Chairman Jay Gould, (R- District 19), is a lifelong resident of Chautauqua County and a 42-year resident of Ashville, NY.
In addition to representing District 19 for the past 12 years on the County Legislature, Chairman Gould has served as Chair of the Legislature’s Audit & Control Committee for the past two years, has also been a member of the Aging, Human Services, and Stop DWI Committees.
Chairman Gould is currently a member of the Farmland Protection, Cornell Cooperative Extension-Chautauqua County, Off Track Betting, and South Central Sewer District boards as well as the Southern Tier Railroad Authority. He is also a board member for the Center for Family Unity, Inc. which covers the Allegany-Cattaraugus-Chautauqua Region.
He has served on the Region 9 Fish & Wildlife Management Board, the County Executive’s Bemus Point – Stow Ferry Committee, and the Legislature’s Energy Committee. He also attends the regular sessions held by the North Harmony and Harmony town boards and the Parks Commission.
Chairman Gould, who has an environmental and agricultural education background, has been employed by the Chautauqua County Soil & Water Conservation District for over 39 years. Prior to his service as the legislator for District 19, Gould was a 12-year member of the Town of Harmony Board. He is also the retired owner and operator of Chautauqua Perennial Gardens, a greenhouse/nursery facility he operated for 35 years.
Chairman Gould is the proud father of two grown children, Jeannine Mills, an elementary school principal in Florida, and Jesse Gould, owner of a landscape/snowplowing business headquartered in Panama and is also the grandfather of three.