We have questioned why the Western New York Welcome Center was built out of the way and in the wrong location since its opening in late August 2018. Not only is it not located on the highly traveled New York State Thruway, it is not even on the Interstate 190. To reach the center, motorists have to exit the highway.

That is far from welcoming.

Last week, The Buffalo News shined a light on the center in noting it often resembles a ghost town. “It is clearly in the wrong place,” Patrick J. Whalen, director of the Niagara Global Tourism Institute, told the News. “I’ve been coming for a year and there’s usually nobody here, especially in the winter and those that do stop are here to use the restrooms.”

It certainly adds weight to the case being made by local leaders and residents for a Welcome Center near the New York-Pennsylvania border close to Ripley. Unfortunately, New York state paid $25 million to have the center built that is barely being used or visited.