HILLSBORO — Jefferson County leaders voted Monday night to temporarily block swimming and wading at a popular Big River swimming hole beset by drownings and close calls ever since work at the site altered the water's flow and helped form a dangerous whirlpool.

The 6-1 County Council vote will prohibit entry into the river from Rockford Park, where a swift current squeezes between rocky bluffs and the remnants of an old dam, at least until April.

In 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers piled tons of rocks at the site — stabilizing the crumbling dam as a temporary fix, but also helping to form a bottleneck in the river, with strong eddies that can, and have, pulled swimmers under.

The council's move was also accompanied by a unanimous vote to seek funding for new federal projects focuse

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