MAYVILLE — A proposal to create some public murals and giant chairs locally has essentially been killed without a vote.

In December, the Chautauqua County Legislature voted to table a resolution, which would have allowed $100,000 in the 3% occupancy tax program be spent to create five murals and six giant chairs throughout the county.

At the legislature’s January meeting, the resolution returned. No one made a vote to take the resolution “off the table.” By rule, any resolution that is tabled for two months in a row is “dead.” It could be brought back again in the future, but the proposal that was made in December is no longer under consideration.

Chautauqua County has $678,854 in its 3% occupancy tax reserve account. That money can only be used for tourism-related projects. The money comes from hotels, motels and short-term rentals. An extra 3% is charged to renters and that money is turned over to the county and placed in a designated account.

In December, county lawmakers said they wanted more information on the proposal, so Rebecca Wurster with the county’s Planning Department and Mark Geise, deputy county executive for economic development, appeared at two January committee meetings.

Wurster handed out a detailed business plan and first discussed the mural project.

“When I talk about the murals, it’s really meant to enhance a community, and encourage tourism and commerce,” she said.

Wurster called it a “quality of life” improvement. “People want to live by unique things. Public art is one of those pieces that is on a lot of people’s checklist,” she said.

Geise said public art is a different kind of economic development.

“This is a good idea. It’s thinking outside the box a little bit. It’s creating those ‘cool things’ that especially young people want to see,” he said.

Wurster agreed.

“This is to attract tourists, but this is also to retain our young people as well. … We want to try to keep our young people in our community. Doing things like this, investing in this type of project and artwork really does say a lot to our up-and-coming residents,” she said.

For the chairs project, Wurster said they wanted to create six giant chairs for people to be able to take photos in and post them on sites like Facebook, Instagram or X.

“Social media has really changed the way we think about tourism and how we promote our communities,” she said.

Legislator David Wilfong, R-Jamestown, thanked Wurster for her presentation and said it answered a lot of his questions. He talked very highly of the proposal.

“The community-based economic development is something that people will walk by. … When it comes to the quality of life, that’s what they’re actually looking for,” he said.

There were no major objections voiced during the January committee meetings.

Legislator Bob Scudder, R-Fredonia, said that perhaps they could consider making a mural on sheets of wood and install them on a building, in order to make improvements as they age.

Wurster said she was open to that idea.

Still, the resolution was not brought “off the table,” so there is no vote scheduled.

After January’s meeting, Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon, R-Ellery, said he thinks the concept could be brought back in a different form.

“We’re not totally against it. We have questions and other ideas. We’d like to see another proposal,” he said.

This isn’t the only time that a proposal has been killed through tabling it.

In November, a motion was on the agenda calling for support for Israel and condemn anti-semitism. That motion was tabled that month and remained tabled in December. It was not on the agenda in January.

In a separate situation, Legislator Susan Parker, D-Fredonia pre-filed a motion in December with the Administrative Services Committee saying that the legislature should make a public apology to Strong Starts Chautauqua and Healthy Community Alliance. She felt the organizations were wronged when funding was pulled for a program being administered.

In January, Parker said she was not going to pull the motion “off the table” but did express an apology on her own.