Lakewood-Busti Police ticketed a citizen for leaving his dog in the car for over an hour without food or water at Lakewood Cinema 8 on Saturday, June 11.

According to the ASPCA, temperatures can rise by as much as 20 degrees in a vehicle in less than 10 minutes. Dogs cope with being hot by panting but unfortunately, as the temperature in the vehicle rises, panting is not enough to cool them down and they can become dehydrated, develop heatstroke or even die from the heat.

In New York State, laws were expanded in 2019 to allow firefighters and EMTs in addition to police to break into a vehicle to rescue an endangered pet from an extremely hot or cold car.

Until the law change, only the police could escape liability for damaging a vehicle in order to rescue a pet.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office, the Lakewood-Busti Police Department and the Town of Ellicott Police Department are running a joint High Visibility Engagement Campaign today through Monday.

This safety initiative is designed to reduce alcohol and drug-related traffic crashes. It is sponsored by STOP-DWI with funding from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee.

Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement, “Be sure to kick off the weekend by planning ahead for a safe ride home and avoid the costly and possibly deadly consequences of drinking and driving.”

Police ask folks who witness a vehicle operating in an erratic manner to call 911 and the pass the information onto the Dispatcher.

Randall Rolison

A Jamestown man has been charged in the car-pedestrian accident that killed a 15-year old Jamestown girl.

Jamestown Police report 58-year old Randall Rolison was charged with driving while impaired by drugs and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.

A tractor-trailer driven by Rolison struck 15-year old Alexis “Lexi” Hughan as she was crossing West Sixth Street by Washington Street Friday afternoon.

Rolison left the scene and was stopped on Fairmount Avenue by Lakewood-Busti Police after a police bulletin was released. Hughan died at the scene.

Police said Rollison was released on an appearance ticket per bail reform.

Lakewood-Busti Police say 65-year-old Carol Boyer was the front seat passenger in a vehicle being driven by 51-year-old Joseph Wisnewski, also of Jamestown. The vehicle was traveling south along Busti-Sugar Grove Rd. around 6:30 p.m. Friday when a deer ran out in front of it. Wisnewski swerved to miss the deer and the vehicle went off the road and struck a tree head on. Police say Wisnewski had to be extricated from the vehicle. There were also two children in the back seat – a 13 year old and a 2 year old – who suffered minor injuries. Wisnewski and the two children were taken to UPMC by ambulance for treatment. Boyer was pronounced dead at teh scene.

Officers were assisted by Busti Fire Dept., Lakewood Fire Dept., and Chautauqua County EMS.

Police said 41-year-old Sandra Ford was arrested and issued an appearance ticket following an investigation into the theft.

Ford was employed by the business when she used the owner’s personal credit card and bank account to make personal purchases and pay her bills.

The name of the business was not disclosed.

Lakewood-Busti Police were called to Walmart to respond to an alleged theft of merchandise. Officers investigated the incident and eventually located the suspect – identified as 38-year-old Shawn Garrett of Jamestown. Garrett is accused of allegedly stealing a backpack from the store and also violating a trespass warning from the store, making the crime a burglary. Police say while in custody, Garrett allegedly intentionally wiped his sweaty forehead on an officer’s bare arm. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Garrett was charged with 3rd degree menacing. He was also in possession of a hypodermic needle and did not have a needle exchange card.

Garrett was also charged with 3rd degree burglary, petit larceny, and criminally possessing hypodermic needle and sent to the county jail for arraignment.

According to the Lakewood-Busti Police Department, an SUV was traveling along Big Tree road when the operator lost control, causing it to go into the oncoming lane. It was then struck by a Chautauqua County snow plow, which trapped the passenger of the vehicle inside. Crews had to use the jaws of life to free the victim from the vehicle. However, due to the severity of the injuries, she was pronounced dead on the scene.

The victim was identified as 26-year-old Kristen L. Johnson of Sneads Ferry, N.C., and previously a resident of Warren, Pa.

Police say the driver – whose name was not released, suffered non life-threatening injuries. The driver of the snow plow wasn’t hurt.

Jamestown Police say they tried to stop 39-year-old Larry Hicks shortly after 3:30 p.m. in the area of Arnold and Maple streets. Hicks is accused of driving away from the scene and leading police on a subsequent chase that took them through Jamestown, Carroll, Russell, and Sugar Grove The chase continued back across the state Line and into the Town of Busti, where officers with the Lakewood-Busti police department deployed spike trips. That forced Hicks’ vehicle to stop and he was taking into custody.

