The Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance finds itself in an interesting position as 2019 comes to a close.

In September, Erin Brickley, former Alliance executive director, resigned. Former County Executive Vince Horrigan has been named the organization’s interim executive director to help with the transition to a new full-time director and to help the alliance transition into a new future.

Horrigan’s work on the Chautauqua County Legislature and as county executive prepares him well for this task. The Memorandum of Agreement for Chautauqua Lake brings a sense of consensus to how the lake should be handled each year. The in-lake maintenance plan should fall under the alliance’s jurisdiction, but we have seen in the past that the alliance has struggled to reach consensus among members on actions that need to be taken. Some members have rightly complained about a lack of support from the organization only to find that support from the towns and villages that surround the lake — towns and villages, we note, that are also members of the alliance.

Horrigan showed, during his time as county executive, the ability to take on unpopular yet vitally important tasks. Merging the concerns of conservationists with the need to use herbicides as part of a varied approach to Chautauqua Lake’s invasive weed problem may be Horrigan’s toughest task yet. Putting the alliance in position to find sources of funding to pay for the type of in-lake maintenance necessary to keep Chautauqua Lake’s position as a driver of tourism dollars each summer may be his second-toughest task.

Members of the Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance board know they can’t rest on their laurels. They have found the right person in Horrigan to lead this transition.