County Airport Manager Shannon Barnhart addresses Public Facilities Committee (June 20, 2023)

The Chautauqua County Airports in Jamestown and Dunkirk have been awarded a total of $306,000 from the FAA for upgrades.

County Airport General Manager Shannon Barnhart asked the Legislature’s Public Facilities Committee to accept the grant, “At Dunkirk, the taxiway Alpha East construction project, we’ll be rehabbing the taxiway. And then, at Jamestown we’ll be rehabbing 34 guidance signs that right now that are in poor to very poor condition. We get docked every year on our FAA inspection, so we were awarded $153,000 per airport that has to be used within a five-year period.”

She said the grant has to be accepted by the County by June 30.

Barnhart added that grant make it possible to do upgrades that are required under FAA safety standards.

The Public Facilities Committee also received an update on the CARTS hub project in downtown Jamestown from Public Facilities Director Tim Card.

Card said bids had been received for the project at 215 East Third Street, “The bids came in just a little over $800,000 and we had budgeted for $500,000. So, we only had one company that bid it. So, upon recommendations from LaBella, the engineers, what we’re going to do is go back out to bid in the fall, probably September, because a lot of these contractors are so busy with school projects and things that they have a timeline with, I think if we wait and go out to bid in the fall we may have a little more success.”

Card said the City of Jamestown is moving forward with removing fuel tanks from the site.

He added that the renovation will include reducing the three bays in the former service garage to two bays with one being a waiting room for passengers and the other being a breakroom for CARTS drivers. He said the parking area also would be redone.

Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel Delivers State of the County Address to County Legislature

Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel said in his annual State of the County address that the county’s comeback has been far greater than its setback.

Wendel said the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021 continued to be a challenge for the county, causing his administration to pivot efforts to move forward while protecting residents.

He said that after seeing businesses shut down and people lose jobs in 2020, December 2021 had an unemployment rate of 3.5%, which is the lowest its been since the 1990s.

Wendel announced some changes ahead for 2022 including the rebranding of the Chautauqua Area Rural Transit System, or CARTS, as CHQ Transit, “The construction of a transportation hub in downtown Jamestown, the addition of new technology including a rider’s app and cashless fare system; as well as additions of three trolleys to our fleet.”

Wendel said he also began work with Finance Director Kitty Crow to restructure the Finance Department where departments will no longer have their own fiscal staff, but will have that go through the Finance Department itself. He said this will increase efficiencies, reduce strain on smaller departments, and increase productivity.

In the Department of Public Facilities, Wendel is planning on promoting current employees to Deputy Director positions to form a DPF cabinet, “Instead of overwhelming one DPF Director with multiple departments that were under their control, our Deputy Directors will only focus on their areas of expertise and come together to form the DPF cabinet. This current plan will consist of Deputy Director of Public Facilities in the following areas: engineering, transportation, and environment.”

The position of Director of DPF has been vacant following the resignation of Brad Bentley in November.

Wendel added other goals include expanding sewer and water around the county’s lakes to promote development, expanding the tourism industry, and expand broadband throughout county.

We’ll have the full State of the County address on tonight’s Community Matters at 5 p.m.