Niagara Falls

A Roman Catholic priest who is proposing to locate what he terms a “not-for-profit restaurant,” run by volunteers, serving low cost meals to low income residents and free meals to veterans, is running into stiff resistance from Mayor Dyster and

BY NATE MCMURRAY As you may have heard, a brand new, state of the art Welcome Center is coming to Grand Island. The Governor visited last week and he mentioned it specifically in his speech. I’ve been pushing for it

BY TONY FARINA Gov. Andrew Cuomo rode into Niagara Falls this week full of promises about using state funds from his Buffalo Billion Squared Initiative in his proposed 2017 budget to reclaim underused and vacant property near the state park,

BY KENNY TOMPKINS January 1 marked my first official year as a Niagara Falls City Council member. What a year this has been! There was a mix of successes and frustrations that come with government. The biggest plus of this

BY TONY FARINA “Could only happen in Niagara Falls!” That’s what people were saying this week after Councilman Charles Walker – who is still dealing with four misdemeanor charges brought by the state attorney general for allegedly failing to file

BY JOHNNY DESTINO “(I)t is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?” – Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest When I

North Tonawanda Alderwoman-at-Large Catherine Schwandt will be resigning from her elected position with the city of North Tonawanda to pursue a full-time position with the New York Power Authority (NYPA), she announced this week. NYPA is the behemoth, quasi-governmental authority

Newly elected NYS Assemblyman Angelo J. ‘Judge’ Morinello (R,C,I,Ref-Niagara Falls) whose district includes Niagara County and Grand Island in Erie County, has been assigned several committees for the 2017-2018 Legislative Session. This session, Morinello will serve as member of the

BY FRANK PARLATO Terminating his employment him on the last day before his job became protected by civil service law, Mayor Paul Dyster has fired Johnny Destino, the director of purchasing for Niagara Falls. Destino was hired in May 2015, shortly

Today, Assemblyman Angelo Morinello (R,C,I,Ref-Niagara Falls) took his oath of office and was sworn in as a member of the New York State Legislature. Morinello was elected on November 8, 2016, defeating the incumbent of six years. Morinello will represent

BY LOU RICCIUTI Aside from the heart-string-tugging stories of the veterans, their families, their lives and sacrifices, Michelle Ann Kratts’ Niagara Falls in World War II is technically a historical fiction at best. Single-sourced references scream that this book was rushed, or

The unsurprising news broke late Tuesday night: the chairman of the Niagara County Legislature, Keith McNall, R-Lockport, would be keeping his job. In the annals of Niagara County’s political news, this wasn’t exactly an earth-shattering announcement; after all, save for

BY TONY FARINA “The citizens of Niagara Falls would be hard-pressed to find a better candidate for a seat on the City Court bench than Alan Roscetti,” says longtime pharmacist Robert Kendzia when asked about the young man’s plans to

BY FRANK PARLATO Earlier this year the Niagara Gazette announced that a group of locals organized something called “Reclaim Niagara” – formed to “get Albany out of our pockets.” To combat the “exploitation of our resources by public authorities and

Virtuoso slams GOP for Peck, Tamburlin raises, as he enjoys pension ala Dyster Some of us here at the Niagara Falls Reporter had to laugh when we saw the story that Dennis Virtuoso was complaining about pay raises for Niagara

BY TONY FARINA A last-minute budget amendment giving hefty pay raises to two appointees of the GOP majority of the Niagara County Legislature is coming under heavy fire today from Minority Leader Dennis Virtuoso of Niagara Falls. Virtuoso told the

BY JAMES HUFNAGEL Gov. Andrew Cuomo, through his associates at State Parks and the New York Power Authority, sometime over the past week perpetrated an act of such petty vindictiveness and blatant contempt for Niagara Falls that we thought it

Mayor Paul Dyster’s 2017 final budget for the city of Niagara Falls, approved by the city council last week, is a document based more on political calculation than fiscal responsibility. After the vote, councilmembers nearly sustained injuries patting themselves on