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In Our Opinion

School Is Back In Session; Be Safe Around Buses, Children

School starts in earnest tomorrow in Chautauqua County, and while drivers should be sure to slow down and take their time in all school zones and around stopped school buses, it’s worth noting a major change to the area around Persell Middle School in Jamestown. After weeks of work, the barricades have been removed from the intersection of Baker Street and Hazeltine Avenue - and those who aren’t paying attention could find themselves hitting either new curbing or another vehicle. The entire purpose of the Baker and Hazeltine intersection redesign is to slow traffic after a rash of ...

Controversy Over City Facebook Page Is Ludicrous

It used to be city officials only had to hear how stupid they were during public comment at a council meeting, in the Reader’s Forum pages of The Post-Journal, local radio talk shows or if they were out and about and approached by a constituent. Those old examples, however, can be instructive as we consider the current “controversy” over whether or not the city of Jamestown has to allow comments on its City of Jamestown Municipal Facebook page. There is no First Amendment right to print letters in the Reader’s Forum. There was no First Amendment right that forces local radio ...

Government Cannot Spend Its Way Out Of Housing Problem

The Harris campaign is proposing assistance — up to $10,000 for first-time homebuyers and up to $25,000 for first-generation homebuyers — with down payments to purchase a house. There are at least two reasons every American should be deeply skeptical about the feasibility of this proposal. It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads our editorials that we have significant concerns about what this level of spending will do to the national annual deficit and to the $34 trillion debt to which that deficit continually adds. We understand we may seem excessively repetitive ...

County Was Right To Take Quick Action After Attempted Escape

After the July 11 escape attempt from the Chautauqua County Jail, we opined that the county should figure out how an inmate came so close to escaping from the Mayville facility. Kudos to Sheriff Jim Quattrone for doing just that. Members of the Chautauqua County Legislature’s Public Safety Committee recently met in executive session with Quattrone to discuss what has been learned from a review of the incident. While much of that discussion is eligible for executive session discussion, the fact that such a review and follow-up discussion happened. It would have been easy for ...

Is City’s Sales Tax Issue A Slump, Or Result Of Bad Budgeting?

Jamestown is projected to miss its sales tax budget for this year by about $544,643, or 6.1%, unless the city gets an early Christmas present. This is a problem that should have been avoided by either former Mayor Eddie Sundquist or the City Council. The shortfall discussed by the City Council’s Finance Committee last week is a shortfall of the city’s own making. Sales tax revenues aren’t far off compared to what the city actually received last year - $72,890 in the first sales tax receipt from the county and $170 in the second sales tax receipt from the county. That’s an ...

Full Classrooms Are Good For All Of Us

School starts next week - but for too many students that doesn’t mean vacation days will be a thing of the past. Dr. Kevin Whitaker, Jamestown Public School superintendent, told school board members recently that the district is making strides reducing rates of chronic absenteeism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Attendance is typically between 90% and 91% in most city school district schools, though the district is still working to increase attendance at Jamestown High School. More troubling is chronic absenteeism rates. The state Education Department defines chronic ...