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Letters To The Editor

If We Can Shop Local, We Should Vote Local

To The Reader’s Forum: We’ve heard the slogan “shop local”. Spending our money close to home grows our local economy. Well, I’m encouraging you to “vote local.” While the national elections get a lot of media attention and bring out a lot of voters, the off-year elections usually see very few voters. Local elections give us a chance to have a bigger say in who will be serving us in the next term because each vote is a piece of a smaller “pie”. Voting is our chance to influence how our government works for Chautauqua County. If you don’t vote, do you really have ...

More Effort Needed To Find Root Of High Gas Prices

To The Reader’s Forum: In a recent P-J article the County Executive said about high local gas prices that he can’t explain the reason. “This is probably the third or fourth time I’ve looked into this as county executive and we get the same comment – there’s nothing nefarious. There’s nothing wrong. If they’re going to charge it and we’re going to pay it, that’s where we are.” How about a little more effort for your constituents there gang? Who are “they”? Who’s getting that 40 cents a gallon? Is it the convenience store, their employees or owners? Is it ...

Funding The Country

To the Reader’s Forum: The Jamestown BPU is facing $27 million in cuts to vital energy infrastructure projects, collateral damage in the Trump Administration’s crusade to dismantle government as we know it. Leading the charge is Russel Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, who is taking advantage of the government shutdown to terminate $8 billion worth of these projects, primarily in states run by Democrats. Consider his words in the infamous Project 2025, where he called for “aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch” to “bend or break the ...

Time For Republican Majority To Hold The Line

To The Reader’s Forum: As a proud resident of New York’s 23rd Congressional District, I am writing to express my strong support for President Donald J. Trump and the Republican members of Congress who are standing firm against the Democrats’ reckless spending demands amid the current government shutdown that began on October 1, 2025. This impasse is not the fault of Republicans — it’s the direct result of House Democrats and their Senate allies refusing to negotiate in good faith on a responsible funding bill for fiscal year 2025. President Trump has been crystal clear ...

Going Out of Business: The United States Inc.

To The Reader’s Forum: For decades, Republican leadership has touted the wisdom of running government more “like a business.” There may be some merit in looking to business to improve government efficiency and “customer service.” But how many businesses do you know that periodically shut down in protest when they don’t get exactly what they want? The grim reality is that the business of the “United States Inc.” can afford to shut down because it’s already a failing enterprise and its executives are embezzling hand over fist. Many things fundamentally distinguish ...

Decommissioning Wind Turbines Is Costly Proposition

To The Reader’s Forum: Our financially strapped towns and land leasers must not expect debt-ridden NYS [or anyone] to bail them out for insufficient decommissioning funds for end-of-life wind and solar projects. Reported decommissioning costs are highly speculative, poorly understood and depend on the project’s design, location, the specific time of decommissioning and variations in disposal and recycling methods. Published in August 2025, the report titled “Assessment of Decommissioning Costs and Financing Models for Onshore Wind Turbines” by researchers from the ...