The Jamestown school board accepted the resignation of High School Principal Rosemary Bradley at a special meeting this morning.
Bradley was appointed at the beginning of the school year to replace Mike McElrath, who became principal of the new Success Academy at the former Rogers School. However, her short tenure was considered controversial and, a pair of fights at the school recently led to a "no confidence" vote by 86-percent of the teachers and staff at the high school. The resignation is effective January 31st of next year. School Superindent Bret Apthorpe says current JHS Assistant Principal, Dana Williams, was appointed interim principal through June 30th of next year. Former JHS intern and Persell Middle School Special Education teacher, Allyson Smith, was also appointed as JHS Dean of Students.
In a printed release, The Board of Education says it will announce plans for a new principal search in the very near future. Apthrope says, "We thank Dr. Bradley for her service at Jamestown High School and wish her well in her professional journey..... Mr. Williams’ leadership experience in our district and at JHS will help guide the school forward during this transition time until a new principal can be appointed."
Chautauqua County Legislature Chairman P.J. Wendel says he will be ready to take over the duties of county executive during the Legislature’s re-organizational meeting on January 2nd.
Wendel says lawmakers could not vote on his appointment during Wednesday night’s meeting because of obligations to his current employer, Falconer Central School.
The Chautauqua County GOP recommended Wendel’s appointment as county executive earlier this month. County Attorney Stephen Abdella will continue as Acting County Executive until Wendel’s appointment becomes final. During their final meeting of 2019, county lawmakers presented commendations for outgoing Legislators Kevin O’Connell of District 6, David Wilfong of District 11 and Martin Proctor of District 18.
The House of Representatives concluded a day-long session yesterday -- including hours of passionate debate -- by approving two Articles of Impeachment against President Donald Trump.
With the approvals -- mostly along party lines -- Mr. Trump becomes the third president to be impeached by Congress. Local Congressman Tom Reed remained with the GOP Minority in voting against the measure... and, again questioned whether anything the president did was impeachable.
President Trump was charged with abusing his power and Obstruction of Congress. As soon as the Impeachment proceedings opened Wednesday morning, Republicans tried to halt the proceedings with a procedural vote. It was defeated on a party-line vote. The Articles are expected to be delivered to the Senate soon and, a formal trial is likely there early next year.
The public hearing called by the city of Jamestown and Board of Public Utilities on the proposed annexation of the BPU's Dow Street Substation in Falconer last night was cancelled due to the weather.
The hearing was one of the three items recently approved by the city council to take place after agreeing to restart the process. The action has been opposed by the village of Falconer, town of Ellicott and the Falconer School District. BPU Spokeswoman Becky Robbins says the hearing has been rescheduled for Monday, December 30th. But, the time and location have yet to be determined.
More than 30 people from local agencies, foundations and government met yesterday to begin the "complete count" effort in the city of Jamestown for the 2020 Census.
Mayoral Assistant Matt Hanley is the city's Complete Count Census Liason... and, says the group's objective is -- as the name suggests -- getting a complete count of everyone living in the city. Hanley says Wednesday's session was more of a workshop.
Hanley says they want everyone involved to brainstorm, and come up with ideas to make sure that everyone -- including those in underreported populations -- are counted. He says the committee's work after the 2010 federal Census was critical because the initial numbers weren't looking good. Predictions at that time was just over 28,000, which was about a 16-percent drop. However, the final numbers ended up just over 31,000. That was about a 1.3 percent undercount. Hanley says more meetings will be held for the group in 2020. He says if you would like more information... call the Mayor's Office at 483-7600, or go to the city's website at Jamestownny.net.
An Erie County man faces a charge of Failure to register as required as a Sex Offender in Chautauqua County earlier this year.
Sheriff's officers in Mayville say 33 year-old William Bergeron was taken into custody in Erie County for failure to provide his new home address within 10 days. Deputies say the Office of Criminal Investigations received a tip last Thursday that Bergeron was no longer living at his last reported address and did not report the move. Officers say the investigation also shows he was convicted of failing to register earlier this year, making this charge a Felony. He was taken into custody Monday... and turned over to Chautuqua County for centralized arraignment.
