Sportsmen's Club might be forced to close because of old dam

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. (WLFI) - "This is home, this is nature at it's best," Sportsmen's Club Committee Chair Charlotte Daron said about the club.

Sportsmen's Club in Crawfordsville has been a family tradition for many locals including Daron who says she's been spending almost every day for the past three years at the club.

"You can come out and fish when you're sad and fish when you're happy. You can let the kids go play in the pool and let them just run when they have too much energy," Daron said.

Daron says it's a safe haven but club president Amy Spencer says this popular fishing hole might be closing after 77 years of business. Spencer says DNR officials notified her that the pond's dam, built in 1954, needs to be rebuilt.

"We're trying to work with them [DNR] and get everything up to code and up to their standards, which like I said earlier is beyond our financial means," Spencer said.

The cost of the repairs will be about $400,000 and Spencer says with only 115 members paying $75 a year, they don't have the money and they don't have much time to come up with it.

"After we drain it we have up to a year to come up with if we're going to fix it or if we're going to just take out the dam and let this wonderful, beautiful site be nothing," Spencer said.

Spencer says they will begin draining the pond September 17th and adds club members have been organizing fundraisers to raise money needed to fix the dam.

"We're having fundraisers, we're having a haunted house, we're having bands out here, we're having a community yard sale to try and raise money," Spencer said.

Charlotte Daron has been organizing the haunted house and says the thing she loves most about Sportsmen's Club is how safe it is for her kids.

"You can have a party and not have to worry about the kids interacting with dangerous people you might have in a park. It's a safe haven," Daron said.

NewsChannel 18 tried contacting DNR officials but no phone calls were returned.

To find out more information on how you can help save the Sportsmen's Club email club president Amy Spencer at csportsmans@yahoo.com.