Freedom — March 26, 2009 — The Freedom Select Board voted to delay the chemical treatment of milfoil in Danforth Bay until spring 2010. Voters had appropriated $2,800 at Town Meeting for the treatment, with the remainder of the total $14,300 cost pledged from private sources.
The Board would have preferred to proceed with the treatment this spring, but the application process made such a timeline difficult. By state law, 90 days must pass between the submission of the application for chemical treatment and the date the treatment actually occurs. Even if the Board moved quickly by submitting their application this week, the 90-day requirement would push the timeline out to the end of June.
Chemical treatment of milfoil necessitates a one-day restriction on swimming, a restriction the Board was hesitant to place on landowners and visitors during the busy summer season. The Board voted to encumber the money for the treatment and contract to have it done next spring. In the meantime, the milfoil will be managed by hiring divers to pull the weeds, using funds already in the town budget for this purpose.
I think the state should be picking up the tab for this, after all it is state property!
Why can’t they try to get a waiver of the 90 day requirement from the state? Someone dropped the ball here.
I am interested in volunteering with a dive group to assist in eliminating and/or controlling milfoil in the ossipee lake area this summer but do not have a contact! If anybody has any information on how I would go about joining the effort it would be greatly appreciated!
Peter: Send a note to Susan Marks (smmarks@www.ossipeelake.org) and she’ll connect you.