Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance
Minutes of the Board of Directors – Work Session
Thursday, February 17, 2022
6:00 p.m. at the BWB Building, 201 West 3rd St. Jamestown, NY 14701 & via Zoom
Directors Present: Rob Yates, Bruce Erickson, Don Emhardt, David Shepherd, Pierre Chagnon, Mike Latone (Zoom), Mary Hutchings, Paul (P.J.) Wendel, Jr., and Jim Andrews
Staff in Attendance: Randall Perry – Alliance Executive Director, Taylor West – Alliance Project Manager, and Jay Young–Communications Coordinator.
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I. Call to Order
B. Erickson called the Board Meeting of the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance (Alliance) to order at 6:16 PM. A quorum of 9 out of 9 Alliance Board Members were present at the start of the meeting.
II. Approval of the 1/13/2022 Board Meeting Minutes
D. Emhardt made a motion to accept the minutes from the 1/13/22 Board Meeting. The motion was seconded by R. Yates and was approved unanimously.
III. Alliance Committees
a.) Data Analysis & Research Committee
R. Perry indicated that there are no updates from the Data Analysis & Research Committee, as it has not met since the previous Board meeting.
D. Shepherd indicated that he has been engaging in discussions to assess the Committee and how it can best serve the Board moving forward.
b.) Lake Management Committee
M. Latone indicated there was no report from the Lake Management Committee.
B. Erickson indicated that the upcoming Lake Management Committee meeting has been postponed, and that a new meeting date is currently being finalized for some time in March.
c.) Watershed Management Committee
R. Yates indicated that the Watershed Management Committee met on February 4, 2022 at the Town of North Harmony Municipal Building. R. Yates indicated that the next meeting is expected to be scheduled in about two months. R. Yates indicated that discussion at the meeting included the Town of North Harmony’s New York State Consolidated Funding Application (NYSCFA) Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) grant to stabilize Ball Creek. R. Yates indicated that the Town has received 22 inquiries in the public procurement process for engineering on the project.
IV. 2021 Alliance Local Grants Update
a.) Modification Request: Town of Chautauqua
R. Perry indicated that he had received a letter from D. Emhardt requesting a no-cost time extension for the Town’s Mobitrac Dredge Pump Retrofit grant, which was issued by the Alliance and funded in part by the Holmberg Foundation. R. Perry indicated that the Town had received parts to begin the project late in 2021 and that this extension would allow the project to continue into 2022. R. Perry indicated that based on prior discussions with the Holmberg Foundation on the grant funding received by the Alliance in 2021, he does not foresee any issues with approving the time extension.
P. Chagnon made a motion to approve the no-cost time extension. The motion was seconded by J. Andrews and was passed unanimously.
b.) Chautauqua Lake Partnership Herbicide Grant Discussion
R. Perry indicated that he was presenting the Board with a table showing a breakdown of funding awards and documented costs for herbicide treatments from 2021.
R. Perry indicated that the total 2021 herbicide costs documented via vendor invoices appeared to exceed the amount of grant funding provided through the Alliance. R. Perry indicated that based on reporting provided by the Chautauqua Lake Partnership (CLP), it was not fully clear how the grant made to CLP was fully distributed to cover those program costs.
P. Chagnon indicated that based on his review of the information presented, it appears that all herbicide funding granted by the Alliance in 2021 was expended.
R. Perry indicated he would like the CLP to provide an updated final report showing how their share of the 2021 grant was fully distributed.
M. Latone indicated he would submit a revised report.
P. Chagnon made a motion to table the discussion. The motion was seconded by M. Hutchings and was passed unanimously.
V. Hultquist Foundation Update
R. Perry indicated that at the previous Board work session, there was discussion of pursuing a grant opportunity from the Hultquist Foundation for a lake-related project. R. Perry indicated he has spoken with Hultquist Foundation President Steve Wright regarding the potential grant opportunity. R. Perry indicated that he believed a request specific to the lake herbicide program in the amount of $50,000 would offer a high likelihood of success in securing funds for 2022.
M. Latone indicated that if additional funds were made available for herbicide treatments that would help improve the overall funding picture for 2022.
