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Opinion

Legislature owes relief to residents

Commentary

Last weekend’s papers had the County Legislature’s Republican majority leader, Jamie Gustafson, critical of the three provisions of the “Affordability Act of 2026” introduced at the January County Legislature meeting by me as the assistant minority leader and Bob Banksoski, the minority leader. Our legislation would first make more senior citizen homeowners eligible for a partial property tax exemption, second, reduce the County’s property tax by $2,000,000 for 2027 and, third, support a County sales tax reduction from 8% to 7 3/4%, with more of the sales tax revenue going to ...

No affordability when government spends

Commentary

The latest political rage is the “Affordability Crisis” – which basically means inflation is eating away at your paycheck. Ironically, the people who most loudly proclaim the Affordability Crisis are usually the ones who caused the problem in the first place by supporting over-spending and over-regulation by the Government. They also think the answer is (curiously) more spending and more regulation. Under President Joe Biden, inflation averaged over 5% per year, with one year being over 9%. By comparison, Trump 47 reduced it to 2.7%, but still more must be done to reverse the ...

LEGISLATURE: Ending comments full of hypocrisy

The OBSERVER’s View

What opinions, exactly, are the ones the Chautauqua County Legislature is tired of hearing in its second privilege of the floor during monthly legislature meetings? Is it federal matters that could impact the county or its residents? Is it local residents’ opinions on energy policy? Is it Chautauqua Lake? Are they tired of Legislator Tom Nelson, D-Jamestown, using time at the end of legislature meetings to speak about federal issues as he did five times in the first six months of 2025? We ask because those were the most common topics addressed by the public during the second ...

Stout counties seek life preserver from state

Editor's corner

New York’s 62 counties, including Chautauqua, are once again seeking sympathy about potential federal cuts that could impact residents statewide. In a news release issued Wednesday afternoon, the New York State Association of Counties is urging Albany to take action on federal reductions ...

Chautauqua Gorge a winter treat

Commentary

CHAUTAUQUA GORGE STATE FOREST — It’s one thing to see the Chautauqua Gorge in the summertime. It’s another thing entirely to see it in the wintertime. If you haven’t seen it in the wintertime, you might consider putting it on your list. It’s spectacular. Just spectacular. High walls along the deeper parts of the gorge surround snow-covered pines and hardwoods. In the middle of a sunny afternoon, the blue sky is overhead. Later, as the sun sets, the sky turns dark blue and the brightest stars begin to fill the sky. More stars join them as the sky turns dark blue, then ...

PINK THE RINK: A hockey team’s winning tradition

The OBSERVER’s View

From the beginning, Pink the Rink at the State University of New York at Fredonia was special. On the day after the inaugural event in 2008, the pink-clad Blue Devil hockey team was featured on ESPN during its top plays segment. Since then, the event remains a significant date in the season’s schedule — for the university as well as the community. This year’s event is the 17th “Pink the Rink” game in 18 years. To date, roughly $125,000 has been raised by the Fredonia State hockey program in the fight against cancer. All proceeds from the event benefit the American Cancer ...