OBSERVER Photo by Gregory Bacon Tammy Shack with the Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association speaks at the Mayville Village Board meeting regarding the Long Term Management Plan for Submersed Aquatic Vegetation at Chautauqua Lake.

The Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association is proposing a new five-year plan for submersed aquatic vegetation in the lake and are seeking support from area municipalities, including the county.

At the same time, at least some officials appear to be skeptical of the proposal.

Jim Wehrfritz and Tammy Shack, both with the CLPOA, attended the Chautauqua Town Board meeting last week. Shack was also at the Mayville Village Board meeting the night before drumming up support for their Long Term Management Plan for Submersed Aquatic Vegetation at Chautauqua Lake.

After the town board meeting, Wehrfritz said there are a number of other governmental boards that they’ve either approached or are planning to approach. One of those is the Chautauqua County Legislature, which meets Wednesday.

According to Wehrfritz, the goal of this plan is to “achieve a balanced and sustainable aquatic ecosystem in the lake.”

He said the five-year plan will: reduce eurasian water milfoil and curly leaf pondweed nuissane levels; control starry stonewort; encourage natives; limit invasive spread in the watershed; shift algae away from cyanobacteria dominance.

The plan calls for a lake manager to be hired.

Wehrfritz said along with governmental support, they are encouraging adoption of their plan by the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance. He said the Alliance has had their plan since the summer but has yet to support it.

At the Chautauqua Town Board meeting, Shack said the plan was developed by the aquatic ecosystem team at North Carolina State University and was completed in June. She called it an “excellent professional, balanced, science- and technology-based plan.”

Shack said the CLPOA has “adopted the plan without modification” and wants to see other organizations and governmental boards do the same before the 2025 lake season begins.

QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT PLAN

At the Mayville Village Board meeting where Shack spoke about the plan, Trustee Bill Ward had a number of questions regarding who would hire a lake manager, why the Alliance has not yet voted in favor of the plan, and how public input would be sought. “You’re asking each of the boards asking for a resolution to adopt this without any public input – without a hearing for any of these things,” he said.

After the village board meeting, Mayor Rick Syper said if board members want to vote on the plan next month, he will place it on the agenda.

At the Chautauqua Town Board, no one commented after Shack spoke. After the meeting Supervisor Don Emhardt was non-committal about the town voting on the plan in January.

The same night the Chautauqua Town Board met, the Chautauqua County Legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee met and discussed the plan, which was emailed to them. There were no CLPOA members present during the committee meeting.

Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon said he does not anticipate the legislature voting on the plan at its meeting Wednesday but wanted to discuss the emailed plan with the committee, county Watershed Coordinator Dave McCoy and Deputy County Executive for Economic Development Mark Geise.

Geise questioned what it means for the county legislature to “adopt the plan” saying that it could imply the county would be required to fund the lake manager or other aspects of the plan.

He also questioned support for the plan by others. “There really wasn’t any other input from any of the other water groups or the other agencies. There wasn’t an opportunity to review or comment,” Geise said.

McCoy said he’s read through the plan a couple of times but feels it’s more to help municipalities in their application for spraying herbicides. “It’s not really a comprehensive lake management plan,” he said.

McCoy doesn’t believe all of the lake organizations and municipalities around Chautauqua Lake will support a lake manager and this specific plan. “I think that’s unrealistic,” he said.

McCoy said he thinks the organizations and municipalities have come to a general understanding of how to care for and treat the lake. “Right now, we have this decentralized style of management where everybody does their own thing. We work it out under the umbrella of the Alliance. I think that functions pretty darn well,” he said.