The family of a Rockbridge County teenager who drowned last year after being swept over a low-head dam on the Maury River in Lexington has filed a $3.35 million lawsuit against the city.

The suit claims that Lexington officials were negligent in allowing the old dam to remain at Jordan's Point Park without posting any signs warning of its hazards.

In April 2006, Charles Volpe, 16, drowned after strong currents swept him and a friend over the dam. Volpe had entered the recreation park and was swimming in a popular area just above the dam. While the surface water appeared to be calm, a strong undercurrent pulled Volpe over the dam, the lawsuit said.

Also according to the suit, the hydraulic force created by the dam pinned the boy to the bottom of the river and caused him to drown.

Since then, Chuck Volpe, the boy's father, has conducted an impassioned effort to get the dam and other low-head dams in the state removed. Based on Volpe's lobbying efforts, the General Assembly passed a bill in February that urges localities to warn people of the dangers of low-head dams.

The lawsuit, filed last week, alleges that city officials were aware of the hazards posed by the dam before the drowning accident and were negligent by not posting warning signs to alert park visitors to the danger.

In July 2006, such safety measures were erected, including warning signs on the river and a series of buoys upstream to give kayakers and swimmers something to grab onto before being swept over the dam.

Volpe said that city officials had refused to meet with him privately, and that he publicly badgered city officials for months before the measures were put in place.

"They were not going to do anything until somebody pushed them," Volpe said.

Other Lexington area residents who attended city council meetings last summer also said at the time that the city wasn't doing enough to warn park visitors that the dam was a safety hazard.

The lawsuit seeks $3 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages.

The city will have 21 days from the time it receives the lawsuit to respond. Lexington City Manager Jon Ellestad and members of the Lexington City Council could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit.

The stretch of the Maury River upstream from the dam has been a popular swimming area for years. But when the water level of the river rises, strong currents can form beneath the water's surface.

There have been three other deaths on the river in the vicinity of the dam in the past four years, but it's unclear if the dam was a factor in those deaths. Lexington police said the river was more than a foot higher than normal and currents were about 12 knots the day that Volpe's son drowned.

In an effort to get the dam removed, Volpe organized sediment and engineering studies on the dam last week that were paid in part by private donations. He said that he plans to use the results to persuade the state that the dam needs to be removed.

"When the engineer left the water, he said that the dam was in very poor condition, that there were several large holes in the bottom of it, and he really felt like ... it needed to be removed," Volpe said.

Last month, the historic Woolen Mills dam on Rivanna River near Charlottesville was torn down at a cost of about $250,000.

"That was a big dam that killed one or two people a year," said Volpe, who has established a scholarship fund in his son's name and has been following efforts in other localities to get rid of low-head dams.

"There's an interesting thing happening all over the country, kind of quietly," he said. "Every municipality I contact that has these dams, they're just taking them out."

Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge County, sponsored House Bill 2695 that passed in February. It states that localities that post warning signs are relieved of major liability if someone is injured or killed near a low-head dam in their jurisdiction.