The median Chautauqua County household income is $42,720 a year — and a lot of the people who work hard every day to earn every penny of that $42,720 are not getting big raises this year. Why, then, is the Chautauqua County Legislature approving raises for management-level ...
Why in the world would current Pomfret Town Board member John Sedota consider a run for trustee in the village of Fredonia? Pomfret has a record of getting things done while running productive monthly meetings. That is much different than what takes place in Fredonia. Its Village Board ...
Leaders of both major political parties agree on one thing: The presidential election scheduled for Tuesday is among the most important in American history. Its outcome will shape our government, economy, even our society for many years to come. Your life and that of your children and ...
No one should be happy with the ongoing stalemate in Congress over the latest round of COVID-19 relief funding or a host of important issues ranging from immigration reform to health care. The office of President of the United States is powerful, but not omnipotent. Members of the Senate and ...
Before running for a seat vacated by highly popular state Sen. Catharine Young in 2019, Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello was making things happen. In his first 100 days after earning the office, he visited more than 100 businesses to learn about their needs and concerns. He brought ...
Incumbent state Assemblyman Andy Goodell, R-Jamestown, faces a spirited and feisty challenge from Christina Cardinale, a Jamestown resident endorsed by the Democratic Party. Cardinale has made several proposals since announcing her campaign earlier this year. The challenger has said she ...
From the beginning, Jason Schmidt has been a thorn in the side of District Attorney Patrick Swanson. Schmidt stepped up in 2016 to challenge Swanson, who was named to head the office after David Foley was elected Chautauqua County judge. It was a bitter, emotional campaign then and it has been ...
There are two candidates for New York state Supreme Court Justice on the Nov. 3 election ballot — Amy Martoche and Gerald Greenan III. Greenan is endorsed by the Republican, Conservative and Independence parties after narrowly losing a seat on the bench in 2019 to Diane Devlin. Greenan has ...
We’ve been urged to “follow the science” so many times during the past six months that we suspect many people are growing sick of the advice. Besides, what if the scientists aren’t following the science? Some of them are not. Americans became justifiably suspicious of the World ...
For now, the games cannot go on. The State University of New York Athletic Conference on Monday announced the winter season of sports will not be taking place. “This was not an easy decision and I empathize with all of our student-athletes across the SUNYAC,” said Erik Bitterbaum, chair ...
This has been a bad week for Chautauqua County when it comes to COVID-19. The county reported 118 cases from Oct. 11 through Oct. 18 — more than half of them tied to an outbreak of COVID-19 at Tanglewood Manor. Of course, that means that half the cases are from community spread; which ...
Andrew Nixon, Chautauqua County Visitor’s Bureau president and CEO, thinks the local tourism economy will recover from COVID-19. That good news is followed by sobering news — it may take more than three years for that recovery to be complete. Coming off of two strong tourism seasons ...
Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas’ city budget proposal for 2021, at first glance, seems reasonable. There’s no planned tax increase during a worldwide pandemic, but fees for garbage pick up and sewer rates will be rising. “This budget this year, in my five years of being mayor was the most ...
When will we have an effective, safe, vaccine against COVID-19? That depends. Federal public health officials who are in the know and without any political agendas have said deliveries of vaccine can be expected sometime in January. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services predicts a ...
Members of the Brocton American Legion Post deserve plenty of thanks. Last week, an officer from the Dunkirk Joint Veterans Council arrived at the organizations’s meeting and took time to recognize some outstanding individuals. “We want to express to the Honor Guard our undying gratitude ...
Gowanda has reason to be proud. The Gateway Park, located where the world’s largest glue factory called home years ago, has received a clean bill of health — so to speak — from the Environmental Protection Agency. During an event held at the park last week, officials hailed the removal ...
When it comes to onerous restrictions, Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf isn’t much better than Gov. Andrew Cuomo. But one thing Pennsylvania has done each week should be done here in New York state, starting immediately. Each week, Pennsylvania releases a weekly status update that breaks the state’s ...
We never thought we would be saying this, but the Fredonia Central Schools are behind the times. Only last week did the district begin to announce a plan to bring the student body back to the buildings. But even that communication was incomplete. Only grades three to five were addressed as ...
Fredonia Mayor Doug Essek is taking some heat from the social media world after he removed the village’s Facebook page on Tuesday. During the Village Board meeting last week, Essek gave his reasons for the removal. “The page is highly unmonitored and it was apparent that users were ...
Many sectors of the U.S. economy continue a slow but steady recovery from the COVID-19 slowdown. By the end of September, the unemployment rate had dropped to 7.9%, down from 8.4% in August. But as we and many others have warned, some businesses — and millions of their employees — ...