Pictured at top left is Bam Margera, known for the Jackass movie and TV series, made a visit to the Jamestown Skate Park and met with local skateboarders at 209 Pine St. Middle left pictures one of the multiple piles of garbage left by drug users behind one of Fulton Street’s condemned houses. Bottom left shows Tammy Schack, the owner and operator of the Bridgeview storefront at 4910 Main St., addressed the Bemus Point Board of Trustees Tuesday night about the impact the I-86 Bridge repairs and construction work have had on her business in a photo by Christopher Blakeslee. Pictured at top right is Ron DeBlasio, friend of Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, and “Fluffy” as he cuts the ribbon on Iglesias’ new exhibit at the National Comedy Center in a photo by Michael Zabrodsky. Bottom left pictures a gathering of fans to see Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias at the National Comedy Center.

New faces and those familiar in terms of celebrities made up some memorable moments in 2025. In addition, there were local outcries for assistance that led to awareness and action.

SALUTE TO ‘FLUFFY’

Area residents had the opportunity to get up close and personal with famed comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias earlier this year.

Hundreds packed the outdoor meet-and-greet at the National Comedy Center, and the story announcing the visit was read more than 35,000 times at post-journal.com.

Iglesias’ visit coincided with the opening of the National Comedy Center’s exhibit featuring Iglesias’ iconic 1959 VW Bus from his record-breaking Stadium Fluffy special with a ribbon-cutting in early May. The vintage VW Bus from Iglesias’ personal collection is a fan-favorite centerpiece of Iglesias’ Dodger Stadium performance, and is now on display for the first time as part of the Comedy Center’s museum experience in a new exhibit gallery.

Admission was free to the Comedy Center’s museum all day, and Iglesias’ fans were welcome to explore the museum throughout the day and attend the event, with a special photo-op to take place immediately following the 4:30 p.m. ribbon cutting. Attendees can RSVP at comedycenter.org/fluffy.

Journey Gunderson, National Comedy Center executive director, said during Iglesias’ 2023 visit to the comedy center prior to his performance at the Northwest Arena that selling out the Dodger Stadium show put Iglesias in rare company with a few other artists to sell out Dodger Stadium, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. She said that show was a bellwether for comedy because it showed the world that people were ready to laugh again, that live standup performance was back, and that the comedian’s work has been about bringing people together.

“The show also marked Gabe’s 25th year in comedy — a path that started at an open mic night on a whim,” Gunderson noted. “I really admire the way Gabe approaches his work by acknowledging those who came before him and the rigor that his artform demands.”

With more than 34 million social media followers, more than 2 billion YouTube views and his status as the third-highest grossing comedian of 2024, Iglesias has built a massive fanbase. He executive produced and starred in the acclaimed Netflix original series Mr. Iglesias, and his comedy specials Stadium Fluffy and One Show Fits All are among the most-watched on the platform. His latest stand-up special, Gabriel Iglesias: Legend of Fluffy, premiered on Netflix in January of 2025.

“It’s one thing to have your name on a wall. It’s another to have a poster or the shirt that I wore in the special,” Iglesias said.

He added that NCC has an energy that has been taken from some of the greatest comedians to ever perform on stage.

“It’s not just stand-up. It’s comedy – whether it was sitcoms (situational comedies) or films, directors, writers. I love the fact that there is a place like this (NCC) that dedicates everything to comedy,” he said.

The comedian added that at some museums have a policy that it is “ok to look, but not touch.”

Not at NCC, he boasted.

“Here, it’s ‘you are welcome to touch and experience.’ Here you can hear stories, and see videos and interviews from 50-plus years ago, which I think is incredible,” he added.

MARGERA VISITS SKATE SHOP

Gabriel Iglesias wasn’t the only famous face to stop in Jamestown this year.

