An interesting discussion at the Chautauqua Lake Watershed and Management Alliance meeting shines a light on the way the county and lake organizations think about maintenance of Chautauqua Lake.

Chautauqua Lake Association officials expressed concern that a memorandum of understanding being written by County Executive George Borrello is hurting the association’s efforts to raise donations from towns and villages surrounding the lake this year as boards decide not to make final decisions until they see Borrello’s memorandum. Doug Conroe, Chautauqua Lake Association executive director, raised his concern last week that he doesn’t want to hire college students to man the association’s harvesters and then not be able to pay for them if donations aren’t received.

Borrello said the CLA could use some of its reserves or draw from an endowment fund to hire the workers early who might otherwise look for jobs elsewhere. Conroe isn’t wrong in wanting to protect his organization’s reserves and endowments. He wouldn’t be doing his job if he isn’t concerned about the future financial status of the organization he leads.

Perhaps, though, it’s time to get a bit more creative in how the harvesters are staffed, particularly if funding is a concern. Nothing says a college education or college courses are necessary to spend the summer working on a harvesting boat. Perhaps the county can help with able-bodied labor through a welfare-to-work program or prisoners on work-release from the Chautauqua County Jail. Such a solution would kill two birds with one stone — people who aren’t working and want to could find a summer job while the harvesters could possibly be manned for less money.