Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to Cummins Inc. for a $90 million project that will bring a new engine line to the Jamestown Engine Plant. County IDA officials recently heard about Cummins’ plan to introduce a production line of block engines currently produced in Germany to the Jamestown plant. Ten new jobs, along with the security of 31 positions, are projected to result from the redevelopment, which is set to take place over the course of three years. The total cost of the renovation is estimated at $90 million, with almost $50 million associated with a 40,000-square-foot area that will be cleared for the new engine line. Repson said the high-volume line would produce 90,000 engines per year. Thumbs up to the local plant for reducing its costs to make this expansion possible. At a time when the county has been hit with stunning manufacturing job losses, adding a few new jobs and protecting existing jobs is noteworthy indeed.
Thumbs down to the town of Busti falling prey to the appearance of impropriety. Busti Town Board members recently accepted the resignation of Walter Dahlgren, who plans to retire at the end of December, and appointed William Geary to the position effective in January until an election next November. Town officials interviewed six people for the position before deciding Geary had the best qualifications. The board has done nothing wrong and, in fact, followed the rule and letter of the law. Geary will have to go through an election, but not until nearly a year after he takes office. Appointing someone to an elected position less than three weeks after an election doesn’t sit well with some town residents and it certainly gives the appearance of impropriety to accept a resignation and appoint a successor on the same night. The board may have found the best person, but the process appears poor.
Thumbs up to the completion of renovations at the Ashville Free Library. The Ashville Free Library, located at 2200 North Maple St., Ashville, received $81,000 for updates and improvements through a combination of a state Education Department public library construction grant and grants from the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation and Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation. The project, which began in mid-September, involved new vinyl siding, vinyl clapboard and shake shingles, remodeling the front entrance, a new front door and windows and an 8-by-20 foot covered front porch with recessed lighting so people can read outside. Tabetha Butler, library director, told The Post-Journal some people had visited the library and expressed surprise at the differences between the library’s interior and exterior. Now, the library is beautiful inside and out – and it’s more energy efficient to boot.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Two big thumbs up to what is shaping up to be a funny month of Aug. in Chautauqua County. Recently, Chautauqua Institution announced the news Carol Burnett will perform at the institution on August 21. Then, on Thursday, the Lucy-Desi Museum and Center for Comedy announced it has booked Jerry Seinfeld, who will give two performances on Aug. 1 as the headline performer for the 2015 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival. Tickets for the two Seinfeld performances go on sale in February while tickets for Burnett’s show go on sale in April. Thumbs up to officials from both institutions for their hard work in bringing two comedy legends to stages in Chautauqua County.
Thumbs down to the problems caused by too much traffic. We grant that this is a good problem for businesses located in the Lakewood Village Plaza, the home to PetSmart, T.J. Maxx and Michael’s, among others. Getting into the plaza is easy. Getting out of the plaza during busy times of the day can be an extraordinary hassle. The area from decorative berms to the intersection with Fairmount Avenue isn’t long enough, particularly if a delivery truck is waiting in line. Traffic, particularly during the lunch hour when people are going to Tim Hortons and M&T Bank, often curls from the traffic light at Fairmount Avenue into driving lanes out of the plaza – a situation that is frustrating at best and potentially dangerous. The traffic light itself needs to have a left arrow to allow traffic onto Fairmount Avenue. It isn’t uncommon to wait two cycles of the light to be able to make a left turn onto Fairmount from the plaza as traffic with the right of way drives straight from Mall Boulevard into the plaza. Near accidents are common, caused by nothing but sheer frustration. Plaza and village officials need to get together and solve this issue.
Thumbs up to discussions that could lead to the Barcelona Harbor Lighthouse being open again to the public. There is talk that, for the first time in the lighthouse’s history, the town of Westfield may get co-ownership of it. The state Department of Parks and Recreation wants to share ownership of the historic Barcelona Harbor Lighthouse, and the hope is the lighthouse will be used once again as a tourist attraction. We hope state and town officials can arrive at an agreement. Opening the lighthouse for tours and allowing people to see the vital role lighthouses played in American history certainly fits the county’s brand as the World’s Learning Center.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to one of the first non-retail signs that the Christmas season is upon us. Jamestown’s city Christmas tree, donated by the Fargo family of Loretta Avenue, Jamestown, found its new home at Tracy Plaza on Wednesday. The Colorado blue spruce was about 60 feet tall but has been cut down to around 40 feet tall for the display at Tracy Plaza. It will now be decorated with more than 4,000 energy-saving LED lights in preparation for the Christmas Parade and Holiday Celebration, titled “Winter Wonderland,” co-sponsored by The Resource Center and Lutheran Jamestown, on Friday, Dec. 5.
