The former Stevenson Beach area of Lake Neatahwanta in it's current state.
FULTON, NY – The intended opening of Fulton’s former beach area on Lake Neatahwanta, Stevenson Beach, will be delayed at least another dredging season.
Though city officials were once hopeful the beach could reopen this summer, high toxicity levels do not permit swimmable conditions which Mayor Ronald Woodward Sr. referred to as “disappointing.”
According to testing done by Greg Boyer, a biochemistry professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse whose lab completes testing for water bodies around the state, high levels of blue green algae, phosphorous, and nitrogen remain rampant in Lake Neatahwanta.
Boyer recently shared why high levels of blue green algae could be predicted this year, citing record setting rain fall resulting in run-off with large quantities of nitrogen and phosphorous which, when paired with recent high temperatures, create the perfect conditions for blue green algae.
“Where we dredged that water quality is better than it was before we did,” Mayor Ronald Woodward Sr. said of both water clarity and blue green algae levels, but not well enough to be deemed swimmable.
Initially, the city had samples of the material off the bottom of the lake sent out for testing which found high toxicity levels, but when testing the water returning to the lake after having been dredged, phosphorous and nitrogen levels were recorded at less than one parts per million.
“So, it’s working. We’ve just go to keep going,” Woodward said.
Currently, the city is in the process of buying the dredging equipment from the contractor that has been completing the dredging work in recent years, Groh Dredging.
The total cost of the purchase will sit at approximately $190,000 though the city intends to use Senator Ritchie’s $100,000 donation to cover the majority of the cost and a portion of the $130,000 the city had previously borrowed for dredging to cover the excess.
“We have more than enough and that cost covers everything we need – the tubing, piping, training,” Woodward explained.
He is hopeful that volunteers will participate in training to run the dredge, though he intends on training one or two city employees as well in the event that a volunteer is not available.
By purchasing the dredge, Mayor Woodward has said that more work will be completed each season.
“Once we own that dredge, the DEC has told us we can start in May and go right up until frost,” he explained, as opposed to dredging until the money runs out for the outside contractor whose typical yearly expense remained around $230,000.
“This makes more sense than to continue have outsiders do the work. That includes paying them to travel in from out of state and everything so we don’t get as much work done as we can when we own it,” Woodward said.
The 700-acre lake intends to be dredged in its entirety, but immediate priority began on the former Stevenson Beach area of the lake with the intention of re-opening a public beach for the first time since it closed in 1988 due to coliform bacteria and poor water clarity.
“There’s seven years left on that permit and I believe within seven years we can have that whole lake done,” Woodward said.
Once the city owns the dredge, they will begin dredging this season and will continue with strategic areas planned to prioritize for dredging each season.
Upon ownership of the dredge, it’s anticipated that next year and possibly the year after, North Bay Campground will not open for camping as the dredging equipment will be housed in this area.
“We have to do what we need to do to get the lake done. It will be for the greater good to close the campground for a year or two to get the lake clean,” Woodward said.
The ultimate goal within the next seven years is to produce a clean, swimmable lake, but the emphasis will remain on reopening Stevenson Beach as soon as possible.
When the city is closer to the beach’s reopening, Woodward anticipates testing from the Department of Environmental Conservation as well as the Department of Health to follow Boyer’s testing.
“Our kids have no place to swim,” Mayor Woodward said, expressing his personal desire to re-open Stevenson Beach. “That beach was a part of our city for more than 100 years.”
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The lake needs to be made usable but not at local taxpayers expense. If the Mayor is so worried about the kids having a place to swim, why not pay for a study to find out the needs for the repairs to the East side Pool. For decades the East Side pool was a place of enjoyment for the kids of Fulton. There is GRANT monies available for the repairs after the study is performed. The CITY keeps wanting to get into the private sector business. Leave the job to the experts and keep applying for GRANTS to pay for the work. It took well over 100 + years for the lake to get in the condition it is in. It won’t be fixed in 7 years. We can hope but lets be realistic . Don’t give up, it needs to be done, but not at the cost of the local taxpayers, by experts. Remember when you buy a piece of equipment you have to maintain it, you have to pay to operate it. The costs don’t stop. Be smart not impulsive. It will pay off in the end.
