The city of Akron is finalizing plans that would turn the pond at the Sterling Jewelers Inc. complex near Summit Mall into a wetland.The project would boost the storage capacity of the 5-acre city-owned Ghent Road Detention Pond for stormwater runoff and reduce the risk of local flooding, officials said.Akron is “very eager” to begin the $4 million project next year, but the financing arrangements are not complete, city spokesman Brad Beckert said.The city has received a $1 million grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.Sterling Jewelers, which employs 2,300 in the Akron area, will be adding a walking path around the lake on its 34-acre campus to cover its portion of the project.The plans are prepared and the city is ready to seek bids from contractors to proceed. That could happen early in 2012, Beckert said, with construction taking six to eight months.The city has obtained needed permits from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he said.Beckert said the project calls for dredging the detention pond near Ghent and Miller roads and converting it into a wetland, complete with water-loving vegetation.That would improve the hydraulics in the area and reduce flooding along nearby Yellow Creek at the Lake of the Woods housing development, he said.Wetlands act like sponges and can absorb large quantities of water that might otherwise contribute to local flooding.The planned improvement would provide more storage capacity than the pond by itself, Beckert said. The pond gets runoff after rains and snow melts from nearby Vesper Lake off Ghent Road and from the shopping mall.The pond drains to Yellow Creek and, after big rains, the creek floods some properties in the housing development off Miller Road, he said.The pond has gradually filled in over the years and must be dredged to enlarge its storage capacity before the wetlands are added, Beckert said.Plans call for about 21,000 cubic yards of sediment to be removed, plus restoration work on 435 feet of stream at the northwest side of the pond.The goal, Beckert said, is to develop a more attractive park-like setting for Sterling Jewelers than currently exists.The pond was initially built in the late 1980s by the Akron-based Cedarwood Cos. to attract Sterling Jewelers.From 3 to 6 feet of dredged materials probably will be removed from the pond, Beckert said. The silty sediments probably will have to be shipped to a licensed landfill for safe disposal. It is not expected to be hazardous waste that would require special and more costly handling, he said.A few small ponds will remain and a small stream will trickle through the newly created wetland, Beckert said.Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.