COOPERSTOWN

Sculler Chip Northrup is back in town and seeking to launch rowing as a CCS club sport. Sophomores through incoming seniors should contact him at northrup49@gmail.com or stop by his home at 17 River St.
Participants will have to pass a swimming test at the Clark Sports Center. Northrup, a founder of the Dallas Rowing Club in Texas, said both boys and girls are eligible.

SCHUYLER LAKE

Some 1,500 fans were drawn to the firemen's field on Route 28 north of this hamlet today for the Schuyler Lake Fire Department's first annual truck pull, which replaces the tractor pull held in years past.
Larry Wilkens of Larry's Service Center, Hillsborough, N.H., brought "Mr. Machine," the drag that fuel-injected, extra-powered and just plain regular pickups sought to pull prize-winning distances along the dirt track.
The biggest winner, however, appeared to be the local fire department: The concession stand queue was 50-people deep throughout the midday hours.
CAPTION: James Scherer of Waterville releases a blast of smoke as he waits to steer his pickup into the weighing center, at rear of photo.

175 YEARS AGO

Sunday School Celebration – The several Sunday Schools in the County of Otsego, are requested to meet at the Old Mansion House in the village of Cooperstown on the 4th day of July at 10 o’clock A.M., where, after serving some refreshments, a procession will be formed, which will proceed to the Presbyterian Meeting House, in said village, under the direction of General Walter Holt, Marshal of the Day. A number of addresses, suitable to the occasion, will be delivered. By order of the Committee of Arrangements. Thomas Fuller.
July 1, 1833

150 YEARS AGO

Patriotism appears to be rather at a discount in this county. We hear of no arrangements being made to celebrate the approaching Anniversary in any of the towns. This is not as it should be. The good old custom of celebrating the “Glorious Fourth,” in a rational and proper manner, should be kept up. Boys, what are you about? Will not the citizens of the County or Town raise one or $200 for a national salute and a fine display of Fire Works? Will they show even that amount of enterprise and liberality – and invite their country friends of the adjoining towns to come in on the evening of Monday, the fifth. It would gratify a great many people, old and young – and should be done. Who will move in the matter?
June 25, 1858

125 YEARS AGO

Electric Light – A gentleman connected with the Fuller Electric Light Company of Rochester, was in town last week, laying the matter before our citizens with a view to the organization of a company for producing and furnishing the light to those of the village who might desire it. A number of citizens met Mr. Andrews, the representative of the company, Friday evening last, when the benefits of the system were discussed, and the probable cost of the enterprise estimated. The light furnished by the Fuller mode is designed only for large rooms, the streets and parks; not for private houses. In talking with Mr. Andrews, he said it was probable that future improvements would adapt the light to all purposes. We reiterate the opinion expressed in these columns a few weeks since that the time is not far distant when Cooperstown will be lighted by electricity.
June 30, 1883

100 YEARS AGO

Mssrs. B.G. Johnson, H.P. McDonough and W.M. Bronner, who were recently appointed a committee to organize a base ball team to play a series of games with Richfield Springs, announce that the first tryout of the new team will occur Saturday afternoon when a game will be played with the Monitor team of Schenevus. The season proper will open July 4, with two games – the first at Richfield Springs in the forenoon, and the second one on the Athletic field in this village in the afternoon. Season tickets are being sold by B.G. Johnson. The price is $5 each.
June 25, 1908

75 YEARS AGO

A meeting of the Cooperstown Community base ball club was held at the Chamber of Commerce building on Tuesday evening of last week with President George H. Maus presiding. The season will open on Saturday, July 1, at 2:30 o’clock at Doubleday Field when the locals meet the Whitesboro Independents. For the Fourth of July there will be games both in the morning and afternoon with Buck Ewing’s celebrated Colored Giants. Donald H. “Tuts” McBride will once manage the locals.
June 28, 1933

50 YEARS AGO

Mr. and Mrs. Cyril T. George, who operate the Hitching Post restaurant here, have leased the east portion of the Schneider block adjacent to their place of business, and have renovated the spot as an addition to their restaurant. It is called “The Coach Room,” and was opened last week. The new annex has a seating capacity of 56, bringing to about 150 the total seating capacity of the restaurant which was opened a little over a year ago.
June 25, 1958

25 YEARS AGO

Members of the Fly Creek Boy Scout Troop 7 are now traveling throughout Maine and Canada on a 300-mile bicycle trip. Their bike trip will take the group to Acadia National Park, where the scouts will climb Cadillac Mountain, take part in fresh and saltwater fishing and swimming, perform a service project of historical interest, and take guided sea cruises. The scouts will camp out each night of the trip. The 16 scouts and their three leaders will be featured in the August issue of Boys’ Life Magazine. Participating scouts are Todd Baker, Kirk Denny, Paul Geertgens, Patrick Gurian, Chris Johnson, Philip Johnson, Graham Jones, Keith Lamberson, Kevin Lamberson, Peter Matsuo, Bill Michaels, Noah Guyot, Matt Savoie, William Vaules, Bill Waller and Tim Iversen. Robert Iversen, Dennis Savoie and Bruce Guyot are scout leaders.
June 29, 1983

10 YEARS AGO

An Otsego County Board of Representatives subcommittee began the process of constructing a new care facility for the elderly by voting to solicit requests from area firms interested in serving as project coordinator for a new building, the cost of which has been projected at $16 to $18 million. Subcommittee chair Carl Higgins called for the development of a cautious and deliberate strategy. Dr. William Streck, president and CEO of Bassett Healthcare, attended the meeting to affirm Bassett’s interest and offer technical and program expertise.
June 26, 1998

Bound Volumes is compiled from resources provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library. Tom Heitz is the Town of Otsego historian.

