Falconer Mayor James Rensel (standing) addresses the Jamestown City Council during its June 19 work session. The mayor is continuing his push for the city to end its effort to annex a piece of property, owned by the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities, located in Falconer.
JAMESTOWN – The mayor of Falconer is continuing his request to the Jamestown City Council to drop its effort to annex the Board of Public Utilities Dow St Substation property.
During Monday night’s city council work session, Falconer Mayor James Rensel addressed the council and again implored city leaders to vote against annexing the property.
“One of the big reasons I’m respectfully asking is that we had a hearing and at that hearing no one spoke in favor of the annexation,” Rensel said. “Jamestown has a population of about 31,000. Out of 31,000 people, no one showed up to be in favor of this initiative. Twenty-nine people spoke against the initiative with four or five from the city. So my question to the city council is, if no one’s speaking in favor of this, who are you representing?”
No member of the city council offered a response to Mayor Rensel’s comments, nor did the council hold any discussion in public regarding the annexation during the remainder of Monday’s meeting.
On June 12 the city council held a joint public hearing with the board from the village of Falconer and Town of Ellicott at Falconer Central School on the proposed annexation. The hearing was required before all three sides could vote on it.
The city is proposing the annexation of the Down Street Substation because the argument is that it would be in the best interest of the public for a variety of reasons, including stable utility rates in the future as well as increased public safety for that property. The village and town have come out against the matter because it would result in a total of $360,000 being removed from the tax rolls for the village and the town, along with the Falconer School District and County. Because a portion of the property is adjacent to the city line, the city says it makes it eligible for annexation.
No date has been announced yet for when the annexation would be acted on by the city council or the town and village boards. It’s expected that if the city approves the annexation and both the town and village board vote against it, the matter will then have to be settled in State Appellate Court.
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