WYOCENA, Wis. (WTAQ) - A small town in southern Wisconsin is in a battle with the federal government over who should pay to fix a crack in a dam. Officials in Wyocena said the crack was most likely caused by the big Flood of 2008. But because the crack wasn’t found until last fall, the Federal Emergency Management Agency refuses to grant emergency aid to fix it. FEMA said the damage was outside the scope of the original repairs after the flood – and the crack should have been found within 60 days of Wyocena’s original contact with the agency. But engineer Kory Anderson of Portage said it would have been impossible to find the crack back then – because it was only noticed when Lake Wyona was being refilled last November.

Meanwhile, the Village Board is not taking FEMA’s rejection lying down. They’ve asked Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and U.S. Senator Russ Feingold to go to bat for them. In the meantime, the board must decide whether to have a contractor fix the crack. It would cost $100,000 – and the board says Wyocena cannot afford it on its own. If the dam is not fixed, officials say the lake won’t be refilled.