Is it any wonder we continue to fail in looking to the future by maintaining our overabundance of government and schools in Western New York? Last week, one of the smallest municipalities in Chautauqua County actually had a gripe with a proposal to change the status of a highway superintendent ...
Are you drowning in paper like I am? If the computer age was supposed to eliminate paper piles, it’s doing a lousy job. Yes, I know I am supposed to convert all my accounts to paperless – and for the most part, I have. My credit card statements are electronic. The insurance, the bank, gas bill, water bill and township sewer bill all arrive to my inbox monthly. Despite many tries, I have been unable to convince the Pennelec people that this is a convenient idea. When the mail comes each afternoon, a new pile arrives in our mailbox. Occasionally it’s just the newspaper and ...
It is easy to get caught up in the downtrodden happenings in northern Chautauqua County in recent years. Fredonia has bad water. Dunkirk is out of money. Yes, local government has a long tradition of ignoring troubles until they arrive at the doorstep. On the other end of the spectrum is a more positive picture in the growing Art Trail, which takes place Saturday and Sunday as well as Labor Day weekend. As organizers noted in a news release this week, the Art Trail has become a meaningful economic driver for the region, attracting visitors from across New York state and neighboring ...
The United Nations General Assembly, that playground for dictators, terrorists and supporters of terrorists, on March 25 passed a resolution condemning the Transatlantic slave trade by a 123-3 vote with 52 spineless nations abstaining including Great Britain, France and Portugal, all of whom imported millions of slaves to their Caribbean and South American colonies. Three nations voted no including the U.S., Israel, and Argentina. The resolution declared the “transatlantic” slave trade was the “gravest crime” ever committed against humanity. The resolution ...
Fredonians and students alike can agree on one thing: something must be done about the water. As a member of both camps, I see a connecting thread between us. We all have a right to safe drinking water and we’re wasting time and money with our current infrastructure. The boil water advisories are hostile to all of us and in the words of Mayor Michael Ferguson, “this community would be a ghost town if we don't stop this”. We’re being shortchanged and our community — locals and students — doesn’t have to take it. We have faced the 10th boil water advisory in the last ...
The idea of automatic cost-of-living-adjustments for Chautauqua County legislators is, and frankly always was, a bad idea. We weren’t in favor of legislators receiving a 64% increase in pay in 2024. While that was the first raise in county lawmakers’ pay in about 20 years. A $5,700 raise doesn’t look like much until you realize it equaled a nearly $110,000 increase to the county budget. Now, next year, legislators are set to receive another pay increase tied to inflation. Can all the county residents who work two jobs raise their hands if their part-time employer have ...
