SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — The fight to save Horseshoe Lake continues to wage on. The group Friends of Horseshoe Lake (FOHSL) has filed separate injunctions against Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights, the two cities that share the area where the lake is located.
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For Michael Madorsky, Horseshoe Lake Park is a place that brings up fond memories.
"I have a lifetime of memories. I have 60-plus years of this lake being here," he said. "It's always meant a lot to me, as a place to come and enjoy wildlife and see the reflections of the sky and this beautiful mirror of the lake."
But what was once a lake is now dry land, filled with plants, dirt and the 170-year-old Horseshoe Dam. The Shakers built the dam and the manufactured lake more than a century ago.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, that aging dam is failing, and officials ordered the cities of Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights to begin draining the lake in 2017 and repair or replace the dam.
The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's Stormwater Management Program stepped in and deemed the dam irreparable.
"Our recommendation is to remove the dam and restore the brook to reestablish a floodplain in that area," said Jenn Eltin, a spokesperson for NEORSD.
The district plans to work with the two cities and restore the park; Eltin said they're in the final stages of the pre-design process.
"The two streams will be restored, and they will look much more natural. They will have a flood plain reestablished with boulders, riffles, wetlands, tons of surface water to enjoy," she said.
Though since the plan to remove the dam and lake was announced two years ago, the group Friends of Horseshoe Lake worked to put it on pause, asking for a compromise with the cities and NEORSD.
Bert Stratton is a trustee with Friends of Horseshoe Lake.
"I want a compromise. I want the cities of Shaker and Cleveland Heights to understand that there are many, many people who want a huge or even just a decent-sized body of blue water here," he said.
Madorsky is also a part of the group opposing the district's plan. He said FOHSL worked with engineering and dam experts to develop an alternative plan that saves the lake while also addressing safety concerns but said city and district officials haven't considered their plan.
"The sewer district has totally ignored our plan, and they're just steam-rolling over the process," he said.
FOHSL filed a lawsuit against the cities to prevent the destruction of the lake; the injunctions follow' demand letters' sent to Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights based on violations of a lease agreement with the city of Cleveland.
"The original lease, that goes back almost 100 years or more, specified that Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights are responsible to maintain the lake. In the last 100 years, the cities have not maintained this lake very well, and the city of Cleveland has not done it either," said Madorsky.
They're hopeful it will save the lake's destruction.
A Shaker Heights spokesperson said the mayor had "no comment" regarding the current lawsuit, and Cleveland Heights has not responded to a request for comment.
