Before a near-capacity crowd at Clarinda High School Gym, the Page County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing Monday night on spending 100-thousand dollars over ten years for a proposed lake — the West Tarkio Watershed Reservoir. County support is needed for the project to qualify for 15-million dollars in Vision Iowa money. Supporters like Ernie Aust said the proposed 16-hundred acre lake is a way to solve water problems in Clarinda and Shenandoah. Opponents like Brian Walker, president of the group Citizens for Responsible Choices, said a dozen homes would be displaced by the lake and three “century farms” would be destroyed. He says the project isn’t worth eliminating the farms.The county board is expected to make its decision on the county’s participation in the project at its meeting this morning.
