MAYVILLE – The Jamestown Post-Journal says the town of Ellery wants a lawsuit it is involved with moved to Supreme Court in Chautauqua County instead of Erie County.
Over the summer Chautauqua Institution announced it had filed a lawsuit against the Town of Ellery and the State Department of Environmental Conservation, questioning the legalities of the Town’s effort to seek state permission to use herbicides to treat Chautauqua Lake. That permission was ultimately granted and the application took place in a restricted area in June of this year.
Ellery says Chautauqua County Supreme Court is the most appropriate venue because it is within the judicial district where the complaint was filed and because it is related to a case decided in state Supreme Court in Chautauqua County earlier this year.
In that case, a group of residents argued that the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement the town of Ellery used to seek permission for herbicide use didn’t consider effects to the entire lake and as a result, the state DEC and Chautauqua County should be the lead agency for the request, not the town of Ellery.
In April, an opinion for that case was issued granting the DEC’s motion to dismiss the petition in its entirety and the proceeding was dismissed without prejudice.
The town of Ellery says that because that case was taken up Chautauqua county supreme court, it’s only appropriate that the Institution’s lawsuit also be taken up there as well.
The motion to change venue, as well as a motion by the Chautauqua Lake Partnership to intervene in the Chautauqua Institution lawsuit, will be taken up in court on Nov. 14.
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