No state funds for Manawa dam

MANAWA – The City of Manawa learned they were unable to secure funding from the state to rebuild the dam that was destroyed July 5, 2024.
The city submitted a budget request for $8.4 million for a spillway dam to the Joint Finance Committee in Madison for consideration for the 2026 budget.
The city found out July 1 that they would not be getting the assistance from the state government.
Manawa Mayor Mike Frazier said the city will be looking into different grants and that is all the information he has at this time.
The Manawa dam was breached over a year ago, when torrential rain flooded the city and the dam pulled away from its northern embankment.
Representatives from Cedar Corporation, the city’s engineering firm, said the dam is a total loss and will need to be completely removed and rebuilt at a public meeting at city hall on May 28.
Brendan Strelow, the community infrastructure consultant at Cedar Corporation, said at that meeting that if the funding doesn’t come through that it will take a mix of a lot of different funding sources to complete the project.