Committee hears updates on Aswan Pond cleanup and 10-year agricultural covenant protecting about 138 acres

At its July 3 meeting the Lakeville Open Space Committee received updates from members about the Aswan Pond Complex and a new 10-year agricultural covenant affecting roughly 138 acres.

Committee members said the Aswan Pond Complex is moving from planning into fundraising to pay for invasive-weed removal and other cleanup work. One member said the effort is now in the fundraising phase and that organizers are seeking “3 or $4,000,000” from different sources.

Separately, the committee discussed an agricultural covenant filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Department of Agricultural Resources for cranberry operations; committee members said the covenant will be added to the committee’s conservation-restriction properties list and will remain in effect for 10 years. A committee member said parcel acreage totals approximately 138 acres across the parcels in the covenant.

Members noted the reopening of a visitor center at the complex has been delayed. No formal committee action or vote was recorded on these updates; members said they would add the new agricultural covenant to the committee’s list of conservation restrictions and redistribute the updated list to members.