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Friday, July 13, 2007July 13 2007Otsego 2000 Will Fight 68-Turbine Wind Farm Article 78 Challenge Approved Well-watered Otsego 2000 has announced it will support a so-called Article 78 action to block the Jordanville Wind Project, allowing a vigorous legal challenge to the plan to erect 68 turbines within view of Otsego Lake. A resolution, released Wednesday, July 11, by Otesgo 2000 Executive Director Martha Frey, doesn’t say the organization will bring any action itself, but that it will support litigation brought by opponents closer to the wind farm planned along a ridge between Van Hornesville and Jordanville in southern Herkimer County – Advocates for Stark and Advocates for Springfield, “or their members or other affected parties with standing.” Several additional “petitioners” have come forward from the neighborhoods around the project, Frey said, in addition to five that had surfaced last week. “There is no such thing as the maximum amount,” she said. “But there are a number of people who feel the project is going to harm them in some way, and they are coming forward and want to be petitioners.” While Otsego 2000 is clwearly the blinking lights from the 400-foot-tall towers will be visible from as far away at the docks at Cooperstown, people closer to the proper have raised concerns about noise, real-estate values, health detriments and other topics. Steve Reichenbach, one of the petitioners, snapped a photograph the other day of a golden eagle near where one of the turbines is planned. Sue Brander of Advocates for Stark said Wednesday she hadn’t yet heard from Otsego 2000, and was awaiting a fur-ther briefing. Otsego 2000, in effect, said the towns of Warren and Stark failed to apply the “hard look” test to the Jordanville project, as required under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The towns accepted the Final Environmental Impact Statement from Community Energy, the prospective developer, on July 20 and 21, starting the 30-day clock on filing an Article 78 proceeding. Frey, who said she believes the appeal must be filed by July 20, referred questions about the details of the ligitation, where it would be filed and what it would specifically allege, to Drayton Grant, Otsego 2000’s environmental lawyer. The executive director also declined to characterize the discussion at the Tuesday, July 3, Otesgo 2000 board meeting, as to whether a vigorous debate ensued and whether the vote was unanimous. The resolution calls Otsego Lake “a masterpiece of nature” and “an intact cultural landscape, which through the writings of James Fenimore Cooper has helped form America’s ideas of nature, conservation, and the environment.” It says the “long-term economic well-being of the region and quality of life for its residents” depend on proper stewardship of these resources. And it cites the damage to the tranquillity of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. Meanwhile, county Rep. Nancy Iversen, D-Otsego, who had questioned what the Otesgo County board could do, given home rule, expanded on her comments, saying “I also think the impact that one community has on another community has to be taken into account. “For example, the Cooperstown Dreams Park ... The town that allowed Dreams Park had the right to do that, provided there was an impact statement on what it would do to surrounding communities. I don’t think there’s ever been a complete SEQR review of the whole project; while individual pieces might not have tremendous impact, the whole Dreams Park has an phenemonal impact on the Village of Cooperstown. On the Jordanville project, she said, “I’m very concerned about the visual impact. I think wind farms and clean energy are very important ideas. Wind is a good clean alternative-energy source, but you need to think very carefully about where to place it.” ‘Last Class’ at Hartwick High Convenes After Half-Century  Esther Bloomer Markel, Class of 1923, the oldest surviving Hartwick High School graduate, won’t be there. But Elisah Field, ‘27, will, up from his home in Maryland. So will Frederika (Potter) Hornbeck, ‘37; Donald Fish, ‘42, up from Florida; Elaine (Fish) McLean, ‘47; (Mr.) Beverly C. Stevens, Watertown, and William Grosslinger, Oneonta, both from the Class of ‘52. Who would want to miss the 50th reunion of Hartwick’s landmark Class of 1957? When the word got out, the 100 tickets were quickly sold out. The Class of 1957 was the last to graduate from the old building on School Street before the educational enterprise was absorbed into the Cooperstown Central School District. (The elementary school lingered until it was closed in the 1970s.) Certainly no member of that landmark class. Ten of the Class of 1957’s 12 surviving classmates will be back in town Saturday, July 14, lest auld acquaintance be forgot, along with the memories of those happier, simpler days – at least happier and simpler in memory. At noon, the graduates will gather at the Kinney Memorial Library, where Librarian Barbara Potter, who is also president of the Hartwick Historical Society, has assembled an alcove of memorabilia from the