Work To Begin On Popular Shoshone County Fishing Pond

The long awaited restoration of the Gene Day Fishing Pond is about to begin. Phase 1 of the project will begin this month after 2 years of planning, designing, and permitting are finalized. The pond is located at the west end of Osburn City Park. The restoration work will turn the pond into a highly accessible local fishing hole for people in the Silver Valley. The project is the result of a partnership of many organizations and government agencies including Shoshone County, Shoshone County Sportsmen, the City of Osburn, Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation (IDPR), Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG), Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Panhandle Health (PH), the CDA Tribe, and many other interested citizens. Phase 1 will include the construction of a water control structure to allow for the draining and then future water level management of the pond. Prime Time Construction out of Hayden has been selected to begin the project. IDFG will also stock pile materials for docks and fishing infrastructure. DEQ will be providing clean fill material for the structure placement. Material removed will be dried on site and later hauled to the Big Creek Repository. The water control structure is expected to take about three weeks to complete. Although the project will necessitate some minor delays in flow of traffic on of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene's, the contractor will make every effort to minimize impacts to users during construction times. The cost of the initial phase of the project is approximately $50,000 which has been funded through IDFG's Sport Fishing Restoration project funding and license sales. The next phases of the project will involve dredging the pond, placement of fishing piers and structures, public use and interpretive signage, re-vegetation, development of parking and ADA paved trials to the pond, and installation of a vault toilet. Completion of the project is estimated to cost around $200,000. Final completion dates of the pond will depend on the availability of funding, but could be as early as summer 2015 if all goes well. Project sponsors are actively seeking assistance and funding in the form donations (cash, equipment and/ or labor), partner agency funding, and/ or grants to complete the final phases. The Shoshone County Sportsmen have created a Gene Day Pond Restoration Account to accept donations that will be used solely to finish the project. Anyone interested in contributing to the project is invited to contact George Clapp of the Shoshone County Sportsmen at 1-208-512-0360 to donate. For additional information, contact Jim Fredricks or Jim Teare with IDFG at 1-208-769-1414. The Gene Day Pond restoration has been a long time coming and is the result of a lot of hard work by many individuals. It will be well worth all of the effort and money once the restoration is completed and the first group of kids pedal their bikes to the pond, cast out and hook into feisty rainbow. That is what the project is ultimately all about.