Borough Gives Resident "You Make a Difference" Award for Work on Lake Hopatcong

Tim Clancy said he wasn't prepared for "this Britney Spears moment."

Well, it came anyway.

Mayor Sylvia Petillo and Hopatcong's council gave Clancy the "You Make a Difference" award at Wednesday's meeting at borough hall for his work discovering and helping rid Lake Hopatcong of water chestnuts.

Clancy said he used the opportunity to stand before the council and explain the Knee Deep Club's work to educate the public of the importance eliminating the plant from the lake.

Clancy and the Knee Deep members pulled roughly 40 plants from the lake in their first effort to police its shores. When they revisited those same areas a second time, they pulled out around another dozen plants.

"We have won the war against this plant for now," Clancy said.

"[The water chestnut] is such an aggressive plant that it would take millions of dollars to clean the plant from the lake if it was left to spread on its own."

Water chestnuts thrive in shallow waters with constant sun exposure. The plants create canopies where they grow, blocking sunlight and, thus, disrupting the local ecosystem.

"Many areas of the lake would be overrun, and those areas would be ruined for recreational use, which would bring the economic impact of an invasion well past the million-dollar mark," Clancy said.

He continued, "[The water chestnuts] could have dropped over 15,000 seeds, which would have amounted to hundreds of new plants by next spring."

Clancy credited the Lake Hopatcong community: "Regardless of boundaries from town to town, Lake Hopatcong is a true community that supported us everywhere we were seen on the lake.

Petillo said never has the lake seen such a large water chestnut removal effort.

"This is a major success story," Petillo said.

"It's a triumph of real people, and a rare, remarkable pioneering effort, and we need to pay attention to it," Councilman Howard Baker said.

Still, Clancy wasn't totally comfortable with the limelight.

"But I was grateful to use the opportunity to educate the public about the water chestnut plant," he said.