Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to the biggest family reunion to visit Chautauqua County this year. More than 2,000 relatives of Buffalo Bill Cody have been invited to attend the four-day Cody Family Reunion, which features a festival, art, music and antique guns on display at the Jamestown Gateway Train Station, wild west shows, a parade at 9 a.m. today and speakers at Chautauqua Institution. Thumbs up to Lee Harkness, who has been working on this particular reunion for more than a year and to bring the Cody family to Jamestown for a reunion for at least a decade. For a complete list of events, visit www.jamestowntrainstation.com or www.cody-family.org.
Thumbs up to a $2.5 million improvement project to improve the conditions around Ben Weitsman of Jamestown, 610 W. Eight St., Jamestown. The scrap yard will now have more than 4 acres of new blacktop and green space to eliminate the dusty environment surrounding the business. The project will also include a retention pond for stormwater management, a new 6,000-square-foot metal shop building, a new office building facade and four new containment structures. New curbs, sidewalks and landscaping will be added along West Eighth Street. The Weitsman property is located near a key piece of the Riverwalk system and has also been the source of numerous complaints from neighbors. The improvements will certainly make the area more attractive for Riverwalk users, while we hope it assuages the concerns of neighbors who have took their concerns to the City Council as recently as April about noise, dust and debris in the area.
Thumbs up to the Southwestern Schools Education Foundation. The foundation recently celebrated its 10th anniversary as the only active foundation working to benefit a school district. The foundation raised $590,000 toward a $2.7 million renovation of the district’s track and football field, including a $100,000 for future repairs and maintenance; provided $15,000 in equipment to the middle school music department, $6,000 for new middle school laptops, $1,500 for the elementary school science lab, $1,500 toward the elementary school arts programs bronze sculptures, $9,000 for new mobile bleachers, $7,000 for a new sound system for the football field, $20,000 to upgrade the desktop computers in the Middle school and Elementary school as well as provide new Smart Boards for the high school, $5,000 for the Teacher Innovation Grants and $4,000 in scholarships for graduating seniors. For more information, visit www.swcsfoundation.org for more information on the foundation.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to a mid-July rite of summer. Ashville Days takes place throughout the day today at the Ashville Fire Department’s baseball field in Cedar Avenue, across the street from the Chautauqua Lake Auction Center. A parade will begin at 10 a.m. Residents can enter a float in the parade; float registration must be completed by July 12. A pig roast hosted by the fire department, is planned, as well as a water fight involving several local fire departments, a “Moms and Pops versus the Kids” kickball game, a tea time hat contest, a T-shirt designing contest, a homemade sailboat racing contest, community-wide yard sales and the celebration of the Ashville Volunteer Fire Department’s 100th anniversary. And, for those who haven’t yet, there are opportunities to donate to help continue the Ashville Days fireworks shows. Monetary donations can be sent to the Llama Club, P.O. Box 163, Ashville NY, 14710. Checks should be made out to “Llama Club Fireworks Committee.”
Thumbs down to the Facebook post about lawn mower inspections making the rounds. As was published recently in The Post-Journal, the inspection is a hoax. Kudos to Larry Barmore, county clerk, for investigating the claim and acting quickly to reassure county residents they will not have to take their lawn mower to an automotive service station to be inspected. A double thumbs down to a state government which inspects, taxes and has fees for so many aspects of our lives that such a scam seemed like something the state would have done. As Barmore said, “Let’s just hope this spoof didn’t give anyone any ideas.”
Thumbs up to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, for asking the Detroit Public Library and Shappell Manuscript Foundation to loan letters written by Grace Bedell of Westfield to Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to the Chautauqua County Historical Society. The letters would be displayed at the McClurg Museum in Westfield. Not only did Lincoln heed Bedell’s advice to grow a beard for the 1860 election, he stopped in Westfield on his way to his inauguration in Washington, D.C., and met Bedell. The letters would be a wonderful display as the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination draws near.
