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In Our Opinion

Population Loss Is A Riddle We Struggle To Solve

We can all see that we need more family sustaining jobs in Chautauqua County. The poverty rate countywide was 16.7% in July 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, with that rate rising to 24% in Jamestown and 24.9% in Dunkirk. The best way to decrease those percentages is to increase household incomes, and the easiest way to do that is attract bigger employers that can pay higher wages. While we have successes on the economic development front - Start-Up NY helping attract New Flyer, Electrovaya building a new plant and the recent $452 investment by Cummins Inc. in its Busti ...

Due Process Should Not Fall Victim To Politics

We are deeply concerned about the misrepresentations surrounding decisions by a federal judge, James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. To be clear, Judge Boasberg has not ruled that criminal immigrants or violent immigrants cannot be deported. What Boasberg has ruled is that the executive branch must follow the practices already in place to provide evidence than an immigrant is a felon or a violent criminal to justify a deportation order. The right to due process is crucially important. The right to due process is not only about the rights of ...

New Strategy For Mergers, Consolidations Is Certainly Necessary

Two years ago, Chautauqua County chose not to make any changes to its County-Wide Shared Services Initiative. We disagreed with the decision at the time, in part because the need to find ways to streamline the provision of government services should never rest. We couldn’t agree more, then, with Wendel’s inclusion of further mergers, consolidations and shared services as part of his 2025 State of the County address. Wendel said as part of his 2026 budget he wants to build a financial resource and develop a strategy regarding local municipal mergers, consolidations and shared ...

Restoring Fire Chief Position Is An Easy Call For Council

Matt Coon has acquitted himself well as the top officer in the Jamestown Fire Department over the past several years. It’s almost too bad Coon won’t retire from public service having attained the title of fire chief. It’s something that shouldn’t happen to his successor. City Council members on Monday voted to undo a change made more than two decades ago in the throes of a financial crisis that largely resembles what is happening today. Facing structural budget deficits, former Mayor Sam Teresi looked for cost savings anywhere he could - including eliminating or merging ...

County Effort To Help Homeless Families Is Worth Supporting

County officials have begun a new effort to better help families who find themselves homeless by better connecting the county’s mental hygiene and social services departments into a unified system. On any given day there are roughly 50 families in temporary housing. The Family-Centered Case Management Initiative is notified when a family enters temporary housing and connects them to support services. A team of case managers and senior caseworkers work directly with families placed in temporary housing. They assess each family’s needs in an effort to help the families become more ...

Sports Merger Debate Is A Preview Of Things To Come

There will come a time when school merger talks in Chautauqua County schools will involve more than sports teams. It’s not a matter of it, it’s a matter of when. The timing really depends on when our population decline finally bottoms out and we have a better handle on how many schools we need and where they need to be. Whenever that time finally does come, the only thing that we can say with any certainty is it’s not going to be a pretty process. We’ve known that for some time, but meetings over the past few weeks involving the Southwestern and Frewsburg school ...