Boutwell Hill State Park upgrades

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced the reopening of two parking areas at Boutwell Hill State Forest in Chautauqua County.

The parking areas were temporarily closed during construction to improve parking capacity and install new trailhead amenities.

Improvements at the parking area located on Boutwell Hill Road in the town of Cherry Creek include doubling of the parking area’s size to accommodate more vehicles and truck/trailer traffic, as well as the addition of an accessible equestrian mounting ramp, accessible picnic pavilion, accessible port-a-potty, and horse stalls. This lot serves as a trailhead for the Chautauqua County Equestrian Trail System, the East Side Overland Trail System, and the Cherry Creek Sno-Goers snowmobile trails.

A second parking area located at the intersections of Lewis and Ruttenbur Road in the town of Charlotte was upgraded with new gravel, new culvert features for drainage, and the addition of horse stalls. Across from that existing parking area, a new large parking lot was constructed to accommodate large trucks and trailers. The new parking area includes an accessible equestrian mounting ramp, accessible picnic pavilion, and accessible port-a-potty. These lots service the Chautauqua County Equestrian Trail System, Cherry Creek Sno-Goer snowmobile trails, Boutwell Hill Ski Club Trails, and the East Side Overland Trail system.

Both parking areas and associated recreational trails are maintained in conjunction with DEC’s Volunteer Stewardship partnerships by Cherry Creek Sno-Goers, Boutwell Hill Ski Club, Chautauqua County Equestrian Trail System, and the Chautauqua County Parks Department.

Independence Day

In the City of Dunkirk, a three-day festival kicks off at 9:00 a.m. Saturday with the Marauder Trotter Run/Walk 5K at Wright Park. The rest of the festival takes place at Dunkirk Memorial Park on Route 5 with live music and food vendors. Fireworks will take place at dusk on Monday, July 4.

Cherry Creek will host an Independence Day Celebration on Saturday, July 2. The celebration from 1:00 to 10:00pm will feature rides, a parade at 5:00 p.m., a car show, chicken barbecue, music, and more. A fireworks show will take place at 10:00 p.m.

Bemus Point will hold its fireworks display at 10:00 p.m., Sunday, July 3. The show will be visible from on-shore and on Chautauqua Lake.

In the county seat of Mayville, the Monday, July 4 Celebration starts at 10:00 a.m. with a grand parade down Route 394. Festivities continue at Lakeside Park with face painting, a petting zoo, live music, food, games, and more. The celebration concludes with a fireworks display at 10:00 p.m.

The Village of Lakewood marks the return of the July 4th Summerfest and Fireworks at Hartley Park. The Lakewood Family YMCA’s Firecracker Run starts at 9am Monday followed by vendors on Chautauqua Avenue from noon to 10:00 p.m. Live music will be performed in Hartley Park from 6:00 p.m. until the fireworks display at 10:00 p.m., Monday.

And in Findley Lake, a Fourth of July Celebration takes place from noon to 10:00 p.m. on Monday, featuring a chicken barbeque, duck race, boat parade, and fireworks at 10:00 p.m.

Local resident Brad Gains told the paper that a petition containing 95 signatures has been filed by a local tax payers group calling for the village government to dissolve.

The group believes that dissolving the village will result in tax savings, although a study would have to be completed to show just how much money could be saved. The matter would also have to go up for a public referendum where all registered voters could choose whether or not to dissolve the local government.

Gains has said the members of the Sinclairville Village Board are opposed to the idea.

Dissolution isn’t new in Chautauqua County. Recently both Forestville and Cherry Creek residents voted to dissolve their village governments. Meanwhile, an effort to dissolve the village of Sherman Government failed by just two votes in December 2016.

According to the Governor’s Office, he grants will be provided through the Citizens Reorganization Empowerment Program, which assists upstate municipalities with government restructuring.

Hanover will receive $50,000 to assist with the dissolution of the village of Forestville, while Cherry Creek will receive an estimated $24,000 to develop a village dissolution plan.

The village of Sherman will reimbursed up to $50,000 for costs associated with the failed referendum to dissolve the local government.

Image from Facebook.com

CHERRY CREEK – A major fire has destroyed a business and community center in Cherry Creek.

The Post Journal is reporting that about 100 firefighters from 14 different volunteer companies were in the village of Cherry Creek late Monday afternoon to battle a fierce fire at The Trillium Lodge, located on Main Street.

The call for the fire came in just after 5:45 p.m. and the building was fully engulfed on arrival.  No injuries were reported in the fire.

It’s believed to be a total loss and the cause remains under investigation.

Meanwhile a GoFundMe page has been set up for the owners of the restaurant to help them rebuild the business.

According to the Jamestown Post-Journal, the unofficial vote on Thursday was 70 to 32 in favor of dissolution. The official vote count, which will include absentees and affidavit ballots, will take place next Wednesday.

Village officials will now work to create a plan to transfer everything over to the town of Cherry Creek government within the next four months.

The Cherry Creek village dissolution is the second in Chautauqua County in the past year, joining Forestville, which is located in the town of Hanover. The village of Sherman also held a dissolution vote late last year, but that referendum failed to get enough votes for a dissolution to move forward.

The latest round of scores is based on 2015 financial information provided to DiNapoli’s office by local governments. The monitoring system evaluates local governments on nine financial indicators and creates a fiscal condition score. Indicators include fund balance, cash-on-hand and patterns of operating deficits.

