Falconer village lawmakers have voted unanimously against the city of Jamestown's attempt to annex four-acres of property in the village that is owned by the Board of Public Utilities.
Village Mayor Jim Rensel confirms the 5-0 vote took place at Wednesday night's meeting at village hall. Rensel says there were two votes taken, the first was to reject the city council's "negative declaration" that the annexation would have no environmental impacts and, the other regarded the annexation itself.
Rensel declined further comment Thursday morning. Village officials have rejected the proposed annexation which would cost the village, the Falconer School District, Chautauqua County, and town of Ellicott about $320,000 total in tax revenues all four entities would lose if the annexation goes through.
The Ellicott Town Board is voting this afternoon on the annexation which has been approved by the Jamestown City Council.
Chautauqua County's Congressman believes it was a wise move by President Trump to phase-out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA Program.
The Corning Republican says he agrees with the president in not just cutting off DACA but for providing a six month window of opportunity for Congress to finally act on the issue.
Reed says he would like the 800-thousand people, who were brought here as children, be allowed to stay. However he says legislative action is needed to deal with the matter not just executive orders, because "what can be done by executive orders can be undone by executive orders."
Reed says he is hopeful that some kind of legislation can be enacted by the Senate and House and, that it may ultimately lead to comprehensive Immigration Reform. He says it could also be part of a border security measure. Reed made his comments during his weekly telephone conference call with Southern Tier Media.
Hurricane Harvey is having a significant impact on the prices of gasoline across the nation and, Chautauqua County.
That from the AAA's Fuel Gauge Report which says the price for a gallon of regular, unleaded, is up 15-cents a gallon from last week. AAA says the local price which was $2.44 a gallon last week is now nearly $2.59 a gallon.
The Fuel Gauge reports that prices across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region continue to follow the trend of having some of the most expensive states in the country. Nationally AAA says the average price is now $2.65 a gallon. Motorists in 26 states are paying 25 to 44 cents more for a gallon of unleaded compared to seven days ago.
The new head of the Jamestown Public Schools says they had a good and "uneventul" start to the new school year Wednesday.
Superintendent Bret Apthorpe says there were no significant problems reported to him yesterday during the opener which was a half-day of school.
Apthorpe had been working with former interim Superintendent Sylvia Root late this Summer to get ready to hit the ground-running on September 1st after coming from the Frontier District. He says he's excited to be back in Chautauqua County where he grew up in Mayville.
Apthorpe says there's something special about the area and, it's really "the jewel of New York State." He says there have been some capital projects taking place at Bush Elementary and Jefferson Middle Schools but, adds both schools were "buttoned up" about two-weeks before classes started. He comes to Jamestown after serving a few years as superintendent at Frontier. He says he was impressed with the Jamestown district from the moment he got to meet members of the school board.
Apthorpe is a 1983 graduate of the former Mayville Central School District.
A coalition of more than 100 nonprofit community service organizations is urging New York's congressional delegation to reject proposed budget cuts to food stamps, Medicaid and other social programs.
The group wrote to the state's federal lawmakers Thursday asking them to fight the cuts, which they said would devastate services for the most vulnerable residents. Groups that signed on to the letter include child advocacy organizations, food banks, community service groups and religious organizations like Catholic Charities and the state's Council of Churches.
In the letter, the groups say that proposals to cut billions of dollars from family assistance programs, the Child Tax Credit and Medicaid are "deeply disturbing." They say Congress should find a bipartisan solution that protects services and avoids big problems at the state and national level.
The former head of the Central Intelligence Agency has been named a fellow at the Fordham University School of Law's Center on National Security.
Former CIA Director John Brennan, who led the agency from 2013 until January of this year, took the new position Tuesday. The New York Times reports he has been named a distinguished fellow for global security and will participate in the Center on National Security's programs.
Brennan says he also will mentor students at Fordham University who are interested in government service and national security. He graduated from the school in 1977, earning a degree in political science.
Karen Greenberg, the founding director of the center, says Brennan will be the first fellow with the title of distinguished fellow.
