Funding secured for wetlands restoration project

PORT CLINTON - City officials have secured additional funding for a $1.2 million project to restore several acres of native wetlands along Lake Erie near Waterworks Park and wipe out phragmites, an invasive plant species of tall reeds.

The city’s Lakefront Coastal Wetlands Restoration Project is planned to restore about 12 acres of wetlands in an area west of Derby Pond near Ohio 163. Some of the wetlands are in the lake, said Mayor Hugh Wheeler.

“We have secured the funding for the wetlands,” Wheeler said. “For the restoration project, funding will be available between Spring and Fall of 2018.”

The recent addition of $268,000 in funding comes through a grant awarded to the city from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency as part of its Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program. It is the same program the city of Fremont used to fund part of its Ballville Dam removal project.

Councilman Gabe Below said the restoration would help the flow of water to and from the lake and clear out the invasive phragmites that block the view of a walking path through the area used by residents.

Below congratulated the mayor and city administration for securing the funding.

“It’s the last piece we’ve been waiting for,” Below said. “So I’m glad that will be becoming a reality soon.”

According to Port Clinton officials, the city is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the project.

The grant represents the city’s portion of the project funding, with the Army Corps covering the remaining costs of the about $1.2 million project.

The project includes invasive plant species removal, revegetation and wetlands expansion.

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