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City Expands Transparency Efforts

It was my goal when I ran for Mayor to make city government more transparent and open to the public we serve. We started immediately after my inauguration by continuing the new practice of streaming City Council meetings online through the city website. Sometimes a crisis has a way of moving forward technology in unexpected, positive ways. When the pandemic caused all but essential operations to shut down, we were easily able to transition to streaming City Council meetings and other board meetings to the City website and eventually to social media. This simple act has resulted in ...

Governmental Pecking Order Comes In Focus

Most Americans are generally familiar that there is a “pecking order” when it comes to government. The federal government sits at the top, then come the states followed by the counties, and then all of the various forms of local government from towns to cities to villages and then school districts. In New York state, townships and cities tend to be deemed at the same level — at least when it comes to the property tax. A town cannot tax county property but it can tax a city — case in point, the town of Poland taxes the city of Jamestown for its investments in the town including ...

Better Sooner Than Later

CHAUTAUQUA LAKE — Imagine the impression of Native Americans who, however long ago, first laid eyes on Chautauqua Lake. With all of their respect for the natural world, they must have thought this lake was a treasure. The first Europeans to encounter it, just over two centuries ago, must have thought the same. The same is true of those who almost a century and a half ago founded what in many ways would become an iconic American cultural institution on the shores of the lake. The lake is a natural resource that has attracted tourists from near and far for generations. It’s ...

Sunny Summer Masks Threat Of Drought

Last Thursday was like last Wednesday, last Tuesday, and last Monday. They all featured beautiful summer mornings. Fluffy white clouds punctuated clear blue skies. Temperatures were in the balmy 60s in the mornings, near 80 in afternoons, with slight summer breezes for wind. Lovely. But we need rain. I have not yet seen “Drought!” in headlines. I do see it looming. The Little Mill Creek a quarter-mile from our house is a series of puddles marked by the dismal thrashing of trapped fish. I have not fired up a riding mower in nearly three weeks. When I walk across our yard, ...

Bats, Pumpkins, Ghosts, And Faith

I am sitting down in my living room, looking at a ghost, a witch and a bat. Pretty odd company for the tail end of August, if you ask me, but then again, my daughter invited them. If we are being specific, she created them. My eldest decided to create Halloween decorations with her younger sister, using reams of construction paper, gem stones, glitter glue and oodles of tape. They made spooky ghosts, creepy witches, glittering Jack O’Lanterns and hanging bats that looked like they were flying. While I encouraged their artsy efforts, I tried to remind them that Halloween is two ...

Truth Has Two Faces

Truth comes in two flavors. One is the measurable, touchable, physically-manipulable world outside of me, as an individual. It is the world of physics, biology, gravity, and rocket science. Even those who say they live their own truth expect the lights to go on when they flip the switch, and call an electrician or do some type of trouble-shooting when they don’t. They turn the key for their car’s ignition and expect it to start and to go forward when they put it in gear and press the accelerator. They take it to a mechanic if it doesn’t, because reality is real. Effects do have ...