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The town of Pomfret is getting additional funds from the county for a study to investigate options for shared services and mergers.
During the recent Chautauqua County Legislature meeting, lawmakers approved a resolution to award Pomfret $25,000 from the county's Government Reduction initiative. The money is not part of the county's budget but rather will be coming from its reserve accounts.
In September, County Executive PJ Wendel announced that he wanted $500,000 from the county reserves to create a government efficiency fund that would support local municipalities in mergers, consolidations, dissolution, shared services and other similar opportunities to reduce government. "The goal is to reduce redundancies, streamline operation, and eliminate duplicate efforts, ultimately leading to significant cost savings," he said at the time.
In March, the town of Pomfret was awarded $50,000 to explore merger and shared service opportunities with the city of Dunkirk, the town of Dunkirk and the village of Fredonia.
The original estimate of the study was $100,000. Pomfret officials said they were applying for two other $25,000 grants.
During a committee meeting the week before the full legislature meeting, Pomfret Town Supervisor Dan Pacos said they were only awarded one of the two $25,000 grants. He said the town was seeking the additional $25,000 to complete the study.
During the committee meeting, Legislator Fred Johnson, R-Westfield, voted no, arguing that he did not want to see the money come out of the reserves, even though the original $50,000 came out of the county's reserves, which he approved earlier this year.
Johnson was not at the full legislature meeting, which unanimously approved the latest request.
Along with the town of Pomfret, the county has provided $100,000 for the Clymer, Panama, Sherman school merger proposal, and $67,050 for a new dog shelter in Ripley which will be used not only by Ripley, but also Sherman and Clymer, all through its Government Reduction Initiative.