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Opinion

Hopefully, no more extensions are needed for Falconer project

In Our Opinion

Falconer Village Board members did the right thing last week when they agreed to another one-year extension to purchase Main Street property that Peak Development has been working with the village to redevelop since a pair of fires destroyed the properties. The lot has been vacant for nearly a decade since the March 22, 2017, fire that destroyed 29-39 W. Main St. Efforts to redevelop the site have hit stumbling blocks for years, though the receipt of a NY Forward grant in June creates the possibility of additional funding for a redevelopment project. The NY Forward grant application ...

County tax cut is nice, but is the budget realistic?

In Our Opinion

County Executive PJ Wendel is proposing a 58 cent tax rate decrease and no tax levy increase in his 2027 budget. Not increasing the levy is due, in part, to increased use of the county’s surplus while the county’s tax rate decrease is due, in part, to a 14% increase in the value of property in the county. It’s a good position for the county to be in - because we are pretty sure when we see budget proposals from Jamestown and Dunkirk in a couple of weeks the pictures won’t be nearly that pretty. In addition, the county plans to spend an additional $100,000 on Chautauqua Lake ...

It shouldn’t be this hard to park downtown

In Our Opinion

Parking meter issues have been a point of consternation over the past couple of years - and they really shouldn’t be. A couple of years ago the city was having issues with batteries failing in some parking meters that caused some meters to stop working at all. In 2023 new parking meters purchased with a state grant in 2021 began to malfunction as their batteries died out. Some of those meters were replaced with coin parking meters until new batteries could be ordered, though some of the meters weren't able to handle the coin payments because of the way they were shaped. Earlier ...

A proposal for downtown parking

Local Commentaries

I read with interest the recent coverage of the parking meter complaints being raised before City Council, particularly Councilman Bonfiglio's reference to a "yelling match in front of Pace's." Before anything else, I want to thank Councilman Bonfiglio for continuing to raise this issue and for the support he has shown Pace's throughout this entire situation. His willingness to bring this before the Council, more than once now, has not gone unnoticed, and we are grateful to have him championing this on our behalf. I also want to say, outside of this particular parking issue, that the ...

Oh Canada, we are sorry

Local Commentaries

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, as American forces stormed Omaha Beach at a cost of 2,800 lives, our Canadian neighbors and friends stormed Juno Beach at a cost of 381 lives. (Our population in 1944 was 130,000,000, more than 10 times Canada’s 12,000,000). Canadians served alongside our armed forces in Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Iraq, and in Afghanistan after the 9-11 attack on our Country. Until Donald Trump became President and treated Canada with no respect, as a non-nation that should be our 51st State, as something to be punished with punitive tariffs, ...

On shopping carts, we agree on the what, disagree on the how

In Our Opinion

It’s hard to disagree with the city’s proposal to crack down on shopping carts that are littering many city neighborhoods. In many cases, the carts are making it easier for people to steal metal - like the innards from a freezer at the St. Susan Center, markers from Lakeview Cemetery or other items throughout the city - and transport them to scrapyards. So not only are the carts becoming a growing eyesore in some neighborhoods, they are also actively being used in thefts and criminal mischief. A memorandum associated with the ordinance noted that on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, code ...