The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities said a circuit tripped at the Dow Street Substation which caused the outage from 8:53 a.m. until restorations began at 9:19 a.m.

The power outage affected a wide area including all of Jamestown, and parts of Lakewood, Frewsburg, and Falconer.

As a result of the power outage, water pumps turned off, stirring the water. Discolored water is expected to clear by this morning.

A map highlights the BPU Substation property proposed for annexation, with the red line illustrating Tiffany Avenue, the border between the city and the town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer.

The Fourth State Appellate Court has ruled in favor of the City of Jamestown in regards to appeals filed by the Town of Ellicott in the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities’ annexation case.

Attorneys for the town of Ellicott argued in Appellate Court on January 4 that the city property assessor’s certificate for the Dow Street substation property did not satisfy state law for annexation. They argued that the property isn’t adjacent to the city line because a road separates the property from adjoining to the city boundary. Under state law, municipalities can only annex properties that are adjacent to their own boundaries.

This was an appeal of the ruling in Chautauqua County Supreme Court by Judge Lynn Keane in November 2020 that the property did meet state law requirements.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the Fourth Appellate Court dismissed all the appeals on the matter and is now sending the case back to State Supreme Court, “And we are hopeful that once that happens a referee panel will be picked and the case will continue in its normal manner.”

Sundquist said the referee panel will hear the entire case for annexation.

City officials have argued that by annexing the property into the city limits, the Board of Public Utilities would save an estimated $160,000 each year in property taxes, thus saving money for all utility customers in the service area. They also claim such a move is in the overall public interest due to the city having a professional public safety department that could better respond to any safety emergencies that occur on the property.

Ellicott, Falconer, and the Falconer School District are all opposed to the annexation.

Attorneys for the town of Ellicott and City of Jamestown both discussed the issue of whether the property was eligible for annexation.

Previously, the town of Ellicott and village of Falconer had argued in State Supreme Court that the city property assessor’s certificate for the property did not satisfy state law.

However, Judge Lynn Keane had ruled in November 2020 that it did despite Ellicott attorneys arguing that the property isn’t adjacent to the city line because a road separates the property from adjoining to the city boundary. Under state law, municipalities can only annex properties that are adjacent to their own boundaries.

City officials have argued that by annexing the property into the city limits, the Board of Public Utilities would save an estimated $160,000 each year in property taxes, thus saving money for all utility customers in the service area. They also claim such a move is in the overall public interest due to the city having a professional public safety department that could better respond to any safety emergencies that occur on the property.

Ellicott, Falconer, and the Falconer School District are all opposed to the annexation, saying it is nothing more than a money grab by the city.

A map highlights the BPU Substation property proposed for annexation, with the red line illustrating Tiffany Avenue, the border between the city and the town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer.

MAYVILLE – A State Supreme Court Judge has made a procedural ruling regarding the case involving the annexation of the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities Dow Street Substation property in the Town of Ellicott.

On Friday, Supreme Court Judge Lynn Keane issued a ruling favoring the BPU as part of an Article 78 proceeding, with the Town of Ellicott and Village of Falconer challenging the certification process for moving forward with the annexation, along with whether or not the property even qualified for annexation.

Specifically, Ellicott and Falconer argued through their attorneys from Harris Beach PLLC that the annexation petition from the city does not comply in form and content with the requirements of the New York State Municipal Annexation Law and as a result, it ought to be vacated and annulled. The town and village argued that the city property assessor’s certificate for the property did not satisfy state law.  But Keane ruled that it in fact did.  She also ruled the property was eligible for annexation, despite Ellicott attorneys arguing that the property isn’t adjacent to the city line because a road separates the property from adjoining to the city boundary. Under state law, municipalities can only annex properties that are adjacent to their own boundaries.

The ruling does not involve whether or not the annexation is in the “overall public interest.” That argument can still be made by Ellicott and Falconer and it would have to be made in State Appellate Court, as explained in Section 712 of New York General Municipal Law:

“In the event that one or more but not all of the governing boards of the affected local governments shall determine that it is not in the over-all public interest to approve the proposed annexation, the governing board of any other affected local government may apply to the appellate division of the supreme court for adjudication and determination, on the law and facts, of the issue of whether the proposed annexation is in the over-all public interest.”

