Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District

The grants are through the State Department of Environmental Conservation‘s Water Quality Improvement program and Non-Agricultural Nonpoint Source Planning and Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Mapping Grant program.

Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District received $432,555 for streambank stabilization. This project will reduce erosion, sediment, and nutrients in the Chautauqua Lake Watershed.

A $105,000 grant will go toward implementing a county-wide roadside stabilization and hydroseeding program. This program will decrease roadside erosion to reduce the amount of sediment and nutrients in tributaries to Lake Erie.

The town of Chautauqua received a $30,000 grant to assess road and stream culvert crossings in the Chautauqua Lake watershed using the North American Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative framework and produce a culvert engineering design report for projects to address erosion caused by failing or inadequately sized culverts.

The Village of Lakewood received a $30,000 grant to complete a stormwater engineering study for the Chautauqua Mall Boulevard commercial corridor to reduce excessive stormwater runoff in the study area and to improve water quality entering Chautauqua Lake.

The town of North Harmony will receive a $30,000 grant to work with an engineer to develop a streambank stabilization engineering study of approximately 2,640 linear feet of stream corridor along Ball Creek. The engineering design report will identify areas of erosion and stream instability and identify potential management actions to reduce sediment and nutrient loading to Chautauqua Lake.

The town of Mina will receive a total of $90,000 for three projects. One will be to complete a stormwater retrofit engineering report to evaluate existing stormwater infrastructure and recommend stormwater retrofit practices. The project will reduce nutrient loading to Findley Lake.

They also will complete a comprehensive assessment of culverts in the Findley Lake watershed to identify any stream culverts that are undersized or failing. The project will reduce nutrients from erosion in tributaries to Findley Lake.

And the third project will be to complete an engineering study to assess the benefits of using in-waterbody controls for nutrients in Findley Lake. The report will evaluate existing nutrient loading conditions and recommend in-waterbody controls to reduce nutrient pollution.

Lakewood Community Development Corporation and Village Officials gather in front of new playground at Hartley Park (November 10, 2022)

Construction is underway for a new $700,000 playground at Hartley Park in the village of Lakewood.

The new playground replaces a structure that had been deteriorating, with parts of the structure having to be removed in recent years due to being unsafe.

Lakewood Mayor Randy Holcomb said the project is a collaboration between the Village Board of Trustees and Lakewood Community Development Corporation.

LCDC President Bill Evans said the project began with a community fundraising effort that led to $456,000 being funded through Empire State Development.

He said there are multiple phases to the project, “So what is initially happening now is we’re replacing all of the equipment on both pads. New equipment, new engineered wood chips surface, there’s going to be slides built into the hill between the two pads, longest zip line in the region, that is phase one. Phase two will involve creating handicap accessible pathways to the different paths.”

Evans said landscaping will be added too.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2022

We spoke with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation about Hemlock Woolly Adelgid after it was found recently in the village of Lakewood

Lakewood Village Board meeting (July 11, 2022)

The Village of Lakewood is investigating whether to establish an EMS Department in order to bill for EMS ambulance service in the village.

Trustee Ellen Barnes said the discussion was informational at this point, “So we can bring the information, not only to the public but to the different members of the Fire Department. They have a ton of questions. They’re the ones who go out there and do all the hard work, so obviously we want them to ask the questions – How is this going to work and how does it involve them, and rightfully so.”

The Village Board passed a resolution at a special meeting on Thursday, July 7 authorizing the investigation. The village’s Fire Department is staffed by volunteer members.

Wooly Hemlock Adelgid (NYS DEC)

The Wooly Hemlock Adelgid is threatening the Village of Lakewood‘s Hemlock trees.

Resident Mary Seger, who lives by Ivy Lane and Winchester Road, spoke before the Village Board about receiving a call from another resident concerned about the trees, “When you know what to look for, you can see these little white dots, usually on the underside, but they’ll be on the top also of Eastern Hemlocks which are all over this village as you know.”

Seger said the presence of the pest was confirmed by the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy. She said local company, Forecon, did inform her that the trees can be treated, “They can (be) effectively treated by injections or by sprays. It costs approximately $200-$300 for a good-sized tree, good for five years.”

Native to Asia, the hemlock woolly adelgid, or HWA, is an invasive, aphid-like insect that attacks North American hemlocks.

Seger requested the Village look at creating a plan or have information available for residents who are looking at how to treat the pest on their properties.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, wooly hemlock adelgid can be contained using biological controls in the form of natural predators or through chemical pesticides.

More information can be found here: https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7250.html

Independence Day

In the City of Dunkirk, a three-day festival kicks off at 9:00 a.m. Saturday with the Marauder Trotter Run/Walk 5K at Wright Park. The rest of the festival takes place at Dunkirk Memorial Park on Route 5 with live music and food vendors. Fireworks will take place at dusk on Monday, July 4.

Cherry Creek will host an Independence Day Celebration on Saturday, July 2. The celebration from 1:00 to 10:00pm will feature rides, a parade at 5:00 p.m., a car show, chicken barbecue, music, and more. A fireworks show will take place at 10:00 p.m.

