Council approves survey for 21 sites
Weed and Education Money for local area

Council approves survey for 21 sites

By Maurice Emery
100406 issue

LAKE GASTON, NC/VA – The vote at last months Lake Gaston Weed Control Council (LGWCC) meeting was a lopsided approval to contract with Dr. John D. Madsen, Assistant Professor, Research and Extension, Mississippi State University for the third year in row to perform “an assessment of weed control efforts” on Lake Gaston. The debate to get to the final vote was the most contentious debate of the evening.

The debate itself was slightly flawed. The few council members that were fighting to have a different person perform the survey, were implying that Madsen was only going to assess nine sites this year, when in fact Madsen’s proposal calls for him to assess at least twelve sites and possibly sixteen sites. This would still be short of the twenty-one sites that were treated by Professional Lake Management (PLM).

Within the last several days Madsen, Chris Cheeks, President of PLM, and LGWCC President, Dr. Elton Brown, worked together to come up with the an agreement to have all twenty-one sites assessed. With the addition of the extra sites the total cost for the assessment will be $6,000. Madsen told the Observer that it would take one additional day to complete the assessment.

Last month LGWCC meeting started earlier than advertised. After Brown confirmed that he had a quorum he then asked the members if they would like to get started while they were waiting for their food to allow them get out earlier. He noted that they could take care of the old business part of the agenda. The voice vote was unanimous to start the meeting early.

After that approval, Brown called for various items under old business. When he got to Cheeks he commented that the meeting got started earlier than expected and Cheeks was not present so they would delay his report until later in the meeting.

When Cheeks arrived he did give his report on this years treatment that was followed by a couple of house keeping type notes and then the agenda item for approving Madsen for this years assessment was introduced. Brown expressed his desire that Madsen do this years study. Brown felt that because they had changed treatment companies it would be easier to compare the results between the two companies if the same person did both assessments.

Cheeks expressed his feeling that he thought all twenty-one treated sites would be surveyed, but he could live with whatever the council wanted. Cheeks expressed a desire to have Rob Richardson, Assistant Professor of Crop Science and Extension Specialist, Crop Science Department N.C. State University, do the study of all twenty-one sites. He acknowledged that Richardson had not submitted a proposal for assessing the treatment. The lack of a proposal meant that there could possibly be a delay in making the assessment if they had to wait for one.

In the end they agreed to go ahead with Madsen and to also seek a proposal from Richardson for assessing additional sites this year. The Observer has learned that since last months meeting Cheeks has been working hard to meet the desires of both sides of the issue.

In a phone interview with Cheeks last Friday, we learned that Madsen has agreed to allow Richardson to come out with him for at least one day, if the arrangements can be made. According to Cheeks, Madsen will try to do more than the sixteen sites he mentioned in his proposal. Richardson may also do his own survey. If he does do a survey, it would mean that there would be three surveys done this year. Madsen’s, Richardson’s plus the Army Corp of Engineers plan to do a survey.

Because much was made of the methodology used for the surveys during the debate we asked Cheeks if it made any difference to him. He told us that the methodology does not a make any difference to him and went on to tell us that it does make sense to have Madsen do this years assessment to get a comparison with the prior contractor. He noted that he just wanted the council to be satisfied with PLM’s treatment. He added that PLM will do their part to be helpful no matter who does the survey.

In a telephone interview with, Dr. Brown we learned that Madsen had volunteered to have Richardson come along for the assessment. We asked Brown if the council would pay for Richardson to go along with Madsen. He replied that council had not agreed to any additional funds.

Dr. Brown said that he felt Richardson was more than qualified to do an assessment and would be comfortable with whatever he reported. He indicated that he was somewhat surprised at the negative tone of the survey discussions held after the meeting when everyone had a chance to express their concerns at the meeting.

Brown laid the groundwork for getting additional funding approved, if necessary, by asking the council at last months meeting to approve a motion to allow the officers to make a decision without calling another meeting. A motion from the floor was made and passed. It was because of this action that the final agreement for Madsen to assess all twenty-one sites was made possible.

Weed and Education Money for local area

By Maurice Emery

The Lake Gaston Weed Control Council has finally received the $200,000.00 from North Carolina earmarked for weed treatment in Lake Gaston. Halifax and Warren County are also waiting to receive their portion of the Education Lottery funds distributed to area school districts.

In an email from J. Rives Manning, Jr., Lake Gaston Weed Control Council (LGWCC) Treasurer, board members learned that NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources has forwarded $200,000 from this years NC budget to help with weed treatment in lake Gaston. As of November 3rd the LGWCC has received the following monies for weed treatment: Brunswick County, VA - $116,000; Mecklenburg Co., VA - $58,000; Halifax Co., NC - $58,000; Northampton Co., NC - $40,000; Warren Co., NC - $58,000; Commonwealth of Virginia - $100,000; Virginia Beach, VA - $225,570; State of NC DENR(thru Halifax Co.) - $200,000.

The five lake area counties have all agreed to provide $116,000 each for weed control, but they planned on paying it on a quarterly basis. As noted above only Brunswick County has paid the entire amount.

The next action up for the weed council will be the fall survey which is suppose to be completed this week.

In other financial news State Representative Michael H. Wray reported that, “The new N.C. Education Lottery made its first ever transfer of proceeds to education on October 19, seven months after the games began. The state lottery commission will make periodic transfers to the Education Lottery Fund. At least 35 percent of net lottery revenues must be used for education initiatives such as pre-K programs, reducing class size, school construction and college scholarships for needy students. The recent $95 million transfer represents 35.6 percent of the $233.1 million total the lottery collected since July 1 and another $12 million generated before that date. The lottery also made a $50 million transfer in late June, but that went into a reserve account.”

Halifax and Warren County have learned that they will be receiving their portion of the money shortly. According to Wray, Warren County will receive a total of $198,377. According to local published reports Halifax County will be receiving $168,497 (as of Monday we were unable to confirm this figure with the Halifax County Board of Education).

All-in-all the State of North Carolina will be providing $566,874 to the local economy.