However, before making that argument in the State Appellate Division, the Town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer also has the legal option of challenging the recent Article 78 ruling through an appeal. If that happens, the matter will have to be argued in State Appellate Court before the main argument against the annexation – which is that it is not in “the overall public interest” – can proceed.

The annexation saga has been ongoing for the past several years.  City officials have argued that by annexing the property into the city limits, the Board of Public Utilities would save an estimated $160,000 each year in property taxes, thus saving money for all utility customers in the service area. They also claim such a move is in the overall public interest due to the city having a professional public safety department that could better respond to any safety emergencies that occur on the property.

Ellicott, Falconer, and the Falconer School District are all opposed to the annexation, saying it is nothing more than a money grab by the city.

As a result, the issue has to be taken up by the State Appellate Division in Rochester. The matter was already taken up by the appellate division once before, but in August 2019 it threw the case out on a technicality regarding the timeliness of the petition filing and as a result, it never ruled on if it was in the overall public interest.

The legal fees for the previous annexation approached a combined $750,000. The law firm Bond, Schoeneck and King is handling  the case for the BPU, but Mayor Eddie Sundquist has said this time they wont charge more than $75,000 from start to finish in this current annexation effort.

The Jamestown City Council during its Feb. 24, 2020 voting session.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 2 Monday night in favor of annexing the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities’ Dow St. Substation property in the Town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer, setting the stage for another legal showdown in State Appellate Court.

Monday’s vote came following statements from both Mayor Eddie Sundquist and Council President Tony Dolce. Sundquist said that the city was willing to negotiate an outcome to help avoid legal action, but officials from Ellicott, Falconer and the Falconer Central School (FCS) district walked away from the table the night before a second negotiating session was scheduled to take place.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist

“I truly believe that there is a middle ground where all the parties could benefit. As part of that we’ve attempted negotiations. We’ve offered to invest in projects that make sense as a larger region and to support some of the work as we develop this area,” Sundquist said prior to the vote. “On the eve of the second round of negotiations, we were informed by Ellicott, Falconer and Falconer Schools that they no longer wish to negotiate with us in order to come to a resolution with this annexation.”

Dolce added that while there is the possibility for returning to the table to negotiate a deal and avoid litigation, he and other council members felt it was time to move the process forward.

“I was ready and willing to try and work to put off that vote again, but since they have decided to end the discussion there’s no need to wait on the vote,” Dolce said. “We still can sit down and talk and hopefully they would like to come back to the table but at this time I think we’ve extended the olive branch and its time for us to move on.”

Dolce joined six other council members in supporting the annexation, including councilwoman Tamu Graham-Reinhardt, who had previously recused herself from voting on any resolution involving the annexation because of a conflict of interest due to her working for the Falconer School District. But as of earlier this month Graham-Reinhardt is no longer working for the district, meaning she no longer had to recuse herself from voting on the issue.  The two council members to vote against annexation were newly elected members Grant Olson and Jeffrey Russell.

A map highlights the BPU Substation property proposed for annexation, with the red line illustrating Tiffany Avenue, the border between the city and the town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer.

Ellicott, Falconer and FCS are against annexation because it will result in a loss totaling $330,000 in annual tax revenue between the three.

The City and Jamestown BPU argues that by annexing the property, it will serve the public interest of the entire BPU service area, including customers living in the village, town and school district. The BPU would also avoid paying the $330,000 in taxes, and would instead make an estimated $80,000 payment in lieu of taxes to both the City of Jamestown and Jamestown Public Schools.

Following Monday’s council meeting, Sundquist explained that during the negotiations, the city was pressing for an annexation while also trying to help soften the financial impact it would have on the three affected municipalities.

“It all revolved around annexation but we had flexibility on what was being annexed and what values would be associated to the annexation. But at the end of the day it was this council’s message as well as the BPU board that they wanted some form of annexation. But we were willing to be flexible on that and offset certain costs.”

The annexation can be legally challenged if either Falconer or Ellicott (or both) vote in opposition of the annexation. That is what is expected to take place, most likely during the next respective village and town board meetings.

Once a vote of opposition is made, a legal complaint is filed and the city will then have a limited amount of time to respond. Failure to do so before the deadline will result in the case being thrown out. This is what happened during the previous annexation attempt, which went to court in October 2017. But the issue of whether or not the annexation could proceed was never answered. Instead, the state 4th Appellate Division in Rochester ruled that Jamestown’s legal team – Bond, Schoeneck and King – had failed to file its response paperwork on time. The court case then ended on the filing technicality, with a ruling not being delivered until August 2019.

