AMHERST — Frequent closing of Puffer’s Pond last summer due to high levels of E. coli bacteria, coupled with ongoing concerns that sediment is filling the body of water, is prompting town officials to focus on developing a plan for improvements.

At the Conservation Commission last week, Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek said a priority is being put on fixing the pond, long a popular site for swimming throughout the warm-weather months, both for residents and area college students.

“In the last couple of years we’ve lost so many swimmable days at Puffer’s Pond, it’s really kind of getting to the point where we need to do something there,” Ziomek said.

A first step is working with Fuss & O’Neil engineers on a vision and understanding that there are challenges with both the dike and the circa 1895 dam that keep the pond in place. More complicated, Ziomek said, is understanding why the pond is filling in and to decide whether to undertake dredging of the pond for the first time in 38 years, when 100,000 cubic yards of material were removed.

“We all know that if we want to keep that resource as it is, as an open water resource, we have to either dredge it, or not,” Ziomek said. “But if we want to keep it as a pond, it’s filling in pretty rapidly.”

Ziomek said Fuss & O’Neil’s work will also begin addressing beach erosion, continued deposits of material from the Cushman Brook that may be contributing to filling in the pond, issues on the various walking trails that surround the pond, as well as accessibility, parking and other assorted concerns.

“We’re kind of looking at a comprehensive plan to address those over time,” Ziomek said.

Ziomek is already meeting with a University of Massachusetts professor and students to see how the quality of the Mill River, which is below Puffer’s Pond, is impacting Hadley and the Connecticut River watershed. He said the UMass staff may also be able to help in looking at the Cushman Brook.

But he said that upstream water sampling a few years ago found few problems, though it’s possible that changes have occurred since then.

Ziomek said there hasn’t been money for examining the water quality in streams across town. “There’s no real comprehensive effort at this point to coordinate all that,” Ziomek said.

Wetlands Administrator Erin Jacque said some funding for that could come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, yet Amherst has been limited in seeking FEMA grants because the town doesn’t currently have the necessary hazard mitigation plan.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.