Falconer Mayor Jim Jaroszynski addresses Chautauqua County Legislature (August 23, 2023)
Falconer residents are requesting action by the county again in regards to the use of the Budget Inn for transitional housing by Department of Social Services.
Mayor Jim Jaroszynski said he’s not heard from county officials since last appearing before the Chautauqua County Legislature on the issue in July and even made an appearance before the Legislature’s Human Services Committee to ask for assistance.
He stated the village is in the midst of a resurgence with investments by private business owners but that is being overshadowed by this issue, “We are simply too small and without resources to help these individuals. Dumping these individuals off with no resources within reach or assistance to meet their needs is disgraceful. My question to this body is whether this motel even meets the state standard for this type of housing.”
Jaroszynski said the county has spent nearly $1.25 million at the Budget Inn in Falconer for temporary housing and Code Blue housing going back to 2018.
Persnikkity Pies owner Nicky Pierce said she’s been given emails by a handful of folks in the community all expressing the same concerns, “Which are mostly drug addled people walking on their private property, walking on their porches, banging on their doors in the middle of the night, asking for money, food, medical care; whatever, not leaving when asked to leave private property. Also, additionally, people stealing, trying to steal things on private property, looking in windows, looking in garages, just generally being a nuisance on their private property.”
Pierce requested representatives from County Government come to the village to talk with residents about the transitional housing issues and offered her bakery as a place to meet.
Another resident, Kerry Chase, shared that she has started a neighborhood watch group on Facebook in response to these issues, “We need to see change in Falconer. Falconer is going places. You heard the mayor talk tonight about the revitalization program and everybody else. We have new businesses, we have Nicky’s (Persnikkety Pies), we have all of these things coming into our village of Falconer and we can no longer be crippled by what is coming into these hotels. We don’t feel safe in our community to walk down the street alone. We don’t want to send our children out. And we are not that kind of village. This is not the kind of village we grew up in.”
Chase said the group will have an in-person meeting at 6:00 p.m. tonight at the Falconer Library at 101 West Main Street.
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