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FALCONER – Issues at Ellicott hotels drew a pair of police responses over the past week., including a woman who ran from police during a warrant check Sunday.
Jasmine N. Calloway, 41, of Jamestown was charged with second-degree escape, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and two counts of petit larceny at 10:58 a.m. Sunday. Ellicott police report conducting a warrant check at a Falconer hotel where it is alleged Calloway had an active arrest warrant for her arrest. Calloway was taken into custody on the arrest warrant and shortly after being placed under arrest, Calloway fled on foot out of the hotel and into a wooded area nearby, while in handcuffs. Officers located Calloway shortly after and placed her under arrest. Calloway was transported to the Chautauqua County Jail for a centralized arraignment and will be in Ellicott Town Court later.
In an unrelated incident, Kweilen D. Bell, 45, of Falconer was charged with petit larceny and second-degree burglary at 10:54 a.m. July 17 after police responded to a larceny complaint. Bell allegedly took a package belonging to the victim. Bell was recently trespassed from the Budget Inn in Falconer prior to this incident. Bell was issued an appearance ticket to be in Ellicott Town Court later.
That follows a pair of incidents the week before at Falconer hotels that included a reported fight outside a hotel in the village and a man threatening staff at a hotel before struggling with officers after they responded to the scene.
Brandon Shelters, town code officer, said during the Ellicott Town Board's most recent meeting that he is inspecting the hotel every week and, for the most part, the hotel is in compliance. During the board's June meeting, Dan Ingrao, Ellicott police chief, said responses to the Quality Inn in Ellicott had increased by 22 from April to May. There was no update on call volumes to the hotel according to the minutes from the Ellicott Town Board’s July 7 meeting.
Code violations prompted the town to close part of the Clarion Pointe hotel on Route 60 in Ellicott, with the closure shifting some of the homeless who had been staying at the North Main Street hotel into other hotels in the Ellicott/Falconer area, including the Quality Inn and the Budget Inn.
In addition to closing a portion of the Clarion Pointe Hotel, the former Econo Lodge on Route 60 in Fredonia, which was also a contracted location the county was using to house some of its homeless, was shut down. County Social Services Department staff members are required to inspect properties where the homeless are being housed every six months. Local code enforcement officers can check them more frequently – as has been the case in Ellicott.
"The village of Falconer and the town of Ellicott are already overburdened," Falconer Mayor Jim Jaroszynski said in April. "The hotels are already full to capacity. The residents of the town of Ellicott, the village of Falconer, and the Falconer Central School District should not have to deal with this influx on an already strained and broken system."
Closing rooms the county had been using for homeless housing has forced the county to move some homeless county residents to Buffalo, Hamburg and Cuba, N.Y., where the county also has contracts. County officials ideally want to move the individuals back to Chautauqua County when rooms become available, in part because of the cost to house individuals elsewhere. The county has to pay to transport those staying out-of-county back and forth to various appointments.