The Associated Press

DELHI - The owners of a hydroelectric power dam in Delhi want to reactivate it for the first time since 1973.

If the Lake Delhi Recreation Association concludes an agreement with an energy developer, the dam could begin producing energy again.

That's according to association President Jim Willey. He said he is "very optimistic" that a deal can be struck with the developer, who he won't identify.

Willey spoke at an open house on Saturday for members of the recreation association.

Willey said the project would take time, but that a developer would undertake the substantial investment of time and money to refit the dam and its generators with more efficient turbines.

"It's a green effort," he said. "It just makes sense to use a resource like this in 2008."

Willey said that, under the plan they were looking at, after the developer recovered much of its investment, the association would be able to share in revenue generated by the dam.

Willey said future revenue would help maintain the dam, which was built in 1929 by the Interstate Power Co.

The dam has actually played a pivotal role in the creation of the Lake Delhi Recreation Association. When Interstate shut down the generators in 1973, residents along the lake created by the dam incorporated as the Lake Delhi Recreation Association and bought the dam.

Sixteen years later they voted to establish a taxing district, which, at a rate of $4 per $1,000 assessed valuation, has generated more than $1 million, mostly spent for dam repairs and maintenance and dredging of the lake.

Maintaining the dam has been hard this year after four successive floods this spring caused extensive damage, said Dave Fink of Delhi, an association member who manages the dam as a volunteer.

Fink said association members are optimistic that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide funding assistance for dam repairs.