This week, we air the spotlight program with Chautauqua County Executive P.J. Wendel, which was to air two weeks ago. However... a technical issue arose, so it was aired this past weekend. Our Terry Frank talks with Mr. Wendel about the closing down of a production line at the former Monofrax manufacturing plant, which is owned by St. Gobain... with 79 people being laid-off because of it. He says the county, and other elected leaders, were trying to preserve them. In particular, they were trying to get a new rail spur for them... which couldn't be worked out. He believes that county taxes were not the reason... and, may well be due to out-of-town or out-of-country decisions made away from the county. We also discuss the homeless situation in the county... and, Wendel restates his feeling that the county should be able to obtain or build their own facility, with wrap-around services, to help those people become self-sustaining. We also discuss the just-recently approved, 277-billion New York state budget, and, the fact that local counties are continually being asked to foot more of the safety net costs to help house the homeless at local hotels. However... he says some have had to be moved to Erie, and Cattaraugus Counties because there's no room left locally.
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