From the SLA: Sad sightings, memorable events
By Fran Rotunno Fish
SLA
Sad sighting: The “contact us” tab at SkaneatelesLake.org has been overflowing with reports of, photos and videos of algal blooms, suspicious HABs and “funky water.”
Email messages via the “contact us” tab have included the following statements: “this is so sad,” “do something,” this can’t go on,” “can I go swimming?,” “does this brand of test strip tell me if my water is safe to drink,” “is it safe to eat fish I catch?”
Our Executive Director Rachel DeWitt, has been answering these emails while she has been visiting multiple areas with bloom sightings and working with our SLA HAB committees, especially the Nutrient Management Committee, and with Mary Menapace, chairperson of our Watershed Community Citizens Task Force to keep a record of all that has occurred.
Rachael started her position with the SLA just two days after the first bloom was reported and has worked non-stop ever since.
The board of the SLA knows there are no quick and easy answers to either the specific cause of this last bloom event or the prevention solutions.
What we do know is that it is going to take planning based on facts gained from pertinent monitoring, demonstration projects to test effectiveness of such, community involvement where every member of the watershed community knows what they can do to reduce nutrient loading of the lake and does so and funds the SLA to do it all.
We urge every member of the watershed community and every person who otherwise makes use of the lake in any way or benefits from the lake and hopes to continue to do so in the future to join the SLA and to do so today.
Memorable events: Amidst all the sadness of the recent bloom, there have been some memorable events related to the SLA and our lake.
On Sept. 12, through the generosity of Kim and Adam Weitsman, the SLA held a fundraising event at The Krebs.
President Paul Torrisi, SLA Legacy Fund Co- Chair David Birchenough, and SLA Board Member Debbie Bobbett, were the celebrity bartenders at The Krebs with all tips benefiting the SLA.
About 125 people came to support the SLA and demonstrate their love of the lake. Many of them were SLA members and past donors for many years, many had already joined this year and provided additional support and quite a few were new to supporting our efforts and we were most happy to see them there.
Another memorabl event: On of the pleasant parts of being the membership chairperson of the SLA is all the people I get to meet both in person and over the phone.
I enjoy calling new members when I find myself asking “I wonder why they joined?” and like to share their reasons in this column to hopefully spark the same reasons in the minds of others who are not already members.
A few weeks ago, I received a membership in the name of Alex and Emily from Colorado. I did not have them in my database and could not find anyone by those names who lived in Skaneateles, so I called Alex and he shared his “love Skaneateles Lake story.”
Emily grew up in Skaneateles and in the years he dated her they often came back here to visit and he fell in love with the lake. This past Labor Day, they came back for a visit and Alex rented a boat and took Emily our for tour of the lake.
He had it all planned and stopped at one point and got down on his knee and asked Emily to marry him.
He made their memory on Skaneateles Lake. When he heard about the problem with the algal bloom he decided to become a part of the group that demonstrates their love of the lake by joining the SLA.
That is his membership story…from Colorado to Skaneateles. If you are not an SLA member or have not joined this year, please join Alex and Emily and demonstrate you love of your Skaneateles Lake memories by joining the SLA today.
You can join the SLA via our website at SkaneatelesLake.org or you can call 315-685-9106 and ask for a registration form to be mailed to you.
We thank the following individuals for their memberships and additional generous donations which sponsored the Milfoil Boat for a day or multiple days: Patricia Lynn & Steve Ford, Krebs Event Friends, Norma & David McCarthy, The Slottje Family, Kim & Adam Weitsman, The Dwight W. Winkelman Foundation.
We thank the following individuals for their memberships and additional generous donations which co-sponsored the Milfoil Boar for a day: Jessica & Toby Millman, Leah & Thomas Valenti, Steve Mott, Randy Mott & Jackie Brown, Suzzane & Davin Nagle, Patricia & Bruce Texeira, Christina Castle.
We thank the following individuals for their memberships and additional generous donations to support an Invasive Species Monitoring Steward for a day: Patricia Woodcock, Donald & Kendra Witter, Diane & Daniel Pluff, Mara & Mark Charlamb, Ali & Dwight Perry, Maura Swan & Benjamin Lavery, Jessica & Toby Millman.
The following contributed additional funding to the David Lee Harvey Fund which also supports the Invasive Species Monitoring Stewards program: Mary & Ed Blum, Kathleen & Chad Rogers, Kathleen & Philip Byrne, Diane & Daniel Bluff, Steve Shehadi & Lucia Eckels, Carina & Robert Bone.
