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In Our Opinion

City Should Invest In Gateway Lofts Project

City Council members will have an interesting question before them at this month’s voting session regarding the Gateway Lofts project. Thus far, the supportive housing project - whose price tag has grown to $77 million - has been kept somewhat at arm’s length from City Council members with most of the discussion taking place at the Planning Commission level. The project is beginning to pick up steam for seemingly the first time in years, and it’s time for the council to weigh in. Crystal Surdyk, city development director, is proposing to reallocate $640,000 in previously ...

Panama Presents Opportunity To Share Administration

The Panama Central School Board of Education has been meeting over the past week to discuss candidates to serve as the district’s interim superintendent after Aaron Wolfe resigned to take a position in Wellsville. Wolfe had been in Panama since 2022 after the retirement of former Panama superintendent Bert Lictus. Once an interim superintendent is hired, we hope the district continues down a path it started with Lictus and looks to share the position with a neighboring school district. Paama and Clymer were ahead of the curve when it came to sharing positions, including sharing ...

Mini Bikes Are Really A State Problem

We can understand the concern and irritation some city residents have regarding mini bikes or e-bikes that sometimes feel like they’ve overtaken city streets. For some people the e-bikes are a vital means of transportation. They’re inexpensive to operate, relatively cheap to purchase compared to gas-powered vehicles and require no visits to the DMV to renew a driver’s license or to register the vehicle. While much of the discussion of e-bikes at the state level has focused on battery charging fires caused by early models of the e-bikes, legislation to create a safer riding ...

Impact Of Uncertainty At Chautauqua Institution Extends Beyond Gates

For many who live and work in Chautauqua County, the Chautauqua Institution might as well be another world. Many county residents are so busy earning a living that the thought of taking a trip to Chautauqua for daytime lectures or exposure to the fine arts is rarely given a second thought. In many cases, despite the institution’s efforts reach out to the surrounding community through performances outside the institution’s gates or programs involving area schoolchildren, Chautauqua Institution feels to many county residents as a venue for others. The December discussion at a ...

DEC’s Testing Of Mayville Soils Is Needed, Welcomed

Uncertainty over how the state DEC will administer its legislatively required work under the state’s Freshwater Wetlands Act can sometimes color area residents’ perception of the DEC. But the agency’s work in Mayville underscores the agency’s importance on less controversial, but no less important, areas that affect county residents. DEC officials have begun testing soil in the Mayville area to determine the extent of previous PFNA acid in the wake of the December 2020 discovery of PFNA chemicals in a village drinking water well. A new well was put on line about three weeks ...

Safety, Like Beauty, Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Is Jamestown a safe place to live? It’s a question that pops up periodically in the city depending on what pops up in the police reports in a given month or which stage of union negotiations we happen to be in at any given time. Safety is a topic now after the union representing Jamestown’s police officers published their concerns in a guest essay recently in The Post-Journal that prompted a response from a couple of City Council members this week - including from councilman Bill Reynolds, a former Jamestown Police Department detective. If we’re going to have this talk - ...