Jennifer Brady-Connor from the Saratoga Land Trust Alliance will be attending the town meetings of the 13 communities. Suggestions were made to get a letter of announcement out to members to encourage the best attendance, and to have her presentation placed first on the agenda.

Approximately 1800 newsletters were sent out for this meeting. In the future, 3 more newsletters will be sent out over the next year. Members are invited to add to the mailing of those receiving the letter to include all that should be involved in this project.

Each of the following meetings will be topic specific, so in addition to members of the Advisory Committee, speakers and special audiences will be invited to attend. The goal is to have an active exchange of ideas and so it will be important to have the necessary guests able to address the particular topic. Examples include –

Recreation and Public access issues – invite the NYS Parks and Recreation Department (Boat Launch), Snowmobile and Rowing Clubs, etc.

Use of Saratoga Lake for a Drinking Water Source – invite Saratoga Springs City Officials, Consultants (Barton Loguidice), Department of Health, etc.

At the end of the study, in 16 – 18 months, there should be a summary meeting to present the results and successes of the project.

The LA Group and County Planning will be building an information base from all existing inventories. The current land use codes will be assessed and digital photos and electronic maps will be viewed to determine what is currently happening in the watershed and what has changed since the last study in 1983. The study will also be looking towards the future, such as where growth may occur and the impact this may have, for example, on the sewer districts, such as whether or not there will still be the capacity for new growth. The sewer district is concurrently evaluating system capacity and hopefully this data will be available for the project.

According to the 1983 study, ~80% of the phosphorus entering Saratoga Lake comes from the Kayaderosseras. A non-point source pollution study will be conducted as a part of this plan, using the Priority Water List (to be updated by 2002) and other information from the Water Quality Committee in order to identify the "hot spots". The suggestion was made, assuming agriculture is a large source of the phosphorus problem, that a cost share program with farmers be developed.

Currently there is a Saratoga Lake Association and the Saratoga Lake Protection and Improvement District. The burden of ongoing lake management falls on these volunteers and the taxing district on the lake. There are four municipalities bordering the lake, hindering decision making/regulatory processes. For ongoing lake management, there is the possibility of creating a separate management entity, as was done on Lake George with the Lake George Park Commission. This provides for federal funding, removing the entire burden of lake management from the local tax payers.

Consider incorporating Federal and State Programs, such as Phase 2 Stormwater Regulations, into the watershed plan and prepare a discussion of the impacts these new regulations will have on existing ordinances. The scope of the project includes assessment of existing planning and zoning regulations in the thirteen municipalities included in the watershed boundaries as well as a look at existing conditions, such as highway construction and storm water runoff. There are new programs available to help fix existing problems, including a winter maintenance workshop to be offered in the fall through the Cornell Local Roads Program.

For now, the site is providing basic information about the study and meeting dates and times. Later it will be expanded so that people can submit questions.

The address is www.sara-lake.org.

Briefly – Has there been a public scoping session scheduled by the city? To our knowledge, the city will not be engaging in a formal scoping process. We are, however, cooperating with the consultants who are preparing the draft environmental impact statement. SLPID is well aware of the situation by keeping in close contact with the engineers and officials and will take a position when they have properly reviewed the awaited report.