Strum is one of 15 places around the state getting DNR grant money to cover repairs, removal, or replacement of their dam.

Crystal Lake will look a lot different later this year because the old dam responsible for this man-made lake is in need of some repairs.

"We have a flashboard system dam," says Gary Barone who works the village and maintains the dam.

The flashboards are held in place by metal pipes. The system is designed so that when the water rises two feet over the flashboards, they will break out to prevent the area around the lake from flooding.

"My job is to really maintain it so that it doesn't go over and take out the flashboards. So I pull logs in order from being two feet above it and tearing out the flashboards. So I regulate the height." Barone says the pipes that hold the flashboards are designed to bend but due to several high river rises over the past few years he showed me they have bent too far allowing leaks in the flashboards.

"It needs to be changed just to be upgraded because it is the old operation part of flashboards cause they rote out and you need to replace that kind of stuff," says Barone. He says the dam is still safe and their project is not nearly as other dam projects in the state.

"Some of these are very small self-contained projects. Some of them not only the dam itself but other issues associated with the dam," says Meg Galloway with the DNR.

The grant will pay for exactly half of the cost with the village making up the rest. The village estimates the improvements will take around 2 weeks sometime between August and October.

"It is going to drain the lake and it will drain it down a long ways because we have to take it below the flashboards to replace the flashboards and we have to take out all the logs," says Barone. They are avoiding making the improvements this spring because of trout spawning. There is no date set yet.