JAMESTOWN – Officials from the City of Jamestown, Town of Ellicott, Village of Falconer, and Falconer Central School appeared in Mayville last week to provide oral arguments and testimony in front of a three-member panel appointed by the New York State’s 4th Appellate Division in the case of the proposed BPU substation annexation.
Mayor Sam Teresi told WNYNewsNow that the appearance, which lasted for three days, was part one of a three-part process. Teresi said he expects the panel to put together a report later this year based on the testimony and legal briefs that were submitted by each party.
Once the report is completed, the panel will send it to the appellate division in Rochester for consideration. Teresi said that either later this year or early in 2019, the division will hold a question-and-answer hearing with attorneys from each side.
The Mayor added that he expects a decision from the courts in the first quarter of 2019.
The BPU will save approximately $160,000 a year by no longer having to pay $320,000 in property taxes to the school district, town, village, and county, should the annexation be granted. They’d, instead, make an annual payment in lieu of taxes of about $80,000 to both the City of Jamestown and the Jamestown School District.
Ellicott Town Supervisor Patrick McLaughlin previously told WNYNewsNow that the Falconer Central School District would lose about $165,000 if the annexation goes through.
Officials from the Falconer Central School District and Village of Falconer have stated that the potential annexation is nothing short of a “money grab.”
In August 2017, the Jamestown City Council approved the annexation proposal. However, in September 2017, councils from both the Village of Falconer and Town of Ellicott struck down the annexation proposal.
