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FREDONIA: A need for law, financial order

The OBSERVER’s View

We all know it takes forever to get things done — in New York state and in Chautauqua County. Change never comes easy. For decades the old Fredonia police station has been a source of frustration. It is antiquated, outdated and built for the 19th century. There is no question officers and staff deserve better. That being said, we are at a point where two municipalities are scrimping by — the village as well as the city of Dunkirk. Last week, Mayor Michael Ferguson pinpointed a possible location near the Fire Department for a new station. Do not do it. Once a new station is ...

Turbine recycling not always in plans

Commentary

Hopefully this commentary will be eye-opening regarding the disposal of wind turbine blades in New York state and a red flag warning regarding the many variables, unknowns and uncertainties regarding wind project decommissioning costs. It reveals how wind-hosting townships may be at grave risk of major underfunding. After the 10-year Production Tax Credit federal subsidy expires and with the increasing, mandated costs of proper waste management (especially for blades), it is more likely for owners to abandon the project. It is concerning that decommissioning cost estimates in New ...

Money driving Fredonia water talks

Peoples column

Editor, OBSERVER: Don’t be misled my friends, we are the prey: the water customers in the village of Fredonia. We are being pushed by wildly misguided people to spend a fortune switching our water supply over to an architecture with far more opportunities for service interruptions and failure — instead of giving serious attention to the distribution infrastructure. To push the idea, they force-fit weak rationale, present clown-level costing figures, and repeat misinformation over multi-media outlets. They point to county staffers with inflated credentials and use selected ...

Voting Rights Act before high court

Commentary

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is before the U.S. Supreme Court again, this time in Louisiana v. Callais. After extensive back and forth among the state Legislature, the governor’s office, and the federal judiciary, Louisiana—with its six congressional districts—drew a second congressional district in which a majority of the residents are black. Drawing such a district would be one thing if the district—to put it in colloquial terms—were a normal-looking district. But this district isn’t a normal-looking district. Instead, it looks like a Rorschach test. To put it ...

Capital handouts keep cities in crisis

Editor's corner

Somewhere in Albany, there has to be a money tree. How else can a state, with a proposed budget of more than $254 billion for the next year, keep doling out funds to fiscally strapped entities with absolutely no repercussions? That is exactly what happened less than a month ago when the ...

These birds completely puzzle me

Commentary

I’m a puzzler. I’ve tackled jigsaw puzzles, word puzzles and occasionally number puzzles since I was a kid. And oh, the happy, smug satisfaction it brings. I begin my day puzzling with my first cup of coffee. Every morning, I do three types of word puzzles on the computer. By the time I finish, my sleep-slit eyes are open, I’m vertical, and taking nourishment. Dear Richard refills my coffee cup. At bedtime, I do the newspaper puzzles. Then this Christmas, to my delight, my grandson, Malcolm, gave me a jigsaw puzzle. A gift I would be thrilled to get every year. This ...