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Opinion

Our opinion: Another development effort

Our Opinion

City officials are ready to take another swing at redeveloping 231-237 Pennsylvania Ave. We hope the process is smoother this time around, because no one needs the acrimony that ended up derailing the development formerly known as the Hudson Project. After early approval by the City Council opposition grew over time to the point that the developers finally chose to end the project rather than fight a growing movement against their project. One thing should be obvious. Low-income senior housing on the site is probably not going to be the future of this downtown parcel. Knowing that ...

Our opinion: Some help for school transport

Our Opinion

Warren County School District officials are on the hot seat when it comes to the amount of time children will spend on school buses next year. Transportation is one of the most persistent questions about the closure of the Youngsville and Sheffield high school buildings that has been raised in school board meetings for nearly a year. Parents aren’t wrong to have questions. Busing children to and from school, particularly young children, affects the entire family in one way or another. As we’ve said in the past, concerns about transportation are a hurdle, not an insurmountable ...

Our opinion: Equitable solution to lawsuit

Our Opinion

Warren officials have reached what appears to be an equitable solution with a developer who wants to pursue oil and gas drilling on a parcel that includes what is now a Days Inn on Ludlow Street. The parcel was formerly zoned commercial except for two-tenths of an acre that was zoned for industrial use until 2024, when new zoning maps were created. At that time, the two-tenths of an acre on the hotel property was rezoned commercial - but the new zoning maps didn’t reflect the change. So when John Branch decided he wanted to pursue oil and gas drilling, he was under the impression ...

Readers Speak

Letters To Editor

Indifference to damage Dear Editor, This is an open letter to Congress: I am writing this letter to express my deep concerns over what is currently happening in Washington, especially in terms of President Donald Trump’s shameless overriding of the Constitution by freezing needed funds and slashing and dismantling needed agencies authorized by Congress, which is meekly standing aside, falling in line, and allowing him to do this. Real people here in Pennsylvania and across the nation are being hurt by these actions, and real damage is being done in countless areas — agriculture, ...

Lessons for the U.S. can be found in Sweden

Local Commentaries

About six years ago, Economist Johan Norberg produced a documentary about Sweden’s recent economic transformations entitled “Sweden: Lessons for America.” The program is very informative as well as entertaining, and will challenge what you thought you knew. You can still catch it on YouTube (highly recommended). Sweden was one of the poorest countries in the world prior to 1850 when many fled to avoid the grinding poverty. (The first Swedes came to Jamestown in 1849; immigration locally continued through the World War I era.) Later, Sweden adopted free markets to become one of ...

Job reductions at ANF will take toll on county

Local Commentaries

The headline in the Feb. 22 edition of the Warren Times Observer reads “Forest Service layoffs may affect ANF.” How devastating would cuts to the ANF be to the Warren community? Let me give you the facts. As of January, the Allegheny National Forest employed 151 full-time people spread between three offices in Warren, Bradford, and Marienville. These 151 foresters, engineers, hydrologists, wildlife biologists, archeologists, recreation specialists, and more, not only work on the ANF but they represent 151 families that own homes, shop for groceries in our markets, send their kids ...