Water means money, Lake Forest subdivision residents agreed Sunday at a meeting to renew the push to refill a lake around which many of the neighborhood’s homes were built.

It will take money to restore the lake. But, in addition to aesthetics, the lake will provide higher property values.

The group discussed pledges from about 50 households that have topped $20,000 in the past week. That’s about half the $40,000 that Bobby Anderson, homeowner association president, said will be needed.

The 17-acre lake drained after an overflow pipe failure in 2003. It had been established with the neighborhood, about 30 years ago, east of Oak Ridge Road near Culkin.

Piers in the backyards of houses that overlooked the lake have stood guard over a vast, grassy shallow pit since.

Anderson said the $40,000 is reachable, even given the lingering challenge of spreading the word to all 170 or so residents of the subdivision and its adjacent areas such as Forest Cove and Stonegate.

Some who gathered for a strategy session and meeting Sunday at Anderson’s home talked about how a revitalized lake can be a draw for recreational activities, adding to the natural selling points for potential new inhabitants.

&#8220You don’t sell the parties, you sell the recreation,” said resident Bob Lucchesi.

Also, they said, a benefit to residents already in the neighborhood will be enhanced property values for the subdivision as a whole.

&#8220One Realtor has estimated property values would go up 10 percent,” Anderson said.

Heavy rains in February 2003 damaged a vertical pipe hooked into a longer horizontal one under a 300-foot wide dam at the eastern edge of the lake.

Shortly after the lake drained and the homeowners’ association secured a permit from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the group hired a Jackson engineering company, Aqua Engineering Services LLC, to recommend a repair plan. Aqua recommended that all or part of the dam, including the horizontal pipe under it and the vertical pipe, be removed and replaced and an auxiliary spillway be added to allow the system to handle unusual, &#8220hundred-year flooding.”

Willow trees near what was the lake’s edges will have to be cleared and silt removed as additional parts of the revitalization. One proposal for handling cutting of levees and slopes to federal standards was received last week.

With half of the expected costs gathered in the form of member dues, Lake Forest resident and association treasurer Louis Logue said he has talked to area banks about borrowing the rest of the lake project’s costs.

Dues have been raised to $150 to supplement the effort, Logue said.

Hopes are for the contractor eventually chosen to begin work by year’s end so the lake can fill for next year. Despite the costs and work to ensure necessary standards are met for ridding the lake of weeds and vegetation, Anderson hopes to expand the group’s newfound optimism to the entire subdivision.

&#8220We’re going to get our lake back. It’s as simple as that,” Anderson said.