I agree with a portion of Frank’s comment. The mayor has rose colored glasses on and truly believes this lake can be made usable, in whole or in part, within seven years. This is a foolish outlook which only promotes impulsiveness, recklessness in Financing portions of this endeavor, and leads residents into a false sense of goals and achievements. I bet there is no plan for what happens the first time the equipment breaks. Then we will hear that it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair it or the project itself is dead. As Frank mentions, I think it is better to outsource this to experts and let them assume the risk for equipment breakage, maintenance, etc. It may not seem cost-effective upfront but in totality it is a better financial strategy. It seems the mayor does not learn from prior mistakes, like the Aldi’s fiasco. The city is paying handsomely for that management mistake. Frankly, if the entire lake doesn’t meet standards, I certainly would not accept the risk on a public health level to allow the beach or campground to permit swimming. All I can think of is the movie Jaws where the mayor is pushing to get the beach open at any cost. If you want a place for kids to swim, then seek to reopen the east side pool or find somewhere on the Westside to open one. A study for such is a cost beneficial item for the city. The one part of the above comment I do not agree with is the assertion that local taxpayers should not be on the hook to make the lake usable again. It seems Fulton city government’s go-to strategy is to hold their hand out and wait for grant money to fall from the sky year after year and to plug gaps in the annual budget. This is not a sustainable are responsible for school strategy. This is why it literally takes decades to do things which would otherwise be developed, funded, awarded, and completed within a decade or less in any other notional city government system. It was these very residents of the past and present as well as the businesses in the area, which created the toxic conditions we see today. Atop that, city government had blinders on and condoned the behavior for decades despite obvious indications of something serious happening. As we saw in the 80s and 90s, all of our economic drivers like Millers, Sealright, Birdseye, and OI started closing shop and moving elsewhere. Maybe they saw the writing on the wall in the half hazard management within City Hall. It certainly was not because local government started enforcing environmental regulations or demanding cleanup. Until the city and county solve the issue of effluent and runoff entering the LN watershed, all this dredging will be for not. I find it hard to believe that the test results of the water mentioned in this article demonstrated less than one part per million. BTW that’s cleaner than the end product from a water treatment plant.
Before any child is allowed to swim in the lake, let the mayor drink a glass water from the lake!
Somebody stop this guy please; he got the city in the house rehab and flipping business, results failed; then we got into an industrial “no cost” old factory tear down result cost us more than ever and lost a couple of years of property tax roll money, now the city is in a dredging business fiasco that could have no end to it and still not be swimmable. Do we know for sure that it will be swimmable if we put a million or two into it.
Mayor please answer that question!
After reading the work supplied by the expertise of Drs. Boyer and Makerawicz one can safely assume that the lake is eutrophic. 800 tons of sediment enters the lake every year from Sheldon Creek. That is 53 truck loads just to stay even, much less catch up to reverting the lake to an oligotrophic state. Dr. Makerawicz’s research stated that runoff, high in phosphorus, nitrogen, and to a lesser degree, sodium chloride are the real culprits in Neahtawanta’s demise, yet no effort has been put forth at eliminating those sources of pollution. HAB’s are going to be a permanent fixture in the lake’s future simply because they are fed yearly by the runoff. The money would be better spent at opening the pools, east AND west.
I found Ariel’s comment to be very well-informed. Approximately 10 years ago there was a grant through Cornell Cooperative Extension that worked with landowners in the Town of Granby to change land use practices that would reduce run off. I believe one thing that it helped pay for was fencing for farmers to keep their livestock away from creeks. That’s just one example. That is just one example. I think more of this would need to be done in order for the lake to be viable long-term, otherwise it’s just putting a Band-Aid on the problem. I have a question for Frank, if he cares to respond. What are the grants you speak about for potentially re-opening the east side pool? Federal or state, and how much would the study cost the city? Personally I think we need recreational/swimming options on both sides of the river. Thanks.
I believe that it would be better to open the west side pool …
I took my kids and kids I babysat for to the east side pool
many times before it closed … there was constant swearing
with the”f” word thrown around along with fighting and pushing
and so on … I never had that when we went to the west side pool …
North Bay has nothing for the kids to enjoy … they cannot swim
or fish … the play area when I was last there was geared more
toward younger children … why not put a pool in there either
along with reopening a city pool or instead of reopening one? …
North Bay could charge $1for those not camping …
In the summer we go to Scriba Town Park for swimming …
We pay $1 per person and enjoy a clean pool with no kids
swearing and fighting, etc … we would stay local if we had
something like that here …
David, Today I heard for the second time in two days that years back(don’t know the exact date) the city had in it’s hands the money to repair the east-side pool but had to send the money back because they didn’t want to come up with (someone told me 25,000) the percentage needed. Back about 4 years ago(I think-I’m getting old) an up dated repair study was needed( at that time it would have cost $4,500) in order for a grant to be applied for. I remember asking the CC to do the study with the money they already had in the budget for the pool that year. The actual names of the grants are unknown at this time. I found out thru the director from Cortland and Barry also knew of them. It’s needed in stead of money to buy a piece of equipment.
Thank you Frank!
David,There are some matching grants but the guy from Cortland told me he got one for his city pool that was full Grant. So there are grants of all kinds. Some are federal and some are State either way they are out there.
We were told 50 years ago that the lake was reverting to a oligotrophic state due to the sediment being added each year. The problem is compounded by the fertilizer and manure run off feeding the algae. It’s a beautiful lake and I loved Stevenson Beach but Fulton can’t afford to keep dredging it forever.
Open the public pools instead.