BIG BEND -- Federal funding needed for a project that will protect the Big Bend Lutheran Church Cemetery and its gravesites from being scoured away by the Chippewa River is only a U.S. president's signature away from final approval.
Both the U.S. Senate and House have approved bills in the last two weeks that allocate $250,000 to the U.S. Corps of Engineers for the project.
"Very excited,'' is how Richard Bjorngjeld, congregation member, described the reaction in the rural Chippewa County parish of slightly more than 400 members.
He noted that along with news of the approval by both houses of Congress came word that President George W. Bush is expected to sign the bills. Staff members with both U.S. Representative Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota, and Senator Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, said the bill's signing is expected later this month or in early December.
Securing federal funding was seen as the most important step towards bringing the long-sought project to fruition. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for 65 percent of the project, which is estimated to cost nearly $500,000. The Corps has already provided engineering and other work towards the project. Along with the $250,000 appropriation, its commitment to the project will total $318,000.
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The federal commitment will trigger an $85,000 appropriation by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources towards the project, according to Kenneth Koenen, Chippewa County board of commissioners. The Big Bend Church will provide over $70,000 towards the project as well, he added.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had sought to undertake the funding through its Section 14 program one year ago. Budget reductions in 2005 put it just under the funding water line.
The project almost didn't surface this year, either. If Chippewa County had not approved a cooperative agreement for the project on Sept. 14, it would have been halted by a moratorium imposed Oct. 1 on projects of this type, Koenen explained.
The project calls for using rock riprap to armor a portion of the steep river bank to stop erosion that is moving the river ever closer to the Big Bend Cemetery. It will protect 741 gravesites within 100 feet of the river from erosion. Some of the gravesites are more than 100 years old.
The river's erosion of the riverbank has been accelerated by major flooding in both 1997 and 2000. The Big Bend Lutheran Church and Chippewa County turned to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for help in protecting the cemetery after the flood of 2000 made evident the need to either move the cemetery or protect the river bank.
Koenen said the Big Bend Lutheran Church and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers both examined the possibility of moving the threatened gravesites, and determined that the costs for doing so would be far greater than that of protecting the river bank. Church members also wanted to avoid at all costs the emotional trauma associated with disturbing the grave sites.
Once the president signs the bill, Chippewa County will begin work towards obtaining easements needed for the project's construction, said Jon Clauson, Chippewa County auditor/treasurer. He said the county had been advised that the funding was likely, and is already getting things in place to begin the process.
If all goes as planned, the project could be awarded in the first half of 2006 to allow for construction when water flows decrease in late summer and early autumn, according to Craig Evans, project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district office in St. Paul.
