Any gate across a city street should be operated only by an employee of the city of Jamestown, according to Leo Ryan, city attorney.
Ryan told the Jamestown Legal and Finance Committee Tuesday that he "would very much discourage the City Council from any arrangement allowing a tenant to operate the gate."
Frontier Village Association had asked the city for authority to close the gates and to order National Buffalo Museum staff to comply with the Frontier Villages gate schedule. The gate is across the street that also serves as access to the National Buffalo Museum and the World's Largest Buffalo monument. The Frontier Village Association has said the gates should be closed when there are no businesses open in the Frontier Village for security reasons.
Ryan said any gate on a public road would be a city responsibility.
"It is a public road," he said. "If a gate goes across it, if that gate is going to be opened and closed, it is a municipal responsibility."
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Jamestown Mayor Katie Andersen said she would appoint a committee including a City Council member and representatives of the Jamestown Police Department, Frontier Village and National Buffalo Museum to explore ways the city would take responsibility for the gates.
Nellie Degen, president of the Frontier Village Association, also questioned what had happened to funding originally provided to Jamestown Tourism.
"There was tax dollars implemented in CDs (Certificates of Deposit) and to this point I'd like to find out what happened to that money and where did it go," Degen said. "... It's like the fish that got away and nobody knows what happened."
Andersen said the funds were held in city controlled accounts.
After the meeting, Degen said she was not alleging any theft but wanted to know where the resources were and when the funds from any CD might be available for use.
Degen also asked the city to intervene in the grant process administered by Jamestown Tourism. Grants from Tourism for tourism-related projects are paid as reimbursements after the project or work is complete and paid for by the organization that requested the funds.
Degen said if Frontier Village Association had the money to pay for the project, it wouldn't need to apply for the grant.
Andersen said any discussions about Jamestown Tourism's procedures would be done during future contract negotiations between the city of Jamestown and Tourism, and would be procedural, not related to a single organization.
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Pam Phillips, City Council member, said the Frontier Village Association is creating a difficult situation regarding the promotion of tourism in Jamestown.
"The time has come for the Frontier Village to understand how the process works," she said. "Being adversarial won't get them anywhere."
In other business, the Jamestown Building, Planning and Zoning Committee reviewed the priorities for ordinance changes set by the Planning Commission.
The top priority would be changes to parking requirements in the downtown area if a project to slow and reduce traffic is implemented in that area, said Dave Hillerud, chairman of the Planning Commission.
