Once more to the lake at Glenmere

Chester — All the neighborhood children learned how to swim here. The owner of a nearby stable bathed horses here. Kids knew where to find a rope strung over an sturdy branch, perfect for swinging into the water. Adults would take out their boats to cruise or do a little fishing. “The lake used to be wide open,” said William Tully, the Town of Chester supervisor about Glenmere Lake. “It got a lot of use in those days.” That was more than 15 years ago, before the county decided to include Glenmere in its water loop plan, Tully said. The loop was to connect reservoirs all around the county as a way of delivering water from places where it was plentiful to places where it was not. At about the time the county was planning the loop, a swimmer at Glenmere got caught in some weeds offshore and drowned. Soon thereafter the county, to avoid liability suits, threw up a chain link fence to blocked access to the lake and its shore, effectively ending the lake’s time-honored use as a neighborhood park. Times have changed, though, and may be turning back to the good old days of lakeside picnics and fishing off Catfish Rock. The county, which owns Glenmere, is now interested in making all of the lake into a recreation area. For many people in Chester, this would be a dream come true. “It’s a jewel of a lake,” said Tully, who said he was out there fishing with his grandson recently from the Village of Florida’s access area. “Not being able to use it is a shame.” Noel Spencer, a former councilman in Chester who was elected to the county legislator last November, told the town board on Tuesday that the county plans to float a $1 million bond for an independent study of how best to develop three open space areas in the county. Of that amount, $350,000 will go toward the Glenmere study. Although the project will be managed and paid for by the county, Spencer said he wanted to keep Chester informed because he recalled how the county would keep the town out of the loop while he served on the board. He said the development of Glenmere as a recreational area was written into Chester’s master plan while he was a councilman, and that he is proud to have been part of the project then and now. On Thursday, as this paper goes to press, the legislature was expected to agree to apply for a matching grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation under the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act of 1996. The lake serves as the Village of Florida’s water supply and also supplies the county jail and nursing home. Tully and Spencer said the restoration of Glenmere has been a dream of two people in particular, Chuck Shaughnessy and Jack Memmelar, both of Chester. Shaunghnessy served on the county’s parks commission for 42 years, and said Wednesday that the news of the county’s interest was “very encouraging.” He said the lake had “been sitting” without a purpose for too long, and that the public should be able to enjoy it, particularly when lakes are in such short supply in the southern part of the county. Within the last two or three years, the Village of Florida, with the county’s permission, developed one spot on the lake. The Florida access has a gravelly boat launch and some picnic tables tucked under towering trees at the water’s edge. A pavilion overlooks the lake from the top of a rise. Below is a roomy parking lot and portable toilet. The irregularly shaped lake extends more than a mile and a half at its longest section and about a half-mile at its widest. It is split lengthwise, with one side of the lake in Warwick and the other in Chester. Because Glenmere is a reservoir, there can be no swimming at the lake, and no motor boats. Thomas Fuller, the Village of Florida’s deputy mayor, remembered the days of swimming lessons and horse bathing. He said he has pulled perch, pickerel, and bass out of the lake over the years. There are a few really big carp in there too, he said. He remembered all this because he had grown up on the lake. It draws him still. During his lunch break on Wednesday he was out at the lake, enjoying the peace and quiet.