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JURA To Continue Demolition Services For Land Bank

The Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency has agreed to continue a contract for demolition services with the Chautauqua County Land Bank Corp. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency (JURA) will continue demolition services for the Chautauqua County Land Bank Corp.

On Thursday, JURA held its first meeting of the year and approved continuing a contract with the land bank for demolition services for $850,000. Crystal Surdyk, city development director, said the continuation of the contract dates back to an agreement made in 2018.

“We are most of the way through the contract,” she said. “We will wrap up any properties left for demolition. (The contract) is in its last year. We just need to approve a continuation.”

During a January 2020 land bank meeting, Gina Paradis, land bank executive director, said JURA has been an experienced demolition manager for project throughout the county. She said JURA has helped small municipalities who don’t have the first-hand knowledge to manage demolition projects.

In March 2018, JURA and land bank officials agreed to extend the original rural demolition agreement, which was first signed in the fall of 2015. JURA handles the complete service management process of issuing bids to hiring companies for asbestos removal, if needed, and the demolition.

In other business, JURA also approved a resolution that was approved by the board last year via email for vehicle leases. Surdyk said JURA leases four vehicles, with three being used by code enforcement officials and one by the building inspector. She said the only change to the vehicle lease in 2021 compared to previous years is the mayor’s vehicle is no longer leased by JURA, but is now part of the Mayor’s Office budget.

The original lease for the vehicles didn’t go as planned for city officials, Surdyk said. At first, Shults Auto Group won the bid for the vehicles, which was for four Subarus. However, Surdyk said Shults officials discovered that Subaru won’t allow municipalities to lease its vehicles. She said because of this, Shults had to forfeit its bid.

Surdyk said JURA will be leasing four Jeep vehicles from Dave Warren Auto Group.

The JURA board approved a contract for services with the Jamestown Renaissance Corp. for administrative services for $12,000. Surdyk said John Sellstrom, city financial coordinator, assists JRC with their finances for a fee of $1,000 a month.

The JURA board also approved accepting a furniture donation from JRC. Last year, JRC started renting space in the city Municipal Building, Surdyk said. She said they had several pieces of office furniture from their previous location that they have donated to the city. She added the furniture was needed because city officials were in need of some new desk.

“It worked for us because we needed new office furniture,” she said.

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