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Date: 3/28/2022
LUDLOW – During the Ludlow Board of Selectmen’s March 22 meeting, the board introduced the new town administrator and received a presentation about possible treatment for five ponds in town.
To start the meeting, the board introduced new Town Administrator Marc Strange in his first public meeting with the board.
“It’s been a very busy week and a day or so, but I am super excited to be here, everybody has been great, and I can’t wait to see what the next days bring to us,” he said.
Pond Committee member Judy Breault then jumped into her pond treatment presentation and said the committee looked at five ponds in town including Haviland Pond, Minechoag Pond, Alden Pond, Murphy Pond and Harris Pond. While each pond had different concerns, they did share similar issues including concerns of geese infestations, sustainability, mill weed, lily pad and algae infestations.
Breault said she and the Pond Committee reached out to Water and Wetland Management for an estimated cost and scope of work for rejuvenating the five ponds, beginning with a survey over the upcoming spring and summer with a cost estimate of $8,975.
“They do a phase 1 of surveying, which means they come out and look at every single pond that is in our scope, they evaluate the plant life, the algae and give a separate quote for water quality. They do recommend the water quality because that helps understand any bacteria or that information,” she said.
Following the survey, the town would receive a full report about the quality of the ponds before moving forward with taking action. Breault said the next step would be required to go through a state permitting process in order to do any work on the pond, which she said Water and Wetland Management would assist with. On the current timeline, that would take the permit process through next winter.
Following the permit process, Breault said the next step in the spring and summer of 2022 is pond treatment.
“Phase 3 of this is the management of those ponds, so based on the information and surveys, they would come up with recommended treatments for each pond. Based on that, they are telling me it is an estimate of about $1,000 to $1,200 per acre,” she said. “Understandably, whatever the extent of the treatment is, and which ponds we treat, we may have to prioritize.”
Because the ponds discussed cover about 70 acres, the cost for treatments could range between $70,000 and $84,000. Breault added that the Pond Committee received an offer from state Rep. Jacob Oliveira’s office with grant writing for the potential project.
One possible treatment for the ponds was a complete reset and Breault detailed what that would look like.
“What that is there is a non-toxic chemical you put into the water and through the cycle it clears the pond and kills the weeds, but it does not kill the wildlife and he estimated that to be around $6,000 and $7,000,” she said.
Breault added that another key component of the survey would be identifying stormwater runoff into the pond, which could lead to contamination. By cleaning up the ponds, she said it could lead to less mosquitoes in the ponds during the summer.
While Board Vice Chair Antonio Goncalves correctly pointed out that the ponds are already being tested, Breault said that is not the case for ponds that are closed to the public, as Haviland Pond was during the summer of 2021.
Board member Derek DeBarge said he was concerned about what happens after treatment is complete.
“My number one hang up for this – though I’d be for all of it – is what happens after that. And you have brought up getting information out to those that live around those areas, but whatever we do it is always about maintenance, if we spend the money to fix something, we have to make sure that we maintain it,” he said.
Breault responded and said the contract with Water and Wetland Management would continue after the initial treatment.
Goncalves suggested using Massachusetts Chapter 40 R funds – which are typically used for zoning - for the project and Strange said he would look into those funds.
“I am sure there are programs that cover this type of thing, we just have to make some calls and see what’s out there. I don’t know that it covers environmental and conservation type projects, but I can take a look at it,” he said.
Goncalves said if that funding source does not work out, he would be in favor of using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for the survey.
While he was in favor of using ARPA funds for the project, DeBarge suggested looking into another source.
“I think this is what it’s for, and the requests from any entity that we have in town that wants to make the greater good better is what we collectively agreed to use this money for. I am starting to get picky about the total amount of ARPA because of all of these great ideas our departments have had to use the money and I am getting worried about being able to do what we really need to do,” he said.
Board member Manuel Silva said there could be funding sources outside of ARPA the town could use for the survey.
“There are several funds I think we can pull this out of, there is money still in some of them. My first recommendation is for Marc to look at these revenues in some accounts that we pull money out of for emergencies and with the town accountant I think we can find it,” he said.
The board unanimously agreed to move forward with the pond survey, pending a final source for the $8,975 bill.
During the meeting, the board also agreed to establish a town-wide community cleanup day on May 7.
The Ludlow Board of Selectmen next meets on April 5 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the April 14 edition of The Reminder.