The legal fees for the previous annexation approached a combined $750,000. Bond, Schoeneck and King will again handle the case for the BPU, but Mayor Sundquist said this time they wont charge more than $75,000 from start to finish in this annexation effort.

“For this second round of annexation there is a cap of $75,000, going up all the way to the State Court of Appeals, which means that is the most we will pay,” Sundquist said.

A map highlights the BPU Substation property proposed for annexation, with the red line illustrating Tiffany Avenue, the border between the city and the town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will be acting on a resolution to proceed with the annexation of the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities Dow Street Substation property when it meets Monday in city hall.

There are actually two resolutions on the agenda focusing on the issue of annexation. One resolution involves proceeding with annexing the property from the Town of Ellicott and Village of Falconer into the city boundaries, while the other resolution involves approving a state environmental review of the site.

The annexation resolution states that city officials, including mayor Eddie Sundquist, recently held discussion with officials from Ellicott, Falconer and the Falconer School District to determine whether they could address the concerns that have been raised so that the annexation can proceed with the consent of all municipalities. However, the resolution further states that that the town, village and school district have all refused to continue those discussions.

As a result, the city council will proceed with a vote, which comes following a Dec. 30 joint public hearing on the matter. Under state law, the city council has up to 90 days to formally vote for or against the annexation from the date that the public hearing took place.

Ellicott, Falconer and the Falconer School District have each stated that they don’t support an annexation because it means they would be missing out on over $330,000 in annual tax payments paid by the BPU for the property.

The city says it wants to annex the property into its own jurisdiction, arguing it is in the public interest of the entire BPU service area because it would ultimately help to save the BPU’s electric division over $160,000 every year. That savings would come from the BPU not having to pay taxes on the property, although $160,000 would then be paid to the city and the Jamestown Public Schools as part of a payment in lieu of tax agreement the BPU has with the city and school district.

If the story feels like Deja Vu, that’s because the Jamestown city council took similar action on annexing the same piece of property in April 2017, launching a two-year long legal battle after both Ellicott and Falconer officials voted to block the initial annexation attempt. In August 2019 the New York 4th Appellate Division ultimately ruled against the annexation on a technicality, saying the required paperwork from the city’s legal team of Bond, Schoeneck & King to have the court review and rule on the case was not filed in a timely fashion.

That decision came only after the BPU spent $405,000 from its electric division budget to proceed with the annexation. Meanwhile, Falconer, Ellicott, and the Falconer School District spent over $300,000 to fight it.

Even if the paperwork for the initial annexation effort was filed on time, Ellicott and Falconer officials say the court would have ruled against the city, basing their assumption on a unanimous recommendation that was submitted to the court by a three-member referee panel at the end of 2018.

The BPU has hired the same law firm to handle the annexation case this time around but this time it is locked in to only being paid $75,000 to deal with the entire process.

If the city council tonight approves the resolution to move the annexation forward, the town of Ellicott and village of Falconer will then be given the option to vote against the annexation, which would then mean the matter would again have to be settled in state appellate court.

A map highlights the BPU Substation property proposed for annexation, with the red line illustrating Tiffany Avenue, the border between the city and the town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer.

UPDATE [DECEMBER 18, 2019 at 4:30 p.m.]

The Public Hearing that was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. regarding the Annexation of the BPU substation property located on Dow Street has been cancelled due to inclement weather. A new Hearing date will be rescheduled and announced soon.

– – –

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will be joining the Falconer village board and the Ellicott Town board later this week in hosting a joint public hearing on the annexation of the Dow Street Substation property in Falconer.

The hearing will take place at Jamestown Community College’s Robert Scharmann Theatre at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18.

Under law, a hearing is required to take place before a vote on the annexation can occur.  The hearing groundwork was laid during the city council’s November voting session, when the council voted 7 to 1 in favor of initiating the annexation process.

• RELATED: Jamestown City Council Approves Annexation Resolutions

The city of Jamestown is arguing that it is the best public interest to bring the substation property into the city boundaries. The property is currently owned by the city through the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities and the BPU currently pays an estimated $333,000 a year in taxes to Falconer, Ellicott, the Falconer School District and Chautauqua County.

If the property were in the city of Jamestown, the BPU would not have to pay any taxes on the property but would make a payment in lieu of taxes of about $80,000 to both the city of Jamestown general operating budget and to Jamestown Public Schools.

