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In Our Opinion

In Our Opinion

Flock Safety is at least acknowledging the privacy concerns that have been raised by members of the public and by civil liberties groups over the past several months by announcing changes to its platform. We aren’t sure those changes go far enough, though they do appear to be a step in the right direction. Flock operates a vast nationwide network of automated cameras that record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of all passing vehicles every day. Thousands of law enforcement agencies in 49 states can search and share Flock’s data across jurisdictions to aid their ...

We’ve won a battle against phosphorus in lake, not the war

8-25 JPJ Tuesday Chautauqua County celebrated quite a milestone recently with completion of the second phase of the South and Center Chautauqua Lake Sewer District’s Westside Sewer Extension. It won’t be long until there are public sewers all the way around Chautauqua Lake. It felt like one needed binoculars two decades ago to see the finish line when the idea of building sewers around Chautauqua Lake was first being discussed. Since 2017, when work on the first phase of the sewer extension began, sewers have been extended to Stow west along Route 394 toward the boundary with the ...

Speak now on Safe Streets for All, Or forever hold your peace

We’ve had enough serious traffic accidents over the years to know there are some long-established traffic patterns in Jamestown that need to change. Our road designs in too many places make it difficult for pedestrians, cyclists - either pedal or electric-assisted - and vehicles to coexist safely. We have long held that some of those difficulties are behavioral. People drive too fast. They’re distracted. Pedestrians too often walk in the street when sidewalks are available. The rise of e-bikes and scooters being ridden with no regard to traffic laws just adds more traffic to the ...

In Our Opinion

We’d say New York should throw out its recycling data, but we’re not sure if the paper would be recycled or end up in a landfill. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office found the state DEC lacks reliable information on how much material is recycled across the state. Part of the problem is recycling facilities have submitted only about two-thirds of the required annual reports from January 2021 through December 2023. The facilities that did submit reports couldn’t always verify the information they did report. And, perhaps most troubling, of the reports that were submitted, ...

Public call for DRI, NY Forward grants is late in process

It’s good that local residents are getting an opportunity to have input in the plans for Jamestown’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative and Falconer’s $4.5 million NY Forward grant. Local planning committees have been created in Jamestown and Falconer, and local residents are now being asked to bring any project ideas they have to the committee for possible inclusion in the final plan for the state grants. In Jamestown, an open call for projects is taking place from Aug. 21 through Sept. 25, with an information session scheduled for Aug. 27 at the Robert H. Jackson ...

Amount of benefits fraud in county is beyond shocking

It is shocking, though not surprising, that two county Social Services Department employees have been charged in the theft of money from the people they were supposed to be helping. Amounts weren’t disclosed during a news conference last week, nor was the name of a second person allegedly involved in the alleged theft, but we’ve seen enough thefts of public money in the past to know that where there are large sums of money being passed around someone will eventually try to take some for themselves. We’ve been through this a time or two over the past couple of decades. That ...