Saturday, June 13, 2020
Lake Sewer Project Is Govt. At Its Best
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
Thursday, June 04, 2020
Maintenance Projects On Lake Get Early Starts
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
Monday, June 01, 2020
Lawson Center Online Fundraiser is On for Boating Heritage!
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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
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Help make Chautauqua Lake HEALTHY and BEAUTIFUL!
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For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com
SPRING SEASON 2020 CHAUTAUQUA LAKE PARTNERSHIP UPDATE
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For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Alliance Group Outlines Lake Strategy
Don Emhardt, Chautauqua town supervisor, is
pictured operating a Mobitrac to clean up floating debris in Vukote
Canal in a collaborative project with the town of Busti.
Submitted photo
“Collaboration is an absolute key of the alliance, it’s what we are trying to do all the time.”Those were the words Thursday of Vince Horrigan, interim Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance director, when briefing board members and the public on lake maintenance progress during the 2019 season and plans for increased cooperation in 2020.
PAST SUCCESS
The alliance has undertaken 56 projects in the five years since its inception, generating $6.4 million dollars in funding at an average of $1.2 million per year. These projects include a wide range of different methods used to pursue increased recreational usability and improve the ecological health of the lake.
Funding for these projects includes state-issued grants as well as partnerships with local foundations and not-for profit organizations.
Stream bank work and restoration includes efforts to improve Dutch Hollow Creek. The goal of these projects is “to try to keep all of the erosion back in the streams and trying to get it from coming into the lake. This will continue to be an important process as we move forward,” Horrigan said.
Addressing water table runoff issues, like sedimentation and nutrient deposits, are Lakewood’s Chautauqua Avenue Project, the Busti Swales Project and the Grandview Stormwater Management Project. Horrigan was encouraged by cooperation between municipalities on these fronts.
“Lakewood/Busti has really done quite a bit with an engineering and planning grant. Lakewood’s Chautauqua Avenue is going to be a great project up there with the village and the town,” Horrigan said. “The Busti swales to try and keep the bad stuff out of the lake. The village of Celoron, it is incredible what has been done there from the break wall to the amenities building.”
HERBICIDE TREATMENT
Last season, five different municipalities treated 388 acres of the lake with herbicides Aquathol K and Navigate, which improved recreation in the south basin.
“I can tell you that the residents, property owners, the hotel down there, saw a much-improved area in the south basin of the lake,” Horrigan said. This treatment was complemented by lake-wide harvesting by the Chautauqua Lake Association, which gathered 4,337 tons of macrophytes during the regular season and 156 tons during the extended season.
A unified effort in 2018 and 2019 was undertaken during the Burtis Bay Cleanup. This project involved maintenance on a 2,950-foot section of the bay shoreline, with contributions from the CLA, Town of Ellicott, Chautauqua County, Village of Celoron and the Alliance. Looking forward to 2020, six different municipalities have applied for herbicide treatment permits from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. This treatment would utilize the new herbicide ProcellaCOR, which does not come with water use restrictions.
The alliance has secured $605,000 in consolidated foundation grants for this season, which will be used on a variety of maintenance projects. “We use a balanced approach. We looked at the watershed and sources of nutrient loading and the long-term impacts. Projects associated with that, and then of course our in-lake maintenance,” Horrigan said. “We want to improve the short term, but the reality is this is lake maintenance. It’s going to go on every year.”
NEW TOOLS
The Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance has developed a rapid response team to deal with any invasive species which threaten the health of the lake, and is relying on a broad base of scientific information to monitor the effectiveness of its programs. This includes phosphorus sensors put in place by the Chautauqua Lake Partnership and Bowling Green State University, Solitude Lake Management’s forthcoming weed survey of Burtis Bay, and new tools.
The group is in the process of field testing the Chautauqua Lake Aquatic Data Mapping Project, a new aquatic data collection initiative which will utilize sonar-based aquatic plant and bathymetry mapping software. In an effort to to better comply with the Memorandum of Agreement on lake maintenance, the Alliance is looking to secure funding for GPS monitoring devices from the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation. These units would be used to track the activity of CLA barges and Mobitracs.
“Three will go on the Mobitracs and six will go on the harvesters and Mobitrac support units,” Horrigan said. “We are hopeful on that grant but it will be up to the Community Foundation board which meets next Wednesday.”
