Jamestown School Board meets at Love Elementary School

The Jamestown School Board has approved the purchase of a parking lot for use by Jamestown High School faculty and students.

School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the district will pay $225,000 to purchase five parcels on Chandler Street owned by First Lutheran Church. He said the district had previously been renting some of the spaces for parking from the church, “So in order to continue that relationship and to continue to be able to use that property, we wanted to make sure that we owned that property. And also, of course, it’s a help to the church with maintenance and with any of their needs that they have in terms of updating their facilities so it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

The acquisition will now go before voters in addition to the school budget vote on May 17.

The school board also approved establishing a new capital reserve fund in the amount of $5 million dollars.

Whitaker said the funds will be used for the acquisition of vehicles, machinery, and equipment, “The idea is, we want to make sure that capital expenditures in the future don’t impact taxes. So while we have some money we can put toward, if you will, a savings account toward capital expenses that are definitely going to come up whether it’s roofing or HVAC or some of the things that we talked about tonight we want to be able to address those things without having to go to the taxpayers and increase their taxes.”

This also will appear on the ballot with the school budget.

The board also approved adding a school board meeting on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 that will be held at the Administration Building on Martin Road. The purpose of this meeting will be for the board to adopt the 2022-23 School Budget.

The Vespers are a community tradition established in 1924. Each December, the high school A Cappella performs two sacred music concerts at First Lutheran Church, featuring excerpts from major choral works and seasonal songs and carols as a way to provide a bit of cheer for this time of year.

The 80-voice JHS A Cappella Choir features smaller ensembles, including the Madrigal Singers, Men of Tomorrow and Ladies of Today.

There is no admission and a free-will offering will be taken.

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.

Submitted photo

JAMESTOWN – The leaders of three city churches are planning a Cross walk of faith and prayer in Jamestown, stopping at several spots around the downtown area.

Rev. Luke Fodor of St Luke’s Episcopal Church, Tara Lamont Eastman, Pastoral Assistant and Director of Youth and Family Ministry at First Lutheran Church and Rev. Robert Hagel of First Presbyterian Church have planned the Cross Walk, which will stop at several sites downtown.

The Cross Walk will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 3 at St Luke’s on the corner of North Main Street and Fourth and continue throughout the city, ending at First Lutheran on Chandler Street.

The walk is open to anyone regardless of their church affiliation.