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In Our Opinion

DEC Must Pay Attention To Mounting Questions

North Harmony is the latest Chautauqua Lake adjacent municipality to pass a resolution opposing wetlands regulations proposed by the state DEC. Town residents asked a lot of good questions - including some that haven’t come up yet - that include whether or not the Army Corps of Engineers be involved, a concern about what restoration projects may come and if that may affect Watts Flats, as there is no restoration in that area besides brush hogging the field, vagueness, the town having no ability to enforce the regulations, government overreach, potential loss of tax base, increasing ...

County Executive Gets Realistic On Fly Car, Safety Net Costs

We’re glad to see funding for two vital programs properly funded in this year’s county budget proposal by County Executive PJ Wendel. The first is the county fly car program, which hasn’t met its budget since the county began the program in 2017. The program was billed as being cost-neutral, something most governments who find themselves in the ambulance or EMT business find is easy to say and hard to accomplish. At the same time, the program has proven indispensable to county residents who get quicker emergency response and to volunteer fire departments who often struggle to ...

Repurposing Gun Violence Unit Money Works Out In Long Run

Mayor Kim Ecklund and Tim Jackson, city police chief and public safety director, announced last week the city is officially repurposing American Rescue Plan Act funding that had been set aside to form a gun violence unit inside the Jamestown Police Department to instead renovate the department’s long-neglected shooting range. On its face the decision is a head-scratcher. Jamestown is seeing a resurgence in gun crimes that is reminiscent of the rash of shootings that led former Mayor Eddie Sundquist to announce the gun violence unit’s creation in the first place. As we’ve ...

Louisiana’s Higgins Is Sorry Example Of U.S. Representative

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., could not have proved two points more handily last week if he had tried. First, he proved the spreading of vicious lies about an immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio, has indeed led to the kind of hostility that puts those people (and their entire community) in danger. Second, he proved even those we should be able to hold to our highest standards are willing to once again publicly shout their racism and hate. They believe they have been freed of the shame of doing so. According to a report by the Ohio Capital Journal, Higgins was facing calls for ...

School Zone Near Ring, Washington Deserves Fresh Look From State DOT

Typically, school zones can’t be more than 1,300 feet long, according to state Transportation Department guidelines. That’s the reason for the school zone sandwich between Ring Elementary School and Washington Middle School on Buffalo Street. That sandwich, with its 30 mile an hour speed zone surrounded by two 20 mile an hour school zones, has been discussed often by City Council members in recent weeks. It’s been a topic brought up several times by concerned city resident Doug Champ and, now, it’s Alexis Carlson, the Jamestown Police Department’s school resource officer in ...

How Long Can The County Budget Gravy Train Last?

County Executive PJ Wendel’s 2025 budget proposal is an outlier compared to the cities of Dunkirk and, likely, Jamestown as well. Dunkirk is proposing a 100% increase in its tax rate in the coming year. Mayor Kim Ecklund is already warning City Council members that the 2025 Jamestown budget proposal is going to be much tighter than the past few years. Compare those budgets to Wendel’s budget released last week that comes with a 19 cent decrease in the county’s tax rate and we can see why Wendel was smiling when he unveiled his more than $300 million spending plan last week. ...