First-term County Legislator Susan Parker announced she’s running for re-election in the new County Legislature District 4 that combines parts of the city of Dunkirk, town of Pomfret, and village of Fredonia.

“I’m excited by the prospect that I can represent parts of the three largest communities in northern Chautauqua County,” said Parker. “Adding portions of the City of Dunkirk to my district creates an opportunity to collaborate with others on important regional issues that are central to the future of our combined communities.”

During her first term, Parker worked to save money for taxpayers. Parker introduced and worked with others to pass legislation reducing property taxes for disabled, wartime, cold war, and combat veterans. She also introduced and worked with others to pass legislation reducing the County’s gasoline tax as gasoline prices soared in 2022. Parker also led the successful effort to defeat a proposal increasing the County’s Occupancy Tax by 60 percent and harming the county’s hospitality industry.

Working with Village of Fredonia officials, Parker helped form a Safe Streets Workgroup. The Workgroup was instrumental in making the case to the State’s Department of Transportation to reduce the speed limit in the village of Fredonia. The Workgroup has continued to work with the DOT’s “Early Design Team” on the upcoming Route 20 capital improvement project to improve and ensure safety for all who use the Village’s Main Street, from the Roundabout to the west end of the Village.

Parker and the Workgroup are collaborating with the Chautauqua County Planning and Development Department on a new crosswalk on Water Street, and with GObike and the Chautauqua Regional Development Corporation to fund and implement “Complete Streets” initiatives on the “Central Connection”, the streetway that connects the village of Fredonia, SUNY Fredonia, and the city of Dunkirk.

As for her work in Mayville, Parker helped lead the effort to reduce the size of the County Legislature calling the current size – 19 districts – “overloaded, underworking, and too costly.”

“We worked against establishing a landfill commission, which added a layer of bureaucracy to the landfill without sufficient justification; voted against increasing garbage tipping fees that especially harmed our largest communities; argued against the hiring a $100,000 ‘Media Information Officer’; and have worked to boost the County’s public health response to COVID,” she said.

Parker, joining with fellow Democratic legislators, is proposing to use the county’s excessive unappropriated fund balance to apply at least $1 million against the County Executive’s proposed tax levy increase in the 2024 budget.

“We owe it to our residents to look at creative ways to solve problems in county government without adding to our already expanded budget,” Parker said. “It’s astounding that in the less than nine years since the former county home was sold to provide a cost savings by reducing staffing, the County has added over 200 jobs within county government.”

Parker put the Village of Fredonia’s water issue and the building of Brooks-TLC Hospital at the top of her re-election agenda. “I’m proud of working with others and supporting the renovation and funding to provide for the reuse of the White Inn. We need the same combined effort to build a new 2-million-gallon storage tank and the water system interconnect between the city of Dunkirk to the village from the city’s Willowbrook Tank to the Village’s trunk line at SUNY Fredonia.”

“Additionally, I will work with the village’s new mayor and board and the city’s new mayor and council to convince our New York State Department of Health that we must have hospital for northern Chautauqua County residents and that we must ‘Build Brooks Now!”