With worries about the future now a thing of the past, Jamestown resident Warren Conklin said he’s ready for what lies ahead. The 48-year-old Chautauqua County man won a $1,000,000 top prize on the New York Lottery’s Empire State Millionaire scratch-off game. Lottery draw team member Gretchen Dizer, a Western New York native, presented Conklin with his ceremonial check today at the Jamestown convenience store where the winning ticket was sold.

“It’s a Godsend, really,” said Conklin, the head maintenance mechanic at a private label bottling plant in Dunkirk. “I don’t have to worry about the future anymore.” Conklin credited his girlfriend with purchasing his $1,000,000 winner. “She ran to the store to get some cream for her coffee,” he said. “I asked her to get some Lottery tickets for me, and this is one of the tickets she picked; simple as that.” Conklin remembers the moment he realized his $5 Empire State Millionaire ticket was a $1,000,000 winner. “It was Thanksgiving. My girlfriend came back from the store, and I was sitting at the table still talking with friends. I scratched the ticket and then we all just kept passing it around the table saying, ‘This can’t be true.’ I spent the rest of the night pacing around the house.” Conklin’s winning Empire State Millionaire ticket was purchased at Robo Enterprises on Marion Street in Jamestown. “It was the only place near us that was open on Thanksgiving,” recalled the new Lottery millionaire. Conklin will receive his $1,000,000 prize in 20 annual payments of $50,000. His annual net check will total $33,090. “I don’t have any real plans for the money,” insisted Conklin. “It’s just nice knowing it’s there.”