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In Our Opinion

Arcade Building’s future looms over DRI

With more than $30 million in potential Downtown Revitalization Initiative project applications listed, there will be a series of frank talks as city officials decide which projects get a slice of the city’s $10 million DRI pie. It is obvious that not all projects listed in the city’s DRI application to the state will receive funding. The question is which projects are funded and how much they will receive. A proposal to use $400,000 to stabilize the Arcade Building will surely result in lengthy discussions. On one hand, the Arcade Building is a throwback to Jamestown’s ...

Freedom Is The Key To Independence

Today, we Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Our focus is what the document meant — creation of a new nation, a new set of ideals to form a more perfect union. But what the document itself says about the Founders and about what they intended for us is just as important, in many ways. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …” That single sentence is familiar to ...

Judges should visit jails and meet with crime victims, too

The New York State arms adopted on March 16, 1778, shows Justice wearing a gold-colored dress with a blue belt fringed in red. Her unbound hair is decorated with pearls, and there is a narrow band of cloth over her eyes. In her right hand she holds a gold-handled sword, and in her left, the scales. The message is obvious. Justice is supposed to be blind, with the weight of the evidence tipping the scales. And Justice’s hand being placed on the sword references arriving at a just punishment. We have to wonder if it’s time for a new depiction of Lady Justice on the state’s arms, ...

Spin on federal CDPAP probe misremembers recent history

We find ourselves bemused by the wholly expected partisan reaction to news that the U.S. Department of Justice is suing New York for allowing widespread fraud in its Medicaid programs to continue. In a statement to the Associated Press, the state Health Department said the lawsuit was "baseless ... inexcusable and completely lacking in merit." It said the claims were "the latest attempt by Washington Republicans to score political points at the expense of vulnerable New Yorkers." That’s an interesting stance for the Health Department to take, because New York Republicans weren’t ...

Government purchase of lakefront property in Mayville raises questions

There doesn’t seem to be much commercial interest in land on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in Mayville where a controversial condominium project was once planned. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Mayville residents who fought the condo project tooth and nail over the course of years before the project fell apart. For now, the open views of Chautauqua Lake are preserved. Mayville Mayor Rick Syper has approached the Mayville Village Board about possibly purchasing the parcel. The 1.2 acre parcel is currently owned by Erie Bank and being advertised as suitable for commercial ...

Access to mental health treatment still lags

The fact that we have a mental health treatment capacity shortage in rural areas should come as no shock to anyone. Those in the health care industry have been talking about the lack of capacity for years. State and federal officials have heard the stories. And while we understand that it takes time to rebuild the mental health care infrastructure after it has been intentionally dismantled in well-meaning but ultimately fruitless efforts over the course of decades, work to increase mental health care capacity cannot continue at the current snail’s pace. We don’t all think about ...