Shelby Price, vice president of the Lake Forest Subdivision Recreation Association, stands near a deserted boat as he burns rotten wood and leaves Monday. (Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[3/16/04]Though one resident is growing squash and watermelons in a patch of what was once the bottom of the lake in the Lake Forest subdivision, some homeowners are optimistic the lake will have water again.

The lake, around which most of the subdivision’s homes were built, has been empty since last February when the spillway failed during a heavy rain.

Wooden docks sit with no water under them, and Shelby Price is the resident with a small garden on the land.

Price, vice president of the Lake Forest Recreation Association, has lived in the 102-home subdivision for the 25 years it has existed and remembers when the lake was filled with bass, crappie and catfish.

“The lake froze about 10 or 12 years ago, and one of our neighbors went ice skating,” he recalled.

Price also remembered a neighborhood boy catching a 9-pound bass.

Fun in the sun and water may return for the residents, said Eugene Payne, president of the association. The group met Sunday and voted to get final approval for permits from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to refill the lake once engineering plans are complete.

Lake Forest Lake is much smaller than Big Bay Lake near Purvis, where a dam failed Friday and devastated homes downstream. Also, there is no developed area in the patch of Lake Forest outflow, meaning no property was damaged when the spillway failed.

Still, DEQ approval is needed because the agency has jurisdiction over public and private dams statewide.

According to figures provided by Mississippi Emergency Management Agency on Monday, the break in the Big Bay Lake destroyed 24 homes and 20 mobile homes, and damaged 19 homes and two mobiles home in Lamar County. In Marion County, one mobile home was destroyed, and 24 homes and three mobile homes were damaged. Two churches and a fire station were also damaged in Marion County.

With the help of the Jackson-based Aqua Engineering Services, the Lake Forest application for DEQ permits will be filed within the month, Payne said.

The repairs will cost between $35,000 and $40,000, Payne said, and call for new drains to handle waterflow at the rate of 9.3 inches of rain in a 24-hour period and a spillway to handle 31.2 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Payne said homeowners raised about $6,000 at Sunday’s meeting and are collecting yearly dues from association members.

“We’re asking for dues for 2004 and any other type of donation,” he said.

Other homeowners, Robert E. and Marquida Quimby, have found another way to donate to the cause in addition to the dues.

“My wife is going to have a yard sale in a couple of weeks, and we’ll donate the proceeds of that to the association,” Quimby said.

As money is gathered and plans are completed, work to remove silt from the area, which does not involve the DEQ, could begin this week, Payne said. He added that local people had donated equipment to remove the silt but would not say if those were residents or business owners.

He said repairs to the spillway could begin within a month if the engineering firm’s plans are completed and approved by the DEQ.

“I can’t say for sure when we’ll have water in it, maybe by the fall,” Payne said. “But it all depends on how the money comes in.”

Price said he misses fishing on the lake, but remains optimistic.

“We’re going to get it back,” he said.