Back when I was a kid growing up around here, we would sometimes, in the summer, go to a friend’s home on Burtis Bay to go swimming. The lake there was shallow, so there were weeds. But, in those days, they weren’t too bad since the lake was regularly treated with herbicide to keep weeds under control. Yet, I have always remembered just how shallow Burtis Bay was — it seemed like we could wade out half-way across the lake, and the water still wasn’t over our heads.

Today, the Bay is much as it was then, except that the weeds have gotten worse. It got so bad this past summer, that boats had a hard time getting into the dock at the new hotel in Celoron. It also smelled and that discouraged patrons of the hotel from going out on the beautiful, lake-side patio now constructed at the hotel.

I don’t know about you, but I want the new Chautauqua Harbor Hotel to succeed. Millions of dollars have been invested there, and it is one of most significant investments in hospitality infrastructure that we have ever seen.

Thus, I was pleased by the fairly recent announcement that the county, village of Celoron, town of Ellicott, Chautauqua Lake Partnership, town of Chautauqua, Chautauqua Lake Association and the hotel had agreed on a joint plan of action to address the weed problem there.

One might ask: “Why is the town of Chautauqua involved? They are located at the far northern end of the lake.” The answer to that is that for the past few years they have become the leading entity on the lake in using a type of equipment for weed removal that pulls and gathers the weeds without cutting them. One of the problems in Burtis Bay is that it is a gathering lagoon for everything coming down the lake including lake weed fragments which can be caused by cutting, boat props or wave action. The new equipment purchased by the county will be licensed to the town of Chautauqua for operation and maintenance.

My own view is that it will probably take all of this work, along with herbicide treatment to solve the weed problems in Burtis Bay. Though not mentioned in any discussion that I know of — perhaps consideration should also be given to deepening the boat channel coming down the lake so that current flows would move more directly toward the Chadakoin River. Such an action would obviously be controversial and expensive, and likely couldn’t happen without the approval and involvement of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. However, it might help keep Burtis Bay clean.

All of this is to say that I commend the county and County Executive for stepping up and trying a new collaborative approach. With some of the new equipment to be purchased, weeds from Burtis Bay will be removed and loaded on trucks at the boat ramp in Celoron. It is a project which needed county involvement in order for this inter-governmental/private sector cooperation to succeed.

We also want the new hotel to be successful. We also need to come to the aid of the residents of Burtis Bay who are faced yearly with the smell and lack of lake use which comes when the bay is clogged with weeds. It is a bigger problem than they can deal with on their own.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.