Add one more group to those claiming to work on behalf of Chautauqua Lake.

The Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association formed recently. Unlike other lake groups, it isn’t looking for state or county funding to undertake Chautauqua Lake projects. Instead, it is a group that seeks to act independently of the state DEC and Chautauqua County governments by simply representing the views of its members to the state, county.

While we ordinarily wouldn’t think another group seeking to protect Chautauqua Lake isn’t necessary, it’s obvious lake property owners are interested in what is happening in and around the lake. We saw it when the county broached a lake tax district. We’re seeing it again now amid the uncertainty of what new watershed regulations might mean for Chautauqua Lake. Meetings hosted by Jim Wehfritz, a longtime lake advocate, and separate meetings by the Chautauqua Lake Partnership have drawn hundreds of people.

The people are speaking. But sometimes it’s hard to hear them when they don’t speak together. The Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association will allow those single voices to speak more loudly and clearly than they can if the property owners act alone. We often mention the fact that a quarter of Chautauqua County’s taxable assessed property value lies around the shoreline of Chautauqua Lake. The response to the CLP and the new property owners’ association is another way of stating Chautauqua Lake’s importance. When was the last time you saw that many people at a public gathering? It isn’t happening for most school board meetings, town or village boards, the county legislature or the City Council. But threaten major changes to Chautauqua Lake and people come out in droves.

This is the very definition of a grassroots movement. The people are putting their money where their mouths are by making donations toward a possible legal fund to stop a mandate they are worried will ruin the reason they spent so much money on homes around Chautauqua Lake. People aren’t happy with what’s happening, so they found a new outlet through which to take action.

People are speaking. Are lake organizations and elected officials listening?