Jamestown City Council work session (September 12, 2022)

City officials and local organizations are continuing to meet to work on ways to address rising homelessness in Jamestown.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist updated City Council on a meeting held Monday with organizations that are part of the county’s Homeless Coalition including the Salvation Army, UCAN Mission, Chautauqua Opportunities, Southern Tier Environments for Living, UPMC, and more, “What we’ve normally seen in the past is homelessness that includes folks that have been kicked out of shelters or have been sanctioned by the county or other providers for whatever violation of services they provided. We would normally see about 25 to 30, that’s what the last census was of homeless here in the city. We are finding encampments that can be up to 50 to 70 people. And we are trying to work to deal with it.”

Sundquist said part of the discussion included planning for winter given that individuals without housing often look for abandoned houses to break into in order to stay warm.

He said the city had a meeting scheduled with with local pastors Tuesday night to discuss homelessness and how the faith community can assist. A second Homeless Coalition meeting is scheduled for later this month.

Earlier this month public works director Jeff Lehman presented the city council with a plan to de-dedicate the section of Lafayette St. that is located between Tenth and Eleventh Streets and runs parallel to Washington St. That section, which covers an estimated 10,000 sq ft, would then be sold to the Dave Warren Car Dealership to allow for the expansion of his lot.

Currently, that section of Lafayette also serves as an entrance point to Chadakoin Park and runs alongside the park, providing an easy access point for people who use the public pavilion.

The de-dedication was reviewed and approved last week by the city planning commission, although it was not on Monday Night’s city council agenda. Still, the group of residents – which was comprised mostly of African Americans from the North Side – were concerned enough with the plan that they came out in force to voice their disapproval. A total of 18 residents addressed the council and spoke out against the de-dedication plan.

Most residents said they were disappointed that no city representative had talked with them about the plan and a few said it was an on-going theme that the city tends to make decisions affecting the black community without seeking its input.

However, following the meeting Lehman and other city officials said the community had sent a clear message that they did not support the de-dedication and as a result.

The purpose of the plan was to promote economic development and business growth in the Washington St. corridor and I think that we had a plan that worked,” Lehman told WRFA. “It was a concept plan, it wasn’t a finalized plan. This was sort of a public hearing tonight to get some feedback and we obviously got some feedback on it, so where it goes from here, we’ll see…. we’re either going to massage the plan or scrap the plan.”

Lehman said that in order for the car dealership to assume ownership of the property, the city council will have to formally present a de-dedication resolution and hold a public hearing prior to acting on it. The council would then have to approve selling the property to the dealership. Even if that were to happen, the dealership would also be required to go through the site planning process prior to using any of the property as part of the business.