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MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County County Executive George Borrello (R-Irving) confirms that he is hoping to be the area’s next representative in the New York State Senator.

George Borrello

On Thursday morning WRFA talked with Borrello during an appearance at Jamestown Community College. Borrello said that he was pleased to learn he has received the endorsement of the Chautauqua County Republican and Conservative Party Committees in being their candidate in a special election for the recently vacated 57th senate district.

“I’m certainly very proud to have the endorsement of our Chautauqua County Republican Committee,” Borrello said. “There are other steps to take and there are three other counties involved besides Chautauqua County, so we’ll move through that process.”

The three other counties involved include Cattaraugus, Allegany and Livinston Counties. In a special election  to fill the remainder of a term of a vacated legislature seat, the county committees for each party within the legislative district are required to agree to a candidate with a weighted vote taking place if more than one name is being considered. But with Chautauqua County containing nearly 50 percent of all registered Republicans in the district, it appears Borrello is a near certainty to secure a district-wide endorsement.

Borrello, who is a also former Chautauqua County Legislator, is only in his second year County Executive. He admits he was reluctant to consider the Senate opening, but eventually decided to pursue it for a number of reasons.

“I felt the sense of duty that we need good representation in Albany for Chautauqua County and the rest of the district,” Borrello said. “Although I was reluctant to jump in because of everything we have going on here as county executive, after talking to a lot of people including my wife, I really decided that for us to push forward with so many initiatives that are already in the works – things like the Ripley Gateway Center, or the hops and barley coop, or all the things going on around Chautauqua Lake to improve the water quality – those require strong, persistent diligent advocacy by our state representatives. Cathy Young did a fantastic job. She leaves a tremendous hole and big shoes to fill, so we need somebody there who is going to have the energy, drive, and commitment to advance those projects and everything else that is important to the people of the 57th District.”

A map showing New York’s 57th Senate District, which is now vacant following the resignation and departure of former Sen. Catherine Young

Making the path easier for Borrello on the Republican side is the fact that the region’s two Republican Assembly members – Andrew Goodell (R-Ellicott) of Chautauqua County and Joe Giglio of Cattaraugus County – have both reportedly announced they will not run for that seat.

Meanwhile on the Democratic side, Lakewood resident and past Senate candidate Nancy Bargar announced via email on Thursday afternoon she was withdrawing from the race. Chautauqua County Democratic Committee chair Norman Green tells WRFA they will likely announce their endorsement for the Senate seat next week.

The senate seat was vacated by Cathy Young (R-Olean) at the start of this week. She announced at the end of last month she was leaving the Senate to take a job at Cornell University. Prior to her departure she had served in the Senate for 15 years and prior to that in the State Assembly.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has the option of scheduling a date for when the special election will take place. If he opts to not schedule a date, it will automatically occur during the November General Election. The winner will serve the remainder of the current term, which ends December 31, 2020.

Meanwhile, as the district waits for a new Senator to be voted on to fill the district’s vacated senate seat, residents across the region are left without a representative in the State legislature’s upper chamber.

Despite the absence, 57th Senate District Administrative Assistant Lisa Vanstrom tells WRFA that the district offices are still staffed and anyone seeking help or assistance is still encouraged to call.

She also said that for questions involving legislation – local residents in Chautauqua County should contact via email Assemblyman Goodell.

George Borrello

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello (R-Irving) hasn’t announced his intention to seek a seat in the New York State Senate, but that hasn’t stopped at least one political party from endorsing him to fill the vacated seat.

The Chautauqua County Conservative Party in a media release said it is endorsing Borrello for the recently vacated 57th district New York Senate seat held by Senator Cathy Young. Last month Young announced she was leaving the Senate on March 10 in order to take a job with Cornell University.

The Conservative Party announcement was made Tuesday afternoon by chairwoman and member of the State Conservative Executive Committee, Anna Wilcox. She said the decision to endorse Borrello came after consulting with members of the Conservative Executive Committee and the State Conservative Party Chairman, Gerard Kassar.

Wilcox says the recent shift in power in Albany (due to Democrats taking control of the Senate) means its imperative that the strongest and best qualified candidate run for the seat in order to stand up to the progressive agenda and her party believes that person is Borrello.

