2 Danville Dams Due To Come Down By Next Year

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says a pair of dams where people have drowned in the eastern Illinois town of Danville will come down by the end of next year.

Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris Young told The Commercial News in Danville that a dam in Ellsworth Park will likely be destroyed by the end of the year. Destruction of another dam along the Vermilion River near downtown will have to wait until sometime next year.

Danville's City Council voted earlier this year to have the low-head dams removed. A number people have drowned at the dams since 1970.

Low-head dams sit low in the water and are considered dangerous.

The DNR has budgeted just more than $2 million for destruction of the dams.