Thumbs down to a recent state Supreme Court decision to dismiss lawsuits challenging the state’s delay in finishing its health and environmental analysis of possible shale gas drilling in New York state. The suits were filed on behalf of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, a group with 70,000 members, and the trustee of bankrupt Norse Energy and claimed the state Department of Environmental Conservation had abused its discretion in delaying completion of the environmental review, which began in July 2008. We wonder which will surface first – the state’s review of shale gas drilling or Lois Lerner’s missing IRS emails?
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to summer reading programs at libraries throughout the county. The New York State Library website states it is estimated school summer breaks will cause the average student to lose up to one month of instruction, with disadvantaged students being disproportionately affected. Those economically disadvantaged students are a population many school districts in Chautauqua County struggle to reach, as evidenced in charts published in the July 6 edition of The Post-Journal. Summer reading is one way to reverse the summer slide. Thumbs up, then, to all of the libraries offering summer reading programs, the volunteers running those programs and all of the parents who make reading enough of a summer priority to make sure their children participate in these programs. Your efforts will pay off.
Thumbs down to those who give the Great Blue Heron a bad reputation. Every year, the New York State Police have a checkpoint set up near the festival. And every year, troopers issue dozens of tickets for possession of controlled substances – marijuana, mushrooms, LSD and others, according to State Police reports. The Blue Heron is a wonderful opportunity every year for families to spend a weekend camping, enjoying nature and listening to some of the best local music the area has to offer. It is possible to do those things without the help of illegal drugs.
Thumbs down to whoever has taken a plaque from Bergman Park honoring Lyle Parkhurst. The plaque was installed behind the concession stand at the Cal Ripken baseball fields to honor Parkhurst, a longtime youth baseball umpire throughout the region. Anyone with information about what happened to the plaque is asked to call the city Parks Department at 483-7554. Thumbs up, by the way, to George Barone, himself a longtime area youth sports coach, for bringing the theft to our attention.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to the Friends of the Prendergast Library for establishing a Book Sale/Family Literacy Fund to provide used books to organizations that serve children and families. The effort has been particularly pushed by Janet Forbes, a library volunteer, and Daniel and Linda Fellows, founding donors. Any organization seeking free books can apply for a $20 voucher and, if approved, pick up a voucher and select titles from the outgoing library book sale. Individuals or organizations interested in donating to the fund should contact the library at 484-7135, ext. 253. Checks may also be mailed to Prendergast Library at 509 Cherry St., Jamestown. Checks are to be made payable to Prendergast Library, with Book Sale/Family Literacy Fund in the note field. Any effort to spread books and reading should be looked upon favorably.
A hearty amen to a thumbs down from our sister paper in Gloversville. Recently, we heard about yet another New York public authority that is mishandling money. According to a state comptroller’s audit, the New York Power Authority leases public land in the St. Lawrence region to two golf courses, a local boating club and a private university at little or no cost and often without collecting the rent. The audit says the authority collects only a few thousand dollars in rent each year for the properties. The annual payments should exceed $200,000, the audit says. For example, a private St. Lawrence golf course rents land assessed at $1.8 million from the authority for $2,000 a year, while the fair market rent is $180,000 a year. The audit was the latest revelation regarding the mishandling or misuse of money by public authorities. The state should monitor these agencies more closely and, in some cases, demand reform. A 2004 state comptroller’s report stated, “The time for meaningful reform to increase accountability, deter misconduct and reduce waste and inefficiency at the more than 640 public authorities and subsidiary corporations in New York state has come.” Did that time ever arrive?
Thumbs up to the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation’s latest Meeting of the Minds reception. The foundation invites the public to meet with Kevin Sanvidge, recently appointed Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency CEO and county Planning and Economic Development director, starting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, at the Robert H. Jackson Center. Those planning to attend are asked to make reservations by Friday by emailing Sarah Marciniak at smarciniak@crcfonline.org. Sanvidge should be commended for being available to meet with the public and to discuss an issue as important as economic development, while foundation officials deserve credit for putting together a public forum for such an exchange to happen.