Star Lake Dam
Several years ago, the State of Vermont Department of Dam Safety determined that the dam at Star Lake was a “safety hazard” and that it must be removed or rebuilt.
To address this, The Mount Holly Conservation Trust formed a committee, the Friends of Star Lake. Throughout the process, this committee worked together with the Mount Holly Select Board.
An awesome $500,000 gift by the late Patricia Nye kickstarted the reconstruction project. Over the next two years, we received an additional $100,000 from more than 280 local residents and friends, Vermont businesses and artists, and from town organizations and students.
The project physically began in 2012 with assistance from the State and a grant from FEMA. The first step was to perform a flood and hydraulic evaluation of the Star Lake watershed. This would determine the design of the dam and spillway reconstruction.
DuBois & King submitted a final dam design and permit applications to the State of Vermont in January 2015 and received the permits in July. We selected Casella Construction as the contractor for the project.
The reconstruction was complete by mid-October 2015.
We have preserved Star Lake for generations to come.
