It usually takes a crisis before a community starts to care. The city of Dunkirk’s chaos has been long overdue. A municipality with a population of 12,400 residents needs a budget of $30 million to operate. With a shrinking tax base — and high poverty rate — it is a recipe for ...

There are going to be some who will be upset if the Chautauqua County Legislature approves a $200,000 allocation to the National Comedy Center when the legislature meets Wednesday. We understand the concerns. Millions of government dollars have been given to help build the center, and ...

During his time at the State University of New York at Fredonia, Lucas West has been right at home. The Fairport native, noting his senior year, has had his share of accomplishments in recent years. From singing the national anthem at Buffalo Bills’ games to his recent performance in ...

For more than half a century, the United States has been celebrating Earth Day. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it was in the spring of 1970, Sen. Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to force legal and regulatory mechanisms to protect our natural world. Today, our ...

The more time one gets to look at the judge’s decision in local lawsuits challenging the state’s Freshwater Wetlands Act regulations, the more it is clear that the regulations are likely merely delayed, not dead. Judge Richard Platkin’s ruling last week in state Supreme Court in Albany ...

Portland town Supervisor Richard Lewis in March set the ball rolling. In an interview with Dunkirk OBSERVER reporter Braden Carmen, the elected official noted there may be some interest in the former Sugar Hill golf property by a data center. Within a month, the board meeting saw attendance ...