Breaking News

In Our Opinion

Changes To City Budget Merely Postpone The Pain

City Council members are poised tonight to pass a budget with much less of a tax increase than was proposed a month ago by Mayor Kim Ecklund. That’s good in the short-term. The increase in costs that we have seen across the board has pinched many homeowners’ budgets, so even small tax increases add on to the total increase in costs for everything from utilities to basic household items that have hit all of us. City officials have suggested adding $63,099 in expenses back into the budget, cutting $23,647 in health insurance expenses and $2,000 for the city Human Rights ...

The Kids Have The Right Idea, Follow Their Lead

Our county’s population loss is being acutely felt in rural school districts, where the fairly small but steady population loss makes it difficult to provide elective courses and extracurricular activities that were common as recently as the mid 1990s or early 2000s. Shared sports teams have helped keep extracurricular options open for students, with few mergers working as well as those involving Clymer, Sherman and Panama students. That’s particularly true of the schools’ merged football team, which once again is in the midst of a deep state playoff run. Merging other sports ...

Workforce Development Efforts To Receive A New Test

The Jamestown area got an early Christmas present last week with the announcement that the final piece of funding is in place for Electrovaya to open its lithium ion battery Gigafactory in Ellicott. The Canadian company will create about hundreds of new jobs in a local economy that has long needed the addition of dependable, non-seasonal, non-tourism-related positions. It’s been a long road for Electrovaya as company officials worked through the purchase of the former MD Electronics building in the Mason Industrial Park and then pieced together the puzzle of loans, tax incentives ...

Area’s Thanksgiving Meal Goal Is Far More Than 1,500

Conduit Ministries and its partners have set quite a goal for themselves this Thanksgiving season. The Jamestown church is partnering with Bemus Point Methodist Church to raise enough money to provide 1,500 Thanksgiving meals to the community. Bemus Point members have already raised more than $50,000 for the effort. It’s a big goal that fills a big need in the community. Kudos to church leadership for seeing the need and starting early to try to help. And a heartfelt thank you to church members in both congregations who have dug deep into their pockets and who have given freely ...

Federal Policy Changes Could Have Local Impact

There are going to be changes to environmental regulations once President Donald Trump takes office in January. But we hope those changes don’t do much to damage the emerging green energy sector that is growing in the Jamestown area. Cummins Inc.’s fuel agnostic X15N engine is in full production at Cummins’ Busti plant after $452 million of investment in a new line to produce the engine. NFI Group has been on the receiving end of purchase orders backed by federal dollars infrastructure programs aiming to push lower emissions buses into fleets in big cities. Many of those orders ...

Renewable Energy Sites Are Not Job Drivers

No municipality seems immune from tax increases. Nearly everyone who is engaged with what’s happening locally knows about the city of Dunkirk’s plans to raise the tax rate 108% next year due to its fiscal crisis, but other locations also are having troubles. Nearby, the town of Dunkirk announced a small tax hike at a recent board meeting. It’s very minimal — about 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. In the meantime, with tax rates so low in the town it seems unthinkable a renewable energy company would be looking for a break. That’s exactly what’s happening with two ...