Creating a balanced budget that plans for future expenses, maintains programming and demonstrates good stewardship of tax payer dollars is no mean feat. At times, school districts fail to gain voters’ approval and must go back to the drawing board to create a new budget. This, however, was ...

CASSADAGA — Red House has officially been approved for a special use permit, following a hearing held by the village Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday. The information was confirmed Tuesday by Village Clerk Roxanne Astry in a phone call with the OBSERVER. “The ZBA vote was 3-2 in ...

Dunkirk’s new ladder truck was put on hold for another two weeks on Tuesday. The resolution, authorizing the issuance of a sale of bonds to finance the Dunkirk Fire Department’s new truck, was pulled for further financial information-gathering at the city’s Common Council meeting. “It ...

Over the past several months a viral social media campaign called “trashtag” has gained traction on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Inspired by other activist movements such as the Ice Bucket Challenge, this campaign centers around trash management and environmental ...

Fredonia officials are taking another look at a law regulating housing rentals in the village. Rejected by the Board of Trustees in October amid a community uproar, the law was mainly intended to create a registry of landlords and renters to assist emergency services and code ...

Around 900 Section 8 vouchers providing a federal subsidy to pay for housing are given to families and individuals in Chautauqua County. Josiah Lamp, Chautauqua Opportunities Inc. housing and community development director, said if a family or an individual qualifies for the program, it is a ...

GOWANDA — A new program for village youth proposed by Officer-in-charge Dennis Feldmann had many in attendance at the May village board meeting intrigued, then elated when the board passed the measure following Feldmann’s presentation. The program, entitled “Safe Home Initiative,” was ...

NORTH COLLINS – Students took their education on the road Friday morning as they did community service throughout the town and village for Eagle Energy Day. Volunteers assisted many local organizations, residents and businesses by laying mulch, cleaning the village fire department’s fire ...

Final exams, research projects, recitals and presentations: For most college students, these are the usual stressors that accompany the end of the year. However, many students experience the additional stress of food insecurity, as dining hall points and funds have dwindled by the end of the ...

GOWANDA — One of the village’s biggest annual events, The Happening, had its event application approved at the latest village board meeting Tuesday, with even more live music on the line-up and promises of ‘bikes, beer and bands.’ The Happening will take place May 31-June 2 weekend at ...

MAYVILLE — A summer time tradition will be returning to Chautauqua Lake in June with possible financial assistance from Chautauqua County. George Borrello, county executive, and Mark Geise, deputy Chautauqua County executive for economic development, recently discussed with Chautauqua ...

On an unusually warm and dry day in Fredonia, college graduates and their families flooded Fredonia to celebrate the 152nd commencement class at SUNY Fredonia. Feelings of excitement, happiness, bliss and accomplishment bled from the smiling faces of family members as they watched the young ...

JAMESTOWN — “Come as you are, leave as you want to be,” Nimish Gounder said during his introductory greetings to his fellow classmates of 2019. Mild weather greeted the 601 graduates during Jamestown Community College’s commencement Saturday. A processional by the JCC Concert Band ...

For the last 10 months, Chautauqua County District Attorney Patrick Swanson and the local FBI agent assigned to the Jamestown area have been putting together a group of experts in a range of fields to address threats to local schools and colleges. The team — School Threat Assessment and ...

On Tuesday, local residents will head to the polls to support — or reject — their school districts’ proposed budgets for the 2019-20 school year. It’s safe to say that all superintendents strive to put forth a budget that district residents will find acceptable, while also maintaining ...

RIPLEY — First-year Superintendent William Caldwell viewed the 2018-19 school year as a fresh start in the Ripley Central School District. One that let the past go while continuing to make strides. “We really just said, ‘new year,” Caldwell said in an interview. “Let’s start over. ...

Seven-year old Sean Baker of Leon received a miracle this week in the form of a new heart. Imagine living with constant pain, having had 32 surgeries within seven years, a lifetime of minimal activity and never being able to eat a meal. I’ll bet that last one got your attention. Now imagine ...

RIPLEY — A public hearing on the Ripley Central School District 2019-2020 proposed budget was held recently in the school’s IRLA Library. The board of education appointed board president Paul McCutcheon as chairperson of the meeting and district clerk Victoria Carris as clerk of the ...

American architect I.M. Pei, who died earlier this week at 102, left a major imprint at the State University of New York at Fredonia. According to the university’s web site, Pei, with partner Henry N. Cobb, designed the master plan for the modernized campus in 1968, at the special request ...

Family members of a girl who has died from a stabbing are asking community members who witnessed what happened on Wednesday afternoon to start talking to law-enforcement officials so that an arrest can be made in the tragic incident. In a phone conversation with the OBSERVER on Friday ...