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In Our Opinion

Study’s release puts ball in communities’ court

We now should feel fairly comfortable that it’s not only possible to merge the Clymer, Sherman and Panama school districts, but generally beneficial to do so now that the merger study by White and Partners has been released. The 149-page study, for those interested, is available at tinyurl.com/3xp2dt97. In short, the study reinforces declining population trends in all three districts, suggests keeping elementary school children in their respective home communities and then operating a merged middle-high school for seventh through 12th grades in Panama for a variety of reasons. The ...

Straw gun purchases fueling illegal gun pipeline

A recent incident in Warren provides an example of just how easy it can be to skirt well-meaning laws written to keep guns out of the wrong hands. A couple with Buffalo addresses living in Warren were both charged earlier this spring with several felony charges related to alleged false statements made on gun purchase forms, including five purchases in Warren County for firearms then taken to New York state and sold to the sort of people who won’t undergo a background check. What should make people on both sides of our nation’s intractable gun debate consider is that this scheme ...

City’s high grass message got lost in its tone

Jamestown’s Development Department isn’t wrong to use social media to warn city residents about quality of life tickets for those who let their grass get too high. High grass is the top complaint the department hears once we hit the spring and summer months. Some lawns can look more like a hayfield than a city lawn, and Crystal Surdyk, city development director, makes a good point about grass and shrubs at some intersections being tall enough near curbs and intersections to make it difficult to see traffic. But the department’s May 31 message posted on the Development ...

What will our future hold in another 200 years?

This weekend The Post-Journal celebrates 200 years of bringing readers the news. We’ve all changed a lot over two centuries. We started publishing when our nation was 50 years old - which means our pages have been through the Civil War, two World Wars. We’ve chronicled the rise of a sitting New York governor from Jamestown and a city attorney ascend all the way to the highest court in the nation. Our pages have chronicled the careers of noteworthy city residents who’ve gone on to achieve fame and fortune in their respective fields. We’ve covered massive fires and ...

New officer is a first step in fight against animal cruelty

Over the past eight years, there have been only 20 entries in the Chautauqua County Animal Abuse registry - though five have been added since December. All came from the city of Jamestown. Perhaps the creation of a new deputy position in the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office to focus on animal abuse cases will increase that number. The Chautauqua County Legislature approved funding as part of the 2026 county budget. That deputy - Jim Andin - was introduced recently by Sheriff Jim Quattrone. Quattrone said most of the Sheriff’s Office deputies have a brief overview of animal ...

City will need new ways to pay for demolitions

Jamestown is on track to spend all of the American Rescue Plan Act funding it allocated for housing demolitions by the end of the year. That means the city will meet the federal deadline for the use of that pot of money - though that should be the least of the city’s concerns, in our opinion, when it comes to housing demolitions. The city usually budgets between $100,000 and $130,000 for emergency demolitions - or enough for between three to four demolitions. City officials also include funding for housing demolitions in the annual Community Development Block Grant program. In ...