At risk of shuttering, LHC moves more money to harvesting

If they’re going down, they’re going down fighting weeds.
Those on the Lake Hopatcong Commission have spoken of its potential demise on numerous occasions in recent years, but on Monday night the group approved a move to fund weed harvesting for another month, at a cost that—if not reimbursed by the state—could mean the end of the commission itself.
“If we don’t do it, we’re going to be out of business in a couple of months anyway,” said chairman and Jefferson mayor Russ Felter, who proposed the measure. “At least this helps the lake. We’ve got to do something.”
Specifically, the motion calls for an additional $30,700 to be allocated to pay for weed harvesting for the month of July, conditional to legal counsel’s approval. Not a single commissioner on Monday voted against the measure, though two—Kerry Kirk Pflugh of the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, and David Jarvis of Morris County—abstained. The movement of those funds, which comes on the heels of a $20,000 and a $12,000 allocation at the last two months’ commission meetings (which paid for the harvesters to be prepared for the season), would just about clear out the commission’s bank account if the state doesn’t provide funding for the group.
“If we do this and [don’t get state funding], we are pretty much shutting,” Kirk Pflugh said. “This is a really big decision to make.”
All six of the commissioners who voted in favor of the motion voiced opinions that the group might as well use what funds they have to harvest the weeds, since their time was short without funding anyway. “We’re just moving things up by a couple of months,” commissioner Joel Servoss of Sussex County said.
“It’s called rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” said commissioner Dan McCarthy of Hopatcong.
If legal counsel agrees that the commission can use that money to pay the salaries of five employees for the month of July without risking the commissioners being held personally liable for unemployment down the road, the funds will allow the weed harvesters to hit the water in the coming days and be in operation through the end of July, with an initial focus on trouble spots in Woodport and River Styx.
“The entire Woodport Cove, despite the water being high, is completely filled with weeds to the surface,” Lake Hopatcong resident Charles Morel told the commission during a public comment portion of the meeting. He added that he already spends enough on two boats that he would be willing to pay a user fee to help maintain the lake, so that he can actually use them. “I really don’t have an objection to user fees if they were dedicated in some way,” he said. “It would seem to me that if the municipalities could collect a fee, I think this would be palatable to the boaters.”
Tim Clancy of Lake Hopatcong agreed. “Nearly every single person I speak to would be agreeable to a user fee,” he said, suggesting that such a system could be worked out with marina operators. “There’s a revenue stream there. We need to get over this fear of a fee… the support is out there.”
Felter said he is still trying to work with the state to see what the commission would and wouldn’t be able to do with regard to user fees, but added that the legislators who currently represent the Lake Hopatcong area—Sen. Anthony R. Bucco, Sen. Steve Oroho, and Assemblyman Anthony M. Bucco—would not support a fee on boaters. “They see that as a new tax,” Felter said.
John Kurzman of Lake Hopatcong said that the law is on the commission’s side, since it calls for funding the commission. “That’s the law,” Kurzman said. “They can’t just say they’re not going to give you money.”
The Lake Hopatcong Alliance had been planning a boating festival to help raise money for the weed harvest, but those plans were axed when the Mt. Arlington Borough Council this month in a 5-1 vote rejected the idea of holding the festival at Lee’s County Park within its town limits. (More on this in a separate story.)
Felter said the commission should know, with the end of the fiscal year, where it stands with the state financially. “We’ll have some kind of answer with regard to funding in 7 to 10 days,” he said, adding that, “we’re to the point now where the commission has to make some decisions about our future.”
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