The NYS DEC has issued herbicide permits for three municipalities bordering Chautauqua Lake

 

CLP Press Release:
June 18, 2020
 

The NYS DEC has issued herbicide permits for three municipalities bordering Chautauqua Lake. Approximately 87 acres are scheduled for treatment of Eurasian Water Milfoil on Wednesday, June 24^th. ProcellaCOR EC will be applied by Solitude Lake Management LLC, a certified  NYS DEC applicator. Approximately 7 acres in the Village of Bemus Point; 59.2 acres in the town of Busti; and 20.2 acres in the village of Lakewood have been permitted. Prior notification has been sent to riparian owners, warning signs will be posted in conspicuous shoreline locations with date and time of treatment, minor water use restrictions, description of treatment area, contact name and cell phone number, and a statement that signs will be lifted when water use restrictions are lifted. Treatment details should be posted on all participating Chautauqua Lake Village and Town websites.
For further information on this, please contact your respective Town/Village clerk or Mr. Glenn Sullivan at 908-310-8775.
Unfortunately, despite the ongoing efforts of the Chautauqua Lake Partnership and the other lakeside municipalities, another almost 400 acres of Chautauqua Lake requested for treatment this year have been denied by region 9 NYS DEC due to multiple factors including poorly documented weed density; opposition by CLA,  other lake organizations and Chautauqua Institution; and lack of Chautauqua County support.
Additionally, the current macrophyte problem in our lake is due to Curly Leaf Pondweed, another early season invasive, which should die off in the next few weeks. This has been successfully treated by herbicides in the past, but this Spring’s COVID-19 crisis precluded any work-related travel by the DEC and Solitude so application could not occur early enough to prevent its proliferation. Harvesting is now the only option for the more troublesome areas.

For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com

Lake Sewer Project Is Govt. At Its Best

Jun 13, 2020

Rolland Kidder

The other day I drove down the road which runs parallel to the lake in the town of North Harmony and saw what looked like surveyor stakes with small red flags attached.
It tweaked my interest enough to call the sewer district to see if they were related to extending the sewer up the lake and the answer was “Yes.”
These particular stakes were marking where a 2-inch lateral line would be laid to gather sewage from homes right along the lake. From there, the sewage will be pushed by pump/grinders up the hill to the 10-inch main running along Route 394.
GHD, the engineering company involved, has laid out in good detail how the overall system will work. The sewer “main” will run right along Route 394 from near the BOCES school to Hadley Bay Road, where it will cross under I-86. It will exit on the Stow side of the expressway at Old Bridge Road. The main will end there and a 2-3 inch gathering lateral will pick up the sewage in Stow for all of those low-lying parcels along the lake up to and including Hogan’s Hut.
The completion of Phase I of the project will end at Stow and Phase II up to Prendergast Point will not begin until additional funding can be found. Phase III (and the final phase) of the “Westside Extension” project which will cover the hamlet of Ashville is also “on hold” until more money can be found to complete the project.
Building sewers is time-consuming yet important work. Can you imagine Bemus Point without sewers? Yet, such was the case until the late 1970s and early 1980s.
A lot of lessons were learned in running sewers up to the Bemus area, and one was that low pressure sewer lines are much less expensive to build than gravity lines. Similar low pressure lines with pump grinders will be installed in this new extension in North Harmony. Because of the 8.3 mile distance and the vertical elevation involved at Ramsey Road and BOCES, two new pump stations will be needed: one in the Hadley Bay area and the other near the BOCES school.
Though the COVID-19 crisis has made things a bit more difficult, the engineering program is moving ahead and detailed drawings are expected to be finished this year so that bids can be taken in March 2021. The current price tag estimate is $16.6 million. Of this, about $8 million has been raised in the form of grants from New York state. The remainder will be financed by an interest-free loan from the state. Bids will need to come in at or below this estimate if the project is to proceed. Construction is projected to begin in 2021 and end in 2023.
It is sort of the American way to beat up on government and complain about its cost. Yet, this kind of infrastructure construction could not happen without government — this time in the form of a sewer district expansion. If history is any lesson (based upon what happened when sewers went in across the lake,) sewers on the west side of Chautauqua Lake will raise property values as well as help clean up the lake. This is the kind of long-term, beneficial investment that we should be proud of.
Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.


