If Money Was No Object, What If Lake Elmo Was Something Else?

I see in the Billings Gazette where they are going to completely drain Lake Elmo by September 1 to kill the invasive clams. The whole invasive species is a concept that I know nothing about. That's why I'm going to invite you into the way my mind was thinking this morning.

What if after we drain Lake Elmo, we filled it in with dirt and made some more prime Heights real estate? Not knowing if that lake is essential to anybody is beside the point. Please hear me out. Or not. Maybe we go in another direction.

There are an awful lot of boat owners in Billings. Why not build a reservoir somewhere in town or at least close to it? Just like the farmer over by Manhattan who built his own pond just for water skiing.

Cooney Reservoir, Deadman's Basin and Yellow Tail are all a good haul from here. If we had something in town, people could make waterskiing an afternoon event instead of packing up and hauling everything to one of the aforementioned bodies of water.

And the thing is, somebody fairly close to town has got some ground that would be perfect for this project.

I have no doubt that it is prohibitively expensive. But if you look at what they are doing in the Arab Emirates, you see that all it takes is money.

You wouldn't need to build restaurants because of the availability of food trucks in our town these days. We could have a stage by the water so you could attend concerts on land or on the water.

Just a thought as I'm staring out the window watching summer slip away.