MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Lawmakers will wait another month before acting on a resolution to increase funding for the Chautauqua County Home in Dunkirk. During the county legislature’s monthly voting session Wednesday night in Mayville, the lawmaker tabled a measure to provide $500,000 of additional funding for the county home, so that it could receive a matching amount from the federal Intergovernmental Transfer (IGT) program.
Legislator Chuck Nazzaro (D-Jamestown) requested the measure be tabled so that lawmakers could get a more accurate idea of the financial position the home is in and how much of the IGT funding the county should be applying for.
“I think we need to determine what is the right amount to fund,” said Nazzaro. “I’m not against funding a portion or all of the IGT, due to the fact that our county fund balance is in a much stronger position than it was at the end of the budget process. And also, because it is taking longer. The [Center for Governmental Research] Report wont be out until early summer, also we have the proposals out there from Marcus and Millichap, also we have the ad-hoc committee doing its research. and I want to quote what [CSEA President] Rose Conti said tonight, which was she hoped the county legislature would make ‘a good financial decision,’ and I think that’s what we need to do here – we need to make a good financial decision.”
Earlier in the month, the legislature’s audit and control committee had tabled the measure, based on the same explanation that Nazzaro provided to the full legislature. It had been voted down in the Human Resources committee.
The county home has been in the spotlight for the past several months, primarily due to the discussion of whether or not it should be sold to a private owner. The marketing firm of Marcus and Millichap has been hired to look for prospective buyers for the property. In the meantime, the county has also tapped the Center for Governmental Research to perform a viability study on the county home. That effort is being coordinated by an ad-hoc committee. A recent report has shown that if the home were to continue on its current course, it would run out of operational funding by the middle of next year.
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