R. Perry indicated that there was a path forward to use a potential Hultquist contribution in combination with other funds available for herbicide treatment.
M. Latone made a motion to authorize R. Perry to submit a $50,000 grant for lake herbicide treatments from the Hultquist Foundation. The motion was seconded by M. Hutchings and was passed unanimously.
VI. 2022 Alliance Consolidated Foundation Grant Update & Board Discussion
a.) Authorize execution of CRCF and Sheldon Foundation grant agreements
R. Perry indicated that the Alliance was notified that it has received a grant award of $180,000 towards the Consolidated Foundation Grant request from the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation (CRCF). R. Perry indicated that he will soon have a grant agreement for that award from CRCF, and that he has already received a grant agreement from the Sheldon Foundation.
M. Latone asked what the Sheldon Foundation award amount is.
R. Perry indicated it is $265,000.
D. Emhardt made a motion authorizing R. Perry to execute grant agreements with the Sheldon Foundation and CRCF. The motion was seconded by R. Yates and was passed unanimously.
b.) Finalize Member awards
R. Perry presented a summary of the $695,000 overall grant award received from the foundations, compared the award to the $800,000 funding request that was submitted to the foundations, and provided a suggestion to the Board on distributing the overall foundation grant to the individual projects.
Discussion occurred related to individual project scopes and potential funding levels, potential sources of supplemental funding that may be available to certain projects, prorated reductions across all projects versus targeted reductions, and the role of the Alliance MCA Tool in Board decisions on funding.
P. Chagnon made a motion to remove the “2022 Lake Maintenance Contingency” project from the original proposed plan of work, distribute the remaining funding gap across all remaining projects via proportional reductions applied to each, and approve the 2022 Alliance Consolidated Foundation Grant awards as listed below. The motion was seconded by R. Yates. After discussion, a roll call vote was called (Yes – D. Emhardt, J. Andrews, D. Shepherd, R. Yates, P. Chagnon, and P. Wendel; No – None; Abstain – B. Erickson, M. Hutchings, M. Latone). The motion carried.
| Project | Budget |
| Chautauqua Lake Association (CLA) 2022 Mobi-Trac Support | $40,355 |
| Town of Chautauqua Mobitrac shoreline cleanup | $52,126 |
| CLA 2022 Operational Support | $222,938 |
| Combined award of up to amount shown for 2022 herbicide treatment(s) for Eurasian Watermilfoil and/or Curly-Leaf Pondweed on Chautauqua Lake by (i) Chautauqua Lake Partnership (CLP) with Town of Ellery & Village of Bemus Point; (ii) CLP with Town of Ellicott; (iii) CLP with Town of Busti; (iv) CLP with Village of Lakewood; and (v) Village of Celoron (distribution of combined award TBD based on NYSDEC permitting results) | $173,771 |
| CLA 2022 Pre-Season Curly Leaf Program | $47,081 |
| CLP Fall & Spring Weed Survey in Chautauqua Lake (2022) | $44,839 |
| Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy (CWC) Watershed Technical Assistance and Stormwater Management Program | $62,774 |
| CLP Phosphorus and Nitrogen Sensor Program | $21,074 |
| CWC 2022 Chautauqua Lake Aquatic Invasive Species Early Detection Volunteer Taskforce | $6,726 |
| CLA 2022 Watercraft Steward Support | $23,316 |
| TOTAL BUDGET | $695,000 |
VII. Alliance Communication Update
R. Perry indicated that the Alliance has an opportunity to work with The Post-Journal on a recurring submission related to lake and watershed matters. R. Perry indicated that he and J. Young had met with The Post-Journal editor John Whittaker about the potential collaboration after the idea was discussed earlier by several board members.
P. Chagnon made a motion to approve collaboration with The Post-Journal. The motion was seconded by P. Wendel and was passed unanimously.
