All of a sudden, development is booming in Chautauqua County.
The former Silver Creek Elementary School and the former Fluvanna Elementary School in Greenhurst are poised to become apartments. The former Fairbank Farms and Castelli Cheese building in Blockville may soon be a cheese-making facility again after its purchase in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. There are discussions of a new hotel in North Harmony, construction is underway on The Lodge, owned by the Webb Family, in Mayville. Solar farms are popping up in Ashville.
These are all good developments vacant buildings finding new life, a manufacturer springing back to life, private property owners finding a new use for their land and developers seeing enough promise in the county’s post-COVID economic rebound to think more hotels and condos are needed. The projects also provide employment for hundreds of contractors and trades workers. The Vittoria Dairy Inc. project in Blockville brings even more ancillary benefits to area farm
Keep an eye on the pending consolidation of four Chautauqua County town courts into one.
French Creek and Mina officially merged judgeships earlier this year after home rule legislation was signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Sherman offficials tried to consolidate two judge positions into one last year because of declining case volumes but had the decision overruled by town residents before both justices left the bench on their own. Clymer officials had a vacancy and are using Denis Cooper, French Creek/Mina judge, as Clymer’s acting judge.
Consolidating the four courts into one judicial structure, all housed in the Mina town courthouse, is an interesting experiment. In addition to creating a larger area from which to find a town judge, it will be interesting to see if there are cost savings by sharing the cost of a judge, clerk and operating expenses. How does having one court in Mina affect the county District Attorney’s Office? Does the four-town court result in unacceptable cas
May 3, 2021
What, exactly, took legislative Democrats so long to decide the time was right to repeal an executive order requiring diners to purchase food if they were having an alcoholic beverage?
Democrats spoke eloquently Wednesday about the importance of checks and balances and respecting businesses and New Yorkers. Sen. John Mannion, D-Onondaga County, said the repeal was about rescinding arbitrary and burdensome executive orders and foundational constitutional principles. Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Plattsburgh, went so far as to call the rule nonsensical.
Those issues didn’t change from March 10 to April 28. The food service executive order was just as nonsensical, arbitrary and burdensome in March as it was in late April. It’s good Democrats finally came to their senses, but in our view the fact they did so lends some credence to legislative Republicans’ efforts to rescind more of Cuomo’s executive authority.
Never before have the nation’s small businesses had such a hard time filling open positions.
The National Federation of Small Business’ monthly jobs report showed that 42% of small business owners reported job openings they could not fill, 20 percentage points higher than the 48-year historical average of 22%. What’s more, 91% of business owners trying to hire reported few or no “qualified” applicants for the positions they were trying to fill in March while 28% of owners reported few qualified applicants for their open positions. Nearly a quarter 23% reported no applicants for open positions.
This is a local problem, too.
For all of our hand-wringing over job losses and people dropping out of the labor force, there are jobs open ranging from restaurants to manufacturers. Some local businesses are shutting down an extra day each week because they can’t find people who want to work.
Apr 30, 2021
Most of us think of infrastructure as something physical: bridges, roads, pipelines, power lines and the like. President Joe Biden says he wants to expand that dictionary definition to include workers, families and people and therefore to include schools and housing, for example.
That twisting of the dictionary definition of infrastructure is making the Build Back Better package massive and expensive and, when coupled with how Biden wants to pay for it, by rolling back the Trump tax cuts on businesses, likely will mean it meets strong resistance in Congress. It could cost as much as $4 trillion. It is, as the Associated Press pointed out, on par with the New Deal or Great Society programs though much, much more expensive and expansive.