WINONA, Minn. – Long-time city engineer Bob Bollant, who oversaw major municipal projects, including the city’s permanent dike project, has died. He was 84. Bollant was city engineer from 1968 to 2000. The dike project has saved the city from massive flooding like the 1965 overflow that crested at 20.8 feet – above the previous record of 17.9. Five-thousand people worked to build temporary dikes, but despite 1.3 million sandbags, 300 trucks, 30 bulldozers, 12 backhoes, 10 drag lines and eight earth movers, the East Side was inundated for 10 days. Vowing never to let such flooding happen again, the Army Corps of Engineers and the City Council proceeded with new, higher, thicker dikes. Bollant was in charge for the city when he became city engineer. He also oversaw construction of a new wastewater treatment plant and the dredging of East Lake Winona.
Earlier: R.I.P.: Bob Bollant
Never again. Replaced failing dikes.