Lake alliance to hold information meeting Aug. 18

BEMUS POINT – The Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance board will host a public information session at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the Village Casino.

Members of the alliance board will be joined by representatives from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and GEI Consultants for a panel discussion.

The discussion had its roots earlier this year when alliance board members discussed an unsuccessful state grant application. In April, Andy Goodell, alliance board member, then made a motion that was approved by the board to have GEI Consultants, the alliance’s lake consultant, review the state’s invasive species grant scoring and provide recommendations regarding its appropriateness for Chautauqua Lake. During that same meeting, the alliance board passed a resolution drafted by Goodell on behalf of the alliance board asking the DEC to be proactive and provide timely leadership in addressing Chautauqua Lake management issues. The resolution, Goodell said, isn’t meant to be critical of the DEC but to broadly encourage improvements. The resolution was approved unanimously.

In May the alliance board still hadn't heard from the DEC regarding either the resolution or to set a meeting to discuss the failed grant application, though that changed in June, when Randall Perry, alliance executive director, told board members that he was going to meet with DEC staff members for a debrief of an unsuccessful 2025 invasive species grant application. What was discussed would then be fed to GEI Consultants for a review of state scoring criteria for grant applications and recommendations how the alliance's grant requests can be improved to better bring state funding to Chautauqua Lake.

One issue the alliance has had recently is securing money for starry stonewort removal efforts. The state's scoring system is such that infestation size and length of time since detection place Chautauqua Lake on the bottom of the pile since the lake's starry stonewort is relatively new and isolated as it relates to the size of Chautauqua Lake.

When the June alliance meeting came around, Perry had still not received a response regarding the April resolution, though a debrief of the failed grant was scheduled for late June. Board members then discussed scheduling meeting between the DEC and the alliance board, with Mike Latone, board member, proposing another public meeting be held after the success of the alliance's May public meeting. Ellen Barnes, a Lakewood Village Board member and member of the alliance board, agreed with the idea, with Latone suggesting an August data and the board being invited t a public information meeting that was separate from a regular alliance board meeting.

Perry told the board he would reach out to the DEC.

For more information about the upcoming panel discussion, email jyoung@chautauquaalliance.org for more information.