Posted on September 2, 2026
By Cliff Clark | The Westfield News | cclark@thereminder.com
SOUTHWICK – If the town never gets a $500,000 earmark to cover the cost of dredging an area of Middle Pond on Congamond Lakes, it won’t be for lack of trying.
“[Sen. Paul Mark’s] chief of staff has been organizing a boat tour of Congamond,” said Richard Grannells, the chair of the Lake Management Committee, during the committee’s meeting Thursday.
The tour, which will include town officials; representatives from Mark’s office and state Rep. Nicholas Boldyga’s office; officials from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Conservation and Recreation; and the town’s chief administrative officer, Nicole Parker, Grannells said.
Last year, Grannells announced that Mark and Boldyga had secured a $500,000 earmark to dredge the cove between Saunders Boat Livery’s floating docks and the south boat ramp on Middle Pond.
For years, the Lake Management Committee has been pushing for funding. In 2024, it applied for a pilot grant program administered by the state’s Executive Office of Economic Development for small dredging projects. Although Town Meeting endorsed $100,000 to sway officials to pick Southwick, the application was rejected.
Once it was confirmed that the earmark was in the bond bill, Parker began actively advocating for the funds to be released, making the case to state officials about how important the project was, not only to Southwick but to the region.
She contacted Mark in August 2025 to recount her experience as town manager in Hardwick.
She wrote to Mark that while getting the money released initially seemed impossible, it was eventually released.
“We could possibly get it released here too, with a lot of support from our reps/senator/congressman and anyone else willing to join us. We MUST prove how integral this project is to the entire region and to the commonwealth,” Parker wrote to Mark.
In response to Parker, Mark conceded that having a bond bill earmark released is an uphill battle.
“It can be difficult, but with the right collaboration and a project ready to go, we can make it happen. It isn’t like the budget where a check just shows up; there’s lots of legwork,” Mark wrote to Parker, adding that he would work on his “end” to make it happen.
The depth of water is the issue at the boat ramp, which is two feet and often less than that during drought conditions.
Grannells said boats launched from the ramp often have to drift or paddle out to where it’s deep enough to lower their outboard motor propellers into the water.
Another issue arises when a boater drops a propeller into shallow water: it stirs up muck on the pond bottom, which can release phosphorus trapped in organic matter, leading to algal blooms.
There would be another benefit to dredging that area.
It includes the weir under the short bridge on Berkshire Avenue, which is used as an outlet from Middle Pond into Great Brook when the water level gets too high after a significant rainstorm.
That weir has not been opened for years because Great Brook is choked with trees, standing and fallen, and heavy undergrowth. If it were opened, instead of water flowing from the pond into the brook, it would flow into the pond, carrying years of sediment that could affect the water quality of all three ponds.
Police Chief and Harbormaster Rhett Bannish attended the LMC meeting Thursday to answer questions about how the department responds to complaints about boaters flouting the ponds’ regulations.
Bannish said it can be difficult for officers to respond unless the department’s boat is in the water and ready to go.
