The city council will consider later this month selling Jamestown's wastewater treatment plant to the city's Local Development Corporation to raise about $16-million to help cover on-going capital costs.
The proposal was offered during Mayor Sam Teresi's report to lawmakers at last night's work session. Teresi says they've been working with city Bond Council Kenneth Bond of New York City on "non-traditional" ways to raise "working capital." Bond proposed using what's called "monetization".
Those items Teresi mentioned included two-million dollars to help upgrade the wastewater treatment plant, and related facilities as well as 2.5-million dollars in equipment needs for the Public Works Department.
Both Teresi and Bond noted that the sewer plant would have to be sold for it's "fair market" value of about $15-million to $20-million.
Bond says selling the plant to the JLDC involves fewer restrictions on what the money can be used for because the JLDC is a "not-for-profit" corporation.
While the JLDC would own the wastewater treatment plant, Teresi and Bond noted that there would be no change in current labor agreements between plant employees and the BPU.
Under state law, they say the JLDC is a "local public authority" and subject to oversight by the state Public Authorities Budget Office.
Even with the verbal promise from the state of more municipal aid, the city of Jamestown has to look at other ways to raise revenue in addition to finding more cost-savings.
Those are the feelings of City Council Finance Committee Chairman Tony Dolce now that the city has a 2018 spending plan in place. Following last week's budget vote Dolce expressed frustration over having to wait until the 11th hour to get a commitment from the state. Otherwise, he says lawmakers have to continue working to grow the tax base.
Mayor Sam Teresi noted that small business owners he spoke with said business was up that Saturday after "Black Friday" about 25-percent. That should help boost sales tax for the fourth-quarter.
Dolce says there has also been an uptick in investment in some of the city's neighborhoods. He adds the state can't keep helping plug holes in municpal budget's due to their own fiscal situation, adding that it needs to provide more incentives for consolidation and restructuring local governments.
Fire damage was confined to a back-room area of a house just south of the Jamestown city line Monday morning.
Chautauqua County fire dispatchers say Kiantone firefighters were called to a reported chimney fire at a home at
1742 Route 60 shortly before
8:00. Dispatchers say Jamestown, Busti and Frewsburg firefighters were called in to assist at the scene.
Officials say the blaze was knocked down quickly and no one was hurt. Fire crews were at the scene until just after 9 AM. A Creosote building up in the chimney was the apparent cause.
The Winter Storm Watch for lake effect snow remains in effect from Wednesday evening through late Thursday night.
That's the word from Meteorologist Jon Hitchcock of the National Weather Service. Hitchcock says a major change in the weather pattern will take place mid-week and, lake effect snow bands are expected to set up by late Wednesday. He says it's still hard to say how much snow northern Chautauqua County will get out of the storm.
However, Hitchcock says it appears the immediate Jamestown area will miss the bulk of the snowfall. In fact, he says places away from the Lake Erie shoreline eastward, likely won't get much from this event.
Total snow accumulations of 10 to 20 inches are possible in the most persistent lake snows. Locally two feet or more is possible for locations in the Buffalo Southtowns.
He's taking full responsibility for his loss on Election Day but, the head of the Jamestown City Council says he was most disturbed about what he call's a "Trump-style Campaign" of fear against him.
Democrat Greg Rabb says he was alerted by some of his students about an on-line effort to "throw shade" on him. Throwing Shade is described as "talking trash about a friend or aquaintance, or to publicly denounce or disrespect." Rabb says the first instance was about a talk he gave some time ago about Islam.
Rabb says the other issue was about his local stance on Transgender rights which has been a major national topic the past couple of years. He says he doesn't understand why there's a problem when he's "in favor of diversity" adding that he himself is gay.
Rabb says he believes he knows who was involved in the on-line shading but, says he's elected not to respond to those people. Rabb made his comments for this past weekend's "Community Spotlight" program on the five Media One Group stations.
A city man is jailed for allegedly stealing items from a drug store on Jamestown's northside Sunday afternoon.
City police were called to the Rite Aid store on North Main Street just after 4 p.m. and, went to arrest 54 year-old Alfredo Diaz. However, they say Diaz ran off before being arrested at the corner of Washington and West 11th Streets.
Officers say the took Diaz into custody without further incident and charged him with petty larceny and second-degree obstruction of governmental administration.
A Stockton teenager was arrested on drug charges after being found in possession of a quantity of marijuana and several marijuana smoking devices during a traffic stop.
State Police in Jamestown say they pulled over a vehicle last Thursday on County Route 380 for speeding. While speaking to the driver, 19 year-old Jerry Fricker, Troopers smelled marijuana coming from inside the vehicle.
A search revealed a bag containing over five grams of marijuana and the smoking devices. He was issued a speeding ticket and is to appear in Town of Stockton Court on a later date.
