There’s already some water in the Illinois and Michigan Canal in Ottawa. Ottawa Canal Association President Arnie Bandstra expects the rest of the re-watering job to be done in two weeks. A ribbon cutting is planned in May.
It was previous mayor Bob Eschbach’s dream to see recreational water use in the canal. The work to make it possible on a half-mile length with Illinois 23 in the middle of it started in the summer of 2018. Bandstra talked about it on WCMY’s Morning Mix show this week.
The groundbreaking for the canal project in ottawa in July 2018
One view of the project as things were in August 2019