Fix Fogelsville Dam By June, State Tells Upper Macungie

Upper Macungie Township has gotten a little more than $140,000 in grant money to make repairs at the Fogelsville Dam, township officials said Thursday.

And the money couldn't have come at a better time: The township has until June 2014 to make repairs on the nearly 100-year-old dam, which the state Department of Environmental Protection has listed on its "high hazard" list.

That term means what it sounds like. The state says if the dam were to break, there'd be the potential for serious damage or even loss of life.

The plan is to lower the dam by six feet and restore the nearby stream.

Township officials have said that repairing the dam is preferable to removing it, because it holds up part of Hassadahl Road. 

Upper Macungie will have to match some of the grant funding for the work to the tune of about $55,000. The township got another $100,000 grant last year.

The Lehigh Portland Cement Co. built the dam in 1914 to corral excess water coming from limestone quarries. When the company closed the quarries, it gave the dam to Lehigh County, which later turned it over to the township along with parkland near Route 100.