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Lakewood Park Project Wouldn’t Solve Weed, Algae Issues In Lake

There is no single silver bullet that will magically remove weeds and algae from Chautauqua Lake.

We think everyone understands that. We’re glad to see, however, that at least two Lakewood Village Board members also understand that money — even magic money from New York state — doesn’t simply grow on money trees. Lakewood Village Board members Randy Holcomb and Ellen Barnes voted against accepting a $225,951 grant from the state Department of State’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program for the Lowe Park Green Infrastructure Improvements Project. The $255,951 grant would have paid about 75 percent of a $341,269 cost to reduce nutrients entering Chautauqua Lake, build a pavilion, bike shelter, pedestrian bridge, interpretive panels, plantings and rain gardens.

Many in the audience at last week’s Lakewood Village Board meeting were upset the board declined the grant, but it’s long past the time for those involved with the lake to be wasting money on projects that don’t address the lake’s issues. We’d love a better explanation of exactly how interpretive panels, a pedestrian bridge, pavilion and bike shelter will do one single thing to reduce nutrients entering Chautauqua Lake.

One of the biggest complaints we hear from all of the organizations working to improve Chautauqua Lake is the lack of money for the work that they do. Projects like the Lowe Park proposal make us wonder if it’s truly a lack of money plaguing lake organizations or if the real problem is using existing funding streams on unimportant, easy projects.

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