CLA Executive Director Douglas Conroe said the skimmers will increase the ability to safely collect the HAB scums as well as being utilized to collect floating plant masses that can be found out in open water.

The Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance helped the CLA in filing the grant application with New York State while Chautauqua County serves as the official owner of the equipment. Under a long-term renewable lease agreement the CLA will be responsible for all operating costs including staffing, fueling and yearly maintenance of the new skimmers.

LAKEWOOD [MEDIA RELEASE] – The past two months have been productive for the Chautauqua Lake Association, and the work is just getting started. July is expected to be even more productive with the expansion to a third site to efficiently maintain Chautauqua Lake’s ecology.

“We’re going to be running from three sites in a very ordered and efficient process,” said Douglas Conroe, CLA executive director. “Right now we’re working from two sites. We’re going to expand to a third site and run to the maximum extent that funding will allow.”

To date this season, the Lakewood and Long Point crews have removed 183 truck loads of aquatic vegetation from Chautauqua Lake, totaling more than 3 million pounds. Last week alone the CLA crews removed 500,00 pounds of vegetation from the lake. Starting their summer season two weeks early this year, the Long Point crew worked from the Village Casino along Lakeside Drive, moving south towards the Phillips Mills/Colburn area, and the Lakewood crew completed the area from Greenhurst to Fluvanna, then moved on towards Celoron. Other areas harvested throughout June by the CLA include Ashville Bay, Stow, Shore Acres, Burtis Bay, and the southern basin.

In addition to weed management, the CLA shoreline crews have assisted lakefront owners with the burden of cleaning their properties and offering weed disposal services. The shoreline crews started off June clearing woody debris from Chautauqua Lake and worked their way up the east side of the lake through Ashville Bay and Lakewood.

“The May and June work has been extremely productive,” Conroe said. “We have been able to open areas for people which have not been able to be opened before (such as canals) because we started earlier this year, but July is going to be a major operation.”

This year, CLA crews operating out of Mayville, Long Point and Lakewood will work in a circular route within the north and south basins throughout the duration of the summer. Implementing this new strategy will increase the efficiency and overall impact of the CLA lake maintenance program.

Each week a new work plan is published on the CLA website which includes a map outlining the anticipated route and location for each of the crews. To preview the weekly work plan, maps and updated work reports, please visit ChautauquaLakeAssociation.org or @ChautauquaLakeAssociation on Facebook.

Lakewood Village Hall

LAKEWOOD – The Jamestown Post-Journal says the mayor of Lakewood is denying that she instructed the Chautauqua Lake Association to conduct water tests for herbicide use off the village shores of Chautauqua Lake in June.

During Monday night’s village board meeting, Mayor Cara Birrittieri responded to accusations from two village board members in August that she was responsible for the $853 charge.

The alleged spending was brought to light two weeks ago in a letter to the village clerk by trustees Ellen Barnes and Randall Holcomb after Barnes said CLA Executive Director Douglas Conroe said Birrittieri ordered the tests.

Birrittieri expressed her confusion as to why Conroe would say that. Conroe declined to comment when reached by The Post-Journal after the trustees’ meeting.

She also called the accusations against her “absurd” and demanded that she receive apologies from Barnes and Holcomb.

Following the discussion the board voted 3 to 2 in favor of paying the charge to the CLA.

The testing that was done by the CLA came back negative.