The Chautauqua County Legislature voted to accept a $6.2 million in Federal Aviation Administration funds to rehabilitate one of the Jamestown Airport runways.
Legislator Chuck Nazzaro said this is a big win, “To reconstruct the runway at the Chautauqua County Airport and there is no local share on this and normally there would. So the $6.2 million is greatly appreciated and will benefit this county.”
The legislature also approved a memorandum of understanding with the City of Jamestown for the purchase of new fire software. Jamestown City Council had approved the purchase at its June voting session. Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon said the new software will increase efficiency for fire reporting and help the department maintain compliance with the National Fire Incident Reporting System.
Resident and Democratic candidate for County Executive Norm Green spoke at the first privilege of the floor on the resolution, saying he doesn’t think the county should charge the city for the software, “Charging the City of Jamestown $111,000 just doesn’t make sense. This is absolutely what we should be all about – sharing services. And we certainly have other areas of the county of sharing of services such as the fly car, such as the Sheriff’s Department itself. Some 20% of the county’s population resides in Jamestown.”
Legislator Chuck Nazzaro responded to that, saying the county is helping the city of Jamestown, “Currently, the County of Chautauqua subscribes to the public safety software program and what we’re doing is letting the City of Jamestown purchase the fire records module of this software for their benefit. They would not be able to do that if we didn’t already subscribe to this software program.”
A resolution amending the rules of the County Legislature to not require verbatim transcripts of meetings passed. Legislator Bill Ward said he initially had reservations supporting the resolution, “I am satisfied, however, after investigating and discovering of course that all of the Legislature meetings will be transcribed verbatim and that technology exists that help us to review all of the committee meetings, perhaps in an even better way, because they’re going to be preserved in audio files and video files.”
A motion requesting that existing boundaries of the 23rd Congressional district be preserved was defeated by a vote of 11 to 6. It required 13 votes to pass and 2 legislators were absent.
The Chautauqua County Legislature, County Executive PJ Wendel, State Senator George Borrello, and a representative from Congressman Tom Reed’s office also held a commendation ceremony for Jamestown Police Officer Mark Conklin. Officer Conklin was recognized for his heroism in rescuing 2 people from a fire in Jamestown on July 19th. The Legislature also issued a commendation for outgoing Legislator Mark Odell, who announced his resignation effective the end of July.
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