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In Our Opinion

County Should Designate How Your Money Will Be Spent

County legislators had quite the discussion last week about how much more of your money the county should keep for a rainy day. In the past the county’s Financial Management Policy gave legislators a 10% range between 5% and 15% of the county’s budget where the county’s surplus should fall at the end of each year. Legislators approved a change to the policy last week recommending a 12.5% of the county’s budget be kept in the surplus. For comparison, the surplus coming into this year was 13.9% of the county’s budget. Having a surplus isn’t a bad thing. It prevents the ...

New Code Blue Shelter Is A Good First Step

The opening of a new Code Blue shelter in Jamestown is a good next step in dealing with the homeless problem in Jamestown. That isn’t to detract from previous shelters the city tried to open with non-profit partners in 2022. But this different approach recognizes a couple of lessons have ...

School Is Back In Session; Be Safe Around Buses, Children

School starts in earnest tomorrow in Chautauqua County, and while drivers should be sure to slow down and take their time in all school zones and around stopped school buses, it’s worth noting a major change to the area around Persell Middle School in Jamestown. After weeks of work, the barricades have been removed from the intersection of Baker Street and Hazeltine Avenue - and those who aren’t paying attention could find themselves hitting either new curbing or another vehicle. The entire purpose of the Baker and Hazeltine intersection redesign is to slow traffic after a rash of ...

Controversy Over City Facebook Page Is Ludicrous

It used to be city officials only had to hear how stupid they were during public comment at a council meeting, in the Reader’s Forum pages of The Post-Journal, local radio talk shows or if they were out and about and approached by a constituent. Those old examples, however, can be instructive as we consider the current “controversy” over whether or not the city of Jamestown has to allow comments on its City of Jamestown Municipal Facebook page. There is no First Amendment right to print letters in the Reader’s Forum. There was no First Amendment right that forces local radio ...

Government Cannot Spend Its Way Out Of Housing Problem

The Harris campaign is proposing assistance — up to $10,000 for first-time homebuyers and up to $25,000 for first-generation homebuyers — with down payments to purchase a house. There are at least two reasons every American should be deeply skeptical about the feasibility of this proposal. It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads our editorials that we have significant concerns about what this level of spending will do to the national annual deficit and to the $34 trillion debt to which that deficit continually adds. We understand we may seem excessively repetitive ...

County Was Right To Take Quick Action After Attempted Escape

After the July 11 escape attempt from the Chautauqua County Jail, we opined that the county should figure out how an inmate came so close to escaping from the Mayville facility. Kudos to Sheriff Jim Quattrone for doing just that. Members of the Chautauqua County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee recently met in executive session with Quattrone to discuss what has been learned from a review of the incident. While much of that discussion is eligible for executive session discussion, the fact that such a review and follow-up discussion happened. It would have been easy for ...