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Showing support

Rosas, VanDenVouver weigh in on City Hall protest

OBSERVER Photo by Jo Ward About 50 people showed up Tuesday at Dunkirk City Hall in a show of support for Mayor Wilfred Rosas. The mayor said it “felt good” to see the support from the community.

A flyer promoting a peaceful protest made the rounds on social media this past weekend. It read: “Are you tired of Mayor Rosas getting bullied by certain councilmembers? Are you tired of watching Mayor Rosas be disrespected by certain councilmembers? If you answered yes to any/all of the questions then we ask you to join our peaceful protest.”

The protest took place Tuesday outside of City Hall at 4:30 p.m. just prior to the Common Council meeting. The event garnered over 50 protesters carrying signs and hanging out in groups discussing the disagreement that took place between Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas and Councilman-at-large Paul VanDenVouver at the Common Council meeting held June 16.

At that meeting tempers flared on both sides as VanDenVouver and Rosas both shared words that led to the mayor being kicked out of the Zoom meeting. When Rosas was asked about the protest he admitted he was shocked.

“I was caught completely unaware,” Rosas told the OBSERVER. “It felt good to see the support of the community. People are paying attention they see that the councilmembers aren’t working with anyone.”

VanDenVouver stated that “people get on social media and call me all sorts of lies, like a liar and a racist and I’m not those things. These people can’t tell that it’s a disagreement and nothing more.”

VanDenVouver also went on to share in his opinion everything was started by the Democratic Committee. “They can’t get over that they lost last year; all we’re doing is holding the mayor accountable, something that he is not used to.”

VanDenVouver also shared that following the paralegal vote the mayor left the meeting. When Rosas was asked about this he stated simply that when he wanted to speak following First Ward Councilman Don William’s comments, he was shut down so figured there was no point in staying for anymore of the meeting.

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