Borrello On The Bemus Bay Pops

The Bemus Bay Pops has been in the news recently.

Legislators cut some county funding from the Pops last month.

Then, earlier this month, at their meeting last week, the lawmakers voted to uphold that decision

Articles about the situation can be read here, here, here, here and here.

Many of the articles quote individuals who spoke out during the meeting or after the meeting, as well as legislators who discussed the issue on the floor. Not all who spoke, however, have been quoted.

What follows is the full text of legislator George Borrello's comments from last Wednesday evening:

I just want to make one point clear, Mr. Chairman. The word here that's key to me in the legislation orginally is "development."

The Bemus Bay Pops organization, again, I agree with everything that Mr. (Larry) Barmore said, is a great organization. It has a huge economic impact.

It is developed. There are other organizations that need some sponsorship so they can become, have an impact similar to the Bemus Bay Pops. That's the intention of this money, was to seed people to start new tourist attractions in Chautauqua County.

If the Bemus Bay Pops would like to apply for other portions of the bed tax so that they can get funds in that manner based on the economic impact that they have, that's up for debate and discussion, but for this particular portion, this money is earmarked for new development... to seed new projects.

And the bottomline is, if we open the door here, we open the floodgates for many other organizations to come back and say, "We have a huge economic impact on our area and we need to be funded just like the Bemus Bay Pops has been funded for five years."

And I understand that there's a gray area here on the three-year rule or guideline, but the bottom line is they filled that application out clearly stating that no more than three consecutive years was the guideline that this committee was undertaking.

This committee chose to ignore that for whatever reason and so this body is correcting that and that's all there is to it.

Again, I have nothing against Bemus Point, I have nothing against the Bemus Bay Pops and I thinkk you guys are doing the right thing by having this funding moved down to the next people (applicants).

Mr. (William) Reynolds you spoke, you wanted a little bit of money for your boat show. Well, the money that's being taken away from the Bemus Bay Pops is helping to fund your boat show and it's a brand new event. This is your first year, your first year as a (recipient of county bed tax money). Would like to see your event take off just as everybody else's would?

George Borrello represents District 4 in Northern Chautauqua County, and is a Republican from the hamlet of Irving.

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