Photo Credit: Frewsburg Fire Department

The Frewsburg Fire Department rescued a dog that had fallen through the ice in a pond in the town of Carroll Wednesday.

Firefighters responded just before 8 a.m. to the scene on Dodge Road where the dog was struggling to get back up on the ice.

Crews suited up to break through the ice, enter the water and were able to safely rescue the dog. The dog was dried off, warmed up, and returned to their family.

Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Deputies assisted at the scene.

Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Deputies

39-year old James Gnacinski was arrested yesterday afternoon in the town of Chautauqua without incident. He was initially charged with being a fugitive from justice out of the state of Pennsylvania but is facing local burglary charges as well.

The burglary incident had led to police asking residents Wednesday night to shelter in place in the towns of Westfield and Chautauqua while they searched for Gnacinski.

James Quattrone

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County will have a new Sheriff beginning in 2019. Republican Challenger James Quattrone defeated Democratic Incumbent Joseph Gerace on Tuesday, marking an end to Gerace’s 25-year reign as sheriff.

Quattrone received an unofficial total of 22,114 votes (53.6 percent) on election night, more than enough to defeat Gerace, who received 19,126 votes (46.33).  Not counting absentee or affidavit ballots, a total of 41270 county residents (54 percent of registered voters in the county) participated in Tuesday’s election.

For Gerace it is the end of an era spanning an estimated 40 years.  He joined the sheriff’s office as a deputy in 1979 and was first elected sheriff in a special election in 1994 to fill the final year of Sheriff John Bentley’s term, following his death. Gerace was reelected in six subsequent elections, serving a total of 25 years as the top law enforcement officer of the county.

In his concession speech Tuesday night, Gerace thanked his supporters and said he would do what he could to help Quattrone transition to new sheriff.

Chautauqua County Sheriff Joseph Gerace

We worked very diligently but the voters of the county have spoken. That’s part of what it is to be sheriff – you are the only publicly elected law enforcement official in the country. It’s the ‘people’s lawman’ and the people have chosen somebody else,” Gerace said. “I’m going to walk out with my head high because I’ve done a lot for this county. I’ve dedicated my entire adult life to public service and I’m not going away… I’ll be doing whatever I can to help with the transition.”

Quattrone is a former lieutenant with the Sheriff’s Office. He ran on a platform of improving intermunicipal cooperation between law enforcement agencies in the county, especially when it comes to investigating illegal drug activity. He was critical of the sheriff’s office under Gerace’s watch for not being able to unite local law enforcement, with there being two separate drug enforcement agencies (The SOuthern Tier Regional Drug Task Force and the Jamestown Metro Drug Task Force) operating in the county. Gerace, meanwhile, had said the second agency started as a decision by officials in Jamestown and wasn’t based on a decision he had made.  Quattrone also said he wanted to reduce spending in the county jail while also increasing morale for employees who work there.

“I’m overwhelmed by the support, the community support, the support from my family and friends, but really the voters of Chautauqua County were ready for a change — ready for a positive move forward, and I’m looking forward to working with the other police agencies cooperatively,” Quattrone is quoted as saying in his victory speech Tuesday night.

County executive Vince Horrigan delivering his 2017 State of the County address on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan will be focusing a lot on regional solutions and shared services during his final year on the job.

On Wednesday night Horrigan delivered his 2017 State of the County message to the legislature, which, as it turns out, will also be his last. At the end of the address, Horrigan announced he would not be running for reelection in 2017. However, Horrigan said that even though he has less than a year left on the job,  he still plans to focus on a variety of initiatives, including those involving regional solutions.

In fact, Horrigan said the county has already laid groundwork in that effort with its Regional Solutions Commission, which focused on several projects in 2016 and will also put together a plan on a dozen other projects this year that could lead to significant financial assistance from Albany.

“The commission has identified 12 projects to either merge, consolidate, or share services,” Horrigan said during his State of the County. “These projects have been submitted to the state as part of a municipal consolidation and efficiency competition and last week, as many of you know, our county was awarded $50,000 as part of Phase 1 of the state program. This will require us to develop a plan for the final round of the competition to try and take home $20 million for regional solutions.”

CONSOLIDATION PROPOSAL BETWEEN CITY, COUNTY STILL IN PLANNING PHASE

One of the regional solutions proposals is a consolidation plan between the city of Jamestown and the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office. The plan, which has already received state funding to help guide it along, has been in the discussion phase for more than four years.

While Horrigan didn’t specifically mention the consolidation in his state of the county address, WRFA did ask him about it following Wednesday night’s presentation. He said 2017 may be the year that it is finalized and put before city and county lawmakers for review and action, although some details still need to be ironed out.

“What I found is that the way we were going about it is that we were trying to merge collective bargaining units and it’s very hard to do that,” Horrigan. “We have a model where we provide contract services to Cherry Creek, and all over the county. We’re happy to do that to the city as well, and maybe there’s some adjustment there as well. We’ll see how that goes.”

Horrigan also said that any public safety agreement between the county and city also needs to be mindful of labor relations with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Deputies Association, as well as with the JPD’s bargaining unit, the Kendall Club.

“Whatever we do, I’ll have to be able to sell it to the legislature. That’s very important. And the last thing I want to do, where we have very good labor relations with our team, all of a sudden get into a situation where collective bargaining agreements become a point of contention, or we’re stepping on the [city’s labor groups], I’m not sure that’s going to help anybody.”

In 2012 Jamestown received a state grant to hire Rochester-based consulting firm the Center for Governmental Research to help develop a plan to have the city contract with the sheriff’s office in order to help save the city money, at no additional cost to the county.

