CATTARAUGUS COUNTY
Dismissal of cigarette sale charges to be discussed by Board of Health
OLEAN — Cattaraugus County Public Health Director Barb Hastings will meet Wednesday with the County Board of Health and is expected to explain her recent dismissal of a case against Ried’s Food Barn, an Olean grocery store, for an alleged sale of cigarettes to a minor last April.
The board, in an early December meeting, was informed of complications in the case due to a series of postponed hearings and several motions by the store’s attorney, Dan DeRose of Olean. Hearing officer David Porter said that county health officials had not yet had a chance to rebut testimony offered by Ried’s and that a full hearing had not yet been carried out.
In addition, Porter said that during the meeting, the Health Department sanitarian had since dismissed the original case and refiled the same charge. The board then considered a letter from grocer David Ried that claimed this treatment was unfair and sought a dismissal of the second case.
Board members debated a course of action and then postponed a final ruling to await advice from Cattaraugus County Attorney Dennis Tobolski, who on Dec. 11 provided the board a lengthy summary of the details of the enforcement action, rescheduled hearings and transcripts. Tobolski concluded in his report that the postponements were requested by De- Rose and the county was ready to proceed to a hearing, but he did not advise the board further.
“For many reasons, I am withdrawing [the case]. It’s my decision,” Hastings said when interviewed Dec. 23 about the status of the Ried’s Food Barn case.
Hastings refused to provide more details about what prompted her dismissal and stated she wanted to first inform the Board of Health members of her decision.
At Wednesday’s meeting, to be held at noon in Mickey’s Restaurant on East State Street in Olean, the board also is expected to take up an appeal of a ruling made in December for fines and other conditions against Whispering Meadows mobile home park on Weaver Road in Yorkshire.
That decision, suspended until the board rules on the appeal, orders cleanup and repair of broken doors and windows, piles of debris and refuse, and rodent and insect infestations, and a mobile home frame.
While the violations date back to October 2005, Health Department officials stated that a new manager has made some progress in cleanup and has been more responsive, while Whispering Meadows park owner Kenneth Doolittle informed officials that there is no money to perform extensive cleanup.
The board in December imposed $100 fines for failing to comply with each of the following requirements by Dec. 31: secure uninhabitable trailers; cleanup of refuse stored in the park’s east section; and removal and disposal of a mobile home frame. In addition to fines, Doolittle was to be assessed a $10 penalty for each day that each of the three requirements are not met.
Also Wednesday, the board is expected to hear a report regarding the consequences of a state takeover of the Environmental Health section of the department, a proposal that has been discussed by the board in the past.
