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Facing the Challenges of Local Government

Commentary

We tend to forget that it takes dedicated people to run our local government institutions. One of my earliest memories of politics was observing my Dad’s duties as Supervisor of the Town of Kiantone. It was not a job that he really wanted—he was plenty busy running the farm—but the Republican Committee asked him to run for the position, so he did. After a couple of terms, a neighboring dairy farmer, a Democrat, Frank Bratt, decided to run for the job. My Dad’s reaction was: “Well, if he wins, he will do a good job.” Bratt did win, and I remember my father saying shortly ...

County: Familiar story plays out at lake

The OBSERVER’s View

For more than a century Chautauqua Lake has been the goose that lays golden eggs. That was the case when lakefront hotels and amusement parks dotted the lake’s shores around the turn of the century. It was true as lakefront homes and summer cottages sprung up around the lake. The goose helped create southern Chautauqua County’s tourist economy. The goose is still capable of laying golden eggs as developers look to spend big bucks on lakefront development. We all love the goose. We really love those golden eggs that keep dollars flowing in the summer. But we can’t seem to agree ...

Finding clarity in protests over ICE

Commentary

By THE REV. MEL McGINNIS “We are seeing two movies on one screen,” the late Dilbert creator Scott Adams once said. Minneapolis is exhibit one. One side calls it murder, the other, self-defense. One side says, “ICE is causing chaos.” The other side says, “ICE is there because of the rampant chaos there already.” I’m not a law enforcement expert, but you don’t have to be an expert to have common sense. Do you listen to an officer giving an order to exit the car or do you follow your lawbreaking partner saying, “Drive baby, drive?” Renee Good listened to her ...

New York State: Assembly Dems put on rural reps

The OBSERVER’s View

When Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, debated a bill or spoke on a bill’s merits, he knew he wasn’t speaking to Democrats in the Assembly. The same is true for Goodell’s successor, Andrew Molitor. But, during the latter part of Goodell’s tenure in the Assembly the Jamestown Republican often led the Assembly in floor time used thanks to his role as the minority whip. For all of that floor time Goodell knew he was rarely going to sway a Democrat from voting with the Republican caucus. But Goodell knew that he could often make good enough points to either get the governor ...

FREDONIA District has time to fix finances

The OBSERVER’s View

Fredonia Central School district residents did not need to hear the news from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to know of the troubling fiscal plight. Since a meeting in December, the district has been well aware of its money problems that will become more apparent as the 2026-27 budget gets pieced together. On Thursday, DiNapoli issued his Fiscal Stress Monitoring System for the year ending June 30. It was up to 31 from 22 districts in fiscal stress the prior year. “In recent years, pandemic-related federal funding as well as increases in state aid have provided districts with ...

Freedoms being lost right before our eyes

Commentary

I am Antifa. I have been writing these commentaries for at least a decade and in that time I have consistently put forward the “Liberal Agenda.” We want a single payer plan for healthcare. We want everyone to have a good education and employment opportunities. We want clean water and clean air. The minimum wage should be a living wage. All of these things go against Project 2025. Why do conservatives oppose these things? They claim we are trying to take from the rich to give to the undeserving poor. If we adopt a single-payer health plan, health insurance companies will still exist ...