Environmental Updates
• At last night's Commission of Lakes meeting, Town Supervisor Alison Jolicoeur said that John Tucci's firm, EverBlue Lakes, which was hired to improve water quality conditions at Lake Peekskill, is going out of business. Tucci installed ultrasonic sonar units on the lake to try to reduce the occurrence of harmful algal blooms. Jolicoeur said the lake community now needs to decide whether to purchase the units from Tucci at a discount and take responsibility for maintaining them, or have them removed. Ken Belfer, president of the Mohegan Lake Improvement District, said at the meeting that his community had tried Tucci's ultrasound sonar units and had not been able to detect a significant improvement.
• Brett Yarris, vice chair of the Putnam County Soil and Water Conservation District, announced at last night's meeting that the grant window is now open for the town and local organizations that are seeking help addressing issues like water quality monitoring, stormwater runoff, invasive species and erosion control.
• In the long-running saga of septic failure at three homes in Lake Peekskill, it was made public today that two new violations were given out in mid-August for septic leakage. At today's administrative hearing at the Putnam County Department of Health, the attorney for Jemab Family Limited Partnership, whose general partner is Eileen Myers, admitted to the new charges. He noted that a new septic system had been installed yesterday at one of the homes, 62 Lake Drive, though it has yet to be inspected. And he estimated that new septic systems at 64 and 66 Lake Drive should be installed within about a week. He said no one is currently inhabiting 64 Lake Drive and that tenants in the other two homes had been given eviction notices. If the new systems pass inspection, it's likely those tenants would not have to vacate.
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