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Opinion

Parking often a real predicament

The OBSERVER’s View

One of the more controversial topics to come to Fredonia in recent months — that did not involve water — was a potential parking plan that would have made motorists pay for spots through a cellphone app. While some questioned the lack of the program being user friendly, especially for those who do not use smart phones, the reality is this type of parking program is located in many areas of New York state, including Buffalo and highly trafficked tourist locations. Parking meters are out — and cellphone apps are in. When there is a vibrant downtown, parking can be an important ...

1969 Ripley grads still enjoying the journey

Commentary

The Ripley Central School Class of 1969 members turned or will turn 75 this year. To celebrate this three-quarter century event, I decided to have a birthday party for us, aided by Patricia Hunt Albaugh. How cool, eh? From a class of less than 40 people, on July 18 22 classmates and spouses ...

On the matter of people who are homeless

Commentary

There have been several news articles recently about the problems faced by people who are homeless in Chautauqua County. Much of the news has been about where they are being housed...usually in older and underused hotels. Whether we like it or not, the provider of last resort is the county ... that means county taxpayers are “on the hook” for paying for it. There is some state aid to assist—but the burden of addressing the problem falls on the county. “Homelessness,” of course, is a broad term. In some cases, people become homeless when they can’t afford to pay their rent. ...

County’s latest goal tough to measure

The OBSERVER’s View

After weeks of debate and discussion, points and counterpoints, the Chautauqua County Legislature has decided that the number one economic development goal for county government is sustainable disposable income growth. It sounds like a good goal. No one is against the idea of increasing disposable income for county residents. Certainly no one would say they are against such a goal in an election year. The problem is few know what the heck the legislature means with this goal. Wouldn’t it be simpler to use household income growth as the goal rather than disposable income growth? ...

Making proper call on robot teacher

The OBSERVER’s View

The state Education Department was right to ask the Salamanca City Central School District to pause its plan to launch a pilot program featuring a Realbotix educational robot and digital avatar in its high school STEAM program during the upcoming school year. There are a lot of unanswered questions that should be answered before this newest bit of technology is used in local classrooms. Concerns raised by parents and educators prompted Betty Rosa, state education commissioner, to send a letter to Salamanca school district officials requesting the pause. The pause prompted the New York ...

County needs responsible rules before costs grow

Commentary

Chautauqua County has already encountered a warning about poorly governed artificial intelligence. The OBSERVER reported that the county Law Department sought another paralegal after AI-assisted Freedom of Information Law requests contributed to a sharp increase in workload. This problem deserves more than another staff position. It calls for a practical system that preserves public access while reducing avoidable work. Generative AI makes it easy to produce broad, repetitive requests in seconds. A resident can ask a chatbot for every possible document related to a topic, copy the ...