ABOVE: CleanShore Solutions Founder Dominic Hill showcases one of his tools he uses to pull out pondweed. He stores his tools in the vehicle behind them, so everything moves with him from one job to the next.

FAIRMONT – While the Curly Leaf Pondweed issue in Fairmont has affected many, removing it has helped one resident stay clean and keep the lakes clean.

Dominic Hill of ClearShore Solutions said he was a troublemaker in his younger years and struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. That all changed four years ago when he said he found God and his dream to clean up pondweed.

“This is where I grew up,” Hill said. “I want everybody to feel comfortable here. I want our lakes to be how they were when I was a kid. I wasn’t scared to get in there. I would jump in there when the water was cold, when the water was warm. I would go fishing everywhere, and it’s not like that anymore. It worries me, because my kids are going to grow up here; they’re going to have their own kids here. My goal is to clean our lakes, so we aren’t scared to be in them.”

While he initially started slowly around two years ago, that gave him the confidence to commit to pondweed removal as a full-time endeavor.

“I started by doing random people’s properties, just cleaning up weeds, seeing if I could do it, seeing if I could make it look better,” Hill said. “I did, and then I was like, ‘Man, this is really something you could do to make our lakes better.'”

That confidence was necessary, as the process to get certified to remove aquatic invasive species, such as pondweed, through the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is difficult and keeping certification is constant.

“I searched DNR websites, grinding to learn about all of the weeds and stuff, even those not in this area,” Hill said. “They have you take a 50 question test and you have to pass. If you fail, you have to wait until next year. You have to take it upon yourself to learn. They test you again when you go and renew it. If I were to forget, I would lose my certification and wait another year. They add new stuff. This time, they added stuff around scuba diving, a lot of new rules. It’s not something they want just anyone doing, because it could create a lot of problems if they do it wrong.”

Starting out, Hill’s tools were very rudimentary. Now, he has made the connections to upgrade his equipment so he can work efficiently.

“I started with a rock rake,” he said. “The hardest way possible. [Now] I use a rake, and it’s basically like a big samurai sword on a stick. I have a water pump to scrub the dock. I use a deck brush, and I clean the docks off. I don’t have very many tools, but what I have is very intense, and that works.”

When Hill does a job, about five or six a week, actually getting out pondweed is a labor-intensive task.

“I like to do it by hand,” he said. “The weeds go under the sand like a quarter inch, and then it’s like spaghetti strings. All I do is I drag this rake, and that’ll pull the trash, the weeds, the roots. When I get farther out, I use my saw, and I pull that.”

Doing it by hand, Hill is able to be as meticulous as he can be.

“I am very meticulous about what I do when I’m on a job site,” he said. “You feel the weeds, some are soft, hard, squishy, slimy. Those feelings help me determine what to take out. If they are hard and slimy, I take them out. I sift through the whole bottom to make sure there’s no trash or anything else left there.”

At this point in the year, Hill said they are in the second bloom stage for pondweed.

“Right now the lakes are in the worst shape they could be,” he said. “Soon it’ll start improving. We got about 30 days, and then they’ll stop blooming, and I know that’s right around the Fourth of July.”

As this stage continues and the pondweed grows and spreads on Fairmont’s lakes, Hill said he hopes to get as much out as possible.

“Probably like a couple tons of weed,” he said. “I’d like to make a big dent, probably work solid through until July 15, maybe every day would be ideal.”

Through this work, Hill said it has been huge for him in his sobriety journey.

“When I was in the bad part of my life, I felt like I could never do anything because of what I had done in the past,” he said. “Starting this and having all these people support me and just cheer me on, it’s huge because your self-esteem goes from down here when you’re doing bad stuff to now it just keeps growing.”

Looking forward, Hill said he would like to see his business, and Fairmont as a whole, grow.

“My dream is to bring the city back,” he said. “I would like to keep the business in town. I would like to hire more people like me when I get to that point. Give them a chance.”

For more information, visit facebook.com/ClearShore-Solutions-61577468679556/, email clearshoresolutions@gmail.com, or call 507-236-0237.