MADRID - Heavy rain on Wednesday has delayed repairs to the town’s Mill Dam on the Grasse River until next week.

Dam remediation committee chairman Alan L. Finnegan said Thursday that too much water rose too fast in the aftermath of Wednesday’s downpour.

“The water just came up over the dam,” he said. “We’re hoping for next week (to resume work).”

Repairs to the 116-year-old dam began in July and, in accordance with a work permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, will have to stop Sept. 30.

The repairs include patching of the concrete spillway, the wall over which the river water flows. Also, the dam’s northern and southern cement bulkheads that bracket the spillway need to be repaired.

Mr. Finnegan said the spillway patching is done. The southern bulkheads are on track to be finished by Sept. 30 and the northern abutment will be done next summer.

Until the rain came, dry weather had kept the river’s water level below the spillway, thus enabling the workers to make their repairs.

Mr. Finnegan said several pine stop logs will be pulled from the dam wall to bring down the water level by sending the water around the spillway into the downstream.

The dam repair is paid for by a $60,000 grant from the St. Lawrence River Valley Redevelopment Agency.

The work has been done by the town Highway Department and a contractor .

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