The Cazenovia Town Board’s first meeting of the new year — and with recently elected Councilor Jimmy Golub seated at the table — saw not only the making of annual organizational appointments for the town government, but also the announcement that the town is soliciting bids to potentially purchase a brand new lake weed harvester to replace the current one.
The town’s seven-foot-wide aquatic weed harvester — used to remove the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil from the lake — was purchased used in 2014 for $60,000. Since then, it has removed hundreds of metric tons of milfoil from the lake, but last year was beset by mechanical difficulties that left it inoperable after July 4. The town rented Cayuga County’s 11-foot-wide weed harvester for one week and then used the Madison County, New Yorks, weed harvester for the rest of the summer.
Cazenovia lake harvester crews this year removed two-thirds more milfoil than they did last year, partially because the Cayuga County machine was so much bigger than Cazenovia’s machine.