The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The kids' fishing pond at Dayton City Park is set to get a couple of major upgrades over the next few months. According to Steve Martin of the Lower Snake River Salmon Recovery Board, a new low profile screen will allow water to be pumped into the pond for a longer period during the summer, and a liner will be installed to keep underwater vegetation down.

Martin said that water is currently pumped into the pond from the adjacent Tucannon river by a pump and screen system that was installed in 2005. "With the current setup, the river level often drops below the pump inlet by July," he said. Then the pump must be turned off, which causes the pond to dry up.

Martin said a new screen has been designed which will allow the pump inlet to sit much lower in the water and run throughout the summer. "Our goal is to allow kids to fish through September," he said.

Part of the cost of the new screen system will be covered by funding that remains from the original project to install the pump and screen system. Martin said that Fish and Wildlife manager Mark Schuck received a grant from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife in 2005 for that project, which was completed that year. Martin is working on obtaining additional funding.

Martin said that the original plan to extend the time water could be pumped into the pond was to install a new well and pump, to pump groundwater into the pond. He said that the city of Dayton has a water right to access the water.

"But after researching groundwater availability in the area, we found that irrigation wells nearby often dried up by mid-summer," Martin said. "We don't want to go to the expense of putting a new pump and well in if it's not going to be reliable."

In a related project, Martin said that a group of volunteers is hoping to install a fabric liner in the bottom of the pond to reduce vegetation growth. "It's hard for kids to fish when there's so much vegetation growing in the water," he said.

The liner will be permeable and allow water to percolate into the ground, but it will inhibit plant growth.

Martin said that a work party is being organized and volunteers are needed to help clear out the weeds in the pond, which is now dry. The work party will be held November 8.

"We're asking people to bring their weedeaters and trimmers and help us clear out the vegetation in the dry pond," Martin said. Volunteers should meet at the pond at 10 a.m.