It’s become a familiar, yet important, refrain for West Point Lake advocates: the Army Corps of Engineers gets a new leader at the division office in Atlanta or district office in Mobile, Ala., and that leader comes to LaGrange for a visit.

On Wednesday, it was Col. Steven Roemhildt ’s turn.

Roemhildt , the new commander and district engineer in the Mobile office, called his meeting with local leaders “productive.” On hand were U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland , R- Grantville , state Rep. Randy Nix, R-LaGrange, LaGrange Mayor Jeff Lukken , Troup County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe and members of the West Point Lake Advisory Committee.

“My first 90 days coming in I looked at what my priorities should be,” Roemhildt said.

One of those was visiting all the project areas under his command, he’s been to all but Lake Lanier and plans to make the visits once every three months.

“I wanted to start the personal relationships,” Roemhildt said of the visit.

On a visit to West Point Lake’s project office Tuesday, Roemhildt also met with West Point leaders.

“We explained to the colonel, this is not your normal advocacy group,” Westmoreland said.

The West Point Lake Coalition, West Point Lake Advisory Committee and others already were active, but became much more involved in the politics of the lake after the 2007 drought.

Lake advocates on Wednesday gave the commander, who took over in May, a rundown on their ongoing concerns, namely that the lake be managed in a balanced approach with other lakes in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin. Maj. Gen. Todd Semonite agreed to look at that sort of approach, what the corps calls “adaptive management,” when he made his first visit to the project as commander of the Atlantic division this time last year.

“We’re going to continue to look at adaptive management,” Roemhildt said.

The corps will continue to look at “guide curves” that determine lake levels, he said, but recognizes the individual needs of each lake basin.

Part of the locals’ presentation to the commander included a 2007 economic impact study, which showed a full lake - 635 feet above mean sea level or higher - could mean an annual impact of $710 million on the area.

“It is people’s livelihood,” Roemhildt said. “I understand the direct relationship between the local economy and the lake. It’s not lost on me.”

Roemhildt takes over the Mobile post from Col. Byron Jorns , who was commander during the 2007 drought. Jorns now is in Washington, D.C., serving as executive officer to the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works.

Roemhildt previously served as deputy commander of the corps’ Transatlantic division, overseeing construction within the U.S. Central Command. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point with a degree in civil engineering and had been deployed in support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm, Operation Joint Endeavor and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader @lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.