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In Our Opinion

Ecklund Should Follow Horrigan’s 2014 Budget Plan

Former County Executive Vince Horrigan used to say that a government can’t simply cut its way to prosperity - it has to grow its way to prosperity. At the time, Horrigan was asking for two actions to stabilize the county’s financial situation: an increase in the county’s sales tax rate and sale of the Chautauqua County Home. Both of those things happened and, coupled with a drastic increase in county property values, the county’s budget and its fund balance grew to the point that we now argue about how best to spend it. Horrigan’s words are prescient now when one looks at ...

Hopeful Signs Continue At Chautauqua

CHAUTAUQUA—When Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Bush 43 administration considered several possible successors. One of them was the author of the 2024 memoir Quiet Counsel: Looking Back on a Life of Service to the Law. Meet Larry Thompson, who picked a fitting title for his book. Thompson, who from 2001 to 2003 had been deputy attorney general under Attorney General John Ashcroft, received a call from the White House asking whether he’d consent to being considered for the Supreme Court. Thompson writes that the call never ...

With The Benefit Of Hindsight, Westfield Hospital Finds Its Niche

It’s been 20 years since the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, or the Berger Commission, said Westfield Memorial Hospital should be turned into a diagnostic treatment center. The community rallied on the hospital’s behalf, with the state choosing to reverse the Berger Commission’s recommendation, giving Westfield Memorial Hospital five years as an Article 28 licensed hospital. That five years gave hospital officials time to look at its health care system and find ways to make improvements and provide services more effectively to the community. Fast ...

Emotional Support Animal Changes Are Above City’s Pay Grade

A city landlord’s plea last week for help in limiting the number of animals a tenant is allowed isn’t the first such plea. Nor will it be the last until federal guidance curbs the overreach of court decisions that have granted emotional support animals the same status as service animals. In the case of Robin Persaud, a Lakewood resident who owns rental properties in Jamestown, the issue of tenants having too many cats by claiming they are emotional support animals is one that largely is above the City Council’s pay grade. For years landlords who didn’t want the hassle of ...

Two Ways To Look At Microgrid Funding Termination

There are two ways to look at last week’s news that the Trump Administration is terminating $27 million in funding for the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities’ Microgrid project. One is to wonder why funding for a natural gas powered project ran afoul of a president who favors natural gas over wind and solar projects. The BPU Microgrid system involves utilizing existing power generation equipment to power a strong network of underground electrical distribution circuitry to ensure electricity runs to the core of downtown Jamestown independent of regional power providers. The ...

Biggest Issue Facing Cannabis May Be Market Saturation

The issues many Celoron residents raise concerning allowing cannabis to be sold in the village’s limits are the same ones we heard during the great opt-out debate of 2021. There were concerns over a negative influence on village youth if cannabis businesses were to open in Celoron - particularly if a shop were to open too close to the Celoron Village Park. There were concerns over increased marijuana use in the village if the village lifts its prohibition on dispensaries and on-site consumption businesses and a potential increase in crime. We haven’t seen many of those concerns ...