Busti Town Board members Monday were briefed on the varying conditions of the Vukote Canal, and the trouble officials are having trouble spurring various homeowners along the canal to take action to repair dilapidated or in despair sections of the canal walls. Busti Code Enforcement Officer Greg Sykes said that 14 sections of the canal structure need repairs. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

LAKEWOOD — “One property owner told me where I could go, and where I could stick it,” said Busti Code Enforcement Officer Greg Sykes.

Busti Town Board members Monday were briefed on the varying conditions of the Vukote Canal, and the trouble officials are having trouble spurring various homeowners along the canal to take action to repair dilapidated or in despair sections of the canal walls.

Sykes said that 14 sections of the canal structure need repairs. Additionally, Sykes said that he was having issues not only contacting some of the adjacent and responsible property owners, but four individual property owners have been especially problematic and basically told him to- “go pound salt.”

Town Attorney Joel Seachrist said that while he believes there are no New York state codes that deal with canals, the town does have a code which does address the issues along the canal.

“Chapter 392 of the Town of Busti Code: Article II, Retaining Walls, addresses this issue,” he said. “Much like a homeowner whose property has a sidewalk running alongside it is responsible for the sidewalk maintenance- the same for canal property owners in the town.”

Sykes said that some of the property owners are cooperating as best they can, but current state regulations are getting in the way.

“Some of the homeowners I’ve met with and have had various conversations with,” said Sykes.

Sykes explained that because of the current wetlands regulations that contractors would have to come in by barge or waterside to repair the canal walls and it could cost anywhere between $25,000 thousand to $40,000 plus thousand dollars.

As previously reported in a Jan. 27 Post-Journal story, adoption of the updated wetlands regulations have gone into effect across New York state on Jan. 1. and includes Chautauqua Lake. The regulations implement new statutory requirements under the state’s Freshwater Wetlands Act that will safeguard an estimated one million additional acres of wetland habitat, according to Sean Mahar, interim DEC commissioner.

“I do know that there is a preferred vendor, the DEC (N.Y. Department of Environmental Conservation) uses, and they are permitted to do work from the lakeside, but they asked if we could get a group of the homeowners to contract the work at the same time, and they would give a bigger discount because it cost so much money to bring their equipment in by boat,” said Sykes

The board voted unanimously to have Attorney Seachrist draft a letter explaining to the property owners their individual obligations under law to repair their assigned sections, along with the next steps the town would seek utilizing all legal actions at their disposal to remedy the situation.

In other business:

-The board voted unanimously to allow for the submission of an application to spray herbicides in the lake for the management and control of the invasive species of Curly Leaf Pondweed and the Eurasian Watermilfoil.

-The board is exploring the steps needed to transition from its current webpage system to a NYS compliant website with the .gov domain. The state is requiring all municipalities to transition to the .gov domain sites with a no later date than the end of 2025.