MAYVILLE – Starting Jan. 1, there will only be one town justice for the town of Chautauqua.

During the Chautauqua Town Board meeting, board members passed a resolution eliminating one justice position at the end of the year.

The town has two justices, Tim Hull and Edward Kalfas. Kalfas’s term is set to expire at the end of the year and he has not filed to run for re-election. No one else has announced they are running for the seat either.

“With the changes in the court system and the Centralized booking over at the jail, our court is not as busy as it used to be,” explained Town Supervisor Don Emhardt.

Town Councilman Scott Cummings said they have spoken with both town justices and both support eliminating the position.

Town attorney Joel Seachrist said that if the board decides in the future that a second justice is needed, there are ways to bring the position back without too much difficulty.

Hull said in an earlier interview that he has noticed a drop in cases during his nine years. “It used to be when I first started, we would run court every Monday night. I would have two Mondays and the other judge would have two Mondays. It was nothing to have 25 or 30 cases. Now we do one Monday and have 10 cases, and maybe five would show up,” he said.

There are no separate justices for the village of Mayville.