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In Our Opinion

Assembly Speaker’s Budget Impasse Bill Is Misguided

We have finally found a point of agreement with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie - policy issues don’t need to be included in the state budget. That doesn’t mean we agree with his recent proposal to allow state lawmakers to be paid when the state budget is late because the governor inserts policy in the budget, a process that has led to late budgets the past few years because Hochul and state legislative leaders struggle to find compromise on the policy issues. We have long preferred that policy issues get hashed out on the Senate and Assembly floor where there can be an open and ...

It’s Hard To Believe Air Service Will Fly This Year

Chautauqua County officials are on board with trying to restore Essential Air Service at the Jamestown airport. We remain unconvinced that passengers, not to mention the federal government, are ready to climb back on board passenger service at the Jamestown airport. We haven’t yet seen anything that says the federal government is about to open the federal spending floodgates, nor have we seen anything that says ridership at the airport is going to explode if an Essential Air Service subsidy is reinstated by the federal government. County lawmakers are bound and determined to ...

Easter Can Be Time Of Reflection For All

This weekend is the culmination of the holiest of weeks in the Christian calendar, with Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Christ it celebrates the most pivotal or defining moment of the liturgical year. We understand and respect that not everyone in our region is a practicing Christian - we hope everyone can understand that the lessons of this season go beyond the chronology of the scriptures or the doctrines of churches. The Easter message calls upon the world to be more compassionate, as Jesus Christ, on the cross, asked God the Father to forgive His persecutors. The message ...

Increasing Timber Production A Responsible Decision

A recent executive order by President Donald Trump to streamline regulations and allow more timber to be harvested from U.S. Forest Service lands invites what possibly could be a trivia question: Under which U.S. department’s jurisdiction does the U.S. Forest Service fall? If you answered the U.S. Department of the Interior, which supervises national parks and fulfills a mission of preserving natural areas and sites of note, you would be wrong. If you answered the Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces environmental regulations to curtail pollution and limit environmental ...

Slow Cleanups After Fires Can Be Frustrating

It was a cause for celebration when Sen. Charles Schumer announced in November 2023 that the U.S. EPA was going to take the lead cleaning up the rubble left behind when the former Crawford Furniture building burned to the ground. City officials and Schumer pushed for the EPA to demolish what was left of the building, clean up the rubble and dispose of toxic asbestos. Now, the site is ready for a new future. For house fires, unfortunately, there is no EPA cleanup. We’re seeing it now on Forest Avenue. A pile of bricks and rubble is all that’s left after fire destroyed a home in ...

Rising Property Values Give Longtime Busti Property Owners Sticker Shock

We’ve all seen what’s happened to home prices throughout the area over the past several years. Now, Busti residents are getting a look at what that housing market has done to their home values - and they’re not happy. Town residents spoke their minds for more than an hour at a Busti Town Board meeting last week. There’s not much the board can do. It’s unlikely the town will stop the process - though such a decision isn’t unprecedented. The next step for property owners is to argue their case in May when the town holds its Grievance Day. But regardless of what happens on ...