The board passed a resolution to issue $90,000 in grant funding to the CLA, with provisions that GPS locators are put in place in order to comply with the MOA. CLP President Jim Cirbus voiced his concerns about inconsistent enforcement of the MOA during the past year, and stated that the Alliance cannot serve as an independent third-party monitor on these issues. Cirbus said that the CLP has complied with third-party monitoring as mandated by the MOA, but that other organizations have not been scrutinized as closely. With some municipalities struggling to fund herbicide treatment this year, Cirbus questioned the allocation of money for third-party monitoring when there has been no penalty for those not complying.
FUNDING CHANGES
The board approved a reallocation of $5,000 in funding to begin early season nearshore clean-up activities coordinated by Busti and the Town of North Harmony. The excess funds were available due to a lower than expected purchase price for Mobitracs made by the Town of Chautauqua.
The board agreed on the use of $60,000 in funding from the county through the occupancy tax program. This will be split, with $30,000 reserved for herbicide treatment in Burtis Bay if it is needed and approved, and $30,000 for third-party monitoring of herbicide application.
ELECTIONS
For 2020, three of the nine alliance board seats were up for election of three-year terms. PJ Wendel was awarded the county executive seat; Jim Andrews was re-elected to the municipal seat; and David Shepherd was re-elected to the At-Large seat. Alliance board officers elected during the session were Chair Pierre Chagnon, Vice-Chair Ted McCague, Secretary Mike Jabot and Treasurer Andrews. This will be Chagnon’s fourth consecutive 1-year term, which was affirmed by a 2/3 vote by the board.
RESEARCH PANEL
The alliance had planned to host a scientific research panel open to the public on July 18 at 9:30 a.m. at the Village Casino in Bemus Point. This panel would include scientists from Bowling Green State University, The Jefferson Project and SUNY Fredonia with demonstrations and discussion on different lake maintenance methods. In light of Covid-19 restrictions, that meeting may have to be rescheduled or held virtually.
SCIENCE COMMITTEE
The Alliance intents to repurpose its science committee in light of the increased amount of lake maintenance data coming from multiple sources. “With the onset of multiple sources of professional lake survey data, such as the CLAD initiative, phosphorus sensor data collection, new harmful algal bloom studies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Jefferson Project, the time is right to recharter the scientific and advisory committee into the data analysis and research committee,” Horrigan said.
For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com
Monday, May 18, 2020
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For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com
Monday, March 09, 2020
It's Tempting, but Don't Do It: The Perils of Moving in Prior to Closing
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It is not a given that every sale will close on the contracted closing
date. With this in mind, it is important to have contingency plans to
cover any delays that will hinder moving plans for both buyer and
seller. The buyer who wants to move in prior to a delayed closing and
the seller who accommodates such a request may find themselves in a
predicament if things don't go according to plan. Keep in mind that even
if there is a written agreement to allow an early move-in, a legal
dispute can still evolve from the unforeseen. Early occupancy by a buyer means that the seller will have to maintain insurance on the property until closing, but there will be a potentially costly change to that policy. The new coverage would be landlord insurance to cover the now "tenant-occupied" home. Part of the closing process is the funding of the buyer's loan and a final check of clear title. If a final verification of employment is not in order for the underwriter, funding will not occur and may cause the lender to withdraw the loan commitment. If the final title check reveals a last-minute recorded encumbrance against the property, the sale closing could be indefinitely delayed. These are all good reasons for early occupancy to be avoided. While the buyer benefits the most from an early move-in, the seller potentially suffers great loss in the event of any buyer default. The seller will have vacated their home, thinking it was sold. This, coupled with the house possibly having been altered or damaged by the buyer during early occupancy, could create unanticipated financial hardship. The seller still owns the house and remains liable for activities on the property. In any of these scenarios, it wouldn't be long before buyer and seller would find themselves entangled in a legal battle over monetary damages. The message is loud and clear. Both the buyer and seller need to plan their moves with a flexible timeline and avoid early buyer possession in the event unexpected delays cause a late closing. If you're considering upsizing or downsizing, let me know what I can do to help make that transition as smooth as possible for you. |
For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com
Friday, February 21, 2020
Visitors Bureau
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For More Information On Chautauqua Lake Real Estate and Living Visit: www.chautauqualakehomes.com
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