By GREGORY BACON

gbacon@observertoday.com

A Chautauqua County lawmaker is upset with the new mural program in the county.

Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, spoke at the legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting about the inaugural Paint CHQ Mural Festival. The festival placed new murals in Falconer, Sherman, and Westfield. A new mural is scheduled to be painted in Dunkirk this fall.

“Last year this legislature said ‘no’ to a four big murals proposal. Remember that we tabled the resolution and the next meeting not a single legislator moved to take the four murals off the table. We said no and figured it would be dead,” Larson said.

In December of 2023, the county legislature heard about a public art program where the Department of Planning said they wanted to construct some “giant chairs” throughout the county as well as bring in some national artists to create some high quality murals. They requested $100,000 from the county’s Occupancy Tax reserves.

They did vote to table the resolution and in January 2024, as Larson stated, the resolution was not brought back for a vote.

No legislator cast a “no” vote to the program directly but essentially killed it without casting a vote.

During committee meetings in December and January, many county lawmakers expressed support of the project. The one exception was Legislator Terry Niebel, R-Sheridan, who thought $100,000 was too high and proposed modifying the resolution to $50,000.

But in Larson’s mind, the tabled resolution on using occupancy tax money should have prevented the county’s Department of Planning from moving ahead with doing murals.

“In a very rare moment in the almost two years that I’ve been back here (in the legislature), this body said ‘no’ to something,” he said.

Larson said he would rather the county’s Department of Planning and Development focus on job creation.

Larson did agree that the Department of Planning found other ways to fund the murals but was critical that the department used part of its time to make the Paint CHQ Mural Festival happen.

Larson continued his criticism of the festival, noting that none of the four artists are from the local area. “Apparently our county is devoid of talent to do murals, although there are a lot of them in Jamestown by a local artist,” he said.

Continuing his sarcasm, Larson stated, “I just hope our department is now helping communities like Sherman to decide whether they will pursue a Hyatt Hotel or a Hilton Hotel for the thousands and thousands of people that will travel across America to see this mural in Sherman. They’ll certainly want to see it in the afternoon and again in the morning under those lighting conditions.”

Legislator Tom Harmon, R-Silver Creek, did not appear to be upset about the project.

“Fred, I guess you have a problem with wanting the county and these towns to look great. I think these murals are going to bring people to our county. These murals are done and they’re beautiful pieces of art,” he said.

Larson replied that he’s not against murals; he would rather it be done through the New York State Council on the Arts or the Chautauqua County Arts Council – just not any county department.

Legislator Fred Johnson, R-Westfield, asked if the tabled resolution blocks the county executive from using staff resources to make the project happen.

Larson, who is a retired county attorney, replied, “I’ll answer that question legally. He can have his people work on any project he wants.”

Larson still disagreed with the priority of the project. “If they’re doing one thing, then they’re not doing another,” he said.

Johnson asked Larson if the legislature wanted to prevent the county executive’s office from moving forward with the project, what could lawmakers do.

Larson replied, “Threaten to amend the budget to reduce personnel expenses.”

There were no threats like that made in 2025 by any member of the legislature.

Later in the meeting, Mark Geise, Director of Planning and Economic Development for the county, addressed the topic of doing projects like public art projects.

“You say, ‘murals, poo poo murals.’ But you know what? I went to those events and I saw the excitement in the community and how grateful they were. And it’s not going to solve it but it’s one little piece. We keep doing stuff like that, our main streets improve because I’ll tell you, businesses, they want to invest in a place where things are happening, where they don’t drive through the downtown and see boarded up windows and closed down businesses and dilapidated houses,” he said.