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Lake Management Memo To Be Revealed Wednesday

Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello announced the pursuit of a Memorandum of Understanding for a Chautauqua Lake Weed Management Consensus Strategy at January’s meeting of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance. He will unveil the final document Wednesday. P-J photo by Eric Zavinski

MAYVILLE — Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello will unveil the Memorandum of Understanding for the Chautauqua Lake Weed Management Consensus Strategy on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Room 331 on the third floor of the Gerace Office Building, 3 N. Erie St., Mayville.

The memo of agreement, which includes 24 tenets including various lake nonprofits and municipal governments, is intended to bring Chautauqua Lake stakeholders together so the groups can more effectively implement in-lake weed management methods.

Borrello plans to sign the agreement on behalf of the county during the announcement. The county executive originally announced the pursuit of the memo during January’s meeting of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance.

“The idea is for the county to take a leadership role here,” Borrello had said in January.

The Ecology and Environment corporation out of Buffalo has interviewed various tenets, including the Chautauqua Lake Association, Chautauqua Lake Partnership, Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy and more regarding what goals each organization has for the lake.

Borrello said at the most recent alliance meeting that there are elements that every group agrees on and few they do not. He said every lake stakeholder can be expected to compromise, which hints that the memo will be used to enforce a multi-pronged strategy of implementing weed harvesting, herbicide treatments and watershed projects to control macrophytes in the lake, especially invasive weed species: Eurasian milfoil and curly-leaf pondweed.

The county executive also announced earlier this month that the memo will not be revised once it is officially unveiled.

“I think that’s a slippery slope for a number of reasons,” Borrello said at the March alliance meeting. “I believe we’ve done a deep enough dive. … It’s to show the outside world that we can work together.”

Lake nonprofits remain eager to see what the memo looks like and how it will affect funding for their organizations on multiple levels. Not only will the memo be used to help decide funding commitments from the county and alliance, but some towns and villages are also holding back Chautauqua Lake-related funding for 2019 until they get to see the memo and which groups sign onto it.

When asked in February why Borrello got more involved as a county executive on lake issues, he said the county had an obligation to make sure the lake supported the economy and environment as the true driver of tourism and recreation.

“The lake is truly the centerpiece — the jewel — of our county,” Borrello said during a Turner Winter Series lecture. “What are you doing to actually make sure that jewel sparkles? That’s why, for me, it was important for us to step forward.”

Borrello will be joined by Mark Geise, deputy county executive for economic development; Dave McCoy, county watershed coordinator; Pierre Chagnon, county legislator and chairman of the alliance; and Tom Heins, principal of Ecology & Environment.

Follow Eric Zavinski at twitter.com/EZavinski

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