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Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Thumbs up to Corrie Maxson, a county employee who took it upon herself to help Love Elementary School win a visit from WKBW television’s Weather Machine. Other area districts have hosted the Weather Machine, and Maxson remembered how impactful it was for the children at Southwestern when the machine visited there. Maxson said much of the presentation emphasizes Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, learning. In addition to education, she said the entire event inspires the young students through exploratory learning and discovery. Maxson doesn’t have children who attend Love Elementary, though her county work does have her inside the school on a regular basis, yet Maxson did as much as anyone to help Love win the contest. Kudos, Corrie Maxson, for going above and beyond.

Despite the advance public notice, thumbs down to a frustrating traffic situation Wednesday in downtown Jamestown that was frankly a little dangerous. Crews were milling and paving North Main Street from First to Third streets Wednesday and, at the same time, closed Cherry Street from Second to Third streets for milling. Some drivers couldn’t avoid the area since they work in the area. Anyone who had to park in a Second Street surface lot for work, including permit parkers in the North Main Street parking ramp, were either stranded throughout the day because there was no way to get their vehicle out or, if they could get out, had to break the law by driving the wrong way down one-way streets. That choice included driving head-on into drivers turning from Washington Street onto Second Street, driving down Cherry Street or the blind alley down the back of the Furniture Mart building and hoping no one was coming up those hills. There has to be a better way to handle the needs of road construction. Holding off on the Cherry Street milling project until Main Street was open might have cost the city more money to rent the necessary equipment, but it would have made life a heck of a lot easier for people who had no choice but to be on Second Street on Wednesday.

Thumbs up to the David L. Woodburn Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 978 for organizing a town hall meeting on June 1 to bring awareness to the benefits available to spouses, widows, widowers and families of veterans. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. and be held at American Legion Post 556. Topics to be covered include accrued benefits; dependency and indemnity compensation; service disabled veterans insurance; survivors pension benefits; education and training assistance; veterans affairs burial allowances; crisis contact information; defense enrollment eligibility reporting system registration; and state and local benefits and assistance. Presenters include County Executive George Borrello, County Veterans Service Director Greg Carlson, Office of the Aging representatives, Blue Star Mothers representative, UCAN Mission official, Meals On Wheels and other veteran related local organizations. For more information, call Robert Lewis, VVA chapter president, at 569-2115.

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