Because of the loss of tax payment, Falconer, Ellicott, and Falconer School officials have all voiced their opposition to annexation.

The matter has already been taken up once, with the council voting in 2017 in favor of the annexation. But both Ellicott and Falconer challenged the annexation, and as a result it became a matter for the courts to decide on. In August of this year the New York 4th Appellate Division Rochester ruled that the annexation could not go forward because of a technicality with the city failing to file legal paperwork on time. As a result, the process has to start all over again.

The city council will have up to 90 days to vote on the annexation once a public hearing is held, and the next city council voting session is scheduled for Monday, December 30. However, Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi recently told WRFA that the city council wont likely take up the annexation resolution at the end of this month, and will instead wait until after the new year when the new city council and a new mayor is sworn in.

Teresi also told WRFA that no matter how the process plays out and regardless of the steps that may need to be taken before it comes to a conclusion, it won’t cost the BPU electric division more than the $75,000 that was already committed in November. That’s because the law firm representing the city – Bond, Schnoeneck and King – also represented the city in the previous annexation effort and much of the groundwork for the lawsuit has already taken place.

In the previous annexation effort the BPU eventually spent over $420,000 from its electric division to pay for the case as it unfolded. Meanwhile, Falconer, Ellicott, and Falconer School District paid a over $300,000.

•  ALSO AVAILABLE ON SOUNDCLOUD

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council voted 7 to 1 Monday night in favor of filing a petition for annexation of the Dow Street Substation property in Falconer.

According to Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, last week’s vote by the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities and Monday night’s vote by the city council is only the start of a legal process that will include a joint public hearing with the Town of Ellicott and Village of Falconer and which would also still require a final vote by the council within 90 days of that hearing taking place.

Jamestown Board of Public Utilities General Manager David Leathers and Mayor Sam Teresi during the Nov. 25 Jamestown City Council voting session

“The outgoing mayor, council and BPU board are taking what are the first – not the last and final – steps in the process and will in effect be merely making a formal, on-the-record public recommendation to the incoming mayor, city council and BPU board members as to what they feel is right and is in the best interest of both the city taxpayers and BPU electric ratepayers in the city of Jamestown and throughout the greater Jamestown area,” Teresi said.

If the story feels like Deja Vu, that’s because the Jamestown city council took similar action on annexing the same piece of property in April 2017, launching a two-year long legal battle after both Ellicott and Falconer officials voted to block the initial annexation attempt. In August of this year the New York 4th Appellate Division ultimately ruled against the annexation on a technicality, saying the required paperwork from the city’s legal team of Bond, Schoeneck & King to have the court review and rule on the case was not filed in a timely fashion.

That decision came only after the BPU spent $405,000 from its electric division budget to proceed with the annexation. Meanwhile, Falconer, Ellicott, and the Falconer School District spent over $300,000 to fight it.

Even if the paperwork was filed on time, Ellicott and Falconer officials say the court would have ruled against the city, basing their assumption on a unanimous recommendation that was submitted to the court by a three-member referee panel at the end of 2018.

• READ THE PANEL’S RECOMMENDATION 

The city says it wants to annex the property into its own jurisdiction, arguing it is in the public interest of the entire BPU service area because it would ultimately help to save the BPU’s electric division over $160,000 every year. That savings would come from the BPU not having to pay $330,000 in taxes to Ellicott, Falconer, the Falconer School District and Chautauqua County, although $160,000 would then be paid to the city and the Jamestown Public Schools as part of a payment in lieu of tax agreement the BPU has with the city and school district.

As part of the renewed annexation effort, the Jamestown BPU last week approved resolutions that would give Bon, Schoeneck & King an additional $35,000 in payment as part of the previous annexation effort, along with committing up to another $75,000 for the renewed effort.

Jamestown Mayor Elect Eddie Sundquist was one of several individuals who addressed the city council during its Nov. 25 voting session. Sundquist said he was simply making a request that the council table the annexation resolution until after the new year when he and a new council take office.

Monday’s council vote came after more than 30 minutes of public comment with 11 of those who spoke voicing opposition to the annexation or at least requesting the council wait until the new year when a new council and mayoral administration is sworn into office. Those individuals who spoke included  both the current mayor of Falconer and the mayor elect, the town of Ellicott Supervisor along with a Town of Ellicott Board member, the Falconer School Superintendent and the Falconer School Board president, and Jamestown Mayor-Elect Eddie Sundquist, who asked the city to table the motion.