old alma mater, including a letter sweater with a big purple “H” on the front and championship trophies from the Tri-Valley league. At one, they will move up the street a couple of buildings to the old gym – where “we’d all walk every day, sun, rain or snowy weather,” Alumni Association President Susie Conklin, ‘56, remembers – for a banquet the socializing. The highpoint of the day will follow: Orlo Burch, whose father was president of the old school board and vehemently opposed the merger (he tilted toward Laurens), has transcribed his dad’s old 16-millimeter movies onto videotape, to be aired at 2 p.m. for the assembled gathering. Lost memories recaptured. In describing all this, Conklin and Burch, who is Alumni Association vice president, couldn’t help recalling the old days themselves. They were “wonderful,” she said. “It was the end of the town when the school merged with Cooperstown,” he said. “It was the end of Hartwick.” They remembered their favorite teachers, in particular Marion Green, attorney Lynn Green’s mom: “She was strict, but she was very quiet.” Susie (then Susie Renwick) played snare drum in the band, and her future husband Richard played trumpet. She remembers, dress in the school’s maroon and white uniform, marching in the Sherburne Pageant of Bands in 1956. A particularly fond memory was “Play Day,” the day before the last day of school. St. Mary Put Back Together  When John Viscosi recalls Father Robert C. Murphy, he grips his left bicep firmly with his right hand, remembering how the pastor escorted him off the porch of St. Mary’s “Lady of the Lake” Rectory on Cooperstown’s Elm Street a half-century ago.The priest lectured the young monument maker sternly: You people try to sell the biggest gravestones you can; that’s money that should be going to the church. So Viscosi – who is now repairing the vandalized statue of the Virgin Mary that he erected on the church’s front lawn almost 40 years ago – went back to his recently purchased Cherry Valley Memorials, and when St. Mary’s parishioners showed up, he would nudge them in the direction of more modest markers. One day a couple of years later, who showed up at Visco-si’s Rock of Ages dealership but Father Murphy. “I like your workmanship,” he curtly told the stonecutter during a tour. “And I like your attitude.” Pretty soon, the priest was directing parishioners from the pulpit that he would only accept Viscosi monuments for St. Mary’s Cemetery in Index. “I had to go down there,” Viscosi, now retired, recalled the other day,” and ask, ‘Please stop that.’ People were coming in here mad.” Viscosi, who is still active in the business, even though he’s passed it on to sons Rick and Dan, was originally from Gloversville, but a couple of years working in a leather tannery there caused him to look for a new profession. He went to Barre, Vt., and apprenticed with the famous monument makers there. When he had learned everything he could, he found the least expensive Rock of Ages dealership on the market and bought it on time. When he arrived at 11 Genesee St., there were only six monuments in the place. With hard work, he turned it around. So hard, in fact, he suffered a heart attack at age 38. Father Murphy didn’t do hospital visits, the nurse at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital advised him. But, when Viscosi awoke, there was the pastor, administering the last rites. In a later visit, the priest dropped off a card. Viscosi opened it to find $500 inside. “I can’t take this, father,” he said. “You go to Florida,” the priest said, “and don’t come back until you’re better.” “Father, I can’t take this.” “You go,” Father Murphy told him in his voice of command. Father Murphy could do that because he had inherited money and was to some degree of independent means. When the time was approaching for the priest to retire – he was at St. Mary’s from 1955 to 1970 – he visited Viscosi and ordered a modest stone; about a foot cube, Viscosi indicated with his hands. Then, he told the stone-cutter, he wanted to give a gift to his parishioners. The result was the shrine to St. Mary, dedicated on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, 1967, a parish centerpiece until this spring, when vandals pulled it off its pedestal. The morning of Saturday, May 26, a parishioner found it broken into three pieces on the cement apron in front of the shrine. To repair it, Viscosi is driving bronze pins into the pieces and reattaching them. He will then grind up chips of Carrara marble – the statue is made from that celebrated stone – mix it with an apoxy, match it to the original color and seal the cracks. He is confident he can make it appear almost like new, and can do it in time to get it back in place before this Dec. 8. For Viscosi, it’s a labor of love, and of friendship, evoking as it does that complicated relationship of long ago. “His parishioners love him,” said the stone-cutter, then he paused. “No, they feared him. “...But he loved them. 100s Say Thanks To Nancy Erway For Listening When They Needed It  Nancy Erway tells the story of a friend. Years past, he battled throat cancer and couldn’t eat solid food