The boards of trustees for the villages of Lakewood and Celoron both voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize their village leaders to soon sign contracts with SOLitude Lake Management to have some amounts of herbicides applied in off-shore areas officially permitted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

“We’re doing the best job we can,” said Ellicott Town Supervisor Patrick McLaughlin, who is also authorized to commit to herbicide applications as of Monday.

McLaughlin said the town is committing to treating approximately 30 acres of a maximum 70 acres permitted. The cost of treatment will be $30,800, including costs of insurance, notification of treatments and potential restocking fees.

Deputy Mayor Ted McCague of Lakewood said his board is interested in applying herbicides for approximately 45 acres of a permitted 74.5 acres. These intended areas of application will include waters alongside Crystal and Terrace avenues.

Lakewood Deputy Mayor Ted McCague reads over the resolution to apply herbicides in village waters. The board of trustees unanimously voted to authorize McCague to sign a contract with SOLitude Lake Management to have herbicides used to treat Chautauqua Lake waters in Lakewood this month. P-J photo by Eric Zavinski

Lakewood has $25,000 of village money budgeted for herbicides and is tentatively ready to receive a $10,000 gift from the town of Busti for further applications.

Celoron’s financial status is currently more nebulous in regard to possible funding for applications, but Mayor Scott Schrecengost said that permitted territories in Burtis Bay and around the Celoron Park and Boat Launch are priorities.

“I know everybody’s pulling hard for treatment of all permitted areas on the lake,” Schrecengost said.

A maximum of 48.1 acres could be treated in the village, which the mayor said would necessitate approximately $31,000.

McLaughlin said Ellicott plans on having SOLitude take care of the town’s portion of Burtis Bay first and foremost. Stretches along Fluvanna Avenue are also intended to be treated.

With many more permitted acres than any other municipality on the lake this year, North Harmony Town Supervisor Robert Yates shared that his town was awarded 171.2 permitted acres out of 278.4 acres that were originally applied for.

“We’ve got the momentum,” Yates said. “Herbicides are really expensive and only a one-shot deal.”

He said treatments may take care of weed problems for more than just one year in applied areas but expressed his concern that current town funding of $10,000 will barely make a dent in the tens of thousands of dollars needed to come close to treating the permitted acres.

Yates said his town is waiting on potential assistance from Chautauqua County government and the Chautauqua Lake Partnership, to which they donated $7,000 earlier this year.

Celoron too waits for a potential large addition to herbicide funding. Since the town of Busti received no DEC permits for treating town waters this year, Busti Town Supervisor Jesse Robbins and the board unanimously decided to give a $10,000 Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation grant award to Celoron instead if they are able. Feasibility of such a gift may be revealed at tomorrow’s meeting of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance.

The town of Ellery, lead agency for permitting herbicide treatments, plans to vote on what acres to treat at its regular meeting Thursday. Yates said North Harmony continues to sort out insurances to likely prepare for a final vote during a potential Friday special meeting.

One thing towns and villages have in common this year is frustration with the confusion and rapid need for decisions made after the DEC permit announcement May 1. Municipal officials have been convening nearly daily regarding the changing circumstances of funding, insurances and updating maps.

“(The late permit announcement) put everybody way behind the 8-ball,” McLaughlin said.

He said that while permits were shared by the DEC on May 1, the town of Ellicott didn’t receive proper paperwork to inform a decision until late Friday, resulting in an emergency special meeting Monday afternoon.

Rates of herbicide treatment costs also differ for every municipality. McLaughlin said Ellicott’s rate to treat per acre is $902; whereas, Yates said North Harmony’s cost per acre is $753.47. Yates said the lower rate won’t help much in comparison with the significant permitted acreage the town has.

“Some of my constituents are going to be mad,” Yates acknowledged.

Lakewood’s cost per acre is $872.48, McCague said; and according to Celoron’s intended maximum payment, its cost per acre is approximately $644.49.

Even more questions are left without answers for the time being, even though all herbicide treatments must be completed by May 22. Schrecengost said herbicides themselves will likely be delivered next week, allowing for possibly less than a week for treatments to occur before fish spawning seasons pick up and the summer season begins with Memorial Day weekend.

In terms of insurance, Schrecengost brought up an idea that all municipalities signed onto the Memorandum of Agreement for the Chautauqua Lake Weed Management Consensus Strategy could be considered one umbrella organization to receive insurance for herbicide treatments. That idea would still leave out the town of Ellery since its board did not vote to sign the lake agreement last month.

“I can’t wait for this to be over,” Schrecengost said. “I just hope that after all this work, it goes through.”

In interviews with The Post-Journal, the Celoron mayor was not the only one who expressed that working on lake affairs in the past couple months had become a full-time job. From Robbins to McCague and Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello to Lakewood Trustee Randy Holcomb, other local politicians made efforts to praise these individuals and others for unprecedented work on lake collaboration and herbicide applications.

“(The CLP) has done amazing research,” Lakewood Trustee Ellen Barnes added Tuesday. “Without them, we wouldn’t be this far along.”

While Lakewood Trustee Doug Schutte said herbicides aren’t a “silver bullet” to fix issues with nuisance invasive weeds in Chautauqua Lake, he seconded Barnes’ comments with the rest of the board.

“This is really a unified effort,” he said.

Follow Eric Zavinski at twitter.com/EZavinski