SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Dozens of residents packed Shaker Heights City Hall on Monday night to hear sewer district officials explain their sudden reversal this summer in recommending the removal of the Lower Shaker Lake dam.

What they also got was a very direct message: If you want to keep your lake, the Northeast Ohio Sewer District’s not paying for it.

The message came after an hour-long presentation to a joint-session of city councils from Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights, whose border is straddled by the nearly two-century old manmade lake along Doan Creek.

It elicited a buzz of murmurs among the more than 75 people who attended the meeting -- the first public hearing since the district made its change of plans public late last month.

Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, the district’s CEO,

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