By Vince Horrigan

As the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance prepares to enter our sixth year prioritizing projects, securing funding, and allocating resources for our 26 member agencies, there is much to reflect upon and much to be excited about moving forward.

Prioritizing Projects: This summer’s lake-wide program includes 15 member-led lake and watershed projects consisting of stormwater management, invasive species detection and removal, phosphorus monitoring (harmful algal bloom source detection), new Mobitrac and skimmer equipment to enhance near-shore weed fragment clean up, weed harvesting, new herbicide applications with no swimming, fishing, drinking water restrictions to target invasive Eurasian Watermilfoil, and new partnerships to enhance weed collection, transport, and disposal. These projects use our Unity of Effort strategy where each member’s core competencies are used to achieve the Weed Management Consensus Strategy as outlined in the current Chautauqua County Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).

Securing Funding: This summer’s project funding level is unprecedented and has three components. First is the incredible generosity of four local foundations who have come together to consolidate their efforts to support our member projects. The Lenna, Ralph C. Sheldon, Chautauqua Region Community, and Gebbie Foundations, have donated an incredible $605,000 to support the alliance’s comprehensive program. The second component is from Chautauqua County’s Occupancy Tax (Bed Tax) Program, which provided funding to the tune of $150,000 in support of the Alliance’s comprehensive lake management program. Finally, with the help of our state Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a total of $245,000 has been allocated in the 2020 state Capital Projects Budget to support two of our member agencies’ project needs. Never have we had $1 million to support the goal of a wonderful Chautauqua Lake.

Allocating Resources: The alliance is at the midpoint of our five-year strategy which helps guide our approach to resource allocation. This strategy attempts to strike a balance between watershed and in-lake project investment by using a multi-criteria analysis project scoring tool based on Community-wide input, which assists the alliance with financial resource allocation. In addition, our nine-member Board of Directors, comprised of a cross-section of county, municipal, and at-large member leaders, apply their extensive knowledge and judgement to fine-tune funding to achieve the best possible allocation of resources toward the betterment of our lake and its watershed.

I encourage everyone interested in our work to visit our web site at www.chautauquaalliance.org.

Following our annual meeting on May 14 our annual report and community presentation will be available under the Annual Reports tab. The presentation will clearly reveal the incredible details of the above projects as well as the additional millions of dollars in New York state-funded past and present projects that the alliance has facilitated and managed through the state Consolidated Funding Application process.

As we hope for a prompt reopening of our county amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of our wonderful Chautauqua Lake is very bright indeed. Excitement and optimism cannot be denied!

For more information about the Alliance, contact Vince Horrigan at 661-8918 or visit www.chautauquaalliance.org.

Vince Horrigan is interim director of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance.