A section of the Pameacha Pond dam broke open Tuesday night during a storm that battered the state with heavy rain and wind, officials said Wednesday. City Public Works Director Chris Holden said a 4- to 6-foot section of the wall broke along the approximately 80-foot dam. He said they were getting equipment together to patch it up Thursday, including concrete road barriers they would use to replace the missing section. Howard Weissberg, the city’s deputy director of public works, noted the city already had approved the replacement or restoration of the 150-year-old dam earlier this year. He said they are requesting $5 million for the construction component of that work, and design will cost more. “Repair would be the ideal,” Mayor Ben Florsheim said in April, “but it’s not likely that that’s going to be feasible. This is a dam that is far gone and needs to be fully replaced,” referring to advice from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which issued the city a consent order to do the dam work in 2018.
https://www.middletownpress.com/news/article/middletown-pameacha-pond-dam-breaks-storm-18600826.php