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Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Thumbs up to all the high school students who will walk across the stage and receive their high school diploma. Those diplomas signify an end to one chapter of these youths’ lives and the start of an even more exciting time in their lives. For some, this means heading off to college in the fall. Others are entering the military to serve their country while still others will enter the workforce.

Thumbs down to electronic reports that can take 30 to 45 minutes for volunteer firefighters and EMS workers to complete. The increased time to handle the reports is prompting concern from the Chautauqua County Fire Advisory Board, whose members say the $2.75 cost per report and time needed for the reports is too costly for small fire departments to bear and too time consuming for volunteers who are taking time from work to respond to calls. Obviously, something should be done to lessen the cost on small volunteer fire departments already operating on a razor-thin margin and the forms should be streamlined. However, having data available helps policy makers write much-needed laws to diagnose the ills of society. We note the difficulty finding reliable information about drug overdoses in Chautauqua County, for instance, which makes it difficult to decide appropriate courses of action for state and county lawmakers. They need the information provided by first responders.

Thumbs up to getting an early start on the Fourth of July weekend. The village of Cherry Creek’s Independence Day Celebration continues with events throughout the day today, including a book sale at the Cherry Creek Free Library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lineup for the village’s Independence Day parade begins at noon, with the parade down Main Street beginning at 1 p.m. Also, at noon will be the “drop off” time for entries in the Pie Contest. Entries will be accepted until 1 p.m. Rides from Titan Entertainment begin at 2 p.m. and continue until 10 p.m. Also at 2 p.m. will the chicken barbecue, sponsored by the Cherry Creek Fire Department and auxiliary. The Little Miss/Mister Cherry Creek Contest begins at 2:30 p.m., sponsored by the America’s Promise program at CCB. A live auction begins at 3:45 p.m., with all proceeds going to events sponsored by the Cherry Creek Community Association Inc. New to the agenda this year are the “Redneck Games for All Ages” that will begin at 5 p.m. Music for the evening begins at 6:30 p.m. with The Midroom Drifters. Uncle Ben’s Remedy will entertain from 7 p.m. until the fireworks display begins at 10 p.m. The celebration closes Sunday morning with a community worship service at 10:30 a.m.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Thumbs up to Nicholas McIntyre, a Southwestern Central School student at the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES Hewes Center in Ashville, who will compete in the 50th SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference starting Monday in St. Louis. McIntyre is a senior Motorsports Fabrication/Precisioning Machining student who previously placed first in the state SkillsUSA competition. McIntyre is one of many talented and skilled youth who excel in the real-life applications presented to them as part of the BOCES curriculum.

Thumbs down to whoever set fire to an abandoned house at 837 Prendergast Avenue early Thursday morning. As one can see from the photo in Friday’s edition of The Post-Journal, setting fire to the abandoned home impacted much more than one vacant property. The home next door had to be evacuated and the owner of the neighboring property now has to deal with insurance companies and the hassle of fixing the damaged side of a home.

Thumbs up to a project that will soon have bells ringing again in downtown Jamestown. In September, the northeast turret at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was hit by lightning. The turret, fire alarm system, clock, bells and operating mechanisms for both the bells and the clock were all damaged. Work recently began to repair the turret’s masonry, the bells and the alarm system. However, the clock faces, mechanism and lighting aren’t covered by insurance. Church officials have received a $2,000 grant from the Karl Peterson Foundation and $4,000 from the Jessie Smith Darrah Fund, but more money will be needed to help pay for repairs. The church will hold fundraisers in the coming months and is accepting donations through the church office.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Thumbs up to efforts to combat the destructive invasion of the water chestnut at the Jamestown Audubon Society’s Big Pond. Volunteers will meet from 1-4 p.m. today – and several times throughout the summer – to pull the water chestnuts from the pond. “Water chestnuts take away resources from other plants and animals in the pond, and they can spread incredibly quickly,” said Katie Finch, an Audubon teacher/naturalist. The plant’s sharp points with barbs on the tips make it easy for the water chestnut to spread quickly after attaching to bird feathers, shoe soles and tire treads. In 2012, volunteers conducted several searches of the 42 miles of shoreline along the lake, successfully removing 17 plants. Fifty volunteers spent more than 500 hours removing the plant in 2013. For more information on future searches, call the Audubon at 569-2345 or email waterchestnut@jamestownaudubon.org. Because the plant is so easily capable of spreading, those who are out and about on area waterways should be on the lookout for the water chestnut, which has multiple leaves, and sits on the surface of the water much like a lily pad.

Thumbs up to the Jamestown Zoning Board of Appeals for refusing to allow for a two-family home at 632-634 Lakeview Ave. in a district zoned for single-family homes. We also note and applaud the engaged north side residents who made their voices known to the Zoning Board of Appeals. The home’s owner surely had the best of intentions with his project, but Jamestown simply doesn’t need more homes converted into multi-family residences. We note the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Study and its recommendation that excess housing be removed from the market before new housing units are added to the city’s housing mix. The Zoning Board of Appeals’ decision was the right one for Jamestown’s north side.

Thumbs up to Peter Lombardi, Jamestown Renaissance Corp. deputy director, for completion of his book, ”Jamestown, New York: A Guide To The City And Its Urban Landscape.” The book includes a narrative of Jamestown that provides a short history, the economic and social forces that have influenced the city’s architecture and development patterns and detailed entries on more than 100 buildings and sites, with maps to facilitate walking and driving tours. ”To understand where we’ve been … puts us in a better position on where we should go,” Lombardi said earlier this week during a book release party.

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Thumbs up to Vince Martonis, the Hanover town historian whose expertise ranges far beyond Hanover history. Martonis, who recently spoke to members of the Randolph Historical Society, spent 23 years working with the Buffalo Museum at the Hiscock Mastadon site near Batavia and has worked at a dinosaur site in Montana for the last 13 years. The team he assists has discovered two new species along with other dinosaurs which have resulted in three papers, copy edited by Martonis, published in paleontology journals. It’s easy to forget historians like Martonis have specialties outside of local history.

Thumbs down to defacing a $14.5 million building and besmirching years of other peoples’ hard work. Those who spent years planning and executing the $14.5 million renovation of the former Erie-Lackawanna Railroad Station didn’t do so to create a blank canvas for graffiti artists or a new area for vandalism in the city. Yet, on May 21, Jamestown police found 18-year-old Luis A. Cintron spraying paint on the building with three look-outs, including, disappointingly, 38-year-old Margaret Rosario, a 16-year-old youth and a 12-year-old child. There are more than enough places for people to express themselves artistically, and, just to set the record straight, landmark buildings aren’t one of them. It is even more disappointing that the May 21 incident wasn’t the first case involving vandalism or damage to the facility in the less than two years since its grand opening. Such malarkey needs to come to an end.

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