KDSN RADIO News
Dredging ISU’s Lake LaVerne may take one-thousand dump truck loads
The revitalization of an Iowa State University icon is set to begin this summer. ISU campus planner Chris Strawhacker says work will begin in a few months on renovating Lake LaVerne, after years of careful planning.
“We actually completed a study, a planning study in 2022 that gave us direction on where we wanted to move forward with the project,” Strawhacker says, “and then it took us a few more years to get momentum on the funding and everything in place, but we’ll be starting this summer on it.”
The nearly three-acre lake was created in 1916 near the ISU Memorial Union in an effort to beautify the campus by damming College Creek.
Strawhacker says the first step in the renovation process will be draining the entire lake. It’s estimated that one thousand dump truck loads of sediment will be removed from the lake, along with algae and aquatic plants.
“Our goal is really to improve the water quality by increasing the depth. Really, the lake as it is today is pretty shallow. It’s around three feet average depth, with the deepest point a little over five feet deep,” he says, “and when it was at its deepest, it was around 12 feet, and our goal is to get back to that depth.”
There are plans to install a pedestrian bridge, a small amphitheater, and a classroom. The project is estimated to cost just over five million dollars, and it should be complete in early 2028.
(Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)