Bam Margera, known for his role in the movie series “Jackass” and the popular MTV show of the same name, made a special appearance at Jamestown Skate Products in January. Pete Scheira, the owner of the indoor skate park at 209 Pine St., said that Magera was incredibly approachable and relaxed.

“He came by (Magera) and wanted to check out our indoor skate bowl – he skated and hung out. We fired up the grill and showed him a good time,” said Scheira. “The kids really liked him.”

Scheira mentioned that Magera’s visit caught him off guard, but he’s excited about the possibility of seeing the TV/movie star again soon.

“He just texted and asked if he could come by,” said Scheria. “I don’t know Bam personally, but we have a lot of the same friends – so I said, of course.”

Margera gained prominence in the early 2000s as one of the stars of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass and its subsequent films, including Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two, Jackass 2.5, Jackass 3D, Jackass Backyard BBQ, and Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover. In addition to his work with Jackass, he created and starred in several spin-off shows, including Viva La Bam (2003-2006), Bam’s Unholy Union (2007), Bam’s World Domination (2010), and Bam’s Bad Ass Game Show (2014). He also co-wrote and directed the films Haggard (2003) and Minghags (2009).

“For the skateboarders in this town, it’s as if a celebrity they’ve only seen in movies or TV shows came to hang out with them. …super cool and approachable,” Scheira remarked. “After he left, he sent a text asking if he could return sometime, and I, of course, gladly agreed.”

NEW PRESIDENT AT UPMC CHAUTAUQUA

Tracy Gates has been appointed president of UPMC Chautauqua in September. UPMC announced in December 2023 that it was searching for Brian Durniok’s replacement after Durniok, who was named UPMC Chautauqua president in 2019, announced he had been named president of UPMC Hamot in Erie, Pa.

Gates served as senior vice president, chief operating officer, and vice president of System Integration for Centralus Health, a newly formed integrated delivery network in Upstate New York. While there, she oversaw operations across three hospitals and two skilled nursing facilities, while helping to lead the integration of Cayuga Health System and Arnot Health. Prior to her tenure at Centralus Health, she held leadership roles at several other New York based hospitals and health systems.

“I’m very excited about it, and enjoying every minute of it so far,” Gates said about her appointment.

Gates added that at UPMC, she will continue to leverage the strengths and expertise of the hospital to continue its mission.

“I think we’ve got some existing strategic goals that have been set before I got here that really centered around assuring patients that our workforce (members) are at the core of what we do,” Gates said.

The focus of UPMC, she noted, is to provide a high quality, safe environment for everybody who enters the hospital.

“We want to make sure we have great access for services, and we continue to be a financially viable community asset,” Gates said. “My vision for the hospital is for it to be here long beyond my life, and be able to be here to serve the community for many years to come.”

The new hospital president said that UPMC is a blend of city and rural healthcare.

“I think that being the hospital here, serving Jamestown in the core has its own feel of a city,” Gates said. “We serve the whole county in my mind, and so even in our secondary markets, there are many rural communities, so I see it as both.”

FIGHT FOR BEMUS POINT EXIT

A Bemus Point business owner’s fight to get a temporary exit into the heart of Bemus Point paid off – though it took months of effort for Tammy Shack’s campaign to pay off. Late this summer the state Transportation Department said it would install a temporary exit ramp for eastbound traffic on I-86 to allow access to the central business district in Bemus Point. Drivers have had to go around to Exit 10 with the closure of Exit 9. The bridge construction project is scheduled to come to an end in 2027.

“We are also aware of the disruptions this project has caused for local residents,” DOT officials said in a news release. “That’s why we are pleased to report that NYSDOT is working to restore access to the Village of Bemus Point’s central business district via a temporary exit ramp on Interstate 86 eastbound. The temporary ramp is currently under construction and expected to open in the coming weeks. The temporary ramp will remain open for the duration of the project, which is now expected to be completed in late 2027.”

