In an ongoing water quality project, the pond is being replaced with two bodies of water. One is what engineers call a forebay. Storm water runoff will be funneled into it, and dirt and debris will settle to the bottom. Cleaner water will flow from the forebay into the pond itself, which is actually a bit smaller than it was before.

The work began June 8. Things at the park at North Seventh Street and Exposition Drive are “looking good,” City Engineer Tony Trotter said.

“Overall, it probably won’t take more than a couple of weeks to finish,” he said.

The recent stretch of hot dry weather has enabled the work to progress quickly, he said.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
A big round rock sits on the edge of the mostly empty pond in Armstrong Park. The pond was drained and a new layer of clay was put on the bottom of it as part of a water quality improvement project.

Before crews from Crow River Construction, of New London, Minnesota, went to work the pond was the site of a kind of fishing frenzy in which there were no limits on the amount of fish or the size of the fish that could be taken. The anglers didn’t get all of the fish, however. When the pond was pumped out, workers were surprised to find thousands of goldfish.

With the water and fish removed, some 6,000 cubic yards of sediment were removed from the bottom of the pond. Trotter said that was three times more than what was expected.

Since then, the forebay has been completed and a clay lining has been placed on the bottom of the pond, enabling it to hold water. All the necessary storm sewers have been installed.

Crews are now working on constructing a kind of water permeable paving for the road into the park. The entrance to the park that is closest to North Seventh Street will be closed, leaving the park with one entrance.

The goal of the project is to create a pond with much cleaner water by using natural filtering processes, such as the forebay.

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
A newly created sedimentation pond at Armstrong Park is framed by the hydraulic arm of an excavator. Crow River Construction, of New London, Minnesota, is conducting a water quality improvement project in the Fort Dodge park.

Crow River Construction has a $423,355.50 contract for the work.

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea
A deer runs through Armstrong Park in Fort Dodge Monday.