Bemus Point will hold its fireworks display at 10:00 p.m., Sunday, July 3. The show will be visible from on-shore and on Chautauqua Lake.

In the county seat of Mayville, the Monday, July 4 Celebration starts at 10:00 a.m. with a grand parade down Route 394. Festivities continue at Lakeside Park with face painting, a petting zoo, live music, food, games, and more. The celebration concludes with a fireworks display at 10:00 p.m.

The Village of Lakewood marks the return of the July 4th Summerfest and Fireworks at Hartley Park. The Lakewood Family YMCA’s Firecracker Run starts at 9am Monday followed by vendors on Chautauqua Avenue from noon to 10:00 p.m. Live music will be performed in Hartley Park from 6:00 p.m. until the fireworks display at 10:00 p.m., Monday.

And in Findley Lake, a Fourth of July Celebration takes place from noon to 10:00 p.m. on Monday, featuring a chicken barbeque, duck race, boat parade, and fireworks at 10:00 p.m.

The project, which is near completion, started in April of this year and features green infrastructure. Key features of construction include permeable interlocking concrete pavers at three intersections and in curb areas, continuous tree trenches, porous flexible pavement tree surrounds, 11 storm water street trees planted in structural soil, new storm water drainage features and curbs, native plantings, and interpretive signs detailing the project and its benefits.

The project was made possible through a grant from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation‘s Green Innovation Grant Program and Clean Water State Revolving Funds awarded to the Village in 2018. Local matching funds from the Village, Chautauqua County, and the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance via its Alliance-Foundation match fund were used to secure the grant.

Tomorrow’s celebration event takes place 11:30 to 3pm and will feature live music and a food truck.

Around 20 people attended the hearing that started off with a presentation by County Mental Hygiene Grants Director Steve Kilburn. Kilburn said the three high risk populations when it comes to marijuana use including youth, those vulnerable to mental illness, and those who are at risk for, or currently have a substance use problem.

Several of the residents who voiced support for not opting out cited how access to marijuana may help reduce opioid use including resident Jaron Pollino who said recent studies support this, “And if we were to look at those, they would reflect that there is a direct correlation in between using marijuana and being able to get off of this stuff permanently without having to use suboxone or whatever else you might be addicted to long term. So this would be one of the biggest things to help combat our number one problem in this county.”

Others in support cited the financial benefit to the village including resident Emily Garrick, “You’ve already multiple times during this meeting expressed some anxiety about the budget and I think that this is an extremely lucrative taxable industry that could be beneficial to the village. And I also think that by opting out you would be actively driving business away from the village, not just for potential dispensaries but for other village businesses.”

Several members did request the board provide information on potential revenues the village may realize if the sale of cannabis was allowed in Lakewood.

Resident Jim Larson‘s opinion was shared by several voicing support for opting out of allowing cannabis dispensaries, “I don’t want to see increased criminal activity and I don’t want to promote more drugs to young kids so I’m against it completely.”

Resident Dorothy Larson concurred with her husband, “Number one, I don’t find many good things about having it. We don’t need to make money off of it in Lakewood. We’re doing just fine where we are. And I haven’t heard enough positives things to bring it here.”

The Village Board took no action on the issue and will hold another public hearing on whether to allow cannabis dispensaries and consumption locations at 6:45pm, Monday, August 23rd.

Under the marijuana legalization law, municipalities must decide before the end of the year whether to opt-out of allowing dispensaries or on-site consumption establishments. If the village votes to opt-out, a public referendum must then be scheduled on the issue this year as well.

The regular board meeting starts at 6:30pm with the public hearing taking place at 6:45pm.

The Jamestown Post-Journal is reporting that that the Town of Ellery won’t sign be signing the MOA presented by Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello last month. The unwillingness to sign the document is primarily due to it restricting herbicide treatment to only the southern basin of the lake during the next two years. A portion of the Town borders the northern basin of the lake and Ellery officials say residents may want to treat that area with herbicide if weeds get bad during the summer months.

Of the 16 agencies and municipalities that were requested to sign the MOA, Ellery is the only one that will not. Even the Chautauqua Lake Partnership, which voiced reservations earlier this month, eventually signed off on the document.

Borrello has already said that the MOA will not be altered or changed for at least the first two years it is in place. But he did say it could be changed in 2021 following a review by stakeholders and the county.

Ellery’s unwillingness to sign the MOA also jeopardizes their chances of receiving outside funding for lake management efforts they endorse. That’s because Borrello had said that organizations should sign off on the MOA if they wish to qualify for funding.

“Any funding from the county, and from many of the local foundations, for efforts dealing with in-lake projects will flow through the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance. The executive board of the Alliance has preliminary agreed to only fund those organizations who participate in the Consensus Strategy by the signing the Memorandum of Understanding,” Borrello said during his State of the County Address in February.

The consensus strategy was developed through a collaboration of the County Executive’s Office, Chautauqua County Department of Planning & Development, representatives from the Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC), and the consulting firm, Ecology and Environment, Inc. (E&E).

A copy of the MOA, along with the 24 tenets, is available on the County Executive’s website.