Randall Rolison

The Jamestown man charged in two fatal crashes has pleaded guilty in Chautauqua County Court.

District Attorney Jason Schmidt announced that 60-year old Randall Rolison pled guilty to Second Degree Manslaughter for the vehicular fatality that took the life of 15-year old Lexy Hughan on December 31, 2021 in Jamestown. He also pled guilty to Aggravated Vehicular Homicide for the vehicular fatality in Arkwright that resulted in the death of 71-year old Linda Kraemer of South Dayton.

Rolison will be sentenced on August 28 and faces a total of 13 1/3 to 40 years in prison.

Schmidt said the pending weapons possesion charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal.

He said the plea came following consultation with the Hughan and Kraemer families.

Lexy Hughan’s mother, Sara Rafaloski, expressed her relief that the court case is over, “And I’m really glad that it’s over. I’m glad that I don’t have to sit through any grueling details of any case stuff that nobody needs to hear. No fighting over something that obviously happened that’s obviously his fault. It’s all done and over. I’m much happier about that.”

A bench and picnic table dedication was held Saturday morning at Dow Park in Jamestown that memorializes Lexy Hughan.

Melissa Paterniti, who fundraised the money for the bench and table, said a roadside memorial had initially gone up near the site where Lexy had died, “And things on the side of the road had kind of started to get dusty and dirty. And people were saying stuff about it and I thought, ‘How can I help? How can I help this little girl have a beautiful memorial somewhere in the city of Jamestown to come and visit and celebrate her life?'”

Friends and Family cut the ribbon on a bench installed in memory of Lexy Hughan in Dow Park (June 10, 2023)

Rafaloski said it was amazing to have the community to come together to create the memorial. The dedication coincided with the start of the Jamestown Pride Festival, something she said Lexy would have been really happy about.

Jamestown City Council

The City Department of Development held six community input sessions on the action plan over the last two months. The next step is to have Council review the plan before going before the public a final time at a public hearing scheduled for Monday, June 26. The plan then gets submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The City of Jamestown has been allocated $1,144,750 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds as well as $397,507 in HOME program funds for a total of $1,542,257.

Council also will receive a report on the Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth grant of $4,310 the city received to install a high-visibility creative crosswalk at West 6th and Cherry Streets connecting the James Prendergast Library to Dow Park.

And a resolution to lift the hiring freeze to hire an engineer appears on the agenda. According to the staff report, this resolution is to replace engineer Mark Roetzer who is now the Acting Director of Public Works and Parks Departments.

The Housing Committee meets at 6:45 p.m. with other committees meeting at 7:00 p.m. The full work session takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall.

All meetings are open to the public with the full work session being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Alexis “Lexy” Hughan

A fundraising event for a memorial for Lexy Hughan is taking place this Saturday.

Citizen Melissa Paterniti is hosting the event from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the YWCA Lake Lodge in Lakewood. The event will feature refreshments and a basket raffle.

Paterniti is trying to raise $3,000 to purchase a bench and picnic table that will be placed in Dow Park in the City of Jamestown in memory of the 15-year old who died in a hit-and-run accident on December 31, 2021.

Jamestown City Council

The contract for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees , or AFSCME, Council 66, Local 418, is for a period covering January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2025. Mayor Eddie Sundquist had expressed he hopes to bring all outstanding union contracts before council for approval before the end of the year.

Council also will vote to accept a $6,195 dollar grant from the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation to put video surveillance cameras in Dow Park. The grant was awarded due to the city wanting to increase monitoring of the park after the Underground Railroad Tableau had a statue stolen and was vandalized with hate speech this summer.

Council also will vote on the Chadakoin River Strategic Business Plan, which will have a public hearing for comments at 7pm in Council Chambers.

And budget hearing sessions will start the evening at 5:30pm. The remaining departments to report out to council include City Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Comptroller, Information Services, Corporation Counsel, Department of Development, and Fenton History Center. The budget sessions will be held in the 3rd Floor Conference room.

The voting session is scheduled to begin at 7:30pm in Council Chambers. All are open to the public.

The rally was organized by the Jamestown Justice Coalition and followed the discovery of anti-Semitic and White Supremacy language written on the statues of the Tableau over the 4th of July weekend. Back in May, one of the three statues was stolen. It has not been recovered at this time.

