Dec. 21, 2018 – West Bend, WI – Just after 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 20 a number of business owners in downtown West Bend were shocked at the low water level of the Milwaukee River.
The water level had dropped 2 to 3 feet and the riverbed was visible from Highway 33 south through the downtown and past Water Street.
“We had some crews out to do schedule dam maintenance,” said Public Works Director Doug Newman.
Part of the maintenance was to remove a log stuck by the dam.
“There’s not a lot of flow but you can see the water’s already starting to come over the dam,” Newman said. “We opened the flood gates and that’s part of the maintenance to exercise the gates and the gears to make sure everything works.”
By 5 p.m. the waterflow had returned the river to somewhat a normal status.
