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Opinion

County needs to invest surplus in people

Commentary

Money is a funny thing. When you don’t have enough, we grumble. When we have too much, folks argue what to do with it. So, it seems to be true with our County Legislature. I’ve read the various articles and comments in The Post-Journal and OBSERVER for the last few months and it is becoming clear that there are differences of opinion as to how to use the $30 million overage in the fund balance. This is money that is not used in the annual budget but a separate account for emergencies or future projects. As a school superintendent, this was a common practice. We never knew when ...

The OBSERVER’s View: New law another cycle of problems

The OBSERVER’s View

In a bolt of bipartisanship, the Chautauqua County Legislature recently approved a local law that will require drivers to leave a minimum of three feet when passing non-motorists. The law is aimed at cyclists, but also includes pedestrians, those on horses and Amish buggies, among others. State law requires drivers to use "due care" but does not attach a measurement to that standard. We think there's a reason for that choice — how does one use the 3-foot law preventatively? Police aren't carrying tape measures, and even if they did they can't use one while moving if they see a ...

School year's start brings trip down memory lane

Commentary

As another school year begins I am always reminded of my first-grade year and my teacher Mrs. Toni Harris. I believe that my education started at the tail end of a very unique era in American education. I learned to read from primers that described Spot, Dick, Jack and Jane engaged in ...

Atrocious bridge Troll was finally won over

Commentary

It’s no secret that people read less today. It’s a slow process, and we live in a fast world. There might be, however, a growing appetite for shorter readings. The following is an example of the genre called flash fiction — stories of less than a thousand words. It’s a parody of a classic children’s story. Location is everything, and the troll who lived under the wooden footbridge was shrewdly aware of that fact. On hot days, fish lollygagged there in the shaded waters, easy prey for his quick, thorny hands. At night, he slithered up the creek banks where he hunched in the ...

Accountability matters when commenting

The OBSERVER’s View

We wholeheartedly agree with Fredonia Trustee Paul Wandel when it comes to reading letters during the public comment portion of a government meeting. If someone wishes to offer an opinion, they need to have their name attached to it. Why would it be any other way? Wandel’s resolution, which was not voted on this week, was spurred by comments read at a recent meeting with the writer requesting anonymity. That individual’s thoughts then included name calling of Mayor Michael Ferguson while bashing his behavior. Talk about not having courage in your convictions. That letter is ...

Crying a green river over unreliable renewables

Commentary

After 20 years of outright fraud, the UN-IPCC finally admitted their climate doom scenarios (RCP8.5 and SSP5-8.5) were phony nonsense. But those fraudulent scenarios were used to fleece New York taxpayers to subsidize Albany’s fear-based Green Energy mandates. But the climate-con continues daily. Consider the knee-jerk reaction of climate doomers blaming the recent Nepal flooding on global warming – before any scientific data was available! But geologists – using detailed video and seismic data – showed that the underlying bedrock collapsed, not the glacier. It had nothing ...