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In Our Opinion

County tax cut is nice, but is the budget realistic?

County Executive PJ Wendel is proposing a 58 cent tax rate decrease and no tax levy increase in his 2027 budget. Not increasing the levy is due, in part, to increased use of the county’s surplus while the county’s tax rate decrease is due, in part, to a 14% increase in the value of property in the county. It’s a good position for the county to be in - because we are pretty sure when we see budget proposals from Jamestown and Dunkirk in a couple of weeks the pictures won’t be nearly that pretty. In addition, the county plans to spend an additional $100,000 on Chautauqua Lake ...

It shouldn’t be this hard to park downtown

Parking meter issues have been a point of consternation over the past couple of years - and they really shouldn’t be. A couple of years ago the city was having issues with batteries failing in some parking meters that caused some meters to stop working at all. In 2023 new parking meters purchased with a state grant in 2021 began to malfunction as their batteries died out. Some of those meters were replaced with coin parking meters until new batteries could be ordered, though some of the meters weren't able to handle the coin payments because of the way they were shaped. Earlier ...

On shopping carts, we agree on the what, disagree on the how

It’s hard to disagree with the city’s proposal to crack down on shopping carts that are littering many city neighborhoods. In many cases, the carts are making it easier for people to steal metal - like the innards from a freezer at the St. Susan Center, markers from Lakeview Cemetery or other items throughout the city - and transport them to scrapyards. So not only are the carts becoming a growing eyesore in some neighborhoods, they are also actively being used in thefts and criminal mischief. A memorandum associated with the ordinance noted that on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, code ...

City commission is a tree that fell in a forest. No one noticed.

The City Council is poised to remove the Strategic Planning and Partnerships Commission from the City Charter after a lengthy period of inactivity. Most city residents didn’t realize that the commission was still in the charter. After being reinvigorated around 20 years ago during former Mayor Sam Teresi’s administration, and largely driven by Dr. Lillian Ney during her time on the City Council, the commission has fallen back into dormancy. The commission was largely a group that made non-binding recommendations to the mayor and City Council and worked on special projects that ...

Democrat’s outside income argument falls flat in rural NY

It’s pretty funny that it’s a Democrat who is now taking aim at repealing the state’s outside income limits for state lawmakers. Assemblyman Clyde Vanel makes many of the same arguments that Republicans made in opposition to the $35,000 outside income cap before the state Legislature approved them in 2022. Vanel, D-Queens City, argued in the legislative justification for A.11733 that the outside income cap wouldn’t have prevented any of the laundry list malfeasance involving the New York’s legislators in the 2000s. He also argues that the very costs that the state has ...

New laws alone won’t end e-bike frustration

We’re not sure if it’s a majority or a minority, but it’s clear there is a vocal segment of Jamestown residents who don’t like the proliferation of e-bikes and other personal mobility devices in the city. The issue came up again during last week’s City Council committee meetings and work session. Residents’ complaints aren’t without merit. We would have thought the state Legislature would have taken steps to clear up some of this mess over the past couple of years, but despite dozens of pieces of legislation being introduced over the past couple of years little has ...