An initial report from CGR stated that the savings from such an agreement could be as high as $1.4 million annually, once fully in place. The savings would be due to the city reducing the number of JPD officers who provide public safety and instead bringing in Sheriff Deputies, who work under a labor agreement that has less costly benefits than what officers in the JPD union receive.

It’s not so much a consolidation of the two departments with one going away, but more of a contractual arrangement with between the city and county that as officers at the Jamestown city level retire or should otherwise leave employment would be replaced by a contracted county employee, because of the savings differential on salary, retirement, and other expenses,” Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi explained last July.

Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Deputies Association president Tina Holtz listens in the foreground as Sheriff Joe Gerace voiced his support for a new contract between the county and the union, prior to a vote during the Dec. 21 meeting of the Chautauqua County Legislature.

MAYVILLE – The Chautauqua County Legislature voted 12 to 7 Wednesday night in favor of a new 5-year collective bargaining agreement for both the Sheriff’s Deputies and the Sheriff’s Lieutenants. The new contract includes no wage increase in 2017; a 1.5 percent increase in 2018 and 2019; and a 2 percent increase in 2020 and 2021. It also places all active members into a high-deductible health plan while the county would provide a 20-year retirement plan.

Legislators who voted in favor of the new contract felt that it was a fair deal for both the county and the unions. Among those who supported it was Paul whitford (D-Jamestown).

“In this contract the retirement was imperative for the officers. They’re in harm’s way. When you have an earlier turnover, it creates openings for a younger group coming in,” Whitford said. “The county’s focus, since I’ve been in the legislature, is to maintain control of a structural deficit and I think this contract goes a long way in doing that.”

Another supporter of the contract was Ron Lemon (R-Frewburg), who said he was opposed to changing the retirement option from 25 to 20 years, but said it wasn’t enough for him to vote against it.

“There are some pros. One is the savings from the health insurance part of the package and the other would be the rate of salary increase,” Lemon said. “But I also want to commend the [unions] for negotiating in goo faith, coming in. I understand there were about 36 things that were brought to the table, but they were pretty lenient with them, which was good to hear.”

Those who voted against the contract were Terry Niebel (R-Sheridan), Bob Scudder (R-Fredonia), Lisa Vanstrom (R-Ellicott), PJ Wendel (R-Lakewood), and David Wilfong (R-Jamestown). In addition, both Pierre Chagnon (R-Bemus Point and Chuck Nazzaro (D-Jamestown) – who serve as the chair and vice-chair of the county’s audit and control committee  – voted against it.  Following the meeting, Nazzaro said he voted no because there was still too many questions left on the table.

Chautauqua County Legislator Charles Nazzaro (D – Jamestown, District 9).

“I guess what it comes down to is a discomfort level with the long-term effect of this contract and also the long term assumptions in there. For example, they’re assuming people are going to retire at 20 years, and that’s not a given. Also, they are going to be in a high deductible plan [for health insurance]. High deductible plans still go up in cost and the county funds 100 percent of the premium for the plan, granted, the member pays for the deductible,” Nazzaro explained.

Nazarro also said there was an upfront cost with the deal that he has concerns with.

“We have to put upfront costs to buy into the new pension,” Nazzaro said. “That cost for the deputies and the lieutenants is $2.6 million. Not one person on this floor tonight asked, ‘where are we going to get that $2.6 million?’ We did ask that in our discussion [in audit and control] and it’s going to have to come out of fund balance, and I have in issue of taking that money out of fund balance. You’ve heard the county executive say we need to build our fund balance and stick with our deficit reduction committee plan, so I had a big issue with taking that money out of fund balance.”

Despite concerns from several legislators, County Executive Vince Horrigan, who helped to negotiate the final contract, said he felt it was the best compromise possible, including moving retirement from 25 to 20 years.

Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan

“At the end of they day, it’s a win for the tax payers. It’s a win for the sheriff’s department. And it’s a new approach and I’m very excited to see that come into fruition,” Horrigan explained. “At the same time, I understand moving from 25 years to 20 years is hard for some people, and I understand that, so our negotiating team of budget director Kitty Crow and HR director Joe Porpiglia did a lot of work and I credit them for this.”

Following the vote, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Association Tina Holtz said she and the union members were very pleased the contract was approved, and also explained why moving the retirement option from 25 to 20 years was so important.

“I think there’s several reasons,” Holtz said. “One, it brings us into line with other agencies in this county and the surrounding counties. It’s also, if you pay attention to the news, a different world out there and we’re ready to go at 20 years. We really need to be moving through and onto another career.”

Both unions have already ratified the tentative contract. Chautauqua County Sheriff Joe Gerace along with two deputies also spoke before the vote in support of the contract.

NEW CONTRACT SHOULD HAVE A MINIMAL IMPACT ON CONSOLIDATION STUDY

The terms of the new contracts shouldn’t have an impact on a possible consolidation of public safety services between the county and city of Jamestown. That’s according to Horrigan, who addressed the issue following Wednesday night’s vote.

“We’ve been working with [Mayor Sam Teresi] and the unions have been working together to give us their concerns, and we think we have a good law enforcement team. If [the city] wants us to contract with them, as we do in other places, we’re happy to do that,” Horrigan said. “There’s some unique things about chain of command in the city and some unique issues that they have, but we don’t think this will have a real bearing on that, directly.”

That police consolidation study is still being finalized and there’s no guarantee it would be accepted by the city council or the county legislature. The basic premise of the proposed consolidation is to have the Sheriff’s office provide deputies to work in Jamestown, replacing Jamestown Police officers as they retire or leave the force. The transition would result in a savings for the city at no additional cost to the county.

Consultants with the Center for Governmental Research (CGR) consulting firm out of Rochester have been hired to look into the feasibility of such a plan, with funding provided by the state.