Photo in March 2026 LWVB 3-13-26.jpg cutline: From left Lakewood Trustee John Shedd, Trustee Ellen Barnes, Trustee and Deputy Mayor Ben Troche, and Trustee Scott Cooper conduct business Friday at a special meeting. Mayor Randy Holcomb was absent. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

LAKEWOOD – By a 3 to 1 vote, the Lakewood Board of Trustees, at a special meeting Friday, approved the Chautauqua Lake Partnership’s herbicide application for Chautauqua Lake.

The CLP is applying for Article 15 permits from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for municipalities including the town of Ellery, Bemus Point, the town of Ellicott, Celoron, Lakewood, the town of Busti, and the town of North Harmony.

On March 9, trustees voted to table the resolution resulting in the need for a special meeting. Trustee John Shedd was the lone “no” vote, and Mayor Randy Holcomb was absent. Trustees Ellen Barnes, Ben Troche, and Scott Cooper voted yes.

Shedd gave a lengthy reason as to why he cast a “no” vote. “I am concerned about how long we’ve been doing this with herbicides, and that we’re not getting much result from it,” Shedd said.

Shedd added that with the different opinions about the lake, a negative impact on the lake when weeds are killed and the lake’s bottom is exposed.

“You’re creating another opportunity for an internal load of nutrients to come into the water column and feed the algae, which, in my opinion, is the biggest problem on the lake, other than navigation, because everywhere you go, you’re finding algae,” Shedd said.

Another concern Shedd has is the money that is spent on the application of herbicides when, he noted, a long-term impact is not visible.

“I’d like to focus that money toward long-term solutions to this problem, including watershed management, which prevents nutrients from going into the lake, as well as potentially some in Lake, types of PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes) projects that we can try to see if we can solve the problems that are creating the nuisance weeds and the algae,” Shedd said.

Glenn Sullivan of Ready Scout already has submitted to the DEC applications for herbicide use in wetlands (Article 24), but the DEC said to him, the Article 15 applications must be submitted before the wetlands applications are submitted.

The herbicides, Sullivan said, that are scheduled to be used are Clearcast to control Curly Leaf pondweed, ProcellaCOR EC to control Eurasian milfoil, Komeen Descend to control Starry Stonewort, Captain XTR to control nuisance plants and algae growth.

CLP is organizing the permits, and Sullivan is facilitating them through the DEC. Sullivan said the resolution allows the permit to move forward for the area off of Lakewood’s shoreline.

Lakewood resident John Jablonski, who advocates for weed harvesting, and not herbicide use thanked trustees for holding a special meeting and getting to take an extra look at the herbicide situation.

“We all want a healthy lake. We all want the same goal at the end of the day,” Jablonski said.