Four arrested in three early morning drug raids in Jamestown...
Four people have been arrested following raids on three residences in the city of Jamestown early Tuesday morning. The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Department reports it's Narcotics Investigation Team... along with members of the Jamestown Metro Drug Task Force... and, JPD and Sheriff's Department SWAT Teams... executed search warrants at the three locations shortly after 6 AM. The first... at 46 Beech St., led to the discovery of nearly 23-grams of fentanyl... 25-grams of methamphetamine, scales... and, packaging materials -- along with $109 cash. The second warrant was executed at 47 Charles St., where investigators seized 1.8-grams fentanyl... 8-grams of meth, scales... and, packaging materials and $250 cash. The final raid took place at 711 Cherry St. where Investigators found just over 21-grams of fentanyl, a quantity of meth and cocaine... scales and packaging materials along with $79 cash. Three women... 53 year-old Shelly Cavallaro... 34 year-old Alicia Osar and 43 year-old Sandra Pavlock... were arrested on two counts each of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance... and, second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia. They also arrested 27 year-old Abner Gonzalez-Esquilin for seventh-degree criminal possession of a Controlled Substance. Cavallaro, Osar and Pavlock were jailed pending arraignment... while Gonzalez-Esquilin was issued an appearance ticket.
City man arrested for falsely reporting gun incident in Brooklyn Square parking lot...
A Jamestown man has been arrested for allegedly falsely telling police that someone had threatened him with a gun in the parking lot of a Brooklyn Square pharmacy. City police were called to the CVS store at 19 South Main St. Monday morning... and, found that staff there had swifly locked down the building and relocated customers and staff within to a safe location. Staff then directed officers to 40 year-old Kenneth Mosley, Senior... who was inside the building. Mosley stated that someone had threatened to shoot him in the parking lot... and, displayed a gun. He had also called 911 and told a similar story to the dispatcher. However... his story continued to change... and, video surveillance showed the incident did not happen. Mosley was arrested for third-degree falsely reporting an incident. He was issued an appearance ticket for City Court.
Two pets perish in Westfield house fire...
Two pets perished in a late night, accidental house fire in the town of Westfield last Sunday. Sheriff's Department fire investigators say Westfield firefighters were called to 6904 Sherman-Westfield Rd. just after 9:30 p.m., and, were joined by several mutual companies in battling the blaze. After extinguishing the fire... the county's Fire Investigation Team was called to the scene to conduct an investigation into the fire. That determined the fire was accidental... and, caused by the malfunctioning of a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery. No one was hurt in the fire. Howeer... two dogs were found to be deceased inside the residence as result of the fire.
Sundquist says sidewalk snowplowing set to go... but, staffing positions remains a challenge...
Not everything's in place... but, the city of Jamestown is ready to move forward on it's new sidewalk snowplow program with the Jamstown Public Schools. Leaders had hoped to have the program up and fully-running by now... but, there have been issues getting the two new plows... and, one of the two new plow drivers has been hired. Mayor Eddie Sundquist says they'll use the plows they now have available. Sundquist says the district ordered the plows several months ago, and, hopefully they'll arrive by the end of January. He says the plow driver has been able to do some trial runs so they're ready for the next significant snowfall. Only having one person hired so far is part of the larger problem of being able to find enough staff for all city departments. Sundquist says that goes all the way from the police department... to the comptroller's office. He says one issue is the fact workers can go into the private sector and sometimes double the amount they would make with the city, and have better benefits. Sundquist says the New York State Conference of Mayor's is looking at pushing some reforms that will ease up some of the civil service requirements to fill positions. He made his comments for last weekend's "Community Spotlight" program on the six Media One Radio Group stations.
NYSSBA also pleased to see Hochul proposed Universal Pre-K expansion in State of the State...
In addition to a proposal to fully-fund Foundation Aid in the new state budget... Governor Kathy Hochul is proposing a major expansion of Pre-K in New York. That from New York State School Board's Association Executive Director Bob Schneider... who says that was part of the text of the governor's State of the State Address. Schneider says that will provide Universal Pre-K for nearly all young children. Schneider says the additional $125-million will allow 17,500 more 4-year-olds to take part. Schneider says it's important to get those children into Pre-K so that they'll already have some basic skills to allow them to move into Kindergarten so they can be better at learning, sooner.
Hochul, others to push for fair hearing for Chief Judge nominee...
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and other prominent state Democrats and Latino leaders are demanding the governor's chief judge nominee get a fair hearing this Wednesday... pushing back on claims by liberal lawmakers that Hector LaSalle is too conservative and his nomination should be withdrawn. Hochul, appearing Saturday at the Latino Pastoral Action Center Leadership meeting, pledged to stand by LaSalle, a veteran judge. If confirmed, he would become the first Latino to lead the seven-member high court and oversee New York's judicial system.
