NILES — A step toward freeing the Dowagiac River of the Pucker Street Dam was completed Monday evening at a Niles City Council meeting at the Niles Fire Department Complex, 1345 E. Main St.

The council unanimously approved the final easement and landowner agreement to complete the removal of both the Pucker Street Dam and sediment from the Dowagiac River.

Councilmembers Georgia Boggs and Charlie McAfee were absent.

More than 13 acres — 573,405 feet — was secured from the Tobye and Dallas Merrill, who signed documents in early September. They will be reimbursed if their property is used to dump dredged materials, to create access roads and to help in potentially difficult restoration activities.

Other landowners will be reimbursed, too. Some may receive compensation for their property’s proximity to work structures, construction and transition area difficulties.

The approval will allow contracted workers to build access roads from the dam to different points along the river to allow vehicles to haul sediment from the river up to 1,400 feet upstream from the dam next spring.

The Southwest Michigan Planning Commission indicated in late August the construction for temporary roads may start this month.

As different area organizations and the contracted workers of Millbocker & Sons, of Allegan, Michigan, prepare to remove the dam at least six months from now, removing sediment can help the river adjust to a new intensity of flow and water height.

According to partnering area groups such as the city of Niles, the planning commission and the Pokagon Band, the dam’s removal will lead to improved ecologies, larger native species populations, faster-moving water and new wetlands.

The project is expected to cost about $8 million.

The decision to improve environmental conditions came shortly after Niles resident and planner Ryan Fellows asked the council to consider amending its longtime noxious weed ordinance.

Fellows said some of the ordinance’s wordage focused on banning the genus of plants, not the certain species. That means plants such as artichokes, milkweed, ragweed and canola are technically illegal within city limits, although likely not enforced, he said.