U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, was at Dana Peak Park on Thursday with the good news that Congress had approved $5 million in funding for repairs at Lake Belton and $4 million for Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir repairs.

Belton Mayor Jim Covington said the amount equals the $9 million price tag of the damages the area lake parks sustained during 2007 floods.

“It was a huge thing for the area,” Covington said, adding “the economic impact of all the (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) parks being closed is just huge.”

Carter said the key was getting the appropriation into the supplement that funds the military.

“The only things you can put in are things declared an emergency,” Carter said. “The Corps of Engineers had several things put in and this got included. The Corps has been extremely cooperative in getting this done. Otherwise, as you probably know, we haven’t passed any appropriation bills, so we’d still be waiting. But this has been signed by the president.”

Carter said he assumed the money is going into the Corps’ budget “as we speak,” so they expect to have the lakes in pre-flood condition within a year.

He said a Corps representative who attended Thursday’s announcement said the Corps didn’t get any congressional money for the last big flood on Stillhouse Lake, which was in 1992. It took 15 years to repair the damage from that flood, he said.

Covington said many people don’t realize that when the lakes are open the number of people who “come through our communities . . . stop and buy gas, soda pops and other supplies.”

He estimated a $10 million to $12 million economic impact when the lake parks are operating at full capacity, but a much higher estimate - $41 million - was given in September 2004 by Daniel Thomasson, reservoir manager of Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow, who was speaking at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers information exchange meeting.

Carter said nobody really has a good context of how much an economic impact the two lakes have on the area, but he had a good idea of how it affected individuals when he toured the area after the 2007 flood.

“When floodwaters finally went down, I met with businesses associated with the lake and they were saying that the lake, as far as a recreational

lake, is probably the most popular than any other in the state. Boating, jet skis, banks carrying the paper, automobile dealerships . . . ” The list goes on.

Covington is just happy that something will be done to repair the damage.

“Anybody who hasn’t seen the devastation, it will speak for itself. Obviously all the structures were destroyed and trees were killed,” with replacements required for everything from gate attendant buildings to restrooms to picnic structures.

The parks were submerged under as much as 34 feet of water during the spring and summer of 2007. Many of the structures succumbed to wave action, Thomasson said in an earlier interview. Flooding damaged 21 of the parks on the two lakes.

Most lake parks are now open for day use only.

This has been, unfortunately, during a time when residents would be using the park instead of making long trips because of the high cost of gasoline.

“We’ve been in this energy debate in Washington and I’ve been thinkiing about this,” Carter said. “It’s very important when you have an energy crisis and you don’t have the area, summertime is not as fun as it ought to be.”