Lakewood Village Hall

LAKEWOOD – The village of Lakewood continues to be without a mayor.

Last month embattled Mayor Cara Birrittieri resigned from her post amid controversy surrounding a request to test the waters of Chautauqua Lake for herbicides off the shore of the village.  The testing was done by the Chautauqua Lake Association, which sent a request for payment from the village saying it had ordered the testing. Birrittieri denied she had made the request, and while resigning said the controversy had nothing to do with her leaving.

Once Birrittieri left, it was thought that village trustee and Deputy Mayor Ted McCague was going to be the new mayor of the village of Lakewood.

But the four-members village board – which McCague is also a member of – was unable to secure the three votes necessary to move forward with his appointment on Friday and,, as result, the village still doesn’t have a new mayor.

At issue is trying to identify who would be appointed to fill McCague’s vacant village board seat if he were to move into the role of mayor. The mayor is required to appoint a new board member, but the other three trustees also want to have input on the process.  Because the four can’t come to an agreement on how to proceed with filling a vacant seat, they’ve been unable to secure  the three votes necessary to make McCague the next mayor.

The next regular meeting of the village board will take place Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m.

Lakewood Village Hall

LAKEWOOD – The Jamestown Post-Journal says the mayor of Lakewood is denying that she instructed the Chautauqua Lake Association to conduct water tests for herbicide use off the village shores of Chautauqua Lake in June.

During Monday night’s village board meeting, Mayor Cara Birrittieri responded to accusations from two village board members in August that she was responsible for the $853 charge.

The alleged spending was brought to light two weeks ago in a letter to the village clerk by trustees Ellen Barnes and Randall Holcomb after Barnes said CLA Executive Director Douglas Conroe said Birrittieri ordered the tests.

Birrittieri expressed her confusion as to why Conroe would say that. Conroe declined to comment when reached by The Post-Journal after the trustees’ meeting.

She also called the accusations against her “absurd” and demanded that she receive apologies from Barnes and Holcomb.

Following the discussion the board voted 3 to 2 in favor of paying the charge to the CLA.

The testing that was done by the CLA came back negative.

Lakewood Village Hall

LAKEWOOD – The Jamestown Post-Journal says residents in Lakewood were at the village board meeting Monday night voicing their concerns to the possibility of creating a new administrative position.

At issue is whether the village should continue looking into the possibility of creating a village manager position.

More than 30 residents were on hand to hear the discussion and to also voice opposition to it.

The village is looking into the position because Mayor Cara Birrittieri has said she that while she is fulfilling her duties, she is committing herself full-time to a position that is treated as part-time.

A village manager would be in charge of overseeing committees and daily operations of the community. It would be a hired position, so those with specific skill sets and training would be vetted for such a position.

A local law would need to be introduced and approved by the village board as well as on a public referendum before any such position could be created.

That’s according to a report in the Jamestown Post-Journal.

The Chautauqua Lake Partnership, with the backing of the towns of Ellery, North Harmony, Busti and Ellicott and village of Celoron, had applied for eight permits to use herbicides on roughly 1,000 acres of Chautauqua Lake. DEC officials issued three permits on May 15 approving herbicide use for 181 acres of the lake.

However, the Lakewood board held a meeting Monday night and expressed concerns of the town of Busti’s intention to spray herbicides on Lakewood’s shoreline without approval from the village first.

The village of Lakewood is located in the Town of Busti, and village officials feel that just because the town signed off on the permit application doesn’t mean the village is also giving approval to the process.

Lakewood mayor Cara Birrittieri said village officials first want to determine how herbicide use will impact the algae problem, and also provide assurance that it won’t be a health problem.

Busti officials approved the resolution to allow the use of herbicides on Monday night and also said they were surprised the village waited until the 11^th hour to voice concerns, given that the herbicide question has been well publicized for the past several months.

Lakewood Village Hall

LAKEWOOD – Mayor Cara Birrittieri has released her executive budget for the village’s 2018-19 fiscal year, which is calling for a tax rate increase of 7.7 percent.

According to the Post-Journal, the $3.74 million proposed spending plan, which includes a $1.91 million tax levy, was filed Thursday with the village clerk and is available for review. The village’s fiscal year runs from June 1 to May 31.

Birrittieri cited rising health care costs for village employees as one of the main reasons for increased spending.

Under the mayor’s proposal, the property tax rate would increase from $7.34 per $1,000 assessed value to $7.91 per $1,000.  It would be the second consecutive year that village property owners would see an increase in property taxes. The current year’s budget (2017-18) raised taxes by 2.7 percent. The 2016-17 budget saw property taxes reduced by 5 percent.

The village board will now review the plan to enact and vote on any proposed changes. The deadline for the budget to be approved is May 1.

