Down along the border, Pennsylvania bar owners in towns like Corry, Columbus, Sugar Grove and Youngsville are rejoicing at the stupid decision by New York State lawmakers to ban smoking in saloons. Their business has picked up precipitously.
Last week, on a Monday night in Corry, Pa., the bar was full at a place called the Library, and manager Terry Malek pointed out that a number of cars in the parking lot had New York tags.
"For them, it just means driving another mile, and they know they're welcome here," Malek said of the dispossessed New York smokers.
Three miles north, at the French Creek Tavern in French Creek, N.Y., the bar was empty, even though management had erected "The Smoke House," a large heated shed behind the bar proper where smoking patrons were free to take their drinks and chances with lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema.
The smoking ban is the most moronic piece of legislation passed by this state in more than 80 years, since the infamous Sullivan Act stripped law-abiding citizens of the right to own handguns.
It has bankrupted small businesses, put the very people it was supposed to protect out of work and hurt the state's economy.
And state Sen. George Maziarz, state Sen. Byron Brown and state Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte all voted for it.
So the Redhead and I spent a couple days of our well-deserved vacation last week down in the Allegheny mountain region of Pennsylvania, catching up with some old friends and taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather.
If you haven't been lately, you ought to go, if only to see how the state screws the city of Niagara Falls on a daily basis.
Coming north on I-90, south of Buffalo, you happen on a sign that says "Niagara Region Exits," and then lists a bunch of exit numbers. None of them are within 30 miles of Niagara Falls.
Then there's a sign that says "Niagara Falls Exit 50." That one will get you to Amherst.
After that there's the "Niagara Falls Boulevard" sign which, again, will land you nowhere near the natural wonder.
These are not misleading billboards put up by unscrupulous proprietors. These are regular green-and-white signs put up by the geniuses who run our state government. People from all over the world who travel hundreds or thousands of miles to view the magnificent cataracts get fooled by them every day.
So here's a note for you out-of-towners from an old Niagara Falls hand. Just follow the numerous state signs that direct you to the Seneca Niagara Casino. The falls are about three blocks from there.
Lt. John Chella is a good man and will make a fine police chief. But last week's surprise retirement announcement by Capt. Gordon Warme must have made John think twice. He was the next in line for captain, and taking the chief's job will cost Chella as much as $50,000 a year.
In other NFPD news, the boys in the detective squad are cheered by the appointment of Capt. Ernie Palmer as chief of detectives. Palmer will replace the retiring John Soltys, whose tenure set the record for the number of unsolved homicides here, as well as records for disgruntled employees and pandering to newspapermen who live on Grand Island.
Palmer, who served as police superintendent under former mayor James Galie, is a stand-up guy who's known among the rank-and-file as a straight-shooter. One thing he definitely is not is a micro-manager.
"That's great, because now we'll be able to do our jobs again," one veteran detective told me.
It's nice to be back at work. For more than five years, I've enjoyed covering the goings-on here, and I think that the coming year is going to be better than ever.
Sen. Maziarz is taking Mayor Vince Anello to Albany tomorrow as his guest for Gov. Pataki's State of the State address. Hopefully, the two of them will get into some eggnog or something and work out this deal with the casino revenues.
If they don't, you'll get to read dozens of stories about a political catfight that will make anything in recent memory seem tame by comparison.
Here at the Reporter, our hope is that all election-year promises will be kept and that both the city and the county start to turn the corner on what has been a pretty dismal 30 years or so.
That's our hope. We'll see what the reality becomes.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | January 6 2004 |