Skaneateles Lake Association Receives Grant from Onondaga County Legislature
In April of this year, the SLA made a request to the Onondaga County Legislature for funding to purchase a replacement motor for the pontoon boat that carries the benthic matting out to the lake for placement and picks it up after about 6 weeks. The matting is heavy when dry as it has metal rods sewn into it every 6 feet or so to keep it in position on the lake bottom. It is even heavier when wet when it is picked up late in the summer. The motor we had on the boat was not really powerful enough to move the load efficiently and it was frequently breaking down. Our request to our local legislator, Michael Plochocki, with a copy to the Chairperson of the County Legislature, J. Ryan McMahon III, was posted on our website and sent out to our members by email with a request for calls, emails or letters in support of our request.
The SLA Board is pleased to be able to report that our members came through with many supporting communications to Mr. Plochocki and Mr. McMahon. This week we received calls from them to advise us that the grant we requested had been approved. The SLA Board extends our thanks to our members for their communications supporting our request and to Mr. Plochocki and Mr. McMahon for the approval. In many of our requests for membership we have spoken to the fact that the volume of our voice (number of members) is important when we deal with government entities for support of our efforts. This funding approval is a reflection of just how important the voice of membership is.