Municipalities receiving a score of 45 to 55 are placed in the “Susceptible to Stress” category. Those receiving a score of 55 to 65 are placed in the “Moderate Stress” category. And municipalities with scores of 65 or higher are listed in the Significant Stress” category.

As mentioned, Cherry Creek was the only municipality in Chautauqua County to appear on the list, under the moderate stress category.  Cherry Creek received a 2015 score of 62.5.

While no other municipality in the county was placed on the list for this year, the city of Jamestown was very close to the “Susceptible to Stress” category with a 2015 score of 44.2. That’s up from 40.8 in 2014 and 37.5 in 2013.  Local municipalities that saw noticeable drops in their scores included the villages of Silver Creek (30.4 in 2015, down from 50.8 in 2014) and Lakewood (25.4 in 2015, down from 41.3 in 2014).

This is the fourth year DiNapoli’s office has evaluated the financial stability of local governments.

A complete, sortable list of fiscal scores for municipalities is available at the Comptrollers website.

The Board of Elections will act as the chief election officials for all villages this year except Sinclairville and Cassadaga.  These two villages are continuing to use their respective village clerks as the chief village election officer and will be counting votes by hand.  All other villages will vote on the county owned optical scan paper ballot system.

Villages with contested races include Brocton, Cherry Creek, Forestville, Lakewood, Mayville, Silver Creek and Westfield.

Villages with uncontested ballots include Bemus Point, Cassadaga, Falconer, Panama, Sherman and Sinclairville.

Village elections will be held at their normal November poll site for village voters who have an election, except the Bemus Point elections will be held at Bemus Point Village Hall.

All village poll sites will be open today from Noon until 9 p.m.

COMPLETE LIST OF VILLAGE ELECTION RACES

POMFRET – An elderly Cherry Creek man was fatally injured late last week after getting into an accident with a tractor-trailer in the town of Pomfret. Chautauqua County Sheriff Deputies say 83 year-old Harry Loomis reportedly pulled out in front of the tractor-trailer at about 8:40 p.m. Friday night on Route 5.  The driver of the rig, 31 year-old Jason Gage of Buffalo, was unable to avoid the collision and Loomis was ejected from his vehicle after it went into a ditch. Loomis was taken to Brooks Memorial Hospital, where he died of his injuries. Gage was ticketed for driving with a suspended registration, according to police.

The investigation is continuing, as investigators try to determine the cause of the vehicle crossing into the truck’s path.

EDWARDS REACTS TO GOVERNOR’S CALL FOR MEDICAID REFORM IN 2012-13 BUDGET

MAYVILLE – When Governor Andrew Cuomo released is budget proposal last week, County leaders were relieved to hear issues such as Medicaid and pension reform being talked about by the state’s leader. However, ideas mentioned by Gov. Cuomo don’t look to translate to any immediate cost-savings for counties.  According to an article in today’s Jamestown Post-Journal, the cost of Medicaid will still increase for counties in 2013 and 2014 under the governor’s proposal – just not as much as counties were expecting.

County Executive Greg Edwards is quoted as saying “The good news is, counties won’t have to raise property taxes quite so much to keep up with Albany, but the state can do better.” For the past few years now, counties have been calling for an end and a reversal to the Medicaid mandates which they say drive up the local county property tax rates.

CITY COUNCIL TO HOLD COMMITTEE, WORK SESSION MEETINGS TONIGHT

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will hold another round of committee meetings followed by a work session tonight in city hall. Both the Council’s Finance Committee and Public Safety Committee will review an Intermunicipal Agreement Referral for the Town of Busti. In addition, the finance committee will also review the city’s conflict of interest policy and its whistleblower policy.

The Public Safety Committee will meet at 6:45 p.m. tonight in the Police Training Room on the 4^th floor of City Hall, and the city finance committee will meet at 7 p.m. in the mayor’s conference room of city hall. The full council work session will begin at 7:30 p.m. The January voting session will be held next Monday night.

PRENDERGAST LIBRARY ANNOUNCES NEW CLASSES IN FEBRUARY

JAMESTOWN – The Prendergast Library will offer four new classes this spring for the community.  A series called Professional Skills includes three 10-hour courses on Teaching Adult Learners, Effective Communication, and Workplace Skills.

The other series, Role Model Readers, offers classes for adults who want to read to their children or grandchildren and help them be successful readers.

All instruction is free and open to the public. Classes begin in February. For a specific class schedule or to sign up, call 484-7135 – Ext. 225, or stop at the Prendergast Library information desk.

The classes are being held in cooperation with Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES and with support from the New York State Library’s Adult Literacy Library Services grant program.

JCC ANNOUNCES NON-PROFIT CLASSES IN FEBRUARY

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Community College’s Jamestown Campus will offer a seven-part series focused on non-profit management, beginning February 8.

The series meets from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays, February 8 through March 21. The registration fee is $215 for the series, or $45 for individual sessions.

Sessions include: Introduction to Non-Profit Management, February 8; Strategic Planning for Non-Profits, February 15; Building An Effective Board of Directors, February 22; Recruiting, Maintaining, and Managing Volunteers, February 29;

Also, Grant Writing, March 7; Fundraising and Marketing for Non-Profits, March 14; and Conducting Meetings Using Technology, March 21.

To register, for for more information, call JCC’s Center for Continuing Education, 338.1005.