{"id":1034,"date":"2026-05-01T09:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2026-05-01T10:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:00:15","slug":"weekend-river-update-5-1-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/weekend-river-update-5-1-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend River Update (5\/1\/26)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Current river temperature, 57\u00b0<br><br>Current river level at latham 8.5.<br><br>This represents a 3.5 foot decrease in level From our flood crest.<br><br>While we are definitely headed in the right direction, the floodplains still have water in them. So our cushion is not where we would like it to be yet.<br><br>I posted a photo of the proposed agreement that was drawn up for the town hall meeting back in 2019. <br><br>Our association did extensive research on a proactive operation level.<br><br>Many things are taken into consideration to have a positive impact on the river in winnebago county without a negative impact south of us.<br><br>Data from Scott Lincoln of the national weather service shows that since 2019, this procedure has been followed and is documented by the graphs.<br><br>For those watching the gages, it was obvious that water levels were getting too low with the dam at 100% open.<br><br>The spillway had actually dried up.<br><br>As with all dams, the gates started there slow adjustment process to rein in river levels again in the pool.<br><br>All four gates were open 10 feet during peak flow of the flood.<br><br>As river levels dropped because of the decreased flow rate, the gates were lowered 2 feet.<br><br>This means that at the present time, they are still open 80%.<br><br>As the gates start the slow controlled adjustment process, the current is also slowing down.<br><br>I made a trip up to the Beloit dam yesterday and one of their 2 main hydraulic gates has already been lowered halfway.<br><br>The second picture I posted, was from 11\/30\/2013.<br><br>This shows the power of the gates if they are left open too long and the pool from Auburn street south is drained.<br><br>There was a mistake made back then and it will never be repeated again.<br><br>One of my many hats I wear is posting our homeowners&#8217; association signs at all boat ramps to coincide with the sheriff&#8217;s orders.<br><br>They have all been changed from river&nbsp; closed to no wake as of this morning.<br><br>Sheriff Gary caruana and the Rock River homeowners association would advice against venturing out on the river at this time.<br><br>The village of machesney and Rockford park district&nbsp; have a lot of cleanup to do of the mud that was deposited in the boat ramp parking areas.<br><br>Harlem boat ramp and Martin park are still barricaded off at this time.<br><br>We are all hoping with dry conditions this should be accomplished next week.<br><br>While all gages have come out of flood stage level, the muddy mess and debris still remain.<br><br>The good news is all over winnebago county whether on the river or off the river, sump pumps are running a little less constant compared to 10 days ago.<br><br>Our drainage canal is headed in the right direction and we pray mother nature will switch us back to more normal rain events for the rest of our summer.<br><br>Our area farmers are hoping for the same so that they can get this year&#8217;s corn and soybean crops planted as the fields start to dry out.<br><br>If you are going to be venturing out onto your dock or shoreline for the first time with the decreased river levels, please be extremely careful.<br><br>The ground is very muddy, and the current is still elevated.<br><br>Have a great weekend everyone and pray for warm sunny, windy days to get us back to normal in winnebago county.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Current river temperature, 57\u00b0 Current river level at latham 8.5. This represents a 3.5 foot decrease in level From our flood crest. While we are definitely headed in the right direction, the floodplains still have water in them. So our cushion is not where we would like it to be&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/weekend-river-update-5-1-26\/\" class=\"readmore\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Weekend River Update (5\/1\/26)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034\/revisions\/1035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockriverhomeowners.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}