By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
EAST OTTO — The East Otto community turned out Wednesday for fallen firefighter and dispatcher Tim Lexer as his body was escorted from a Little Valley funeral service by scores of Cattaraugus County sheriff’s vehicles and fire equipment from five counties.
Lexer, a former East Otto fire chief and dispatcher at the Cattaraugus County 911 Center in Little Valley, died last week after the lawn mower he was driving down the road near his home was struck by a car.
Lexer, an East Otto firefighter for 42 years and fire chief for 11 of those years, worked as a dispatcher for 20 years. Lexer was fire chief from 1999 to 2010. He answered his last 911 call in Little Valley on Tuesday, July 30.
Capt. Brandon Walters of the Sheriff’s Office, who as head of the communications office worked daily with Lexer, told WKBW-TV, “You’re never going to fill a hole left by a man like Tim Lexer.” He added that Lexer “was there for everyone he worked with, his family, his fire department, an amazing person.”
East Otto firefighters and other volunteer firemen from across Cattaraugus County held a memorial service for Lexer Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, following funeral services at 11 a.m. at Mentley Funeral Home in Little Valley, dozens of sheriff’s and other law enforcement vehicles as well as scores of fire service vehicles from departments across Cattaraugus County and Western New York escorted the hearse bearing Lexer’s body past the Sheriff’s Department and Cattaraugus County Center on Court Street in Little Valley.
The long procession winded over county roads from Little Valley to East Otto, where the community lined the street in front of the fire hall waiting to honor Lexer.
Jim Ellis, a former Cattaraugus County Legislator, sat in a chair in front of the fire hall waiting for the hearse bearing Lexer’s body home. “I knew him well,” Ellis said of Tim Lexer. “His father, Stuart Lexer, was the best man at my wedding.”
One of Lexer’s colleagues, Megan Gentner of the East Otto Fire Department told WKBW that he “was the sweetest person ever. Nothing ever phased him. He always stayed calm, cool, collected.”
Gentner added: “He loved East Otto so much, he loved his family, his grandkids were number one. We will miss him dearly, because he was such an asset to us.”