Hicks was charged with third-degree unlawful fleeing police in a motor vehicle, obstructing governmental administration, reckless driving, second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, along with various other traffic violations. He was also charged with violating his parole.
Hicks is awaiting arraignment in the city jail.

Andrew Liuzzo

JAMESTOWN – Both Republican candidates running for mayor of Jamestown agree that city police officers and fire fighters deserve every cent they are paid by local taxpayers. But both Andrew Liuzzo and David Wilfong also acknowledge that financial challenges facing Jamestown will likely prevent public safety workers from getting all they they deserve.

• [RELATED] LISTEN TO FULL LIUZZO/WILFONG INTERVIEW

In 2019 the city of Jamestown has budgeted nearly a third of its total budget – $11 million – toward police and fire salaries and other related expenses. And a larger chunk could be on the way if a state appellate court upholds a recent state Supreme Court decision involving an arbitration ruling giving the police union a 2% pay raise. City officials say any increase the police receive in salary will also likely be given to firefighters as well, so the outcome of the arbitration appeal will be a challenge facing whoever is the next mayor of the city.

Liuzzo is currently a member of the Jamestown City Council and is the only council person to vote against challenging the arbitration ruling in State Supreme Court, as well as voting against the decision to appeal the Supreme Court decision.

Liuzzo told WRFA in our recent interview that it’s not the salaries but the healthcare and pension mandates from Albany that are what the city should be focused on.

“This all goes back to our retirement benefits and our healthcare benefits, and the Taylor Law and the Triborough Amendment. These laws and amendments have hurt upstate communities immensely. These were downstate laws that got applied to the whole state,” Liuzzo said. “My question would be, ‘Why hasn’t the New York Conference of Mayors, as a group, addressed this?’ Our current mayor was president of NYCOM, yet that question is still out there. Why wasn’t this addressed? These kinds of laws are what has hurt upstate New York Communities.”

Liuzzo added that he would also be willing to local at regional policing by trying to improve relationship with adjacent communities like the Town of Ellicott and Busti – which each have their own police force as well.

“Jamestown encompasses West Ellicott, Ellicott, Lakewood-Busti. What I would like to see is an inter-municipal police force. I would like us to negotiate instead of litigate with our neighbors and come to an agreement where we can use the existing police force we have outside of Jamestown to be the same police force. And to protect all of us. That’s one way I see of bringing the cost down, or at least maintaining the cost,” Liuzzo explained.

David Wilfong

Wilfong has served on the Chautauqua County Legislature since 2014 representing Jamestown. During his time in Mayville a report was completed by the Center or Governmental Rochester using over $200,000 in state money that provided a plan to consolidate the Jamestown Police Department with the County Sheriff’s office gradually, over two decades or no longer.

The consolidation would come at no additional cost to county taxpayers but would save Jamestown some money. That plan was never put up for a vote, let alone publicly discussed by Wilfong and his colleagues after it was completed.

• VIEW THE CGR REPORT

Wilfong said he agrees that regional policing may be better solution, though the push should come from the state, not the local, level.

” It would have been very difficult to put together a group of people that would have voted in favor of the consolidation. I don’t know if that would ever go off. I’ve seen it, I’ve read the document and I actually think it was a good proposal. But one of the things is, ‘Do we want a change?’ I don’t know if the Jamestown Police Department wants to merge and I don’t know if the sheriff wants to merge,” Wilfong said. “I did see the figures and the cost savings would be good for the city of Jamestown and a flat cost the county. But we’re talking about the county legislators and you’ve got to get them on board with their own districts. Because what they’re going to say is, ‘How does that benefit my district. I live in Silver Creek or I live in Findley Lake.’ It’s a hard sell.”

Instead, Wilfong said he’d prefer to see the effort to deal with police costs lead by the state representatives, similar to what former Sen. Cathy Young had worked on with school districts.

“I am not against it. I think to make change and to move our county forward and our state forward, we’ve got to start thinking consolidation. I don’t know at the mayor level what can be done there. I think that needs to be done more at the state level – maybe our assemblyman or our next senator. I think that is where that type of change has to come from,” Wilfong said.

The complete audio of our interview with Liuzzo and Wilfong can be found at our website.

Liuzzo and Wilfong will square off in the June 25 Republican Primary, which runs from noon to 9 p.m. and is eligible to all 3800 registered republicans living in the city.

According to a report in the Jamestown Post-Journal, the black Angus cow was found shot to death May 8 on its owner’s property near Donelson Road. The cow’s newborn calf was also found dead, believed to be due to starvation.

Anyone with information is asked to call the police department at 763-9563.