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The OBSERVER’s View

FREDONIA: Is this the time to worry about Non Fred Fest?

Trust us, we can understand Fredonia Mayor Mike Ferguson’s feelings regarding recent comments made by State University at Fredonia students regarding the village’s handling of water issues and non Fred Fest. Fredonia students quoted in the student newspaper and an editorial written by a Fredonia student weren’t complimentary of village government. We’re sure Ferguson and other Fredonia Village Board members felt like they were wearing pork chop underwear in a dog park before reading The Leader story and editorial. The exercise is a good lesson for the Leader editorial writer. ...

Fredonia: Even flawed fiscal stress monitors could have helped

As Fredonia village officials struggle to whittle down a 65.3% tax levy increase, it’s interesting to note the village was also found not to be in fiscal stress in a state Comptroller’s Office review of village budgets released last week. We’ve said before that we think the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System is flawed, particularly when looking at Jamestown’s finances in the past. We still think the system is flawed, but perhaps the biggest flaw is that local governments have to submit paperwork to the state in order to be included in the rankings. Fredonia didn’t do that in ...

Assembly Speaker’s Budget Impasse Bill Is Misguided

We have finally found a point of agreement with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie - policy issues don’t need to be included in the state budget. That doesn’t mean we agree with his recent proposal to allow state lawmakers to be paid when the state budget is late because the governor inserts policy in the budget, a process that has led to late budgets the past few years because Hochul and state legislative leaders struggle to find compromise on the policy issues. We have long preferred that policy issues get hashed out on the Senate and Assembly floor where there can be an open ...

COUNTY: It’s hard to believe air service will fly this year

Chautauqua County officials are on board with trying to restore Essential Air Service at the Jamestown airport. We remain unconvinced that passengers, not to mention the federal government, are ready to climb back on board passenger service at the Jamestown airport. We haven’t yet seen anything that says the federal government is about to open the federal spending floodgates, nor have we seen anything that says ridership at the airport is going to explode if an Essential Air Service subsidy is reinstated by the federal government. County lawmakers are bound and determined to ...

Easter: A time for reflection for all

This weekend is the culmination of the holiest of weeks in the Christian calendar, with Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Christ it celebrates the most pivotal or defining moment of the liturgical year. We understand and respect that not everyone in our region is a practicing Christian - we hope everyone can understand that the lessons of this season go beyond the chronology of the scriptures or the doctrines of churches. The Easter message calls upon the world to be more compassionate, as Jesus Christ, on the cross, asked God the Father to forgive His persecutors. The message ...

NATION: Increasing timber production a responsible decision

A recent executive order by President Donald Trump to streamline regulations and allow more timber to be harvested from U.S. Forest Service lands invites what possibly could be a trivia question: Under which U.S. department’s jurisdiction does the U.S. Forest Service fall? If you answered the U.S. Department of the Interior, which supervises national parks and fulfills a mission of preserving natural areas and sites of note, you would be wrong. If you answered the Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces environmental regulations to curtail pollution and limit environmental ...