Chautauqua Lake Partnership President Jim Cirbus and Vice President Jim Wehrfritz appeared before the Chautauqua County Legislature on Wednesday to request financial support for the use of herbicides on Chautauqua Lake to battle invasive weeds.
JAMESTOWN – The Chautauqua County Legislature doesn’t appear willing to take any action on a funding request to help pay for the cost of treating areas of Chautauqua Lake with herbicide.
During Wednesday night’s legislature meeting, members of the Chautauqua Lake Partnership again appeared before lawmakers to request funding for the herbicide treatment.
The organization is hoping to raise $300,000 in the next few weeks in order to treat about 180 acres of the lake with herbicide in order to kill invasive weeds that have become problematic in recent years. It was the second time in as many months the group requested funding from the county.
However, no member of the legislature was willing to sponsor a funding resolution so a formal vote could take place on the matter. Instead, the meeting was quickly adjourned after the request was made.
Earlier this week, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation authorized the required permits to use herbicides on Chautauqua Lake.
County executive George Borrello told WRFA following the meeting that the county needs to be careful in how it funds projects, not only because of the cost involved but also the controversial nature of herbicide use.
“It is a heavy [financial] lift. Also there is a legal requirement for us to do our due diligence. When we take up anything like this where we take up funding, we also take on that liability. It’s my understanding that it’s the feeling of the legislature that there certainly wasn’t enough time, in the couple of weeks notice, for us to do the due diligence and we would have to hang our hat on what was done by the sponsoring party, which is the town of Ellery. So there is a liability there. This is certainly not without its controversy, even though I do believe there are many out there that would like to see the responsible use of herbicides, I also believe there are those out that would pursue a lawsuit to stop that. But on top of the legal issues, this is also financial issue as well.”
In other legislature news, the body tabled a resolution to impose and collect a quarterly sewer fee for property owners in the south Chautauqua Lake sewer district.
The action came after the owner of We Wan Chu Cottages, Peter Weimer, made the request, saying he didn’t think it would be fair to impose the fee in June, meaning the property owners would have to pay for the full second quarter of the year even though it would only be in effect for one of those three months. Weimer said it would cost his business an additional $5,000.
Enough lawmakers agreed to delay the vote and the fee schedule will instead be acted on next month, in time to be implemented before the start of the third quarter in July. The vote to table the measure was 11 to 5.
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