Breaking News

In Our Opinion

In Aftermath Of Church Closing, What Happens To Ss. Peter And Paul Building

There are no winners or losers in the recent church closings by the Buffalo Diocese of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church isn’t the only denomination struggling under the weight of declining membership, rising costs and, in the Catholic Church’s case, Child Victims Act lawsuits. The Methodists have been closing and merging churches for years, as have the Lutherans. It’s all an unfortunate reflection of changing social values and our region’s declining population. Our question, moving forward, is what happens with Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church when the ...

Everyone Needs To Pull In One Direction To Help Homeless

Last week’s targeted sweep of the homeless near the Chadakoin Riverwalk in Brooklyn Square, once again, needed to happen. Sheds in the area are a mess. Wellnow is now requiring people to be buzzed into the building, a change from earlier this year. And some of the homeless are becoming increasingly aggressive toward police officers and city officials. The situation was untenable. It’s been two months since Mayor Kim Ecklund issued her State of Emergency regarding Jamestown’s homeless. There have been some productive meetings since then, some led by the Chautauqua County ...

A Bad Year For Gun Violence Gets Worse

The death of a 68-year-old Doug Howie last week in a shooting on the city’s south side is concerning on many levels - not the least of which is the continuance of gun violence in Jamestown in a year when such violence is decreasing in other cities. This could be a blip. Perhaps Jamestown is having an outlier of a year, or other cities’ lack of gun violence is an outlier. Perhaps both sets of statistics will regress to the mean. What if it doesn’t? One would think a state with gun laws that are among the most strict in the nation wouldn’t need to spend money trying to ...

As School Returns, Bullying Unfortunately Does As Well

Young people’s return to their classrooms each fall usually is a routine, uneventful exercise, even for young men and women transitioning from high school to a college environment. They’ve gone through the proverbial ritual of clothes-buying over the latter part of the summer, as well as having stocked up on pens and pencils, notebooks and other such necessities, not to mention the electronics — devices such as computers, printers and cellphones. Even for those students who would much prefer additional freedom from classes, tests and homework, the final summer-vacation days ...

DEC Should Delay Enforcement Of New Watershed Regulations

It’s time, in our opinion, for everyone to take a deep breath and regroup on the subject of new state watershed regulations. We’re not entirely sure the state Legislature intended the lakes to be included in the watershed regulations. It’s not clear that the regulations considered what should be done with developed shoreline when the regulations were drafted. And we have yet to hear a good explanation for how the state DEC is going to manage hundreds of thousands of acres of additional watersheds that would fall within its purview the way the regulations are written. It’s ...

We’re Treating Symptoms Of Drug Use, Not The Cause

It’s outstanding news that opioid overdoses have gone down by more than half over the past year. Fewer families are grieving the loss of a loved one to the throes of drug addiction. Fewer lives are being snuffed out - and that is a true cause for celebration. Much of the credit for the progress in decreasing the number of overdose deaths goes to the increasing acceptance of drug overdose reversal medications like nalaxone, which if administered quickly can give people a new lease on life. Medication assisted treatment in the Chautauqua County Jail is also beneficial, though one ...