Forecasters are keeping an eye on two major storms in the Atlantic Ocean but, the storms are not expected to have impact on Western New York's weather.
That from Meteorologist Jim Mitchell with the National Weather Service in Buffalo who says Tropical Storm Jose has 65 MPH winds and may bring heavy rain and strong winds to Long Island and lower New England as it moves northward.
Mitchell says there'll be high waves and a lot of surf. We may only see some high clouds from Jose. Meanwhile, there's a lot of concern in Puerto Rico about Hurricane Maria, which has been downgraded to a Category 4 storm. Mitchell says San Juan has been getting hit hard by the hurricane.
Here in Western New York, expect mid-summer conditions to continue over the next several days with highs close to 80 away from Lake Erie. He says high pressure has built into the region and with overnight lows in the 60s the A/C is coming on in a lot of homes.
The cause of a fire at a vacant home on Jamestown's westside early yesterday morning remains under investigation.
City Fire Battlion Chief Andrew Finson says crews were called to the scene at 8 Whitley Avenue shortly before 3:30 a.m.
Finson says, on arrival, they found a lot of fire coming from the front portion of the house coming initially from the basement area. He says firefighters saw an open side door but, a quick search found no one inside. Finson says they got the blaze under control in about 10 minutes.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is pressing TransUnion and Experian to explain what cybersecurity they have in place to protect sensitive consumer information following a recent breach at Equifax that exposed the data of 143 million Americans.
In letters to executives at the two credit monitoring companies the Democratic attorney general asked them to describe their existing security systems as well as what changes they've made since the Equifax cyberattack.
Schneiderman also wants to know whether the companies will consider waiving the fees for consumer credit freezes in light of the breach.
The city of Jamestown has been given a "clean-bill" of financial health for it's 2016 budget.
That from local accountant John Trussalo who did the city's independent, third-party audit for the past year and, presented his 66-page report to the City Council Monday night.
Trussalo says the best news was in the beginning summary of the audit report on the approximately $35-million spending plan. He says the first-page includes the summary that their opinion is "unmodified" which is the "cleanest" opinion the city could get.
Trussalo says there were no significant weaknesses or problems found with the city's finances. Trussalo noted that the city failed to meet it's revenue projections in the 2016 spending plan. However they were able to keep spending well under what was budgeted.
Mayor Sam Teresi says that helped the city only wind up being $20,000 in the red. Trussalo says the city started the year by using $409,000 from it's 2015 fund-balance to help balance out the 2016 spending plan.
The Cummins Engine Company Tuesday took the wraps off it's new, $47-million X-12 Engine line at the Jamestown Engine Plan that is both state-of-the art, and energy efficient.
Plant managers were joined by officials with National Grid Company which assisted in putting in new LED lights, and other improvements.
Cummins Plant Manager Mike Abbate says with the fact they have a one-million square foot facility near Ashville they need to think in terms of being environmentally-friendly, and more efficent.
Abbate says they're trying to position the plant so that they can be their customers "first choice" for the best engines and drive-trains. Plant Director of Machining, Faclities and Central Services, Randy Myers, outlined many of the projects they undertook noting that they have taken on a total of 12 energy efficiency and environmental projects in the past five years.
Myers says that includes 3,000 LED lights alone. With the X-12 line Cummins now has five engines they manufacture at the Jamestown Engine Plant. Four of them run on diesel fuel while one runs on natural gas.
Abbate says Cummins plans to introduce another heavy-duty diesel engine in 2022. However, no details are being released at this time.
