Letter from Marty Hilovsky of EnviroScience

Dear Friends and Residents of Roaming Shores:

My name is Marty Hilovsky and I’m President of EnviroScience, a Stow Ohio environmental consulting firm. For the past ten years I’ve had the privilege of working for your community doing a variety of lake management studies and tasks.

I was asked to sit in on a public meeting held by the Association’s Lake Management Committee to discuss plans for dredging sections of the lake. There were a number of great questions from the public as well as a spirited debate among members and the Committee about the proposed dredging method.

During the meeting I was asked about several items, and I wanted to take this opportunity to clarify a couple of my comments. One of those questions had to do with a siphon system which could be utilized to withdraw high nutrient water from the lake depths and discharge it to Rock Creek. While I expressed the opinion that Ohio EPA would discourage installation of a siphon, such a system could have a dramatic positive impact on the overall water quality of Lake Roaming Rock. For this reason, I believe members of the Lake Management Committee should at least take the next step and explore the potential for a siphon directly with the Surface Water group at Ohio EPA in Twinsburg.

The other comment that I’d like to make involves my recommendations, or lack thereof, regarding the dredging methods being proposed. As most of the community is aware, the dredging technique being proposed has changed over the past year. It’s important to keep in mind the purpose of the dredging. I believe the primary reason to dredge is solely to improve lake access. Dredging is unlikely to improve water quality or the overall health of the lake, and for that reason, I’ve avoided making value judgments about the dredging that is being proposed. Questions discussed at the October 28th meeting like how much should we dredge, how much should we dredge, and how much can we afford are all questions that the entire community should weigh in on and which the Association’s Board of Directors must decide.

The most important point that I’d like to make is that I hope residents of Roaming Shores don’t lose sight of the fact that each of you is fortunate to live on such a beautiful and healthy lake. Despite the issues we all tend to focus on and the arguments that develop, the lake has better water quality than most Ohio lakes, and continues to provide you with excellent opportunities for swimming, boating and fishing. As you also know, it has a top notch fishery that 90% of other Ohio lake front owners only wish they had.

In closing, I would join with one of your neighbors who at the meeting expressed the hope that the community is able to put the divisive issues aside and come together to work toward the betterment of the lake.