Opinion

America at 250, service is our greatest strength

Commentary July 22, 2026

America’s 250th birthday is a special anniversary in the history of our nation; the success of this great experiment should be celebrated and, this year, I would encourage you to reflect on what it is that has made America so special. Alexis de Tocqueville, a political philosopher who studied and toured America in the 19th century, once commented that America’s culture of voluntary association is one of our nation’s greatest strengths. Ordinary citizens coming together in groups, clubs, churches, charities, civic organizations, and local committees to solve problems together ...

The OBSERVER’s View: No stopping rising power prices

The OBSERVER’s View July 22, 2026

Every month, the electric bill brings a bit more pain to New York state residents. According to the Empire Center’s Energy Data Bulletin, households are paying the fourth-highest electricity prices in the country. In April 2026, residential electricity prices in New York averaged 29.45 cents per kilowatt-hour – 56 percent above the national average of 18.83 cents. New York’s electricity costs rose 3.1% from March and were 14.6 percent higher than a year earlier – nearly four times the rate of inflation, the Center reported. Since 2019, the state’s average residential ...

The OBSERVER’s View

The OBSERVER’s View July 21, 2026

An artist’s rendering of the former Third Street post office features a big Chautauqua County logo on the building’s wall facing Jamestown City Hall instead of the Lucille Ball mural that was also used as a U.S. postage stamp. We’re sure it’s artistic license as part of a sales pitch rather than a serious proposal to actually remove the mural, but the artist’s rendering raises a question that we hope Chautauqua County legislators keep in mind before they vote on a proposal to consolidate the county’s Jamestown offices into the post office building - what else looks funny ...

Dealing with the heat of summer

Commentary July 21, 2026

One day, a week or so ago, when it was 91 degrees, I drove by the electric power plant run by the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in Jamestown. I thought, and it turned out to be true, that the natural gas turbine there was running at full bore—pumping electricity into a statewide grid that needed it badly. Jamestown, itself, didn’t need the power—it gets most of what it needs from the Niagara Power Project at Niagara Falls. But, the statewide grid needed every available resource online to ensure that the air conditioner load in New York City and the metropolitan area didn’t ...

The OBSERVER’s View

The OBSERVER’s View July 20, 2026

It’s hard to imagine a time when the Chautauqua Belle wasn’t a fixture on the waters of Chautauqua Lake. But that’s exactly what our reality would be if not for James Webster, the Rochester man who had the vision to bring a paddlewheel steamship to Chautauqua Lake in the early 1970s. Webster collaborated with Capt. Alan Bates, who designed the ship around the same time Bates designed the Natchez, another steamship still in use in New Orleans. For a time, Mayville was marketed as Steamship Village when the Chautauqua Belle was still in its relative infancy, and many still make ...

Standing for America, our anthem

Commentary July 20, 2026

Two teenagers with rifles hid in the forest and marveled at the sight before them. Daniel Wells and Henry Macomas didn't understand why anyone, especially a British general who didn't want to be shot, would dress himself in a bright red coat and sit on a white horse 100 yards in front of them. All they knew was the Red Coats had burned Washington D.C. a few days earlier and now they had come to burn Baltimore. Well, Daniel and Henry would not stand for that, so the boys took careful aim and fired. To this day we don't know if it was Daniel or Henry who's shot found its mark. All we ...