“Soon we will have legalization of marijuana, in spite of numerous studies warning about the harmful effects on the brains of adolescents. We now have one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, one that borders on infanticide, whose signing into law by the Governor was celebrated by cheering left-wing Democrat lawmakers,” Wilcox said in her statement. “While some people may be apprehensive about losing a promising young County Executive, it is imperative that the strongest and best qualified candidate run for this Senate seat.  We need someone who believes that Catholics, Protestants, and people of faith should be respected, not ridiculed; that it is our right to own a gun, if we so choose, to protect our homes and our families; that being on welfare should be a temporary situation — not a permanent lifestyle, and that illegal immigrants should not go to New York State Universities tuition free, while hard working lower and middle class families take out mortgages and work two jobs to send their kids to college. We need someone who will stand up and fight for the interests and beliefs of the people of the 57th district. We need George Borrello.”

Borrello, who became county executive at the start of 2018 hasn’t even announced his potential candidacy, though he did say during a recent Facebook live conference with constituents that it is something he’d consider, but hadn’t made any commitment.

“Whether or not I’m interested in it, I love what I do hear as the county executive in Chautauqua County,” Borrello said on March 1. “I feel like we’re making great progress, we’ve got a lot of initiatives and we planted some great seeds here. The only way I think I would really consider it is if I truly felt I could better represent the people of Chautauqua County in that position than as county executive. Right now, this is so fresh – the ink is barely dry on this – so I’m not going to make any commitments one way or the other, but I do love being the county executive and I think we have a lot of great things going on.”

WRFA reached out to Borrello via email on Tuesday night for a reaction to the Conservative Party’s endorsement but have yet to hear back from him as of Wednesday morning.

While the Conservative Party has endorsed Borrello as its candidate, and past Senate candidate Nancy Bargar (D-Lakewood) has also announced her interest in the vacated seat, there has been no news on when an election to fill the vacated seat will take place. The governor has the option of calling for a special election but if he fails to do that, an election will be held during the November general election to fill the remainder of the term in the Senate, which ends on Dec. 1, 2020.

Also according to the Jamestown Post-Journal, current assemblyman for Chautauqua County, Republican Andy Goodell (R-Gerry), has said he wont be seeking the senate seat.

Nancy Bargar

LAKEWOOD – A former Chautauqua County legislator and past candidate for both the New York State Senate and New York State Assembly says she is considering a run for the State Senate seat that will soon be vacated by current Senator Catherine Young (R-Olean).

Lakewood resident and Democrat Nancy Bargar announced over the weekend via Facebook she is considering a run for the Senate Seat and has notified party officials of that intent.

Bargar served for nearly 10 years on the Chautauqua County Legislature with leadership roles first in the minority, and then in the majority.

Bargar was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2005 special election against Young to elect a successor to Sen. Patricia McGee of Franklinville, who died in office. She also ran for the Senate in 2002 and 2004 against McGee, and in 2010 lost a bid for the State Assembly against current Assemblyman Andy Goodell.

In 2015, Bargar was named Chautauqua County’s Democrat of the Year.

On Thursday Sen. Young announced she is stepping down to take the job of director of Cornell’s AgriTech Center of Excellence.

Under state law, the governor will have to make a proclamation for a special election and then the committee chairs for each party within the 57th Senate District will meet to select their respective candidates for the election via weighted vote.

The 57th Senate district includes Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties and part of Livingston County.

The Prendergast Library art collection has been on display in the Prendergast Library’s Fireplace Room for the past several years.

JAMESTOWN – The James Prendergast Library board of trustees will hold its monthly meeting Thursday, with the possibility of library officials acting on a measure involving the future of the Prendergast art collection, with an estimated value of $1.17 million dollars.

Last month the library announced it had reached an agreement with the state’s attorney general’s office that would allow it to sell the collection, but only if done so by auction. The agreement was necessary because the library had filed a request with Surrogate Court to allow the auction to proceed, but the AG’s office was initially against the sale. The primary concern from the AG was that library, which is a nonprofit organization, may not receive the actual full value if it were to just sell the collection to any buyer. Instead, the AG insisted the sale only take place via an auction.

With the agreement in place, the board can now proceed with identifying an auction house to facilitate the sale, and there’s a possibility they will select an auction house during today’s meeting.

BOARD SUPPORTS SELLING COLLECTION, DESPITE LOCAL EFFORT TO SAVE IT

The library board is in unanimous support of selling the collection, saying it would help with the financial challenges the library currently faces. In recent years the library has seen the amount of public donations decrease, and last year the Jamestown City Council, due to the city’s on financial challenges, voted to eliminate $250,000 in contributions to the library. That amounted to a 21 percent cut in operational revenue for the library.

