LAKE COUNTY — The concept of establishing water vessel checkpoints on the four major roads into the county became a source of contention during Tuesday”s Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting.
The Clear Lake Advisory Committee (CLAC) presented its quarterly report, a review of the county”s volunteer-based invasive mussel prevention effort.
The current program “continues to have seemingly insurmountable vulnerabilities that make it possible for these invasive mussels to enter the lake,” CLAC Chair Sarah Ryan said while reading the document to the supervisors.
“Control of the main access points is the only failsafe option. We recommend that the resources and activities of the current prevention program be immediately redirected to implement, in coordination with the appropriate legal agencies, the installation of screening stations at the major access roads,” she stated.
However, during the nearly 90-minute discussion that followed, some supervisors expressed dismay about the completeness of the report.
“There”s nothing new here,” BOS Chair Rob Brown said. He also wondered aloud whether the committee had “outlived its usefulness.”
District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing indicated she wanted more from the CLAC presentation.
“We don”t have anything here to make a decision on,” she said, later adding the report lacked “actionable recommendations.”
Ryan said though it wasn”t stated in the document, the committee wanted the BOS to consider directing staff to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for screening stations along the access roads into Lake County — the east and west ends of Highway 20, Highway 29 in the south and Highway 175 to the west.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said he”s supported installing checkpoints on the entryways for almost four years but implementation “comes down to show us the money.”
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith shared similar sentiments, calling the costs “the big question.”
The BOS would have been better served had CLAC estimated the prices of its proposal and suggested possible funding options, according to Rushing.
A previous analysis of putting inspection and decontamination stations along the four access points showed annual costs between about $1 million and $1.5 million, Farrington said. Facilities would have been staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week under that plan, he added.
CLAC is currently pushing for screening stations rather than full inspection checkpoints.
District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock said he considered Tuesday”s report “Phase 1” of a recommendation and urged the committee to meet and develop a “Phase 2.”
The BOS took no action regarding the report.
