Hill County officials have set three meetings Tuesday about an issue at Beaver Creek Reservoir that Hill County Commission Chair Mike Wendland said this morning was at least a byproduct of recent flooding on Beaver Creek.

Beaver Creek Dam, about 8 miles south of Havre, was built in the 1970s for irrigation storage, flood control and recreation purposes.

During the flooding in June, a gate used to drain water from the reservoir stuck nearly closed, making it unable to be used to reduce water levels.

Flooding in June — which happened just a few weeks after rains and melting snow in May inundated Beaver Creek and filled the dam — again caused damage in Beaver Creek Park, had water going over the spillway at Beaver Creek Dam and flooded low lying areas between the dam and where Beaver Creek flows into the Milk River.

That damage, along with extreme flooding damage on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, led President Barack Obama to declare the region a federal disaster area.  Federal, state and local officials have been working on assessing the damage and working to repair it since late June.

County officials are having a meeting Tuesday morning that includes discussing the problem, and how to fix it, with representatives of the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, which designed the dam, and the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Wendland said this morning that it appears the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not have jurisdiction over the dam and reservoir.

The county will explore what help NRCS and other applicable agencies can provide, he said.

Another meeting with irrigators is set for 3 p.m. at the Hill County Justice Center on 2nd Street West, to pass on what the problem is and what will need to be done.

A public meeting, also at the justice center, is slated for 6 p.m. The last meeting was set in order to pass on the information gleaned at the first two meetings to the general public, Wendland said.