Mayor Teresi also spent more than half-an-hour explaining why the annexation is being pursued in addition to outlining the various ways the city has and will continue to work with its neighbors, despite the legal dispute involving the annexation.

The only council member to vote against the annexation resolutions was outgoing Jamestown City Councilman Andrew Liuzzo. Councilwoman Tamu Graham-Reinhardt was recused from voting because she cited a conflict of interest, being an employee of the Falconer School District.

The City Council actually voted on a total of three resolutions involving the annexation – with the final resolution involving the date for the Public Hearing – tentatively set for Wednesday, December 18 at 7 p.m. inside JCC’s Scharmann Theatre.

Following that Public Hearing, the council will have up to 90 days to formally vote for or against the annexation. That vote could come as early as the December 30 voting session. But councilman Tony Dolce said that more than likely it would take place following the new year when Sundquist is sworn into office and a new council is in place.

The Jamestown City Council during its October 2019 Voting session on Oct. 28, 2019.

JAMESTOWN – It’s going to be busy night Monday at City Hall as the Jamestown City Council holds its monthly voting session and considers a number of resolutions to vote on.

• VIEW THE AGENDA AND RESOLUTIONS FOR NOV. 25

Highlighting the 7:30 p.m. meeting is the finalization and vote on the 2020, $36.6 million Jamestown City Budget.

Jamestown City Councilman Tony Dolce (R-Ward 2)

The council will likely use a $150,000 savings identified in the budget earlier this month to decrease the city’s tax levy. According to City Finance Committee Chairman Tony Dolce, the cut to the tax levy would result in a reduction in the tax rate of about $0.22 per thousand.

“It would be a slight, decent tax decrease. It would put us under the constitutional tax limit. It’s not really enough money where we can go out and spend and add a bunch of things back to the budget, but on the other hand, for a long time we’ve been on this threshold and it would be nice to give something back,” Dolce said during last Monday’s council work session.

The current tax rate for city tax payers is $23.85 per thousand assessed value. If all the $150,000 in savings is applied toward reducing the tax levy next year, the new tax rate would be $23.63 per thousand. That’s an annual savings of $22 for property valued at $100,000.

The James Prendergast Library had been hoping the city would restore additional funding for their budget beyond the $60,000 earmarked in the mayor’s budget proposal, but it appears there isn’t enough support among the nine-member city council to make that happen.

ANNEXATION RESOLUTION TO BE CONSIDERED

In addition to voting on the city budget, the council is also scheduled to act on a resolution “regarding Dow Street Annexation request by City of Jamestown Board of Public Utilities.”

Eddie Sundquist

Last week the BPU voted to continue the effort to pursue annexing the property, dedicating over $100,000 in funding from the electric division toward legal costs associated with the lawsuit. Now the city council must give its approval on moving forward with the annexation.

However, mayor-elect Eddie Sundquist has said he would prefer the city council hold off on considering the annexation until after he takes office in January and has said he will appear before the council tonight and request it table the annexation proposal.

“I’ve already asked the current city council  respectfully to table the [annexation] resolution until after the first of the year and I will also be publicly asking them that at the next council meeting,” Sundquist said on Friday morning when discussing his transition effort. “I think there needs to be time to talk to residents and community members about whether this action is something we should continue to take.”

The city council will also act on approving the purchase of a number of vehicles for the city’s DPW fleet as part of the $12.6 million Smart City Capital Investment program that was approved earlier this year.

Monday’s council meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in city council chambers with a short work session scheduled for 7 p.m. in the mayor’s conference room. Both meetings are open to the public.

The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities during its January 2019 board meeting

UPDATE (8:51 p.m., Nov. 21, 2019) – Our initial report inadvertently left out details of a third spending resolution by the BPU approved during its Wednesday meeting. Also added was the total amount of money the BPU has now committed to both the failed 2017 annexation effort as well as the new 2019 annexation effort: $515,871. And finally, the Jamestown City Council will act on an annexation resolution when it meets on Monday, Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m.

– – –

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities held its monthly meeting Wednesday and, following an executive session, voted unanimously to continue pursuing the annexation effort for a piece of city-owned property in the town of Ellicott/village of Falconer.

