A county lawmaker wants to see more Jamestown residents on the Chautauqua County Land Bank.

During the recent Chautauqua County Legislature meeting, Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, complained that of the 11 members of the county Land bank Board of Directors, not a single person lives in the south county city. “The land bank’s purpose is to deal with serious housing issues. Unfortunately, the city of Jamestown, which is over 20% of the county’s population, has tremendous housing issues,” he said.

Larson made his comments before the legislature was to vote on reappointing the 11 members to the Board of Directors.

Of the 11 names, two are from Fredonia, two are from Westfield, one is from Dunkirk, one is from Bemus Point, one is from Cherry Creek, one is from Lakewood, one is from Ripley, one is from the town of Chautauqua, one is from the town of Ellicott, which has a Jamestown address.

In a committee meeting the week before, Larson voted against the reappointments, saying there should be between two and three members on the land bank who live in the city. “These boards should fairly represent the city of Jamestown, especially on an issue of housing,” he said.

Legislator Bob Scudder, R-Fredonia, who is a member of the county land bank, responded that the land bank has focused a lot of time, energy and money toward Jamestown.

“Since the inception of the land bank, the land bank has touched 273 properties in Jamestown. This represents 54.5% of the properties that we’ve been involved with came from the city of Jamestown. For comparison, 23.8% are from the city of Dunkirk and 21.7% are scattered around the rest of the county, so Jamestown has seen the bulk of the action,” he said.

Scudder also said he believes there have been at least 200 demolitions done by the county land bank in Jamestown and the average demolition cost is $30,000. “There’s been over $6 million investment just in demos in the city of Jamestown,” he said.

According to Scudder, the charter for the land bank does not require any specific number of residents to live in Jamestown or any other part of the county.

While the appointments on the county land bank are from the county executive, Scudder said the land bank would be happy to accept qualified applicants who live in the city of Jamestown to apply.

Larson thanked Scudder for sharing the statistics on how much the land bank has helped the city, which he said points to the need for assistance. “Those figures make the case that sadly, the city of Jamestown’s problems are immense,” he said.

Larson reiterated his stance that the land bank should have more Jamestown residents on it, however he voted in favor of the resolution reappointing the 11 committee members, as did the rest of the county legislators.

Those who received reappointment included: Scudder, Diane Hannum, Shelley Lincoln, Todd Hnatyszyn, Charles Cornell, Mark Geise, John Hemmer, Bonnie Rae Strickland, Hugh Butler, Rebecca Meeder, and Louis Drago Jr.