for a year. Then, he suffered five strokes. Finally, twisted and deformed, he died at 48.She tells of a lad who, while living with her family, drove his motorcyle into the side of a stone building, broke his jaw and almost died. You might think life’s slow, sad music would have worn Nancy down. No way. She hears that beat, but she dances to a different tune. She talks of a young friend, developmentally disabled, entering Nancy’s Old & New store in downtown Cherry Valley, arms wide open, a big smile on her face. The two hug. Nancy stops. “I love people,” she says. “I can give back love because they give so much love to me.” That love was evident the afternoon of Sunday, July 8, when Nancy’s daughter Patti Engel enticed her to the Roseboom Historical Society, where more than 100 fans were waiting to tell her they love her, too, and to present her with the society’s “Person Who Makes The Difference Award.” The honoree burst into tears. What is it about Nancy Erway that everybody loves? Well, she’s been active in keeping the Cherry Valley Chamber of Commerce percolating. Her store, with attached cafe, is a hub of village life. She was a nurse at Bassett Hospital for more than 20 years, and helped a lot of people there. Listening to her fans, though, one quality comes through: She listens. So it was with Barbara Sepp, Roseboom Historical Society president, who, shaken, stopped in to see Nancy when a close friend’s husband died a few years ago. “Nancy always makes you feel like your very special, and like you’re the only person there,” said Barbara. “She gives you her full attention.” “When you go into Nancy’s cafe,” said Leila Durkin, the photographer and Sharon Springs shopkeeper, “she always makes you feel that you were the person she was just waiting to see that day. She welcomes everyone.” Leila, wife of Phil Durkin, the county representative, put together a scrapbook of testimonials from people who Nancy’s helped – it’s big and thick already, and there’s room for more – and gave it to her during the celebration. The theme: “Nancy’s caring for other people.” You go into Nancy’s store, and photos of The King are everywhere. “He had a great voice,” she says. “A million of us fell in love with him. I just stayed with it.” So, of course, Elvis figured in the testimonial. Jim Faliveno played “Love Me Tender” on his guitar. And one of the gifts was a life-size Presley from the waist up, which Nancy has in the passenger seat of her van: If you pass her coming from the other direction, it looks like Nancy and Elvis are out for a drive together. Nancy was born at Bassett and taken home to the family’s farmhouse, about 100 yards from where she lives today; she moved home when her parents, Victor and Angelia Rezen, became ill, and stayed on after they died. (The home’s on Rezen Road, named after her dad.) After high school, she left town to get her nursing degree at Orange County Community College. Returning home, she married Harold Erway, and the young couple rented in apartment in Cherry Valley. They bought a home in Roseboom as three children – Patti, Victor and Eric – came along. (Victor’s now married to Janet Erway, Cooperstown Art Association director; that couple and Eric and Christine have given Nancy four grandchildren, two per couple.) After two dozen years at Bassett, a Cherry Valley property owner, Dick Cockerell, lost his son, simply wanted to get away, and offered Nancy the building she owns now – “he wanted me to have it” – at a price she couldn’t refuse. And so, she became a merchant. Her second-hand store suits her temperament perfectly. “I’m a collector” – crocks, sets of dishes and, of course, Elvis memorabilia. About that slow, sad music. Nancy contracted cancer almost three years ago now, and for a while it had her down. She’s always loved to dance – she remembers, late at night, when the crowd would pour out of The Woodbine (later occupied by Alex & Ika) and dance in the streets – but now she lacked the energy. One night in 2006, Patti took her to The Otesaga to hear Captain Squeeze & the Zydeco Moshers perform to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims; suddenly, she found herself dancing again. By evening’s end, she had arranged for the band to play in Cherry Valley’s 2006 “Dancin’ in the Streets” Festival. The girl was back. Ernie Williams, who used to play at The Woodbine and went on to have a national blues following, returned for the event. (This year’s Dancin’ in the Streets is Saturday, July 21, featuring Scattered Flurries, rock ‘n’ roll with Kevin Yerdon, from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Old School Cafe.) “Just keep pushing,” her doctor, Patrick Dwyer, the Bassett oncologist, tells her. And that’s what Nancy intends to do. Cortland Couple Reports Sighting Mountain Lion Mary Banks e-mailed that a mountain lion ran in front of the car on Route 20 in the Town of Springfield on Saturday, July 7, as she and her husband were driving home to Cortland. Checking the Internet, they concluded the “long tail, small rounded head and rounded ears” could only be that rare cat. Labels: Archives
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