From left Lakewood Village Trustee John Shedd, Trustee Ben Troche, Mayor Randy Holcomb, Trustee Ellen Barnes, and Trustee Nancy Anderson discuss village business Monday. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

LAKEWOOD – Lakewood Trustees will not support or adopt a Long-Term Plan for Submersed Aquatic Vegetation in Chautauqua Lake.

By a vote of 3-2, the resolution was voted down Monday during the Village Board meeting.

Trustee John Shedd, Trustee Ben Troche, and Mayor Randy Holcomb cast “no” votes while Trustee Ellen Barnes and Trustee Nancy Jones cast “yes” votes.

In December 2024, trustees voted to table the resolution after hearing both pros and cons regarding the plan put forth by North Carolina State University.

“As I explained then, this is an ‘open’ or adaptive plan that will change as conditions in the lake change. It is a science-based plan, and the author, Dr. Rob Richardson, has impeccable credentials,” Barnes said.

NC State’s Aquatic Plant Management Program has completed full lake surveys of Chautauqua Lake each year since 2020 that include collecting and analyze hydroacoustic and point intercept data annually at up to 1,000 sites throughout the lake and documenting the presence and extent of aquatic plant species during the fall and spring seasons.

NC State’s Aquatic Plant Management Program officials propose a staged plan that deals with the entire lake rather than the 2017 Chautauqua Lake Macrophyte Management Strategy’s approach that divides the lake into subsections based off of shoreline use and the need to balance human interaction with environmental considerations.

University officials said the approach is good for small areas but shifts lake management strategies away from a focus on plant ecology to meet the county’s goals in managing vegetation in the lake.

Shedd raised a concern to Barnes and wanted to know what the repercussions or the negatives regarding not adopting or supporting the plan.

“There’s nothing out there,” Barnes said. “We’ve been doing the same thing for years and decades, and as long as this fight keeps going on, there is not going to be any change in this lake.”

Barnes also referenced a Jan. 25 Post-Journal editorial which stated NC State’s plan “will just gather dust on a shelf.”

“I think it’s a sad state of affairs that we (Lakewood Trustees) don’t go forward with it (the plan), and we ask people to spend the money that they spend on the taxes for their waterfront property, and have a lake that they can’t use half the time,” Barnes noted.

Shedd said he didn’t not see any reason or need the board to formally support or adopt the plan.

The town of Ellery and the Village of Bemus Point are the only municipalities that have supported the plan. The Chautauqua Lake Partnership and the Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association have adopted the plan. Other towns and villages as well as Chautauqua County, and the Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance

have not adopted the plan.

“There are other studies available out there that are in progress that we’d also potentially benefit from drawing from,” Shedd noted.

Shedd added that there have been negative opinions by other lake groups based on what is included in NC State’s plan, but he is not against it.

“I don’t personally have an issue with it (NC State’s plan), but I also wanted to say, in step with Chautauqua Lake and Watershed Management Alliance, because that organization has been leading the effort behind the lake management, and I think if we want to all truly stay on the same page, that’s the way to approach it,” Shedd said.

Jones noted that the ‘open’ plan means just that – it is open to other organizations to give input about the lake.

“We all want what’s best for the lake,” Troche said. “I don’t think a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote shows our intentions for the future of Chautauqua Lake. We just disagree on how to get there.”

In other business:

The board adopted an alternative veterans exemption. Holcomb said the town of Busti offers the exemption as well as Southwestern Central School. He added that 57 village veterans are eligible for the exemption. The vets would receive an exemption on their village taxes, school taxes, and town taxes. Holcomb said there are different classifications where a wartime vet would receive a $12,000 exemption, a combat zone vet would receive a $20,000 exemption, and a disabled vet would receive $40,000 exemptions. The exemptions, Holcomb noted, would come off their property assessments.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing for the community and the village to recognize the service of the men and women in our community who have given so much,” said Ted McCague, village historic preservation committee chairman.