ROXBURY — The Ellis Pond Watershed Survey Steering Committee met Friday afternoon at the Town Office to talk about finances for the watershed survey that starts May 3.

Jim Wendt, president of the Silver Lake Camp Owners Association, said the last survey was in 1998.

Roxbury Pond is also known as Silver Lake and Ellis Pond.

“We want to look at all 26 square miles of the watershed to identify what sources are contributing to the lake’s contamination,” Wendt said. “We’ve had a number of large rain events this year that washed a lot of debris into the lake. This past fall there was an algae bloom that is acting as a harbinger of poorer conditions.”

The committee kicked off the meeting by updating one another on how much money it has raised to pay for the survey.

AmeriCorps volunteer Laura Crossley said the committee has raised $4,450, with $1,000 from the Silver Lake Camp Owners Association, $250 from private contributions, $3,000 from Roxbury and $200 from Byron.

Committee member Ross Swain said he is working on drafting a letter to Andover to request $500.

“I meant to make a request before their annual town meeting, but wasn’t able to do it in time,” he said. “I talked with their Board of Selectmen, and they told me they may have a special town meeting coming up in the next two months. According to them, they may be able to get the request on the town warrant.”

Crossley said the group has 17 volunteers to participate in the survey.

“We’re looking to get 20 volunteers and form teams of four or five people to cover different areas of the watershed,” Crossley said.

Committee member Paul Jones said he remembers students from the University of Maine at Farmington participating in the last watershed survey Roxbury did.

“If we run a little short on volunteers, maybe we can check with UMF and see if there are any students who wish to volunteer,” he suggested.

Crossley later asked the committee what they wanted to do with any extra donations received.

Wendy Garland of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection suggested the committee put extra money aside to help reimburse Scott Williams, executive director of the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program and committee member, for the work he done preparing for the survey.

Swain and committee member Gordon Gamble agreed, saying they thought it was a good idea.

Williams said he believes that some of the extra money should be set aside and saved for long-term goals.

“It’s great that we’re doing this survey, but we should also be thinking about long-term goals,” he said. “We need to be thinking about protecting the water quality of the pond and making sure it has a long life ahead of it.”

Selectman and committee member Tim DeRouche later said that he hopes the group will continue to push forward with the survey.

“I have a 2-year-old grandchild, and I want him to be able to grow up and enjoy the pond,” DeRouche said.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com