Lakewood Mayor Cara Birrittieri says the State Supreme Court in Mayville has dismissed the challenge by Up State Tower Co. to the village’s local laws regarding where cell towers may be placed in the village, along with a requirement that the developer pay for the village’s cost to review cell tower applications.

Birrittieri said the decision sends a clear message that small villages and towns are not powerless against companies that use litigation as a means to an end.

Village officials have said that cell tower applications are because of the technical nature of the applications and the costs associated with evaluating an application. As a result they wanted to require the associated costs be covered by the applicant.

The case began back in June 2016, when the village adopted a local law regulating the siting of cell towers in the village.

The Chautauqua County Board of Elections will canvass absentee and affidavit ballots Tuesday, starting at 1 p.m. Members of the Board of Election will count the ballots for each of the races at the following times:

• 1 p.m. – WESTFIELD TOWN CLERK: Democrat Andrea Babcock  leads Republican incumbent Tim Smith by 23 votes;
• 1:30 p.m. – LAKEWOOD VILLAGE MAYOR: Cara Birrittieri leads Republican incumbent Dave Wordelman by 19 votes;
• 1:45 p.m. – KIANTONE TOWN SUPERVISOR: Write in Candidate John Ostrander leads Republican Incumbent Kevin Meyers by 2 votes;
• 2 p.m. – COUNTY LEGISLATURE DISTRICT 11:Republican incumbent David Wilfong leads Democrat Robert Whitney by 42 votes;
• 2 p.m. – COUNTY LEGISLATURE DISTRICT 12: Republican incumbent Elisabeth Rankin leads Democrat Beth Kresge by 31 votes;
• 2 p.m. – JAMESTOWN CITY COUNCIL WARD 3: Democratic challenger Vicki James leads Republican Incumbent Alphonso Pagan by 39 votes.

Candidates are welcome to attend or to designate an attorney or other person to act as their representative at the table. Following the counting of the ballots, the totals will be added to the totals to determine the unofficial leader.

Nothing is official until certification of the balloting on or before Nov. 27.

That’s according to the Chautauqua County Board of Elections, which says there are still some races that could be affected by outstanding absentee ballots, which will be counted within the next two weeks. In addition, the board is required to recanvas voting machine results to make them official.

There are four races in Chautauqua County that have been given top priority in the process of recanvassing, auditing and counting of absentee ballots.

LAKEWOOD MAYOR AND LEGISLATURE RACES AWAIT ABSENTEE COUNT

Those races include the two Chautauqua County legislature races in Jamestown. For District 12, Republican incumbent Elisabeth Rankin leads Democrat Beth Kresge by 31 votes (430-399) with 150 absentee ballots sent out and 69 returned as of Wednesday.

Also in County Legislature District 11 – Republican incumbent David Wilfong leads Democrat Robert Whitney by 42 votes (347-305) with 66 absentee ballots sent out and 44 returned as of Wednesday.

Another race that was too close to call on election night was the race for Lakewood Village Mayor. Democrat endorsed Cara Birrittieri leads Republican incumbent Dave Wordelman by just 20 votes (418-398) with 95 absentees sent out and 53 returned.

Absentees will also be needed to determine the winner of the Westfield Town Clerk race, with the two candidates separated by just 23 votes, with 119 absentee ballots sent out. Currently, Democrat Andrea Babcock  leads Republican incumbent Tim Smith.

Also in an interesting write-in campaign for Kiantone town Supervisor, resident John Ostrander received 107 write-in votes, just two behind Republican Incumbent Kevin Meyers, who was the only name appearing on the ballot.  There were 9 absentees sent out and 4 returned as of Wednesday.

Officials say the opening of any sealed affidavit and absentee ballots will take place starting Nov. 17.  The close races will be tabulated first in front and in full view of the candidates involved or their representatives.

Democratic challenger for Lakewood Mayor, Cara Birrittieri

LAKEWOOD – The mayor’s race for the village of Lakewood is too close to call.

Democratic challenger Cara Birrittieri leads incumbent David Wordelmann by 20 votes – although absentee ballots could change the outcome. The official results will be known within two weeks once all absentees are counted. A total of 95 absentee ballots were sent out with 50 having already been sent back to the board of elections.

LAKEWOOD VILLAGE TRUSTEES

Randall Holcomb (R) 578 and Ellen Barnes (R) 516 were elected, with current board member John Jablonski III (D) losing his reelection bid.

Meanwhile, the supervisor of the second largest town in southern Chautauqua County has easily won reelection.

Busti Republican Jesse Robbins defeated challenger Democratic Lee Fischer by a vote of 906 to 598. The Busti Town Council was also contested, with Republican James Andrews and Democrat Rudy Mueller being the top two vote-getters. Republican Robert Schultz was the odd man.

Also for Busti in the Town Justice race, William Geary (R) 930 defeated Gary Segrue (D) 682.