Depending on your deal, Tempe Town Lake is a recreational haven, or a waste of resources, or possibly the butt of a joke. In any case, the 225-acre manmade reservoir in downtown Tempe beneath Mill Avenue was closed on February 10, and drained to replace the Town Lake Western Dam. Don't worry, representatives from the Arizona Game and Fish Department were out there casting some nets and reining in as many fish as possible. If you happened to have visited Tempe Beach Park or the North Bank Path during this window, you would have noticed a rare sight: a vast marshland dotted with beer bottles, parking cones, canopy frames from various events, and only the maker knows what else. Refilling the lake began about two weeks later, at about a foot a day until it reached 900 million gallons, restoring itself yet again on April 30 as the spot for under-bridge fishermen, standup paddleboarders, and those in rented kayaks.