Late June. Time for the great migration — moving season. What an exciting time for families wanting to find their perfect home before school starts again. There are many other reasons for moving, of course. Empty nesters want to downsize. New employees are relocating. There’s a sense ...

Words matter! But the manner in which they are spoken can matter even more. Hearing the word “NO” can bring about disappointment, but it can also bring about anger, misunderstandings, hurt feelings and even a loss of credibility by the user; and dare I say it can have a profound ...

I am reminiscing back to the days of my youth. It was a glowing beaming sunrise on this bright summer morning. The brilliant and vibrant colors of a full array of fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, and baked goods was a spectacular scene on the busy walks of the Buffalo Clinton and Bailey ...

Your editorial “Pact pressures many campuses” (May 29) contains a glaring factual error and comes off as little more than a cheap shot at our 37,000 members. You are wrong when you say that the State University of New York had no input in our tentative agreement with the state. SUNY ...

This is another of those columns that result when I have a lot of things to write about and not enough columns to fit it all into. First, there have recently been many calls to change the name of Faneuil Hall in Boston because Peter Faneuil, who originally owned the building and for whom ...

I received a call from a man who identified himself as Richard. He and his two brothers were on a business trip. They had been gone several days. He got my name from a business associate who lives in our region. His brothers encouraged him to call a therapist. Seems he laid out some news that ...

A week ago, the Supreme Court decided Masterpiece Cakeshop, LTD v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. It made an ungodly mess of this case and future ones like it. The case involved a Colorado bakery owned and operated by Jack Phillips. Phillips refused to sell a cake celebrating gay ...

We take so much for granted saying, “That’s just the way it is.” Scientists sometimes leave what they do not understand to happenstance, or chance. In fairness to them, I think that very few scientifically trained people who actually believe in the big bang theory of creation. They just ...

As first vice commander of the Dunkirk Joint Veterans Council, I would first like to take this opportunity to thank the city of Dunkirk for the plaque the city presented to the Vets Council on Memorial Day 2018 at Memorial Park during the ceremonies that took place on that day of remembering ...

With Father’s Day coming up in a week, I thought I’d ruminate on fathers; my father in particular. Fathers are a curious thing. Some are kind and loving, some are cruel and uncaring. Whether present or absent, they are an integral part of who we become. When I was growing up I never knew ...

All of us here in Chautauqua County realize that the path to repowering the NRG plant in Dunkirk has been very long and very challenging. But one positive aspect, throughout this whole ordeal, has been the truly united effort from everyone in our community. We have set aside politics, and ...

In the OBSERVER’s Newsmaker of the Month article (May 27), “Building some trust for project,” the editor asks the rhetorical question, “Just how much expansion do we need at small schools such as Forestville, Brocton and Westfield where student enrollment has plummeted?” I’ll ...

Let me first be serious with a few comments. There is a treasure in our own back yard that many of you may know of, but many may not. It’s the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the State University of New York at Fredonia. A few weeks ago, we attended the Commencement Eve Pops On ...

The herbicide permits granted to the Town of Ellery and other lake municipalities recently by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to control weed growth in selected areas of Chautauqua Lake, and the process leading to the issuing of the permits, have raised ...

In New York and elsewhere, when a power plant operator seeks to stop putting power on the grid for economic or whatever reason, they must first be evaluated by the system operator to determine if the power is needed for reliability. When NRG announced that the Dunkirk plant would be ...

On May 30, temperatures in the Northeast and in New York soared into the mid-90s; so did power prices in Western New York’s “Zone A,” where two major power plants have retired and mothballed respectively in the last two years. The lost generation is replaced by imports from Pennsylvania ...

There’s a lot of verbal hot air, and so much of it doesn’t make sense. Like the response to a new reality of two seasons. There’s winter, which started last November and ended last month, and the dog days, which we are now in for who knows how long. But don’t complain, or the ...

Well here we are again, the first week of June and still there is doubt and an element of skepticism about truth, facts, misconceptions and maybe even lies. I had a sister-in-law who believed everything she read because in her mind no one would ever actually write, let alone print an untruth. ...

Back in the so called “olden days” of my youth (the 1930s, if you will) my teacher used to say, “Pride is concerned with WHO is right. Humility is concerned with WHAT is right.” You know, my teacher surely knew what she was talking about. And what she said then about pride is truly ...

Editor, OBSERVER: Dunkirk teachers have advocated and will always advocate for student opportunities. In light of recent events, we believe it is imperative that we, representing the students of Dunkirk High School, address concerns that have come to light across the district. While many ...