The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is moving ahead with a project that will restore Carroll Lake to previous depths, making fishing possible again.
The 100-acre lake, located between Huntingdon and McKenzie, has been unable to hold water after its floodgates were irreparably damaged by heavy rains last spring.
Tennessee Fish and Wildlife District 7 commissioner Kurt Holbert says work will begin and hopefully be completed this summer.
“We’re going to have a lot of dirt to move,” Holbert said. “We’re going to take some dirt out of the bottom of where the lake will be now to make it deeper like it was when it was originally built in 1949.”
The TWRA has appropriated around $200,000 for the Carroll Lake project. That money will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency upon the project's completion.
“We decided to rebuild Carroll Lake ourselves, without any expense to Carroll County,” Holbert said.
Carroll Lake, a TWRA-designated "family fishing lake", was once home to largemouth bass, crappie, bluegill, sunfish and catfish. Fish will be reintroduced by the TWRA once the lake is restored.
