Board of Commissioners to allow Leslie to be the lead in this effort.
I am asking our members to send photos of the flooding and emails to these commissioners encouraging them to vote to give Leslie the authority to proceed with this flood alleviation project. Unfortunately, the flooding will continue and even get worse if the flooding situation is allowed to continue. And this issue isn’t just about homes that are in danger of going underwater but EVERYONE who lives on this lake is affected because ALL of our shorelines are underwater by twenty to fifty feet and rising. Where does all of that soil go?? Into the lake!! Six Mile Lake drains ALL the surrounding woods and land…68 tributaries in all, which is why Six Mile continues to go up, up, up when other lakes along the Chain are going down.
Please take a few minutes and contact the Charlevoix Board of Commissioners!! Their emails are below.
Thank you!
Cherie Hogan
Membership/Communications
Robert Jess (231.881.1470)
[email protected]
Chris Christiansen (231.675.1144)
[email protected]
Tim Kenney (231.536.3445)
[email protected]
Joshua Chamberlain (231.675.2832)
[email protected]
Scott Hankins (231.675.0852)
[email protected]
Annemarie Conway (231.676.0855)
[email protected]