Back in mid-August, the Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association (CLPOA) submitted an OpEd to the Post-Journal which we titled “Chautauqua Lake’s Absolute Nightmare – Summer 2025 Edition”. The Post-Journal changed the title to “New Approach Needed For Chautauqua Lake” and published it on August 16.

Our “Nightmare” title echoed a Buffalo television station’s comment on poor Lake conditions following the July 4 weekend. Poor Chautauqua Lake conditions were broadcast across western New York many times in summer 2025. Unfortunately, the harmful publicity was well deserved.

We have serious invasive weed and algae problems which have not been remedied after decades and tens of millions of dollars. Weed cutting provides only temporary relief and spreads some species of invasive and native weeds. With the vast amount of legacy phosphorus in the Lake bottom, upstream watershed projects will not fix the algae problem. The NYSDEC, which refuses to take responsibility for management or improvement of the Lake has recently come up with their “solution”. Unless the CLPOA lawsuit against the NYS/DEC is successful, they will use new regulations to designate much of our highly developed Lake a wetlands with onerous restrictions on its use and management. That will surely be more “Nightmare”.

Local elected representatives are often quick to blame New York State government in Albany for our Lake problems. They certainly have had and continue to have a role that the CLPOA and the Chautauqua Lake Partnership are fighting. However, with continued reliance on the failed County-run Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance (Alliance) and failure to join the fight against the wetlands regulations, ineffective local leadership is also a major contributor to our “Nightmare”.

For the past few months we have seen the County Executive’s campaign posters claiming “strong leadership” all around the county. In its October 25, 2025, endorsement of County Executive Wendel, the Jamestown Post-Journal said “…(he) has incredible clout to bring about major results…”, “…through party affiliation and a good deal of respect, Wendel has the ability to transform Chautauqua County…”, and “…Wendel has to take the next giant step that can be uncomfortable for a stronger future for our communities.” The Post-Journal is obviously hopeful. We would like to be.

In Chautauqua County, the “buck stops” with the County Executive.

In six years as County Executive, Mr. Wendel has produced no improvement in Lake conditions. He was elected again on November 4, to remain in that position through December 2028. With that, he would have been County Executive for over nine years, the longest serving County Executive in County history. Prior to that he was a Legislator for eight years, a total of seventeen years in County government. With all that experience and the “strong leadership” he claims, County Executive Wendel should be able to turn his very poor “Chautauqua Lake Legacy” into something he (and we) can be proud of. Can he do it?

But “strong leadership” with ineffective plans is not sufficient. It is clear that his favored approach: secrecy, reliance on a small “echo chamber” for guidance, and limited management skills have steered him wrong. It is time for that to change…

We need not waste additional time, more funds, and more “band aids”, as he attempts to reform the twelve-year failed Alliance. It is time to add the Alliance, which now secretly allocates millions of taxpayer and local foundation funds to its members, to the shelves full of Chautauqua Lake studies which have failed us the last seventy-five years.

It is well past the time to form a true legal entity to replace the Alliance – a Chautauqua Lake Management District empowered with actual authority to manage the Lake, authority which the Alliance has never and will not possess even with the planned “band aids”.

Surprisingly, a District is not a new idea. It is something both Democrats and Republicans have championed over the past 20 years.

New York State legislation for a Chautauqua Lake District was first proposed by Republicans and Democrats in 2003. A Lake Agency was proposed by Republicans in 2017. A Lake Authority was proposed by Republicans in 2019. Members of a Lake Agency were appointed by County Executive Wendel before being mismanaged and terminated by its members in early 2023. So, after these unsuccessful attempts, the County continued with the Alliance, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, the definition of insanity.” Decades of Lake improvement opportunity have been wasted.

Two things are needed…

– The “strong leadership” which the County Executive claims. He must show it by taking on a real challenge, the formation of a Lake District.

– “Strong management” skills available to the County Executive but skills which are obviously not coming from his “echo chamber.”

We need a Chautauqua Lake Management District comprised of lakeside town and village elected officials, open and accountable to year-round and seasonal taxpayers, which will legally and effectively manage the Lake. Such an elected body leading with a unified voice can help prevent the NYSDEC from “walking all over us” as they have the past fifty years, especially now, as they begin to regulate our Lake as a swamp, and as our County government, Executive and Legislature, have been “missing in action”.

Members of the Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association Inc. (CLPOA) board are Jim Wehrfritz, president; Jeff Moore, vice president; Dan Smith, secretary/treasurer; Kathy O’Brien, director; Tammy Schack, director.