P-J photo by Gregory Bacon About 100 cubic feet of road sand was removed that had built up in the channel that runs under Maple Avenue in Cassadaga.

Chautauqua County officials are doing their part to ensure Cassadaga Lakes stays clear of some new weeds.

During the county legislature meeting, officials agreed to spend $5,000 so the Cassadaga Lakes Association can retain the services of a qualified aquatic biologist to conduct an aquatic weed survey.

The money is coming from the county’s $500,000 Lake Fund, which is part of the annual budget.

Bob Reuther, Cassadaga Lakes Association manager, said during a committee meeting that Melanie Rooney with Rooney’s Aquatic Biologists will be doing the plant survey. He said there are going to be 65 survey locations throughout the Upper, Middle and Lower Cassadaga Lakes.

“What she does is she comes in and sees what plant growth is there, where it’s at, where it might be expanding, and what we need to do to get my cutting crew out there to start knocking them down before they spread,” Reuther said.

The county had previously given the Cassadaga Lakes Association a grant and during the committee meeting, Reuther discussed what they’ve done so far and what they plan to do in 2026.

Reuther said they were able to hire a company to clean out the sand in the channel that runs under Maple Avenue in Cassadaga.

“We took approximately 100 cubic feet of road sand. We noticed that during the spring thaw, that the water flow was much improved compared to previous years,” he said.

In the past, during heavy snow melts, water would back up and start flooding lakeside properties.

“This year it was much improved,” he said.

In late May or early June, Reuther said ILM Environments will be bringing in specialized cutting machinery and they will be going down the channel, cutting up weeds and loading them up and taking them to a dump zone.

There’s also been a problem in recent years of beaver dams. Reuther said they were able to obtain a nuisance permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which allows the lethal removal of beavers as well as the removal of select dams.

‘We have a relatively new beaver dam 300-400 feet downstream of the Maple Avenue bridge. We think that’s the main culprit backing the waters up, so we’re going to take that one out completely and maybe put some buoys in there to discourage the beavers from coming back,” he said.

Chautauqua County Watershed Coordinator Dave McCoy has been working with the Cassadaga Lakes Association and said that it’s important to keep invasive species out of Cassadaga Lakes.

“If you look at Chautauqua Lake as an example, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to maintain the lake in a way to keep it from being thoroughly impaired by invasive species,” he said.