Southwick officials working on protocol for reporting conditions on Lake Congamond

SOUTHWICK — When the Select Board met in late September board member Douglas Moglin said a “better protocol” was needed because of the town’s “disjointed” response to an advisory that was issued for the Middle Pond of Congamond Lakes for the public to avoid it because of an algae bloom.

At the board’s meeting Monday, Moglin said he has been discussing creating a protocol with the help of Lake Management Committee member Eric Mueller.

“We’re trying to put our heads together on coming up with a better process to bring to the board and all the stakeholders that when something comes up on the lake that there is a process to follow,” Moglin said during the board’s meeting Monday.

At the LMC’s meeting last week, Mueller told his fellow committee members that he had a meeting planned with Moglin to discuss the issue.

He told his fellow committee members that he and LMC chair Richard Grannells had been working on a draft of the protocol and they were focusing on one thing: having all information about the ponds’ conditions in one place.

“I’m trying to make it as simple as possible, where the communication lines will be very few, so that, in other words, where you’ll [find] an official answer will be in one place … I think that would simplify it,” Mueller said during the Lake Management Committee’s meeting last week.

Moglin told the board Monday that the most important part when drafting the protocol is a “unified communications to the residents and people utilizing the lake as to what’s going on so we don’t have the potential for mixed messaging, like, the lake’s closed, but the ramps are open, or this type of thing.”

On Friday, Sept. 26, after the Board of Health confirmed that there was an algae bloom discovered and verified on the Middle Pond, an advisory was issued at 4 p.m. that the water was unsafe for people and pets and strongly suggested that people not use the pond for swimming, operating personal watercraft or boats or eating fish caught in it.

However, apart from a CodeRed call to residents who have signed up for the service and a post on the Police Department’s Facebook page about it, the town didn’t post the advisory to its website until the following Monday afternoon after it updated the advisory that the algae bloom had dissipated but that people and pets should avoid coming in contact with the water.

At that late September board meeting, member Diane Gale said the town had acted “swiftly and correctly” to get the word out that a health advisory had been issued, she did acknowledge that communication between the Board of Health, the Select Board, the harbormaster, and the chief administrative officer needed to be strengthened.

Gale and Moglin also said at that meeting they had gotten phone calls and texts from residents on Friday asking what the advisory meant, like why the Middle Pond boat launches remained open with the advisory in effect and could boat owners from out of town use the launches for access to the South or North ponds.

At Monday’s meeting, Moglin said Mueller suggested creating a page on a town’s website that would provide the public with a way to know the health status of the ponds.

Mueller at the LMC meeting said the webpage would be the official place for lake status.

Committee member Mike Debay suggested that the terms used to describe the ponds’ status should be terms that are easily recognizable.

Building on Debay’s suggestion, Mueller told Moglin that the ponds’ status could be displayed in green, yellow, or red and indicate the ponds are open or the water levels are too high so boats should operate without a wake.

Moglin said that plans are being made to bring all those involved together and hash out the language of the protocol.

“Stay tuned,” he said.