Lake may make return at Lakeview
Ferrante's Lakeview may be getting its lake back.
Sometime next month, workers at the Hempfield Township banquet hall and restaurant plan to open up the Mountain Valley Lake and allow up to 70 million gallons of water to refill the empty hole that sits beside what once was a popular picture spot for brides.
"It just didn't feel right calling it Lakeview with no lake," owner John Ferrante said Tuesday of the former Lakeview Lounge.
Ferrante drained the lake in October 2004 after state environmental officials deemed the Mountain Valley Dam unsafe.
After initially declining to make required repairs, Lakeview owners recently embarked on a $200,000 project to build two new spillways, fill old pipes and lower the dam embankment.
The new lake will be about 7 acres in size and nearly 20 feet deep. Workers will rehabilitate the lake bed to improve the lake's appearance.
"We had so many calls. I didn't know what the dam meant to people," Ferrante said.
During the summer of 2004, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ordered Ferrante to drain the lake and keep it dry until a permit is secured and a plan to rehabilitate the structure is submitted to the state. State officials had determined the dam was unsafe because of a "seriously inadequate spillway and concerns for the dam's structural stability."
Ferrante disagreed, saying his engineers found the facility safe, in part because it has held up for more than 100 years. The earthen-fill dam was built in 1889 as a water-supply reservoir for the city of Jeannette.
State officials, though, said that at least two businesses and several roads could have been flooded should the dam have failed.
In 1998, Ferrante was ordered to repair the dam and install a new spillway. At that time, Ferrante reduced the lake's water level by 8 feet, but the state said not enough work was done to upgrade the dam's safety.
Department of Environmental Protection officials yesterday said the renovation plans for the dam had been approved, but permits have yet to be issued for the lake to be refilled.
DEP spokesman Kurt Knaus said a final inspection could take place next month.
In order to meet state requirements, Ferrante has crafted an evacuation plan for neighbors should the dam fail.
He's also going to make a major addition.
"I have a 13-foot Statue of Liberty, and I think I'll put it around the lake in the spring," Ferrante said.
