(La Porte, IN) - A street in La Porte will be closed next week to open a plugged drain keeping lake levels high.  Weller Avenue will be closed from Pine Lake Ave to Willow Street on Monday.

Waste Water Department Superintendent Jerry Jackson said the reason is to reopen a plugged drain keeping water levels high on Pine and Stone lakes.

Right now, Jackson said Pine and Stone lakes are more than a foot higher than the rest of the lakes in the city because of the plugged drain not allowing the two lakes to drain when the city’s gravity drain is activated to control water levels in all of the lakes.

Officials believe the plug is from either a log jam or sediment build up under the Weller Avenue bridge.  Jackson said a backhoe will be among the devices used to unclog the drain in a job that should take just one day to complete.  “Hopefully all of that work will get done in one day and we’ll be back to having lake level control,” he said.