The fishing pier at the North Boat Ramp on Congamond Lakes.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SOUTHWICK — At the most recent Lake Management Committee meeting, the president of Citizen Restoring Congamond said the group’s members wanted to “hold off” on funding a boathouse for the Police Department’s patrol boat.
“People at our meeting wanted to hold off a little bit on the boathouse in favor of more fundraising,” said the CRC’s Michelle Pratt during the LMC meeting.
Last January, Pratt announced that the advocacy group had started preliminary talks about building a boathouse to keep the department’s Boston Whaler at a spot already chosen at the North Boat Ramp.
She noted at that meeting that the CRC board had already agreed on pursuing the project and that the project’s planning had been done over the last few years, including schematic drawings.
What she didn’t address at the January meeting was the cost estimate to build the boathouse.
She did at the recent LMC meeting.
“They were concerned about the $90,000 price tag draining a lot of our funds,” Pratt said.
The CRC members also wanted to look for additional funding for the project and possibly “cheaper avenues” than the quote they received.
Each year the CRC provides some of the funding used to treat the invasive weeds — Eurasian watermilfoil, curly-leaf pondweed, and hydrilla — on the three Great Ponds, which were among the reasons members wanted to hit pause on the project.
One of the members’ concerns, she said, was the discovery of a new invasive weed species seen for the first time at a location near the North Boat Ramp.
Called the brittle naiad, this rooted, submerged aquatic plant can cause significant issues in lakes and ponds. It grows in dense mats early in the growing season, blocking sunlight and depleting resources, thereby inhibiting native vegetation.
Its dense surface mats make swimming, fishing, and boating extremely difficult, which ruins the water’s recreational value.
When the strands die off and begin decomposing, they drastically lower oxygen levels in the water, which can harm fish and spur algae growth.
“They want to make sure that we have enough for weed treatments and things like that,” Pratt said.
She also said she had spoken with former Police Chief Robert Landis about his pursuit of grant funding for the project.
“He came up pretty empty on that for that type of thing,” Pratt said.
When the project was being discussed in January, Pratt said it would be easier for the CRC to carry it out than the town.
“Gifting it to the town seems like what makes the most sense,” she said.
Grannells said after last week’s meeting that the big issue is labor costs, which municipalities don’t control.
“They would have to use prevailing wage, which is a whole lot more expensive,” Grannells said.
The prevailing wage is the standard minimum hourly rate plus benefits and overtime that contractors must pay workers on public works and government-funded projects.
The site chosen for the boathouse is in a state-designated wetland area, and would require permission from the town’s Conservation Commission and a wetland management plan.
“We’re making some baby steps forward,” she said, adding that the group was expected to raise about $3,500 at its annual golf tournament last weekend.
“So that’s going to help out a bit,” she said.
The town purchased the new Boston Whaler for the Police Department two years ago for more than $100,000. It is in an enclosure at the town’s Public Safety Complex on Depot Street.
The department needed a new boat because of the dramatic increase in boat traffic on Congamond Lakes.
Landis estimated about 1,500 boats moored across Congamond and an estimated 6,000 visitors traveling through the North and South Boat Ramps.
