The dam at Rickett’s Lake has been repaired and is no longer leaking.

Fayette Mayor Greg Stidham reported to the city council last week that the project took three days to complete, but was done at less than the $25,000 that the city had budgeted.

The water level had been lowered by around four feet several weeks prior, below the level where the leak occurred. 

Rickett’s Lake previously served as the city’s water reservoir. The city purchased the property sometime around 1908. “It had an existing lake and an existing dam. The city must have decided it needed a larger volume of water, so they put the dam on top of the old dam,” Mayor Stidham reported to the city council last week.

It is thought that the leak occurred where the new dam met the old dam.

While no longer the city’s source of drinking water, Rickett’s Lake now boasts an approximately three-quarter-mile scenic walking trail with exercise stops, along with a playground, a butterfly garden, and a shelter house.