Opinion

With Temporary State Aid, City Can Breathe Again Financially

In Our Opinion February 24, 2026

An unexpected $1.6 million in temporary state aid will make Jamestown’s 2027 budget a lot easier on both the City Council and on city taxpayers. Gov. Kathy Hochul 2027 Executive Budget extends for one year the $50 million temporary program for cities, towns and villages. This program, which was initially authorized in 2025 for two years, provides general purpose aid for local governments. The funding comes at a good time for Jamestown, which has exhausted its remaining federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to whittle down tax increases the past two years. Additional state aid ...

Cannabis Law Clarification Won’t Be Final One

In Our Opinion February 23, 2026

We can’t disagree with the state Legislature’s decision to clarify how the distance from a proposed cannabis shop to a school or church is measured. Lifted, the city’s first cannabis dispensary, had trouble with exactly this issue before it could receive its permit from the state to open. The delay was unfortunate, but not allowing the store to open in the first place would have bordered on injustice. In the roughly 18 months since the shop opened on North Main Street there have been no issues reported and Tim Scoma, Lifted’s owner, has made the shop a regular contributor to ...

Readers’ Forum

Letters To The Editor February 23, 2026

Parent Of Special Needs Child Raises Issues To the Readers’ Forum: I am writing as a special needs parent who has reached a breaking point with the lack of access, communication, and basic respect within our local mental health system. My first attempt to seek help for my special needs son was through the Jones Hill office. I was belittled for not bringing him to an initial appointment, despite explaining ahead of time that he would not be able to answer questions and that the visit was for intake purposes. Rather than being met with understanding, I was given an unnecessary ...

Humanity, Untelevised

Local Commentaries February 21, 2026

By Margot Russell Remember this? In the weeks after the flooding outside Asheville, something unexpected happened. The headlines were grim at first—washed-out roads, shuttered shops, homes caked in mud. Social media did what it does: circulated dramatic footage, assigned blame, predicted long recoveries. But on the ground, a quieter story began to unfold. Restaurants that had lost power cooked everything in their freezers and handed out meals for free. Breweries turned into supply depots. Church parking lots became distribution hubs. Contractors showed up with their own equipment ...

It’s Time For Some New Chautauqua Lake Cliches

In Our Opinion February 21, 2026

Cliches become a cliche for a reason, as author William Gibson is credited with saying, because there is always a bit of truth in them. If there’s one cliche in the discussion over Chautauqua Lake and its weed problems, it’s the one repeated by Dr. Allison Hyrcik of the Jefferson Project during a recent presentation to the Chautauqua County Legislature. When asked by Legislator Bob Bankoski, D-Dunkirk, what the county should do to help prevent a large weed problem in 2026, Hyrcik said, “It’s a great question, but the thing is we’ve taken a couple hundred years to get to this ...

We Must Act Together

Local Commentaries February 21, 2026

I recently watched the new Netflix documentary that tells the story of the US Hockey Team and its journey to the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid; “Miracle: The Boys of the ‘80s”. I can vividly remember watching this play out on live television- a group of purely amateur American college kids who were given virtually no chance of winning any medal defeating the best “professional“ hockey players in the world including the Russians, who were touted as unbeatable by everyone. I’ll never forget the feeling of pride and joy that I felt as a result of this ...