AMHERST — A Puffer’s Pond improvement plan, with recommendations for enhancing both the dam and the dike surrounding the body of water, could be developed through funding from a state grant program.

Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek announced to the Town Council on Monday that the town is requesting a $250,000 grant from the Office of Dam Safety’s Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Program. If awarded, the state money would be matched by the town for a project that would cost around $400,000.

The assessment design grant will pay for engineers to look at the structures, including the 1895 dam the state lists in fair condition, and the 6-foot-high dike that helps form the bowl of the pond. The dike, located on private property, is considered to be in poor condition.

“We’re more concerned actually about the dike,” Ziomek told the Town Council.

If the money is awarded later this year, engineers will be hired to examine the pond and propose fixes. They will take readings on the depth of the water in the pond, get an understanding of what’s on the bottom of the pond, and take depth of sediment cores and examine what’s in the sediment.

Such a project could help the town to decide whether to undertake dredging of the pond, last done in 1986, when 100,000 cubic yards of material were removed.

“It does move the needle on dredging,” Ziomek said. “From that information we should be able to extrapolate the volume of sediment that needs to be removed from the pond.”

Preliminary cost estimates for dredging might be developed from the work.

“This is all part and parcel of getting plans together to consider dredging,” Ziomek said.

The pond remains an important recreation area during the summer for Amherst residents and people throughout the region. But the regional cooling center was closed for extended periods last summer due to high levels of E. coli bacteria.

Ziomek said it’s too early to know whether the pond will be beset by the same problems this summer. He anticipates that continued runoff from rainstorms, hot and humid temperatures and more people walking dogs in the watershed could be contributing factors to the E. coli readings.

Dredging could aid in making the water quality better.

“Having a deeper, cooler pond makes sense,” Ziomek said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.