A public hearing on the possible annexation of the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities Dow Street substation will be held Wednesday.

The public hearing will start at 7 p.m. in the Carnahan Theater on the campus of Jamestown Community College. Sam Teresi, Jamestown mayor, said the city of Jamestown, village of Falconer and the town of Ellicott, before the public hearing, will have all approved of the joint hearing between the municipalities.

Last month, the Jamestown City Council approved resolutions starting the possible annexation process, again. The annexation resolutions passed by a vote of 7 to 1. Tamu Graham-Reinhardt, At-Large Councilwoman, recused herself from the vote because she lives in the city of Jamestown and is a teacher in the Falconer Central Schools district.

Andrew Liuzzo, At-Large councilman, was the only “No” vote for all the resolutions and tried to table the vote until next year when new mayor, Eddie Sundquist, would be in office. Liuzzo said he agreed with the 11 members of the public — who spoke prior to the council’s vote — who asked the council to table the resolutions until the new mayor is in office.

Current Falconer Village Mayor James Rensel; Falconer Mayor-elect James Jaroszynski; Ellicott Town Supervisor Pat McLaughlin; Ellicott Town Councilman Daniel Heitzenrater; Falconer Central Schools Superintendent Stephen Penhollow; Falconer Central Schools Board of Education President Todd Beckerink; and Jamestown Mayor-elect Sundquist all spoke against the annexation resolutions brought forward by the council.

McLaughlin during his public comments talked about the report created by a panel of three referees who met with all entities involved in the annexation in October 2018. After meeting with municipal officials, the referees ruled the annexation of the Dow Street substation was not in the best interest of the public.

McLaughlin said that the Fourth Department Appellate Division Court has always ruled on its cases in the same way the referees have ruled.

Teresi said the city and BPU board officials feel the referees report was flawed. He told The Post-Journal the report was flawed because it didn’t hit on the germane issues of the case.

Teresi said after the public hearing, each of the three municipalities will have 90 days to determine if the annexation is in the best interest or the public or is not in the best interest of the public. If the city states that it is and the town and village state that it is not, like in 2017, the case will once again go to the Appellate Court for a decision.

This is the start of the second attempt at the annexation of the substation. The first attempt to annex the Dow Street substation ended in August when the Fourth Department Appellate Division Court dismissed the city’s petition on a technicality, stating the city’s original proceeding was untimely.

According to the court’s ruling, the proceeding needed to be brought within 30 days after the filing in the office of the county clerk. The court ruled that the town of Ellicott, village of Falconer and the Falconer Central Schools filed its petition with the clerk’s office that the annexation was not in the overall public interest on Sept. 13, 2017. The city didn’t file that the annexation is in the overall public interest until Nov. 8. That meant the appellate court didn’t have to make a ruling on the annexation proposal’s merits and the questions of law presented.

The annexation was originally started in January 2017. The BPU is looking to save money in property tax payments it makes to four entities for the Dow Street substation. The BPU’s property tax payment to each of the four entities includes $153,262 to the Falconer Central School District; $73,305 to Chautauqua County; $72,641 to the village of Falconer and $34,681 to the town of Ellicott, a total of $333,889.

If the annexation is approved, the city of Jamestown and Jamestown Public School District each would start to receive an additional tax equivalency payment of around $78,600 a year from the BPU, which totals $157,200. The BPU would save around $177,000 a year in property taxes if the annexation was approved.