Prendergast Library board president Tom Rankin talks with attendees, many of them in favor of saving the art collection, during an October 2015 public input session. Despite the support expressed during that meeting and other meetings the past two years, Rankin has recently said there is overwhelming public support to sell the artwork.

Board president Tom Rankin also recently said in an op-ed piece that there is overwhelming support in the community to sell the collection, with 99 percent of the participants saying that “the library should no longer have an art collection or even be in the ‘museum business.'”

However, WRFA spoke with some community members who support keeping the art earlier this week, and they disagree with Rankin’s statement.

“My wife and I ran into a gentleman from Westfield, an art collector and art enthusiast, and he was in one of those focus groups. There were 12 people in his focus group. When presented with the option to sell the art or keep it, not a single person said, ‘Sell the art.’ I have another friend who was in a separate focus group and he describes the same situation. So I think Mr. Rankin is a little off in his facts,” explained local resident Bill Locke.

“There are a lot of people who think they should sell the art, that is true,” added another member of the group, Robert Plyler, who until recently also wrote for the Post-Journal.  “But most of those people have never heard the whole story of what has gone on and one of the problems has been the difficulty we’ve had of getting the three news papers to share that story. People would write to me and say ‘I love that art. I grew up on it. My parents took me to see it. I want it saved’ and I would say, ‘Well write to the paper.’ They would reply with, ‘I did, but it was never printed.’ Person after person told me that.”

Rankin also suggests that those who support keeping the artwork in Jamestown at the library are comprise a loosely organized group who have done nothing to help raise money or offer suggestions on how the library can fix its financial situation.

Plyler takes issue with that, pointing out that it was the local residents who were able to bring the Texas-based couple Jesse and Cathy Marion into the discussion (Cathy Marion is also a Jamestown-area native), and they ended up making a $60,000 donation to the library, while also offering help in save the collection by working to upgrade the library facilities.

The Prendergast Library Association Board of Trustees during its May 2017 board meeting.

“The board at first said they wanted to sell the art collection because they library didn’t have the appropriate facilities to accommodate an expensive art collection,” Plyler said. “[The Marions] were shocked that this artwork was in danger so they offered to pay for the cleaning, the repairs, the framing, and the security system, the climate control, and so on. Everyone thought ‘well good, the problem is solved.’ But that turned out to not really be why the library board wanted to sell the art. They wanted the money.”

The Marions then donated $60,000 to the library to buy time in order for officials to come up with an alternative plan to selling the collection. And late last year they offered to purchase the entire art collection for its assessed value of $1.17 million so that it would continue to stay in the community, even if the library no longer wanted it. But that offer had to be turned down because of the agreement with the attorney general’s office.

Rankin has stated that the board will no longer delay the effort to sell the artwork in order to find an alternative solution.

“The library’s funding problems dictate that the library cannot wait up to another twenty-four months to sell the art collection,” Rankin said in the recent op-ed. “The library will now proceed to sell its art collection through an auction house that can successfully handle a collection of this size and quality.”

The library board meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. Thursday in the Library Fireplace room and is open to the public.

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WRFA public affairs director Jason Sample talks with a three local residents – Bill Locke, Robert Plyler, and Nancy Bargar – who are part of a larger group that supports keeping a $1.17 million art collection at the James Prendergast Library in tact and remaining in the Jamestown area.

Since September 2015 the library has been working to sell the collection to help address ongoing financial challenges it has faced in recent years. In May 2017, the library board announced that it had reached an agreement with the New York State Attorney General’s office, allowing it to move forward and auction the collection.

Our guests explain why they feel it is important the library board works to keep the art in the Jamestown community, as well as offer some clarifications to recent comments in the press made by board president Tom Rankin in regards to overwhelming support by the community to sell the collection, as well as a lack of an effort by their group to help address the financial challenges facing the library or offer to purchase the collection to keep it local.

The board could act as soon as its June 15 meeting to hire an auction house to begin the process of selling the collection. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. in the Library Fireplace room and is open to the public.

Two pieces of artwork in the Prendergast collection that could be auctioned in the coming months: Left: “Industry” by French artist Eugene Romain Thirion – painted in 1874.
Right: “Sleep, Baby, Sleep” by French artist Leon Bazile Perrault, painted in 1884.
Both are from a collection of 32 paintings given to the library at the bequest of the Prendergast family.