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In Our Opinion

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 ...

Celebrate Memorial Day Respectfully

No matter what is happening on this nation’s political and economic fronts - and much is happening - Memorial Day, the holiday we are observing today, should not and does not take a back seat. Only something truly catastrophic might cast today’s observance into the background, but even then most Americans would pause in respect to what this day represents. Memorial Day is the day when the nation honors the brave, selfless men and women who gave their lives while in this country’s service. It also is the day each year when Americans put special emphasis on remembering family ...

America Needs Accountability On Inflation, National Debt

President Joe Biden recently visited Sturtevant, Wisconsin, to speak at the site of a future Microsoft data center. As the Associated Press reported recently, the project is expected to create about 2,000 jobs. We understand that any president running for reelection will tout the successes in job creation seen during his or her administration. And the job market has been a bright spot in Biden’s tenure. But voters have no reason to accept a failure to address and correct the many shortcomings that exist along with that low unemployment rate. As we have editorialized before, ...

A System In Need Of Reform

There’s something disturbing about the fact that, at a time when state Senate Democrats want to expand health insurance coverage to undocumented immigrants, we hear from City Council members that some retired Jamestown city employees can’t afford their insurance. Jamestown officials certainly aren’t off-base in creating a policy to guide situations in which retirees aren’t paying their monthly health care premiums. As proposed during a recent work session, Mayor Kim Ecklund and her administrative team are proposing a 2% fee for payments received 31 days or more after a bill is ...