Thumbs down to a rash of unlicensed drivers causing accidents on city streets. Two unlicensed operators were in accidents that injured pedestrians while another unlicensed operator caused a three-car accident this week on North Main Street. According to a 2013 working group paper by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, research indicates that 75 percent of all suspended drivers continue to drive. The study also noted 3.1 percent of licensed drivers are involved in a crash, while 19 percent of drivers with a suspended license for traffic safety reasons are involved in a crash. This is an area that deserves some discussion statewide among police officials, judges and legislators.
Thumbs up to one of the area’s largest manufacturers doing its part to lessen its carbon footprint. Cummins Inc.’s Jamestown Engine Plant recently showed U.S. Department of Energy officials multimillion dollar infrastructure upgrades that will save the company millions of dollars in energy costs. In addition to the federal officials, guests from Solar Liberty, National Grid and Massa Mechanical Services toured the plant to see Cummins’ deep energy retrofit as part of the federal Better Buildings Challenge program. Cummins has installed energy-efficient lighting, a new thermal-insulated roof with solar panels, upgraded the heating and cooling system and the energy control system. The new 2-megawatt solar installation is capable of generating about a third of the plant’s power on the sunniest days, and the company is also almost entirely eliminating the use of steam at the plant, replacing it with direct-fired gas units and new cooling equipment that will save about 4 million gallons of water annually. In addition, other improvements and upgrades make the plant the first Cummins site to achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status. Cummins isn’t done yet, either. Mike Abbate, Cummins engine plant manager, said plant officials will continue to find new ways to be more energy efficient in the future, including using three regenerative dynamometers that recover energy from engine testing and provide power to the facility. The projects are expected to save 250 million BTUs and $1.4 million in energy costs.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to New York’s recent designation by Wine Enthusiast magazine as Wine Region of the Year. The honor is recognition of the growth of New York’s wine industry from 37 wineries to 375 and of the quality of those wineries. We note the regular news releases from area wineries touting their latest wine competition awards and the tourism boost brought to Chautauqua County by the Lake Erie Wine Country as proof that our region has been front and center in New York’s emergence as a top wine region.
Thumbs down to state spending. The state Comptroller’s office reported recently that state government spending increased 3.3 percent to $137.5 billion in the last fiscal year, which ended March 31. The report said spending increases have been in line with inflation, growing 8.4 percent since 2010, though that really is nothing to be proud of. State politicians should aim for spending cuts, not increases. Many New Yorkers’ salaries fail to keep pace with inflation. According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, median household income increased only 7 percent from 2007 to 2013. Meanwhile, New York has the highest tax burden in the nation. New York’s 2011 tax burden was 12.63 percent, according to the Washington-based Tax Foundation. New York’s taxpayers pay $6,622 per capita in state and local taxes, and the state’s personal income-tax system ranks eighth highest among states levying an individual income tax, according to the foundation. Our state legislators must do better.
Thumbs up to continued steps forward for the North County Water District. The Chautauqua County Water Agency recently unanimously approved a plan to establish a water district involving the towns of Portland, Pomfret, Sheridan, Dunkirk and Brocton, who will purchase water from the city of Dunkirk and the village of Fredonia. When their Erie County Water Authority contract expires in 2019, Hanover and Silver Creek will join in the district purchase agreement. A follow-on plan will connect the town and village of Westfield. It has been a long road with much debate and discussion. It’s good to see cooler heads prevailing on an important infrastructure project.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Thumbs up to a proposal on the ballot for Tuesday’s election that would allow the state Legislature to print bills electronically. Currently, the state prints paper copies of each bill for Legislature approval at a cost of more than $50 million a year. Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, has backed this proposal. Those who prefer paper copies of the bills can still receive them that way, but approving the ballot proposition brings New York’s Legislature into the 21st century – on this front, at least. Voters should approve this proposition.
Thumbs down to the flop that is the state’s public campaign finance pilot project. Neither Thomas DiNapoli nor Bob Antonacci, the candidates running for state comptroller, have taken part in the system. Antonacci, the endorsed Republican in the race, has raised more than $200,000 so far, meeting the minimum required to receive 6-to-1 state funding for his bid to become the state’s chief financial officer. But about $50,000 of that comes from donations greater than $175, with only smaller donations counting toward the required total matched with public money. DiNapoli, the incumbent Democrat, had raised $2.1 million from private donors when the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the public financing test in April. He chose not to participate in the pilot program because he would have had to return or sequester his larger donations. He also said there wasn’t enough lead time to implement it fairly, and the pilot program was “a poor excuse” to avoid real reforms, according to The Associated Press.
Thumbs up to the Jamestown High School marching band for its state championship performance recently at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Those who live on the city’s south side, on a still night, can hear the band’s outdoor practices and have an inkling of how hard the band’s musicians work to not only play well but march well, too. The band members’ months of practice and work paid off at the Carrier Dome, with Jamestown adding to its already proud tradition as one of the area’s finest marching bands. The public can see their state championship band perform again at the Downtown Jamestown Holiday Parade on Dec. 5.