Site work for a water / sewer project in Gillette, Wyoming. Conceptual plans call for site work for a water / sewer project.

UPDATE : Donkey Creek Detention/Retention at Saunder Project is in City of Gillette capital budget fy 2025-2026 CIP ___________________________________________________ Residents speak on potential plans for Donkey Creek master drainage plan By DAVID NERI NEWS RECORD REPORTER dneri@gillettenewsrecord.net Feb 11, 2025 1 Facebook Twitter Email 1 of 8 Facebook Twitter Email Print Copy article link Save While it was not a large crowd that attended Thursday evening’s public workshop on the Donkey Creek master drainage plan at the Campbell Country Public Library, it was a group that seemed passionate to help push the project forward. Led by City of Gillette Project Manager Technician Toby Fiske and Leland Fabel, engineering project manager for WWC Engineering, the meeting was held to inform residents about potential projects within the Donkey Creek master drainage plan. Fiske said the project, which began last year in response to a FEMA study of the Fishing Lake, looks to address the flooding and drainage challenges for both the lake and the Donkey Creek watershed. While the data gathering phase of the project was completed earlier, Fiske and Fabel wanted to get a sense of the public’s view of and feedback on a few different potential projects involving the Fishing Lake and Donkey Creek. The workshop was attended by 15 to 20 residents, and Fiske said he was happy with the level of discussion from those who stopped by. “I thought it went very well,” Fiske said. “I would have always appreciated more people, but I thought that the folks that were there were very engaged, and we had a very excellent discussion.” Among the proposed plans were: To place embankments around the lake to divert floodwaters away from residential districts Dredge or temporarily drain the Fishing Lake to remove collected sediment and phosphorus in order to deepen the lake Institute an annual cattail harvesting program Create an infiltration basin around the lake to keep runoff out These were just a few of the many potential plans. While the city hopes to have a master plan complete by early summer, Fiske did tell the crowd that many of these plans, with the possible exception of the cattail harvesting project, would not be implemented any time soon. The yet-to-be-finalized projects have to go through a number of hoops before they can be started. While asking a number of questions on how the projects would be implemented and maintained, many residents expressed support for several of the projects, with the idea of draining the lake temporarily to return it to its original depth in particular being widely popular, assuming the work did not affect other park facilities. There was particular concern for the nearby baseball fields. With dredging the lake being the more expensive and less effective option, members of the audience noted that while draining the lake would mean no fishing or boating for a few years, the results would be better for the long-term. “When I brought forth the idea of potentially draining and digging out the lake, I was honestly surprised at the support for that potential idea that seemed to be expressed at the meeting,” Fiske said. “I think that’s probably what stood out to me the most.” Following the meeting, residents expressed some satisfaction with the discussion, wanting to see work done on the lake and creek area. “This affects me,” said Susan Eickbush, who lives along Donkey Creek. “I’m very hopeful. I’m glad to see that the city is looking at something. It’s not going to happen tomorrow but it is going to be in the future. They are actually trying to look at things to improve the city of Gillette in the coming years.” Eickbush said she was particularly happy to hear of a plan to weed out some of the cattails, which affects the ability of the children to use the lake for fishing and boating, as well as making it more difficult for deer to access the creek. For fellow resident Ernie West, the meeting raised a few other questions. West said that the project, while still in the early stages, had a number of good ideas, but expressed concern over some of the logistics of keeping the lakebed dry should the project go with the drainage option. West’s wife Rebecca also noted that as Gillette (along with most of Wyoming) is under a drought, delays in the project could lead to wetter conditions, creating more complications. Fiske stated that the next step for those involved with the project will be further refining the many projects shown and seek out sources of funding over the next few months. “The next steps would be to finalize the modeling that’s associated with the flood study, further flesh out the project ideas, develop cost estimates associated with those projects, and then put together a kind of an ongoing plan for what funding,” Fiske said. “We might seek to include state and federal funding to implement those projects to supplement city of Gillette funds.”