Rittelmeyer noted that in years gone by, there could be up to five people fishing in the pond at any one time, but now, no one is catching anything as the pond is so overgrown with plant life and chocked with algae.

In the May meeting, Rittelmeyer said the Town had received an estimate from $215,000 to $500,000 for cleaning up the pond. However, that estimate was based upon draining the pond and dredging it, a cost that all the Commissioners agreed was a non-starter.

The problem, Rittelmeyer said at the time, was that if the Town wanted to fund the cleanup of the pond under a Program Open Space (POS) grant, which is administered by the County, the Town would first need to get an estimate.

Rittelmeyer said he reached out to Solitude, an aquatic resource management company that specializes in the development and execution of customized lake, stormwater pond, and wetland management, in hopes of getting the required estimate, and that Solitude would perform the work to establish the estimate. However, before they would do that, they wanted to come in and do a survey to measure how much silt was currently in the pond, an effort for which they would charge the Town approximately $5,000. Based upon the survey results, Solitude would then give the Town a project plan which could then be given to the County. But all that "would have had to be paid out of pocket," Rittelmeyer said.

With the estimate in hand, the Town could then apply for a POS grant, Rittelmeyer said. The good thing about an estimate, Rittelmeyer told his fellow commissioners, is that "if the Town could not secure a POS grant for all the necessary funds to clean up the pond, we can use it for several years which will allow us to work on cleaning the pond up as money is freed up to us."

Rittelmeyer told the Council that Solitude would not be doing the work itself but instead would outsource the work to a third-party contractor. Rittelmeyer said one of the options was for hydro-raking to be done on the pond, which utilizes a floating rake that would rake up all the algae and silt. "The biggest expense is hauling the algae and silt off site, which would require permits," he said, "but the Town could dispose of it in the park which would save money."

Rittelmeyer dismissed the option to drain and dredge the pond – something he said would come with an outrageous price tag.

"The Town is in a losing battle with the algae," Rittelmeyer said, making it clear that work on cleaning the pond needs to begin sooner rather than later.