BY PAUL KAMPE
Clarkston News Staff Writer
Springfield Township residents attended a special board meeting held on June 8 to discuss renewing a special assessment that allows for the funding of a weed-harvesting program to clean Softwater Lake.
Residents near the canal of the lake were in attendance for the township board meeting July 13 expressing concern for the area.
The canal at the end of the lake near Bluewater Drive is topped with a green substance called algae bloom. Some believe the water level of that area is being reduced because of the clippings that flow downstream.
Different residents have noted that the canal did not look like it does now prior to the harvesting. Making the task more difficult is that the piece of equipment being used for the job is too large to enter the canal.
‘It does not look nice,? resident Sally Wallace said. She and others have used rakes to remove debris from the canal and what they found was dead grass.
‘The cutting of weeds is causing us problems down here,? Wallace said, adding that the canal has a smelly odor.
Wallace said she remembers when she and her husband moved into their home in 1996. Wallace said the canal looked beautiful back then.
Others have wondered if homeowners? use of lawn chemicals helped spur the weeds in the first place and whether or not chemical treatment should replace the weed harvesting.
The assessment has been in place for three years and is now up for renewal. Some lake residents wonder if cutting the weeds is the best plan of action.
Residents of the canal area have questioned their inclusion into the assessment.
Lake residents have questioned the exclusion of those who have access to the lake, but are not being assessed.
The homeowners have paid differing amounts into the assessment based on factors such as the view of the lake for the homeowner and accessibility to the lake.
The board, in control over the assessment for the homeowners involved under Public Act 188, decided in July that the district will not be expanded, but there is a possibility of being contracted.
The township contracted Dr. G. Douglas Pullman of Aquest Corporation to perform a study on the lake, checking the weeds for size and quantity, as well as water quality, and comparing the results to a 2002 survey of the lake. Pullman is also a consultant to the Big Lake Improvement Board.
The township will make a decision by the end of September so the assessment district can be completed. At the July board meeting, the township said one of the reasons for doing the study was to decide whether or not the residents surrounding the canal part of the lake should be included in the assessment.