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Our opinion: JCC scholarship can assist

Jamestown Community College officials have spent the past several years trying to find new students as its Chautauqua County enrollment decreased. A couple of new initiatives from the JCC Foundation could pay dividends for both the college and students from Warren, McKean and Erie counties. The first initiative is the Good Neighbors Scholarship, a trial initiative designed to support students from Warren, McKean, and Erie counties in Pennsylvania. The scholarship covers half the cost of out-of-state tuition, allowing qualifying students to pay the same rate as New York residents. The ...

Our opinion: No predicting fortune telling

It’s telling that Rep. Greg Scott is trying to repeal a Pennsylvania law that makes it a crime to perform fortune telling and other “amusements” like tarot card reading. We’re not amused. That has nothing to do with Scott. In fact, the Norristown Democrat is doing his job. A constituent brought the issue to him and he is attempting to deal with it legislatively. The issue is that as states accumulate laws, many become outdated. When one wonders why so little tends to get done in Harrisburg or other state capitols around the country, these bills are one culprit. It’s ...

Our opinion: Will billing change have benefits?

It made plenty of sense from a cash flow perspective for Warren County officials to split tax billing rather than send one bill later in the year for county, school and municipal taxes. There’s a reason why every other county in the state had made this change before Warren County - it helps with county budgeting. But discussion during a recent Warren County Commissioners meeting shined a light on another potential benefit - fewer tax delinquencies. In 2013 Warren County had about 11% of tax bills end up being delinquent. Now, that number is 8.78%, a number that ends up equalling ...

Editor’s corner: Etiquette can go south fast during town halls

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Reed of New York knew he would be walking into a buzzsaw in 2017 during town hall meetings with constituents. In a New York Times video taken in North Harmony in February of that year, Reed stood calmly — and composed — while listening to concerns of those in ...

Our opinion: Rethinking reassessment

We hope that the current and future Warren County commissioners have been taking notes as the county’s property reassessment process drags on. Making the decision to finally undertake a property reassessment was necessary and correct. But postponing the decision for decades has created so much uncertainty among Warren County property owners that the process is far more difficult for taxpayers than it should be. No one is familiar with a process that should be at the very root of governance - making sure properties are assessed fairly so that taxpayers are paying a fair amount of ...

Our opinion: Set common-sense boundaries

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it could. And that’s why the Warren City Council is tightening up the City Code as it applies to chicken coops located inside the city. Changes make clear there are no free-range chickens allowed in the city, no roosters, and a permit will be required to build a chicken coop because they are now considered auxiliary buildings. The new code language also gives the city the ability to check on permits to make sure chicken owners followed the city’s guidelines as to where the coop is located. Roosters in the city limits are also ...