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Opinion

Natural gas best option for facility

Commentary

In early 2013, New York’s then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo showed up in Dunkirk on a wintry day to announce with great fanfare that the NRG power plant in Dunkirk would be converted from a clean-coal facility to natural gas-fueled power production. I was a Chautauqua County Legislator at the time and I was there that day to experience the community’s collective sigh of relief that the county’s largest property-taxpaying entity would continue to operate. However, everything changed as the governor pivoted and decided he would bow to political pressure from the advocates on the far left ...

Authority debt often ignored in state

Peoples column

Editor, OBSERVER: It is strange that no mention is made of the enormous debt held by the numerous public authorities in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget message? She touts the $14.6 billion in reserve while failing to take into account the budget gap of $34 billion-plus which includes the “reserve! Public authority debt is “off budget” (hidden from public view) thus not subject to voter/legislative oversight as it balloons to over $300 billion statewide! Painting a pretty picture with invisible ink does not fool those of us that look beyond her phony fiscal facade! JOE ...

Lots riding on latest county merger effort

Editor's corner

Pressures will soon begin to mount on the school boards that oversee Clymer, Panama and Sherman. It is through no fault of those who have been elected to serve. They are only following through on community wishes. During last May’s school vote, each community indicated in a referendum a ...

Pegula opens up to Bills’ fans

Commentary

ORCHARD PARK—Let’s pick up where we left off 50 weeks ago, at the conclusion of the Buffalo Bills’ 2024 season. That season ended in the American Football Conference championship game with bad officiating favoring what this column called the Kansas City “Chief Referees.” This followed a divisional-round-playoff game between the Houston Texans and the Chiefs for which referees were themselves called for bad calls favoring the Chiefs. ≤ ≤ ≤ Fast forward to the divisional-round playoffs following the 2025 season, with the Bills playing the Broncos in Denver on Jan. ...

Guests should never leave hosts guessing

Commentary

For some reason just before Christmas I was reading the electronic version of The Buffalo News I subscribe to when I came across an advice column. I generally avoid advice columns whether they be of the Ann Landers type or medical ones. Anyway what probably caught my eye was a section entitled “Do’s and don’ts for visiting elderly friends.” Because I wanted to ensure that visitors who visit my wife and I are observing proper protocols and because we can both be considered elderly although we don’t feel that way, I took notice. The advice was submitted by someone who ...

THRUWAY: Closing interstate always a tough call

The OBSERVER’s View

Even though we are battle tested, there is no telling when winter will take a turn for the worse. That is exactly what happened around 1 p.m. Tuesday. Blizzard and whiteout conditions took over much of the north county — especially on the State Thruway that led to at least three accidents, including one with multiple vehicles. With the weather deteriorating, first responders that included the Fredonia Fire Department and Thruway State Police made it to the scene. Minor injuries were reported, but it begs the question: should the state Thruway have been closed? For those witnessing ...