Pastor Chloe Smith opened the rally, talking about the importance of Dow Park given its close proximity to the home of the first Black woman in Jamestown, Katherine Harris as well as being near the home of abolitionist Silas Shearman. Both were instrumental is helping guide slaves to freedom. Smith said our city needs healing, “And we today are saying we want freedom and equality for all people. We have gathered here today to make a declaration over our city, over our county, over our nation that every, every person is able to make a difference.”

Jamestown Justice Coalition leader Justin Hubbard emphasized that the vandalism was not random, “Random acts of vandalism are not White Supremacists symbols. They’re not Nazi swastikas. It’s not white power when it’s random on Underground Railroad statues of all people, of Katherine Harris and Silas Shearman. That’s not random. That’s an act of terror. That’s white supremacy and you do not belong in my city. You do not.”

Hubbard said he kept hearing it was just “some kids,” “Well if it’s ‘just some kids’ then we need to take a look at what we’re teaching our kids! Because when something like that happens, when our statues are stolen, when white supremacist symbols, when racists remarks are put on our statues, that’s an attack on the Black community of Jamestown. That’s exactly what it is. You’re attacking the Black community of Jamestown. But when you attack the Black community of Jamestown, you’re attacking all of Jamestown.”

Hubbard added that the fight for justice needs to be intersectional to include other marginalized voices.

Anyone with information on the vandalism of the statues or the theft of one of them is asked to contact Jamestown Police’s anonymous TIPS line at (716) 483-8477.

Jamestown Police

The vandalism was discovered and reported on Sunday and has since been cleaned off by the Jamestown Parks Department.

This incident follows the theft of one of the tableau statues back in early May that still has not been recovered. Anyone with information on either case is asked to contact Jamestown Police or the anonymous tips line at 716 483 Tips (8477).

The Jamestown Justice Coalition is planning a “Hate Has No Home Here” rally at 11am, Saturday, July 10th at Dow Park as a response to the incident.

Several winter items are hung up at Lillian Dickson Park in Jamestown as part of the ‘Keeping Each Other Warm’ project.

JAMESTOWN – Donations are being accepted all winter long for Keeping Each Other Warm in Jamestown, NY – a community outreach project spearheaded by local residents and whose purpose is to help neighbors in our community neighbors who need support to keep warm during our bitterly cold winter.

The project involves hanging winter clothing items on clothes lines in public places around Jamestown, and giving anyone in need of winter clothing the opportunity to take what they need.

The project is coordinated by residents Georgeanna Guiffrida Culpepper and Audrey Ralston.

Guiffrida Culpepper said they started working on the project in 2014, during an especially bitterly cold winter. “I came across a picture on Facebook that showed scarves tied around trees with the simple message, ‘If you’re stuck out in the cold, take me,'” she explained. “From there the idea grew. I talked with my family and collected our old winter items, the things my kids grew out of and things we didn’t use anymore. I talked to Audrey and she thought it was great and started looking through her items.”

“And then we started thinking, let’s expand the idea,” Guiffrida Culpepper said. “Instead of scarves, lets also provide gloves and hats and all kinds of things and so the idea took off from there with the clothes line and keeping the items clean and dry. So we just kind of kept brainstorming and came up with the basic premise of keeping each other warm.”

Keeping Each Other Warm encourages the donations of adult and children hats, scarves, earmuffs, ear bands, gloves and sock, along with children’s coats and snow pants.

The project will also accept monetary donations to assist in keeping lines in good repair, in addition to buying winter gear to hang.

Anyone wanting to donate items can do so by dropping them off at locations located throughout the city, including:

• Aftercare Nursing Services (Medical Arts Building, 500 Pine Street)The Medical Arts Building (500 Pine St.)
• Phoenix Rising Wellness Studio (212 Pine St.)
• First Lutheran Church (120 Chandler St.)
• Custom Carpet Center (Fairmount Ave., Lakewood)
• Joe Z Coffee (98 Forest Ave.)

Items can be found during the winter months hanging on lines located at:

• Jamestown Riverwalk
• Reg Lenna Center For The Arts (in front of The Reg Studio)
• Dow Park (across from James Prendergast Library Association, in the lower corner at 7th and Washington Streets)
• Lillian Dickson Park (Falconer Street)
• Joe Z Coffee (corner of Forest and Prather Streets)

More details on the project can be found at the Keeping Each Other Warm in Jamestown, NY Facebook page. Both Guiffreda Culpper and Ralston will also discuss the project during this week’s Community Matters program, which airs at 5 p.m. on Thursday on WRFA.