Councilors approve grant for milfoil treatment in Paugus Bay, Lake Opechee

LACONIA — City councilors unanimously approved accepting grant funding and appropriating matching funds to complete milfoil treatment on Paugus Bay and Lake Opechee, during their meeting Feb. 9. 

Milfoil is an aggressive invasive plant species found in lakes and ponds. It forms dense, thick mats on the surface of the water that crowd out native plants, causing problems for boaters and swimmers, and spreads rapidly throughout a body of water.

The state Department of Environmental Services Exotic Species Program awarded the city a grant to fund up to 50% of aquatic plant control remediation costs on Paugus and Opechee. It’s an annual project to remove invasive species, and mitigate recurrence.

“This is a recurring grant, it’s a new grant every year, but it's a grant we receive every year for this purpose,” City Manager Kirk Beattie said during a council meeting in January. “When I’m preparing my budget for next year, normally, at least last year we were $45,000, I think we were $40,000 maybe the year before, but it's right around that ballpark.”

NHDES works with the city’s planning department to identify locations for plant control, hires contractors, and returns to perform post-remediation testing. 

“Each year, they do dive-assisted harvesting for the milfoil, and then every other year, they do an herbicide treatment. This year, they’re doing the treatment, so there’s an increased cost for that treatment this year,” Planning Director Rob Mora said during the January meeting.

The city’s share of the grant is $57,100, half the cost of the project. Those monies will be expended from the fiscal year 2027 administration budget. The Lake Opechee Preservation Association offered to reimburse the city for 50% of its share for remediation work in Opechee — $4,692. 

Effectively, the total cost to the city is $52,407, about $7,000 more than it appropriated for the project last year.

“Last year is when the state decided they were going to only do the herbicide treatment every other year,” Mora said. 

A budget estimate attached to a letter from NHDES staff notifying the city it had been selected to receive the grant funding notes the total cost for 20 days of diving with proper disposal of harvested materials in both Paugus and Opechee would cost about $25,600. NHDES will pay 50%, or $12,800, of that cost. 

The total cost for herbicide treatment on Paugus Bay is $71,760, and on Lake Opechee for the same is $16,840. NHDES will pay half the cost for both.

The city’s conservation commission and a staff member of the planning department observe the milfoil treatment. 

No members of the public spoke during a public hearing held at the city council meeting Feb. 9, regarding the project. 

“These lakes are vital to our economic future here, so doing the treatment is in our best interest,” Mora said in the January meeting. 

“There are several organizations working through Lake Winnipesaukee,” Ward 5 Councilor Steven Bogert said.