For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.comwww.chautauqualakehomes.com

Maintenance Projects On Lake Get Early Starts

Jun 4, 2020

Jay Young

Town/Village Reporter

jyoung@post-journal.com

A town of Chautauqua Mobitrac cleans up debris in the Shore Acres Canal. Submitted photo

The Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance has stressed the importance of cooperation for necessary lake maintenance projects, especially near-shore cleanup efforts.
This year appears to be getting off on the right foot for that goal, as the alliance has begun its work with the town of Busti, town of Chautauqua, town of Ellery and the Chautauqua Lake Association.
“Over the past month, municipalities and lake organizations have been collaborating with each other to get an early start on near-shore and shoreline clean-up through the coordinated removal of decaying macrophytes and debris,” according to an alliance news release.
On May 13, crews used a town of Chautauqua Mobitrac amphibious barge to clean debris from Vukote Canal, which was disposed of in 14 truckloads by the town of Busti. On May 28, the alliance executed the Shore Acres Canal clean-up project, coordinating with staff from Chautauqua and Ellery to remove three truckloads of debris from the canal.
That effort “restored navigation, water flow, aesthetics, and fish passage. These two projects are great examples of how unity of effort can produce responsive and effective results.”
In addition to these two specific areas of work, the CLA has been removing debris that can contribute to nutrient loading and general usability of shorelines. In the past week, the CLA has removed eight truckloads of shoreline debris, and the organization will begin working with the town of Chautauqua on shoreline cleanup in July.
Funding for these projects, which is provided by the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation and Lenna Foundation, has helped to “not only reduce in-lake nutrient loading by removing macrophytes prior to their decomposition but also promote water movement, improved recreation, and a more aesthetically appealing shoreline environment.”
Don Emhart, Chautauqua town supervisor, has been pleased with the early cleanup efforts, and especially the use of Mobitracs.
“It’s worked well this spring,” Emhart said. “When you have these plugged up canals and things it causes it to stink so it’s best to get it out of there early, and we’ve been pretty successful doing that I think. It’s a nice little machine that is lightweight. It gets in to other places, it’s amphibious so if you touch the bottom it doesn’t get stuck. And it is a one-man operation, so it’s a nice little machine.”

For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com

Lawson Center Online Fundraiser is On for Boating Heritage!

The Lawson Center for Boating Heritage

E-News from Bemus Bay

Give today!

Our special online fundraising event is live until June 11.

 

Dear friends of The Lawson Center,

Starting June today and continuing through June 11, we’ll be participating along with dozens of other area nonprofits in Give Big CHQ, an annual time of online giving. With challenges and matching grants, this will be a special opportunity for you to give to The Lawson Center and make it count! 

Help us build a better future for the community.

Your gifts will support our mission of educating kids and adults about the region’s unique boating heritage. This year we're focusing on two big goals:

• Help us restore a classic Chris-Craft Cruiser
• Our crew of volunteers is working on restoring a 1947 23-foot Chris-Craft Express Cruiser that was donated to the museum. We need to raise $2,000 to pay for materials to restore this popular family boat and create an educational video of the project.

• Help us enrich museum visits with video
• We're adding a touchscreen kiosk and individual tablet PCs that will enhance visits to The Lawson Center with rich, interactive video content. We need to raise $1500 for this project.

How can you give on June 1-11? It’s easy:

• Bookmark our Give Big CHQ website: www.givebigchq.org/organizations/the-lawson-center.
• Set a reminder for June 1, 2020. That’s the first day you’ll be able to give through this program and take advantage of special online challenges and matching grants that will make your gift go even farther.
• Watch your email and our Facebook page for more information and reminders to come.

  Thanks!

For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com