• READ THE FULL ANNEXATION RESOLUTIONS

The vote continues the annexation effort that started in January 2017 and which culminated in August of this year with a decision from the State Appellate Division – Fourth Judicial Department in Rochester, which ruled against the city’s effort to annex the BPU Dow Street Substation property, stating that the city’s original petition to initiate the court review on the matter was untimely.

• RELATED: ATTORNEYS APPEAR IN APPELLATE COURT TO ARGUE SUBSTATION ANNEXATION CASE (APR 2019)

But while that August appellate court ruling was against Jamestown, it also kept the door open on whether or not the city was legally allowed to annex the property. That’s because no decision was made on the merits of the case, only on the technicality of missing a filing date.

The Jamestown City Council initially voted in favor of annexing the property in August 2017. But both the Ellicott and Falconer boards voted against the annexation effort in September that same year, arguing the move was not in the best public interest, nor was it even legally allowed. Those in opposition of the annexation have also said it is nothing more than a money grab by the city in order to help solve the financial challenges in its general operating budget.

• RELATED: JUNE 2017 PUBLIC HEARING ON ANNEXATION DRAWS LARGE CROWD OF OPPOSITION
• RELATED: ELLICOTT, FALCONER OFFICIALS DISCUSS ANNEXATION ON COMMUNITY MATTERS (JUN 2017)

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, who also serves as president of the BPU by way of his elected position, told WRFA at the start of the month that the annexation effort is not something that was initiated by the city government, but instead came forward as a recommendation by BPU General Manager David Leathers and his staff.

“Staff initiated this on their own back in 2017. They did the research on it and felt there was a benefit to the Board of Public Utilities electric division. It not only benefited the city but also benefited all customers in the electric division – in the village of Falconer, the village of Celoron, the town of Ellicott – but there was also a benefit directly back to the city budget and the Jamestown Public School system budget,” Teresi explained.

A map highlights the BPU Substation property proposed for annexation, with the red line illustrating Tiffany Avenue, the border between the city and the town of Ellicott/Village of Falconer.

The Dow Street substation property is actually a combination of four separate parcels assessed at a total value of $7,861,599. Currently the BPU pays a total of $333,889 in property taxes out of its electric division budget. If the annexation were to take place and the property fell into the jurisdiction of the city, Teresi said BPU electric customers would no longer pay those property taxes and the BPU would instead make an annual payment in lieu of tax (PILOT) to both the city of Jamestown and the Jamestown School District of about $80,000 each.

“Another way to look at it, over a ten year period it would result in about a $1.7 million in savings to the BPU electric division that could help forestall rate increases moving forward,” Teresi said, adding, “As we know rate increases do not happen every year. Rate increases are meant to cover a sustained period of time moving forward and the savings to the city of Jamestown over that ten year period is about $800,000 and $800,000 to the Jamestown School District. And all of that money – over a ten year period – is certainly not inconsequential.”

In addition to voting 9 to 0 in favor of the annexation, the BPU also voted unanimously to retain the services of the law firm Bond, Schoeneck and King, the legal team that helped to build and argue the city’s case for annexation the past two years and who were also responsible for failing to file the legal paperwork on time in in the fall of 2017. That failure ultimately led to the appellate court decision against the city this past August.

The Jamestown BPU has so far committed over $400,000 in legal fees toward the case. Falconer/Ellicott/School District have spent at least $320,000.

As part of Wednesday’s vote to retain the legal services, the BPU also approved an additional $35,871 change order to the legal team for its past work on the annexation. In addition, the BPU approved another resolution of up to $75,000 to open a new annexation case. That puts the total amount of money the BPU has committed to both the failed annexation effort as well as the new annexation effort to $515,871.

The resolutions acted on Wednesday did not appear on the agenda for the BPU’s monthly meeting so the public was unaware the vote was going to take place. It came only after the board went into executive session to discuss ongoing legal matters.

With the BPU voting to proceed with the annexation, the matter must now be acted on by the City Council. The vote by the council would be to initiate the annexation process by filing a petition for annexation. If that is approved, the city, the town and the village would have to again hold a joint public hearing before any final, formal annexation vote is to take place.

The next voting session for the city council is Monday, Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m. An agenda for that meeting was released Thursday afternoon and an annexation resolution is included under new business.

“[Dummy] Resolution relative to the Dow Street Annexation request by the City of Jamestown Board of Public Utilities.”