Officials to lower High Falls lake several feet for dam maintenance

JACKSON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – One park in middle Georgia is taking time to fix up projects around a popular lake. Officials at High Falls State Park are lowering the lake several feet to make repairs to the lake’s dam.

On a perfect day, you probably couldn’t find a better place to be than High Falls State Park.

“This just kind of came to mind and we came up here to camp for a couple of days,” Brady Butler, a visitor, said.

Hundreds of campers are filling up the park this fall and right on time.

The dam at the park’s lake is slowly, but surely, getting some work done.

“It’s over a 100 years old so it does have one leak, and we’re going to repair that leak,” Alyson Snipes, the Resource Manager at the park, said.

Residents who live on the lake will have the opportunity to make dock repairs. Officials plan on draining the lake several feet.

“It takes a long time for the lake to get lower because we’re going to draw it down about 5 to 6 feet,” Snipes said.

The routine project is expected to take nearly four months.

During that time, pipes will be spewing out gallons and gallons of lake water in to a creek.

“Typically we lower the lake every 3 years so this is part of the normal lowering of the lake,” Snipes said. “There’s like these two doors. We’re going to fix one of those, so that way when you open it up you can allow water to be released and that is the more effective to lower the lake. It will allow us to lower the lake by a third within 10 days.”

Officials say the repairs will make for a better, safer lake for the thousands of visitors they see each year.

Everyone who wants to head over to lake has about a month left before the lake levels will be too low for activities. The lake maintenance project is expected to be finished by the end of February.