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Sheriff says staffing is strong, even though they don’t have enough SROs

Chautauqua County Sheriff Jim Quattrone says they do not have a staffing problem in general, even though it cannot fill all requests for schools for resource officers.

During the Chautauqua County Legislature meeting, lawmakers approved contracts with school resource officers for Brocton, Frewsburg, Pine Valley, Silver Creek, Forestville, and two for Erie 2 BOCES. Each individual officer costs $104,125, which is paid by the school districts.

During a committee meeting the week before, Undersheriff Rich Telford said he had a request from another school district for an officer for the 2023-2024 school year, but had to decline it because they didn’t have anyone to do the job. He did not identify the school.

During the full legislature meeting, Quattrone addressed the issue. “The recent article that says we denied a school, I wanted to point out not because of staffing, but because of adequate staffing and appropriate staffing. We have the proper amount of deputies for patrol, but we don’t have deputies that have an interest in working in the school or have the time on the job and the experience to go into the school. Because it’s such a valuable spot, we don’t want to put a brand new deputy in there,” he said.

He said they’re searching for corrections officers as well.

In other business:

¯ The county legislature supported passage by the state legislature to keep Chautauqua County’s sales tax at 8%.

¯ Joseph Smith and Donald Burdick, both of Dunkirk, were appointed to the Portland-Pomfret-Dunkirk Sewer District.

¯ The legislature created the position of payroll manager for the Department of Finance. The salary range is set at $53,674 to $82,248.

¯ The legislature reapppointed Deborah Makowski as Human Resources Director. She had been appointed to fill the term of the previous director. This new term is for six years.

¯ Richard Ketcham of Fredonia and Matthew Hanley of Jamestown were appointed to the Chautauqua County Board of Health.

¯ Joshua Newark of Cassadaga and Darlene Morrison of Cherry Creek were appointed to the Chautauqua County Emergency Medical Services Council.

¯ The legislature confirmed the user charges for the South and Center Lake Sewer Districts. Residents who are part of the new sewer district extension will pay $930 annually.

¯ The legislature set the salary for internship positions at the rate equal to New York state’s minimum wage. Interns had been paid $9 an hour.

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