Modernizing Lake Level Control Structures for Safe Operations and Reliable Lake Levels
Establishing special assessment districts for the maintenance and operations of Houghton Lake, Higgins Lake and Lake St. Helen's legal levels.
To defray the cost of updating and repairing the dams, the County established a special assessment district for Houghton Lake and will establish special assessment districts for Higgins Lake and Lake St. Helen that will finance improvements to each dam and the future maintenance of the legal levels of the lakes. The Roscommon County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution to begin the process of establishing a lake-level special assessment district for Higgins Lake and Lake St. Helen. The first step in the process is to establish the boundaries of the special assessment districts.
Roscommon County is responsible for the operation, maintenance and improvement of the Houghton Lake, Higgins Lake and Lake St. Helen lake-level control structures (dams). Roscommon County has paid for the operations and maintenance of the dams out of the County’s general fund.
This model of operating is no longer feasible or sustainable. The lake-level control structures are in need of repairs that Roscommon County alone can no longer pay for. As the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy revisits rules and regulations surrounding dams, now is the time for the county to modernize the dams to ensure consistent lake levels.