Poll winner announced at Business After Hours

Area residents have selected the name of “Big AL” to adorn the Shell Rock River Watershed District’s dredge when it removes sediment from Fountain Lake.

District officials and representatives from the Lakes Foundation of Albert Lea on Tuesday announced the winner of the Name the Dredge Contest at Business After Hours of the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce.

The name, submitted by Albert Lea’s Logan Howe, was selected from about 500 votes over the phone and through an online Tribune poll. People could vote in the poll through all of last week.

Coming in at second- and third-place were Mud Monster and The Dredginator, said Lakes Foundation organizer Laura Lunde.

“I just think it’s a community effort that we even have the dredge, so it’s important that the community be involved in helping to name it,” Lunde said.

The winning selection will be featured on a decal or mural that will be placed on the dredge.

The foundation received 31 submissions for the contest, and the entries were narrowed down to 10 for the phone and online voting. The money raised from the contest will support the decal or mural.

The district purchased the dredge last fall for about $340,000, along with the pipes, pumping and other equipment necessary to pump the dredge material away from the lake for $435,000. The equipment would be used first on Fountain Lake and then could be used on other area lakes. The entire Fountain Lake dredging is estimated to cost $15 million.

Other options were:

• Sediment AL Journeys

• Colonel Albert Lea

• Progress

• Sediment Piranha

• The Spirit of Albert Lea

• Dredgie

• Perseverance

Total votes for the poll and call-in combined were unavailable as of press time.