WSPC03304 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

. . . . were in attendance. At a meeting held July 25, 1950, wi th the Hale Ditch water users, there were 16 landowners present. A meeting with the farmers in the proposed Kansas Bonny Irrigation District was held August 10, 1950. D~ to a severe electrical storm only 5 landowners were present. The meeting for the St. Francis Pump-lift area was held in the Armel Church with 30 to 40 farmers and landowners present. Meetings were held March 19, 1951, with the landomers of the St. Francis Gravity System and the Bonny Pump-lift System. At the meeting held at St. Francis, Kansas, there were 5 farmers present and at the meeting held in Viray, Colorado there were 4 present. These meetings accomplished the primary purpose of acquainting local landowners with irrigation possibilities provided by storage in Bonny Reservoir. Additional meetings to initiate actual organization of irrigation districts are to be called by interested local citizens when sentiment for an irrigation district has crystallized to the point where petitions for a district are to be prepared and circulated. The accelerated construction program brought about by the devastating floods of 1947 placed Bonny Dam in the construction stage primarily as a flood control feature. Congress therefore appropriated 4,,800,000 by Public Law 299, 80th Congress, 1st Session, to initiate in 1948 construction of Bonny Dam primarily for flood control and without requiring the execution of a repayment contract. Under Public Law 841, 80th Congress, 2d Session, an additional ~800,OOO was made available for construction purposes. The appropriation of ~6,339,OOO indicated in the article in the September 20, 1951 issue of the St. Francis Herald was the amount requested by the Bureau of Reclamation in the fiscal year 1951 for Bonny Dam and Reservoir . 24 ggmly. . reservoir during that period. These funds were used to complete construction of the dam and