Mayor Seeks Twin River Cash for Dam Repairs

Faced with costly repairs of four Johnston dams DEM deemed unsafe, Mayor Joseph Polisena and Rep. John Carnevale are betting on funds from the state to pay the bills.

Polisena recently testified in support of H-5357, a bill that would put aside 20 percent of the revenue from table games at Twin River toward a fund for fixing dams. The revenue would be dedicated to municipalities that own dams the state Department of Environemental Management declares unsafe.

Details of the meeting were originally published by The Johnston Sunrise on Thursday. For the text of the bill, see the attached PDF. However, following the testimony, the bill was held for further study, which is often legislative code for tabling a bill. No further dates for a hearing on the bill were scheduled.

Johnston faces major repairs to dams at Oak Swamp, Almy and the upper and lower Simmons reservoirs. In a 2010 report, the DEM categorized the dams as unsafe due to inoperable low level outlets, a spillway that no longer functioned as originally constructed and severe erosion in the embankment. 

The town will be allowed to make repairs as a manageable pace, Polisena told the Providence Journal. Polisena has estimated repairs to each dam cost as much as $1 million.