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Opinion

When Did Closing Inferior Housing Become ‘NIMBY’?

In Our Opinion

Here we are, once again, feeling the need to write about the homeless in Chautauqua County. We’re moved to do so by a comment that may never have seen the light of day were it not for a lawsuit seeking to keep the former Econolodge on Route 60 in Fredonia that houses many homeless county residents open as the Fredonia Village Board seeks to vacate the hotel and possibly demolish it. We’re frankly not concerned with the legal back-and-forth between the hotel’s attorney and Fredonia officials. We are concerned by the conditions described by Fredonia’s code officers, as we ...

A CAFO By Any Other Name

Letters To The Editor

When I hear the words, ‘dairy farm’, the mental image from childhood is a green, wide-open pasture, white fences, blue sky, a red barn and some black and white cows scattered about. The news of the plan to build a new dairy farm in Cherry Creek was not objectionable, at first. The proposed farm is to be built on 45 acres and support 7,000 cows, according to news reports. That seems like a lot of cows. I did a little research and found that a common planning guideline is that a cow typically requires about 1.5 to 2 acres of average-quality pasture for a full grazing season. To get ...

Voters Allow School Spending To Soar

Editor's Corner

Eighteen school districts using your taxpayer dollars are continuing to prove they are major economic engines for Chautauqua County. Each year at this time, they expect a stamp of approval from residents when it comes to spending plans. When the annual vote occurs across the state on Tuesday, ...

Supreme Court Considers Title IX

Local Commentaries

CHARLESTON, W.Va.—Let’s pick up where we left off last week. The Supreme Court is considering a challenge—under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause—to Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. The law requires that public schools and higher-education institutions designate each sponsored sport as • for males, men, or boys, • for females, women, or girls, or • as co-ed or mixed. Such laws are about sex, not gender. After all, a person’s sex goes to whether the person is male or female. Males are he. Females are she. By contrast, gender is a ...

Pine Valley’s Hefty Reserves Disregard Taxpayers

In Our Opinion

We have complained for years about more than $30 million in reserves for Chautauqua County. Pine Valley Central Schools is even more guilty. In recent years, Pine Valley built its unassigned fund balance to roughly 30% of the succeeding year’s budget — dramatically higher than surrounding districts. Prior to this proposed budget, the district had just shy of $6 million in unassigned fund balance. It also has significant amounts in several reserve funds for various purposes. That’s too much — and goes against the 4% recommendation by New York state. This year, the ...

State Health Marketplace Should Include Senior Dental Plans

In Our Opinion

Too many senior citizens in New York state don’t have access to affordable dental care. That fact makes it hard to disagree with legislation (A.11235/S.7594) introduced by Assemblywoman Rebecca Seawright and Sen. Cordell Cleare that would require the NY State of Health Marketplace to require companies offering health insurance plans on the marketplace to also offer at least one dental plan for senior citizens. There are too many senior citizens paying out of pocket for dental care in New York state - and that means there are many who aren’t getting dental care at all because they ...