Schack, the owner of the Bridgeview store, said during a Bemus Point Village Board meeting on Tuesday night that the ‘hold’ on her business is so narrow that it is suffocating its vitality.

“My business won’t survive this,” said Schack. “We went from having more than 13,000 cars a day drive by to a trickle since the repair work and construction started,” she reported to the Board of Trustees.

In January, Schack reported a loss of around $45,000 in sales revenue. Recent analyses conducted by her and her accountant reveal that the current sales figures indicate a significantly reduced profit margin compared to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when business plummeted. During that time, despite the challenges, Schack’s business managed to maintain a healthier sales performance, highlighting the extent of the downturn caused by the bridge repairs being conducted.

“Every year, year after year, my business has been growing,” she said. “Since the construction of the bridge, the exact opposite has happened. Who’s going to look out for the small business owners, she asked? My business won’t survive the next two years.”

In March, Bemus Point Mayor Jeff Molnar said he was setting up a meeting with himself, DOT officials and Larry Andersen, Ellery town supervisor, after several Bemus Point businesses said they felt bridge reconstruction work was hurting their businesses – in large part due to the closure of Exit 9.

“Several local businesses feel that the construction on the bridge is hurting their businesses. They’re reporting a downturn in sales, and they believe that the exit closure off the bridge isn’t helping their case either,” Molnar said in March.

FULTON STREET NEIGHBORS BAND TOGETHER

For more than a year readers have seen stories focused on concerns raised by residents of Fulton Street in Jamestown. Over the summer reporter Sara Holthouse got a firsthand look at the complaints the neighbors were bringing to City Council meetings – and it was a story that was heavily read on post-journal.com.

Imagine; empty, condemned houses up and down the street, drug users walking past on the sidewalks, needles left in people’s front yards, sidewalks essentially unusable, especially for those with disabilities, being kept awake at night because of screaming, fighting and violence at all hours.

What has been described is something that Raven Corvus, who resides at the corner of Fulton and East Eighth streets, said is something she would expect to find in America’s bigger cities such as Seattle, where she used to live, and not in a place like Jamestown. But it is the reality of what she and any other resident of the Fulton Street neighborhood have to live with on a daily basis.

Corvus, along with two other Fulton Street residents, Paul Wolff and Larry Coon, said many of the condemned houses on the street are used for drug activity and people are squatting in them or camping in backyards.

“I have to chase squatters out of the house next door to me all of the time, because it’s for sale … I know if they get in there it’s game over,” Corvus said. “So, we try to stop them.”

People have already been inside and stripped wires — something else that the three area residents said also happens a lot throughout the street — and Corvus said she did not know how the house would be sold. She added that “literally like every other house on Fulton Street is condemned.”

Both Corvus and Wolff discussed the foot traffic from people they say are drug users on the street, some of whom they knew by name because of how long they have been in the neighborhood and how often they see them doing something. Some are harmless, the Fulton Street residents said, but there are others that create concern, such as a man who walks around with a sword and another that walks around with “a homemade spear.”

“You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff you see around here,” Corvus said. “I moved here from Seattle, and it’s better than it was there, and it’s better than a lot of the bigger cities, but it’s sad because it’s really a beautiful area and I don’t see how they want to bring in tourism; when you have a tourist who takes a turn down Fulton they’re going to be like, ‘are we in Detroit?'”

Most of the problems, they said, come from the amount of condemned houses and the lack of fear that the drug users have of the city’s police. During a City Council work session at the beginning of August, it was reported that there have been 126 police calls to Fulton Street over the last six months from January to June, and all three residents said that probably around 80 of them have been for one specific resident.

Some of the condemned homes on Fulton Street identified by Fulton Street residents have been torn down in recent weeks. But it remains to be seen what happens next for the Fulton Street neighbors. Crystal Surdyk, city development director, has said the Fulton Street is a planned site for a Pilot Residential District where the city will look to acquire parcels, tear down some homes and then fill those areas in with new housing development.