Fredonia’s follies just will not go away. Last week, after a contentious Village Board meeting marred by a minor scuffle after the public comment session, trustees went into executive session and created even more chaos. When they came out of it, the board terminated its Department of Public ...

Viewing from a distance, there seems to be little doubt that the village of Westfield is one of the most organized and aggressive communities when it comes to funding. Last week, state Gov. Kathy Hochul announced projects planned by recipients of the NY Forward grant. Westfield had an ...

We have complained for years about more than $30 million in reserves for Chautauqua County. Pine Valley Central Schools is even more guilty. In recent years, Pine Valley built its unassigned fund balance to roughly 30% of the succeeding year’s budget — dramatically higher than surrounding ...

Village of Fredonia officials deserve some praise for their efforts regarding the notorious Not Fred Fest. Earlier this month, the party hearty weekend was nothing like previous editions. In a news release issued last week, Fredonia police noted they handled 163 incidents and made 37 arrests. ...

Republicans and Democrats are like two ships passing in the night when it comes to New York’s energy policy. Both ships are in shallow water with a rocky bottom. In this analogy, that makes the state Independent System Operator a lighthouse trying to illuminate the darkness to allow the ...

We must admit our lack of surprise regarding rising government costs. In this case, the top story in last weekend’s OBSERVER focused on the growing expense for Pomfret of its new town hall. During its meeting last month, Supervisor Dan Pacos told the town board the estimated price tag now ...