R. Perry indicated that J. Young has also been making content updates to the Alliance website.
VIII. Staff Activities Updates
a.) Update on 2022 Northeast Aquatic Plant Management Society (1/11-1/13/22)
T. West gave the following update on staff attendance at the Northeast Aquatic Plant Management Society Conference:
Alliance staff digitally attended the 2022 Northeast Aquatic Plant Management Society’s Conference from January 11 to January 13. The conference consisted of 3 half-day seminars on a variety of topics including HABs, nutrient loading, aquatic invasive plants and algae, and aquatic pesticide safety training. Particularly of interest was a presentation by North Carolina State University entitled Overview of Recent Aquatic Plant Monitoring and Management Activities at Chautauqua Lake, New York. This presentation summarized NCSU’s macrophyte survey efforts in Chautauqua Lake in 2020 and 2021 and included curly-leaf pondweed, Eurasian watermilfoil, and native species density heat maps for their fall 2020 and spring and fall 2021 surveys. The presentation also included information on Chautauqua Lake herbicide treatment efforts by SOLitude Lake Management in 2020 and 2021.Other take home messages from the conference include the following:
- Hydrilla is an extremely difficult species to manage due to a variety of factors including its modes of reproduction (tubers, turions, and fragments), which highlights the importance of aquatic invasive species (AIS) prevention measures such as watercraft stewards.
- There is a species of epiphytic cyanobacteria (AVM) that grows on hydrilla that can cause brain lesions on eagles, hawks, owls, Canada geese, ducks, and other species, which highlights the importance of AIS prevention.
- SePro recently came out with a new nutrient adsorption technology called Eutrosorb that can be installed in streams, ditches, catch basins, and other stormwater management structures, however it does not appear that it is permitted for use in New York at this time.
- New SePro Products (names of products below may have changed since the date of the meeting)
- SP4040 – water column nutrient stripping (avail. Spring 2022)
- SP4042 – sediment inactivation (avail. Summer 2022)
- SP4039 – sediment inactivation (avail. Tbd)
- Water chestnut management techniques in Lake Champlain
- Mechanical Harvesting
- Hand Harvesting
- Their efforts have spanned ~39 years, which highlights the importance of our local early detection and rapid response program to keep water chestnut at bay in the Chautauqua Lake outlet.
T. West thanked the Board for allowing the staff to attend this Conference and indicated that these types of events are beneficial and help to keep the staff and community informed about all of the various macrophyte and HAB management techniques being used in the northeast.
c.) Update on 2022 Turner Winter Series (1/4/22)
R. Perry indicated that he enjoyed speaking with Greg Peterson as part of the 2022 Turner Winter Series, and indicated that a recording of the conversation was available on the Alliance’s website.
d.) Update on County-hosted MOU signer’s luncheon (1/14/22)
R. Perry indicated that The Jefferson Project offered many interesting updates at the County-hosted Memorandum of Understanding signer’s luncheon. R. Perry indicated he was hopeful that the information presented in that meeting would soon be made available to a wider audience.
P. Chagnon indicated that he was looking forward to another symposium in the spring by researchers working on Chautauqua Lake.
R. Perry indicated he has been in communication with the researchers about potentially scheduling another panel, but details are still to be determined.
e.) CLAD Mapping Program Update
R. Perry indicated that Board Members received a packet via email of updates from the Chautauqua Lake Aquatic Data (CLAD) Mapping program underwater imagery surveys performed by T. West and J. Young. R. Perry indicated that he expects to next share the updates with the Lake Management Committee. R. Perry indicated that any questions regarding the CLAD update could be directed to T. West.
P. Chagnon indicated that with three years of underwater imagery data to assess, the value of the CLAD program was being demonstrated.
IX. 2022 County Agency Allocation Update
R. Perry indicated that he has received the 2022 Alliance County Agency Allocation grant agreement and asked the Board for their authorization to execute the agreement.
D. Emhardt made a motion authorizing R. Perry to execute the County Agency Allocation Agreement. The motion was seconded by J. Andrews and was passed unanimously.
X. Other
No discussion occurred under this agenda item.
XI. Adjourn
D. Emhardt made a motion to adjourn at 7:23 p.m. The motion was seconded by M. Hutchings and carried unanimously.
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The Alliance Board of Directors passed a motion to approve these 02/17/2022 Meeting Minutes on 3/10/22.