Waterman Road, Stockton (Google Maps)

A Sinclairville man died after the dump truck he was driving went into a pond in the town of Stockton.

Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office says 82-year old William Rossow was backing off Waterman Road when the truck got too close to the pond bank and tipped into the pond. Rossow became trapped in the truck underwater. Two neighbors were able to get him out of the truck.

Rossow was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to the Post-Journal, only village of Sinclairville residents are able to vote on the referendum. If the vote to dissolve fails, there will be a four-year moratorium put in place preventing another vote.

A group of residents are calling for the Dissolution because of a lack of interest in people running for office, as well as a reduction in businesses within the village in recent years.

The Board of Elections will act as the chief election officials for all villages this year except Sinclairville and Cassadaga.  These two villages are continuing to use their respective village clerks as the chief village election officer and will be counting votes by hand.  All other villages will vote on the county owned optical scan paper ballot system.

Villages with contested races include Brocton, Cherry Creek, Forestville, Lakewood, Mayville, Silver Creek and Westfield.

Villages with uncontested ballots include Bemus Point, Cassadaga, Falconer, Panama, Sherman and Sinclairville.

Village elections will be held at their normal November poll site for village voters who have an election, except the Bemus Point elections will be held at Bemus Point Village Hall.

All village poll sites will be open today from Noon until 9 p.m.

COMPLETE LIST OF VILLAGE ELECTION RACES

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY – This past weekend’s snowy weather may have been to blame for at least two accidents in Chautauqua County – with two people being sent to the hospital.

Chautauqua County Sheriff Deputies say 65 year old Beverly Darling was driving along Kiantone Rd. in the town of Kiantone just before 4:30 yesterday afternoon when she lost control of her vehicle and began to slide on the roadway. Darling was unable to regain control and struck a parked vehicle. She was transported by Kiantone fire department to WCA hospital for unknown injures.

Earlier in the day, Sheriff deputies responded to an accident involving a Binghamton woman on I-86. Deputies say  45 year-old Marybridget Lambert was traveling west on the interstate in the town of Mina when she lost control of her vehicle. The car went into the median, slid down an embankment, struck a ditch and came to rest in a lower ditch. Findley Lake rescue transported Lambert to WCA for minor injuries.

SHOOTING SUSPECT TURNS HIMSELF INTO POLICE

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Police have found the person responsible for firing a pistol into the air during an incident earlier this month. Last Friday officers arrested 32 year-old Raymond L. Johnson after Johnson turned himself into police. The suspect also helped officers recover the weapon that was reportedly used in the incident.

On the evening of Dec. 8, several people had gathered outside of The Q Nightclub on Cherry St. and 2nd St., when a confrontation occurred between two groups. The incident soon escalated, and Johnson allegedly pulled out a pistol and fired a round into the air. No one was hit or injured from the shot. After firing the shot Johnson then got into a parked vehicle drove away from the scene.

Johnson was charged with Reckless Endangerment and was processed in the city jail. He is awaiting to be arraigned in Jamestown City Court.

CITY COUNCIL MEETS TONIGHT

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will meet this evening for its final voting session of 2012. Among the items on the agenda is a request to New York State asking that the city be allowed to alienate nearly 21 acres of park land on the city’s north side, with the city still maintaining ownership of the land. The city will also act on a pair of resolutions calling for the lifting of the hiring freeze to hire two employees in the city parks department and one employee in the department of public works.

HIGGINS TO VISIT COUNTY TODAY TO CELEBRATE COMPLETION OF SINCLAIRVILLE FIRE HALL

SINCLAIRVILLE – Congressman Brian Higgins will be in Chautauqua County today to help mark the Completion of Renovations to the Sinclairville Fire Hall.  The South Buffalo Democrat will join local leaders and members of the Village of Sinclairville community for a rededication ceremonyat 1 p.m..

Work on the project began in July of 2010.  The facility was awarded a $310,297 federal Community Development Block Grant. The senior dining building is managed by the Sinclairville 76ers, and is used as a senior meal center, bingo hall, Meals on Wheels meal preparation site, and satellite office for the Chautauqua County Office For the Aging, (OFA).  More than 20,000 senior meals are prepared at this site each year.

NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG IL DIES AT 69

SEOUL, South Korea – Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s enigmatic leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died. He was 69. Kim’s death was announced Monday by the state television from the North Korean capital. Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but he had appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media. The communist country’s “Dear Leader” – reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine – was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.

In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.  Even with a successor, there had been some fear among North Korean observers of a behind-the-scenes power struggle or nuclear instability upon the elder Kim’s death.