Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance
Minutes of the Board of Directors – Work Session
Thursday, October 26, 2023
3:00 p.m. at the BWB Building, 201 West 3rd St. Jamestown, NY 14701 & via Zoom
Directors Present: Bruce Erickson, Ellen Barnes, Don Emhardt, Mike LaTone, Paul (P.J.) Wendel, Jr., Janis Bowman, Jim Andrews, JoDee Johnson
Directors Absent: Martin Proctor
Staff in Attendance: Randall Perry – Alliance Executive Director, Taylor West – Alliance Project Manager, and Jay Young – Alliance 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 3:04 PM. A quorum of 7 out of 9 Alliance Board Members were present at the start of the meeting.
II. Approval of 10/12/2023 Board Meeting Minutes
D. Emhardt made a motion to accept the minutes from the 10/12/23 Board Meeting. The motion was seconded by E. Barnes and was passed unanimously.
III. 2023-2024 Alliance Consolidated Local Funding Program Update
a.) Board Discussion on 2024 Consolidated Funding Request
P. Wendel indicated that the Chautauqua County Legislature recently passed the 2024 budget, which includes $500,000 in funding for County lakes.
R. Perry summarized the work performed at the last work session on October 12, 2023, which included the review of the 17 Member-submitted applications totaling approximately $3.2 million in funding requests.
R. Perry outlined to the Board for their consideration an $800,000 consolidated foundation funding request.
R. Perry summarized unexpended funds from the 2023 Consolidated Funding Program.
M. LaTone asked if unexpended funds have been rolled over to the following year in the past.
R. Perry indicated that has often been the case. R. Perry indicated that Board motions would be needed to extend the grant periods of existing awards.
E. Barnes made a motion to authorize the carryover of Board-allocated but unspent grant funds from 2023 for use in 2024 for the same project. The identified projects and approximate amounts of carryover are outlined as follows. The motion was seconded by M. LaTone and was passed unanimously.
| Town of Chautauqua Mobitrac Operations | ~$15,000 |
| Chautauqua Lake Partnership Municipal Herbicide Treatments | ~$140,498 |
| Mobitrac Joint Operations Support | ~$20,000 |
The Board agreed to move forward with the $800,000 Consolidated Funding Request to be submitted by the Alliance to the Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation, The Lenna Foundation, and the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation. The request amount was approved at the previous October 12, 2023 Work Session.
The Board entered into executive session at 3:40 p.m. Staff left the meeting.
The Board exited executive session at 4:01 p.m. Staff returned to the meeting.
IV. Other
R. Perry offered for staff to provide an update on the recent North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) meeting in Erie. It was agreed that they would do this at the November public meeting.
P. Wendel indicated he is in favor of sponsoring a lake symposium at the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel this upcoming summer. P. Wendel indicated that he would like to have researchers from North Carolina State University, SUNY Oneonta, The Jefferson Project, and SUNY Fredonia give condensed presentations with a question and answer period to follow. P. Wendel indicated that he would like these updates to focus on summaries now that these groups have been at work on the lake for several years.
M. LaTone indicated that CLP is asking NC State to produce an overlay of their annual plant surveys as part of their 5-Year Plan for Lake Management of Herbicides.
R. Perry indicated that there are also several years of Alliance-collected biovolume surveys as well that they have been sharing with NC State. R. Perry asked if P. Wendel was proposing that the Alliance or the County sponsor the event. P. Wendel indicated he was referring to the County as the sponsor.
R. Perry indicated that he recently had a meeting to discuss the installation of tributary monitoring stations. R. Perry indicated that the project team, led by Chautauqua Institution and The Jefferson Project, is hoping to finish construction of the six tributary stations plus one outlet station by the end of 2023. R. Perry indicated that the station proposed for Big Inlet is now expected to be built on Mud Creek. R. Perry indicated that there had also been some location changes for stations on Ball Creek, Bemus Creek, and the Chadakoin River. R. Perry indicated that the stations are expected to be heated and operational during winter.
P. Wendel indicated he was happy to hear that the Sheldon Foundation was being included in the tributary station updates.
R. Perry indicated that he has been in contact with John Shedd and Toby Shepherd of Chautauqua Institution during the process. R. Perry indicated that the project team ultimately decided to pursue modular off-site construction of the stations. D. Emhardt indicated that one challenge in getting the stations constructed was DEC floodplain permitting.
P. Wendel indicated he would be open to representatives from the Department of State participating in the lake symposium, given concerns about the new state wetlands law and potential impacts in the South Basin.
A discussion followed of dock permitting and ownership of the lake bottom.
J. Johnson indicated that she had a recent conversation with T. West regarding CLP’s potential management of invasive starry stonewort via chemical treatment. J. Johnson indicated that while Alliance staff are working with the Towns of North Harmony and Chautauqua to write NYS Invasive Species grant applications to use diver assisted suction harvesting (DASH), CLP is working with G. Sullivan and NC State to assess potential herbicides or algaecides that could also be used. J. Johnson indicated that if a pilot test of chemical treatment were to move forward it would include pre and post-treatment monitoring.
J. Bowman indicated that because starry stonewort is a relatively new invasive, data on the effectiveness of different management techniques is quite thin. J. Bowman indicated that it is good to be evaluating several techniques. J. Bowman indicated that it seems like the pilot Mobitrac removal effort done in September in Ashville Bay seems to have been quite successful.
T. West indicated that he has had recent conversations with DASH firms about the process, and that there may be evidence that the algae tends to sink and settle towards the lake bottom.
J. Bowman indicated that the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy is continuing to monitor for terrestrial invasives plants on its preserves, and that a new invasive was recently discovered.
V. Adjourn
P. Wendel made a motion to adjourn at 4:16 p.m. The motion was seconded by E. Barnes and carried unanimously.
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The Alliance Board of Directors passed a motion to approve these 10/26/23 Meeting Minutes on 11/9/23. The Alliance Board of Directors passed a motion to amend these 10/26/23 Meeting Minutes on 12/14/23 to correct the start time.