Andy Johnson of EcoStrategies Engineering and Surveying briefs the Busti Town Board on plans for a swales stormwater project. P-J photo by Jay Young

LAKEWOOD — Busti Town and Lakewood Village residents can expect to see improvements in their stormwater management network by the end of this year.

Andy Johnson of EcoStrategies Engineering and Surveying and Dave Hanny of Barton & Loguidice gave a presentation to the Busti Town Board Monday on plans for the stormwater swales project.

“Out of that (stormwater management) report that was done in 2018 we identified a number of different types of stormwater improvement projects,” Hanny said. “This swale project was just one of the 30 or 40 types of projects that we identified throughout the town, throughout the village, to improve water quality ultimately down to the lake.”

The swales project aims to improve stormwater management through adding features to 4,600 feet of runoff ditches throughout Busti and Lakewood. Adding a variety of rock features, bushes, plants and trees will aid with the reduction of phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment build-up in the area, according to Johnson and Hanny.

“The town submitted for grant application funding in 2018, the (Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management) Alliance assisted with that grant application. The town was awarded over $200,000 to implement this project. Those are very competitive awards. So it really showed the importance of the project, the benefit to the town, the village and for the lake,” Hanny said.

“After we present the projects tonight we are hoping to get consensus from the town on these dozen locations we are going to talk about. Then we will go into survey, and then putting together bid documents.”

After Hanny’s briefing on the history of the project, Johnson explained the locations for planned swale improvements, including high-profile sites on Summit Avenue and Southwestern Drive. The board voted unanimously to move forward with the project.

“We want to do some simple landscaping, low-maintenance, deep-rooted shrubs, plants that can suck up some of the phosphorus and catch some of those pollutants before they go into the water,” Johnson said of one location. “We’ll have approval letters and things, formally, for any private owners involved if we think we need to work on their property a little bit.”

The majority of the upgrades will take place on town and village properties, but some selected areas will require private approval. Johnson stated that public response for the project had been positive, but that alternative locations were also considered if approval was not granted for certain private sites.

“The next steps are basically, we would like the town and village to vote on approving these specific sites so that we can formally go to the landowners with more of a formal request, a letter and some copies of the plans and stuff. Once we have that finalized we’ll start doing the survey work, doing the actually design work, getting it out to bid, and then building it,” Johnson said.

Project leaders would like to begin taking construction bids in the next several weeks, with hopes to begin construction this summer.

In other business, the board unanimously approved a resolution for a local law that would opt Busti out of the tax exemptions provided by section 487 of the real property tax law. The aim of this law is to give the town more leverage to negotiate tax income from large-scale solar arrays in the future.

“Basically the state said that we weren’t going to get any property taxes on any large, commercial solar arrays that were installed in the town unless we pass a law to say that we are opting out of the exemption,” said Todd Hanson, town councilman. “So we can actually negotiate with large solar companies if we decide to put one in the town. So we actually get some taxes from it instead of none.”

Prior to the close of the meeting, Hanson said that he had received a proposal on a solar array, but had not had time to review it fully.

“We did get a preliminary proposal on building a solar array, which will offset all of the remaining utility bills that the town pays for everything from street lights to pump stations and parks,” Hanson said.

Hanson expressed a desire to work with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for funding on the proposed solar project.

John Felton of Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union was granted permission to place a sign on the Southwestern Soccer Club concession stand.

The board also approved the appointments of Dave Josephson and Bruce Kidder to the Zoning Board of Appeals; a new lease for a zero-turn lawnmower, and an increase in the town transfer station tire disposal fee to $3. Town Supervisor Jesse Robbins explained that the transfer station has been receiving a large amount of tires, and that the fee increase will make operations more cost effective.

Robbins also offered recent updates regarding the herbicide treatment of Chautauqua Lake for 2020.

“The Solitude (Lake Management) people sent us maps today of where they are contemplating we may have to treat, and the density of the weeds they know of as of fall 2019,” Robbins said.

The proposed treatment zone included 44.1 acres for Busti and 124.4 for Lakewood. Before any treatment plans can be made, applications will need to be submitted to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Robbins expressed a desire to file a joint application for both Busti and Lakewood, which had not been possible in the past.

The board also approved a resolution for a fee structure for future 5G cellphone antennae. The fees were based on standard recommended structures provided by New York state.