Members of the Jamestown City Council and administration held a work session meeting via Zoom on Monday night, April 20.
JAMESTOWN – City officials say they are aware of a Reopen New York rally that is scheduled to take place on Friday May 1.
During Monday night’s Jamestown City Council work session – which was streamed and available to watch at the city website – Jamestown Police Chief Harry Snellings informed council members that even though a special event permit has not been filed with the city, he and his department are aware of the event.
“We’re aware of it. We are working with the state police and they are monitoring social media so we can at least get a feel for what the potential crowd could look like, but for now we’re kind of in a wait-and-see,” Snellings said.
Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist also noted that even in normal times prior to COVID-19, a special event application wouldn’t be necessary. But he also said that depending on how the event is conducted it could violate the governor’s New York on Pause executive order that bans groups people from meeting.
“There wouldn’t be any [amplified] sound or things like that so a permit wouldn’t be necessary. However, there is an executive order banning all social gatherings. A gathering of individuals of any size up until May 15 is still not permitted under the governor’s executive order. Anyone who violates that can be assessed a fine of up to $1,000,” Sundquist said.
Sundquist also noted that the planned rally in Jamestown appears to be different than one held in Buffalo on Monday because that only involved people protesting from inside their vehicles so they did not violate the executive order.
City officials said they did not know the organizer or organizers of the event and also did not indicate the specific time or location of the event.
They seem to plan a rally in the park from what that lady said in the news take names and pictures as they come in and if no mask out they go