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In Our Opinion

State Of The City Is Murky

Mayor Kim Ecklund’s first State of the City address is very much the new mayor in a nutshell. It’s a 20-page document full of Joe Friday, “just the facts” statements of what Ecklund’s administration has done over its first four months. There isn’t a lot of flowery rhetoric, nor is there page after page of lofty goals and ambitions that Ecklund wants her team to achieve this year. The mayor notes the administration’s work setting a final cost for the Washington Street fleet maintenance facility - a bigger undertaking than one would think - as well as administrative ...

We Need Long-Term Answers To Energy Needs

We find the news that President Joe Biden is releasing a million barrels of gasoline from a federal reserve more of a frustration than a relief. Releasing petroleum from reserves is a short-term band-aid that carries real risks. If a crisis or prolonged economic downturn comes, the U.S. may well regret tapping into this supply. The United States instead should be pursuing long-term solutions — promoting or incentivizing the production of domestic oil and gas and investment in increased refinery capacity. As we have editorialized before, the benefits of developing domestic energy ...

Voters Keep Approving Runaway School Spending

It should come as no surprise that all local school budgets were approved last week. There wasn’t much controversy on the ballot. Thanks to continued state aid increases and aid remaining from the federal government’s COVID largesse, there weren’t huge tax increases to be voted on. That meant there weren’t major layoffs of teachers or staff, nor were there program cuts - all of which are usually what drive people to vote down school budgets. Eventually, that will change. Gov. Kathy Hochul tried to begin tightening the public education spending belt this year with a focus ...

Voters Keep Approving Runaway School Spending

It should come as no surprise that all local school budgets were approved last week. There wasn’t much controversy on the ballot. Thanks to continued state aid increases and aid remaining from the federal government’s COVID largesse, there weren’t huge tax increases to be voted on. That meant there weren’t major layoffs of teachers or staff, nor were there program cuts - all of which are usually what drive people to vote down school budgets. Eventually, that will change. Gov. Kathy Hochul tried to begin tightening the public education spending belt this year with a focus ...

Jail Nurse Pay Hikes Signs OfA Bigger Issue

Given the current state of addiction treatment in Chautauqua County, county legislators didn’t have much choice but to increase the pay for nurses who work in the Chautauqua County Jail. In addition to medical and mental health assessments on the roughly 170 inmates housed in the jail each day, the jail also runs a Medicated Assisted Treatment program for those battling drug addiction. Last year the nurses in the jail’s health clinic saw 9,500 patients. Pay increases approved last week by county legislators will impact the budget around $26,000 this year and around $53,500 in ...

It’s Tough To Bring The Farm Into The City

It’s easy to play Jamestown’s recent reminder about the city’s ban on farm animals in the city limits for laughs. The Old McDonald or Babe in the City jokes practically write themselves. But it’s no laughing matter for neighbors who suddenly find themselves living next to an alarm clock with no snooze alarm when a rooster starts crowing every day when the sun rises. It’s certainly no laughing matter when a neighbor’s dogs never stop barking. And when that cute, lovable pig next door gets loose and destroys a flower garden or two, neighbors go from joking to swearing ...