Bids being solicited for demolition of part of the Dawt Mill dam

The Dawt Missouri Preservation Society, a not-for-profit group, will request bids for “Dawt Dam Removal” in an ad scheduled  to run in the Jan. 18 and Jan 25 editions of the Times. The project is being managed by RKL Construction Co. of West Plains. The  request for bids comes about eight weeks after Congressman Jason Smith announced that the Delta Regional Authority had agreed to provide $86,625 in grants to help with demolition of the century-old dam across the North Fork of the White River.
The dam was built in 1892, according to dawtmill.com. It was constructed to direct water to a gristmill that operated on the site where previous mills are believed to have operated since the mid-1800s. The current mill, now the center of the thriving Dawt Mill resort, was built in 1901.
Parts of the dam to be demolished with the DRA grant are remnants of the earliest construction, which used sycamore timbers fill with rocks, according to dawtmill.com. The dam has been damaged by floods through the decades, and various repairs were made. Most recently a gap existed that was caused by a 2013 flood. Water flowing through that breach near the center of the dam created a powerful river current, and Dawt Mill staffers who rented equipment to canoers and other river floaters warned customers to stay away from it.
However, on June 25, 2016, a 13-year-old Springfield girl, Chloe Butcher, drowned when she became caught underwater in rebar extending from that breach. Efforts began immediately to remedy the dangerous situation while also providing protection for an endangered species, the Ozark hellbender, a salamander that lives in the North Fork River.
Dawt Mill owner Dr. Ed Henegar applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to remove 290 feet of the 425-foot-long structure, leaving only a short segment that leads into the mill race on the east side of the river. The Corps approved the permit application Sept. 1, 2016, and since then Henegar has been working to establish the not-for-profit organization and arrange funding for the demolition project while also cooperating with U.S. Fish and Wildlife representatives to find and prepare to move hellbenders that might live near the demolition zone.
Henegar has said repeatedly that he hoped demolition could be completed during the fall and winter months, when the river level is typically at its lowest.

<p>Bids are being solicited for the demolition of part of the dam at Dawt Mill on the North Fork of the White River. The part of the dam to be removed includes all of the structure to the left of the gap in the center of the dam, and some of the structure to the right of the gap.</p><p></p>