Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan.
MAYVILLE – The dredging of two Chautauqua County water channels on Lake Erie won’t be getting underway until next Spring.
That from Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan, who said Tuesday that challenging weather conditions in and near Barcelona Harbor have delayed the dredging of the City of Dunkirk Harbor and Town of Hanover boat launches until 2015.
Earlier this year, county officials recognized the opportunity to dredge the three North County Harbors as one multi-phase project in an effort to reduce costs. However, rough weather has caused the Barcelona project to take much longer than expected. As a result, Horrigan said there is not enough time to complete the Hanover project before the fall steelhead run on Cattaraugus Creek, which begins in mid-September.
Officials say that both the Dunkirk and Hanover projects are relatively small projects, but require careful work and good weather. As a result, they felt it would be best to delay the work in Dunkirk and Hanover until the spring and summer of 2015, versus trying to do it now.
Funding for the dredging was made possible through grants from both the federal and state governments, as well as local contributions from Chautauqua County.
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