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The OBSERVER’s View

ELECTION: Rural snobbery aided Democrats

This should be a week of soul-searching for Chautauqua County Republicans — particularly those in the cities — after Democrats made gains in Jamestown and the Dunkirk area on the Chautauqua County Legislature and the Jamestown City Council. Surely national politics and their effect on the cities played a part in Tuesday’s local elections. What happened here happened elsewhere too, with Democrats either retaking positions they haven’t held in years or making large enough gains to prompt hand-wringing among Republicans who have come to take electoral wins for granted. There is ...

FREDONIA: Big tax hike not slowing spending

We’re glad to see the village of Fredonia is keeping a close eye on expenses after their 54% tax hike debacle last spring. We note that sarcastically. Before the end of October, those high spending board members with an $11 million budget that keeps growing decided to bring back a retired Department of Public Works supervisor back as a consultant. In a 4-1 vote, Scott Marsh was approved to make $35 per hour on an “as needed” basis and can’t make more than $10,000 in a fiscal year. As this corner has noted before, mutual aid — and sharing of services — is acceptable in a ...

DUNKIRK: Struggling reality with police pact

A recent contract tiff shows how the town of Dunkirk continues to take advantage of a struggling city. In a recent proposal for police coverage, the city sought $39,660 – for 12 hours a week of patrols in the town. Town officials almost cried poverty. For starters, the town pays 89 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation. City taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $34 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. By the way, city taxpayers are dinged twice for police and emergency medical system coverage that it receives from its officers and Fire Department. They also are hit with ...

SHUTDOWN: County has role in SNAP crisis

The federal government shutdown certainly caught counties with their pants down. It’s not as if there was no warning that SNAP benefits could be delayed when the calendar turned from October to November. It had been a topic in newspapers, on television news and amongst those who receive SNAP benefits for weeks. Decision makers knew the possibilities, but they didn’t think the shutdown would last this long. Frankly, no one did. There’s never been a federal government shutdown that has lasted this long. That means we are dealing with an extraordinary circumstance for which there ...

ELECTIONS: Local contests fill the ballot

Tuesday is Election Day. While there are hundreds of county residents who have taken part in either early voting or cast an absentee ballot, Tuesday is the day when the majority of local residents will go to the polls to cast their ballot for town, city and county offices. Precisely because no federal or state offices are on the ballot this year, today’s election affects you more directly in your day to day existence than any other. These are the levels of government that provide the services that affect you every single day in one way or another through things like police and fire ...

ENDORSEMENT: Our slim choices for council seats

As Dunkirk’s fiscal troubles continue, one thing is evident in this year’s election: Republicans appear to have abandoned their efforts to be part of the process to fix the problems they had a role in creating over the last six years. Even though budgets may have been proposed by Democratic mayors, Republicans were the majority in the council. Those Republican lawmakers had the final say in approving all the flawed spending plans without any financial documentation or spread sheets. In addition, in 2021, those same party members — and one renegade Democrat in Don Williams — ...