CHEER: It’s much better than a new lease. This week Niagara County Emergency Services officials dropped off a new emergency vehicle to the North Tonawanda Fire Department. Well, new to the NT Fire Department. The 2020 Chevy Silverado, was actually previously used by the county’s deputy fire coordinator. After the Niagara County Legislature voted to declare the Silverado as surplus property, its ownership was transferred to the NT “Emergency response is a function shared by multiple levels of governments, so it only makes sense to share resources wherever we can to extend the life of equipment and save taxpayer dollars,” Legislator Randy Bradt said of the transfer.
CHEER: It’s finally here — Big Ditch Brewing Company opened the doors on its new Lockport location on Thursday. The Lockport Tap Room offers seating for 250 guests across two levels, a spacious bar, a main dining area, an outdoor covered patio, and private event space. The venue also features a small brewery dedicated to brewing experimental beers, providing patrons with the exclusive opportunity to be the first to taste new creations from Big Ditch. Sounds great. Owners were also quick to point out that the new business at 1 East Ave. combined with the nearby Historic Palace Theater and Cornerstone Arena, forms a new leisure, entertainment and dining destination in Niagara County. See you there — we’ll be sipping on the carrot cake beer. Big Ditch Brewing is open from 4 to 10 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays; noon to 11 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays. It’s closed on Tuesdays. For more information, visit bigditchbrewing.com.
JEER: We’ve stated our support for Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed “bell-to-bell” ban for school districts in New York state. It requires districts to restrict phones on school grounds during “instructional” and “non-instructional” time. That includes homeroom, lunch, recess, study hall and “passing time.” As we said, it all sounds good to us. Cell phones have become a menace to school instruction and don’t belong in the classroom. Now, though, some state senators want to give schools the option to allow cell phones during non-instruction time — like lunch and recess. So kids can constantly go back and forth to wherever their phones are stored throughout the day? Sounds like chaos. How many won’t turn them back in when they’re supposed to? That doesn’t sound feasible to us and just waters down the whole proposal. Thankfully, Hochul said she plans to fight to keep the proposal as is. “This is what the experts say, this is what the parents want, this is what the teachers want,” she said at a press conference Tuesday. We have a feeling the more leeway the state gives, the less likely this proposal will be properly enforced, to the detriment of everyone.