Winter brought a brief respite for the town of Ellicott and village of Falconer in dealing with homeless issues in the town.

The issues have returned with a vengeance.

During the Ellicott Town Board’s most recent meeting, Dan Ingrao, Ellicott police chief, told board members had attended a meeting in early June regarding issues with the homeless at the Quality Inn. Ingrao said police had responded to 22 more calls in May at the hotel than they did in April, with calls increasing from 47 to 69. Issues at the Quality Inn in Ellicott had quieted some over the winter – but Ellicott, Falconer and Falconer Central School officials weren’t sure at the time if it was due to the bitter cold winter weather or if months of meetings had changed the situation.

Brandon Shelters, town code enforcement officer, said he is inspecting the hotel every week – noting that by and large the hotel is in compliance with town codes. Surprise inspections are a possibility in the future, Shelters said. 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.

“The village of Falconer and the town of Ellicott are already overburdened,” Falconer Mayor Jim Jaroszynski said in a news release 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.”

While code violations aren’t prevalent, there are other issues at the hotel creating problems for the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities. Shelters said he received a notice from the BPU that people from the hotel are plugging up the drain system by flushing towels, t-shirts and drug paraphernalia down the toilets. The utility responded to the hotel 12 times in May, Shelters said according to Ellicott Town Board minutes, prompting the BPU to suggest charging the hotel if the utility has to continue responding. Hotel officials, Shelters said, plan to install grinder pumps to alleviate the plugged drains.

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.

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.

In other news:

– JD Northrup was the low bidder for the Fluvanna Water and Sewer project.

– Town Clerk Amy Bellardo spoke to board members about passing a local law in case the Town Board needs to override the state’s 2% tax cap. Contractual wage increases are 3.5% to 4% next year, she said, with increases also likely in retirement costs, insurance costs and utilities. . We are also going to see a large increase in retirement, insurance, and utilities. A public hearing to get the public’s opinion on the issue has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Aug. 4.