(AP) – Construction on the new 86-foot dam at the

new HorseThief Reservoir has been completed, but officials say it

will be next summer before the lake will be ready for use.

Workers put down the last layers of the dam on Friday night.

State officials will inspect the dam in early September. Once it is

approved by the Division of Water Resources, water from Buckner

Creek will be diverted to begin filling the 440-acre lake.

An inlet tower and boat ramps also are built. But Ron Allen,

administrator of the Pawnee Watershed District, says the lake

likely won’t be ready for use until Memorial Day weekend of 2010.

The reservoir is located in Hodgeman County, eight miles west of

Jetmore.