I had a strange dream the other night. Everything was chaotic. People in the streets wandered aimlessly. There was no rhyme or reason to anything. There was no purpose or order anywhere. Nothing had meaning. The dream was so real that as I awoke, it took me a few minutes to realize that the ...
By ROD PENNICA Who buys an historic house on a premier village street, pulls it from the tax rolls for over 50 years, neglects it until it is critically unsafe, pays an expert to confirm that it’s unsafe, then decides to spend even more to tear it down? The answer is obvious and ...
During a disruptive City Council meeting earlier this month, First Ward Councilman Donald Williams Jr. was attempting to make a comment when he was interrupted by Councilman Michael Civiletto from the Fourth Ward. When Williams still was attempting to talk, he was again interrupted by the ...
By REV. WILLIAM NOVACK St. Paul Lutheran Church Continuing our series on “What We Believe” and the Commandments of God, we come to the fifth Commandment — “Thou shall not kill” or “You shall not murder.” Young students of Christian doctrine typically think this a command they ...
Sam Drayo Jr., argued in a commentary (Sept. 7) that “Post is vital to village: Fredonia needs to keep an administrator.” Fredonia had an administrator from 1977 until 2018. This title embraced the clerk and treasurer titles in addition. In 2018, the village trustees appointed a separate ...
Minor details go missing Editor, OBSERVER: The parks look beautiful — the dock refurbished. Little parks throughout the city are cut and trimmed. Plenty of help. The streets are deplorable. Sunken manholes, potholes, patches and bumps. Not enough help! Shortage of workers. Try going up ...
Editor’s note: This is the thrid of three parts. Finally another common denominator in coaching and counseling is “motivation.” In 1985, the North Carolina State basketball team, under coach Jim Valvano, practiced cutting the nets down every day after practice. When they upset Houston at ...
By DIANE ANDRASIK Once I again I write a response to a recent comment “Sacred park disturbed by protest, concerts” written by a regular contributor. Once again the writer is wrong. Once again the writer does not understand democracy. Let’s set him straight. The men and women who ...
I will admit right out of the chute that I have a conflict in addressing this issue of getting old because it describes me. Yet, that should not preclude me from writing about it. Though I am well past it, people who arrive at the age of 65 have to begin thinking about “old age” ...
How much public necessity goes into a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity authorizing the construction of a natural gas pipeline? Let’s take a look. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in 2017, granted National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation a certificate of public convenience ...
Another 100 pounds of puppy food to carry up the hill... once the snows stopped. Lowering the price seems all I can do. And a gal in Jamestown just had a litter of 12 so things won’t get better. March ninth: too cold to allow the kids out for more than 15 minutes. It’s below zero ...
On Aug. 11, the sounds of happy people and happy music could be found in the Fourth Ward in Dunkirk as the happy sound of Polish music by Lenny Gomulka and the Chicago Push could be heard up and down the streets. Blessed Mary Angela Parish on Townsend Street sponsored its second annual Polka ...
The 2020 presidential election will likely be about immigration. It should be. A Yale-MIT research team estimates that there are 22 million illegal aliens in the country today. If large numbers are amnestied and chain-migration remains in place, tens of millions of these aliens and their ...
I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who made our 23rd annual Laurel Memorial Run & Walk a success. It’s heartening to know that so many from our community care enough about the Hotelling family and people with disabilities, that they’re willing to support the event in a ...
My column this week looks a bit different. I have decided to put “My Perspective” in poetic form because of the nature of the subject. It was fifty-five years ago that I joined the faculty at SUNY Fredonia. Also, my wife, our daughter and son and his wife as well as several of our nieces ...
Poor Kool-Aid; it’s reputation forever tarnished by the phrase, “drinking the Kool-Aid,” when it may possibly have been grape flavored Flavor-Aid laced with cyanide that Jim Jones used to poison over 900 of his followers back in 1978 in Jonestown, Guyana. Drinking the Kool-Aid became ...
I recently bought a new garden hose. Big deal, right? I never said that I lead an exciting life so give me a break. I hooked it up and that’s it, at least that’s what I thought. You spray water on things with your hose and you’re done with it. At least, that’s what I have done in the ...
By SAM DRAYO Jr. The position of village administrator in Fredonia has been an important position in our Village for over 50 years. It is time tested and successful. However, the Village Board — three trustees out of five — have proposed repealing the position of administrator. A public ...
As you may recall, I watched 13 puppies being born on the tenth of January in 1984. Two succumbed almost immediately. That still left me with eleven healthy golden retriever youngsters. Little did I quite understand that my tale was only to begin. What does one do with eleven puppies in ...
For several years the story of American and Chinese trade negotiations have been a story of great optimism followed by great pessimism. Matters became more confused this summer when China reneged on a 150-page trade agreement between the two nations that would have benefited both. A ...