Labels: Bound Volumes, Columns

JOHN KOSMER

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JUST A THOUGHT

We have been in our new home since last June and have not yet ordered TV service. Let me say just say that there are many good things on TV, if you can find time to watch them or make time to find them.
Some people just like being able to say they don’t have TV. As a former TV addict, I am not one of them. Not having TV may be an unfolding trend just like increasing numbers of people do not have land line phones and have opted, instead, for solely using their cell phone.
Every fall I would get that special annual issue of TV Guide with the map of prime time programming. I would chart out all the programs I would watch from 7:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. for all seven days, making sure no time slot was overlooked. The most trouble I had were with shows that aired in the same time slot or ones that overlapped time slots. No video recorders, TIVO, DVR or computers then. You made your decisions and lived with them.
But we live in a different world today. In the golden age of television, prime time shows were produced and sold to the networks – a costly process. Today, in an effort to save money, the airwaves are full of less expensive reality TV, news magazines and other types of “soy” used as cheap filler. When you add to that soy the writer’s strike (with no new episodes for months), it became a perfect storm for giving up TV.
The road to no TV started innocently enough when we tried to get cable from Time Warner. We used to have cable TV and broadband in our last home. Time Warner wanted over $6,000 to run a line to our home – a line they would own for any future use. They said that included a booster they had to install on Route 28. Well, that was about $6,000 more than we were willing to spend, so we declined their offer.
The reports we got about satellite were mixed and you needed a separate satellite connection for broadband. The reports on satellite broadband were mixed too, none coming close to cable’s speed and reception. So we started innocently enough, simply having dial-up and no TV until we were able to sort things out. A funny thing happened. We got used to it. In our last home sometimes the TV would just be on, without our really paying attention to it. Now the silence is quieting.

John Kosmer ranges the Otsego Lake region from his hilltop home outside Fly Creek.

Labels: Columns, John Kosmer, Just a Thought, Opinion

Enjoy, Care For Badger Park Playground

To the Editor:
In May of 2005 the village commissioned Chris Pape, an artist from NYC whose work is exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, to paint a mural on the back wall of the Great American.
This was paid for by a grant from Assemblyman Bill Magee, D-Nelson, and agreed to by the Koniuto family, which owns the building.
The village and the Parks Board are grateful to them all.
The mural was the initial step taken to brighten up the area and eventually to build a much needed village playground.
The celebration of the official opening of Badger Park Playground was on Sunday, June 22.
A few months ago vandals, defaced the mural by painting two large areas of graffiti on it.
Blaze Cox, who is working toward becoming an Eagle Scout, chose as his required project to clear out the dead trees and branches in Badger Park and to generally clean up the area.
He also volunteered to paint over the graffiti on the mural.
This week he and a friend, Steven French, did a magnificent job of returning the mural to it’s original state. We thank them for a job well done.
It is our hope that everyone will respect the hard work and time that Blaze and Steven put in on the mural and will think of the cost of the original art and for the repair work, and help keep this mural graffiti free.
We are fortunate to have Badger Park with its playground and skating rink and there are more innovations to come. It belongs to all of us and let’s all protect it and keep it in good repair.
Most of all, let’s all enjoy this latest village park.
GRACE KULL
Village Trustee
Cooperstown

Two Words: Thank You

To the Editor:
The village Parks Board and the Friends of the Parks celebrated the completion of the Badger Park playground Sunday afternoon, June 22.
This marked having a municipal playground in Cooperstown – long wished for by Cooperstown kids and parents – and also the successful inauguration of the working relationship between the village and the new Friends of the Parks.
As the chair of the Friends, dedicated to the enhancement of Cooperstown’s parks, the two most important words I have to say are: Thank you.
Thank you to the village trustees, Mayor Carol Waller and Parks Board members who agreed to a planning and fundraising process to achieve the goal of a village playground.
Heartfelt thanks to Jeff Katz, trustee and Parks Board chair, who was rational, capable and unflappable in a sea of e-mails.
So also was Brian Clancy, superintendent of public works. He was unerring and unwavering in helping fill all the gaps left in the planning.
Thanks to all of the people and the two local foundations who donated money to the fund. We had a little debate amongst ourselves about how much the appeal letter would bring in. You exceeded even the most optimistic among us.
Several local businesses offered materials and services, including Bruce Hall Corp., Kiser Sand & Gravel, the Great American, Haggerty Ace Hardware, Cooperstown Holstein Corp., Mohican Flowers, and the Red Nugget.
Thanks to all who turned out to work in steamy weather, bringing your tools and your good humor. And thanks to Parks Board members Kathy Clancy and Shelby Cooper, who organized the work force, and to Grace Kull and Rich McCaffery, who fed the work crew.
We hope this playground is the beginning of partnership that will get better and stronger and achieve more good things for the village’s parks. I think the sense of cooperation displayed at the ribbon cutting – organized by Susie Knight, Rich McCaffery, Ashley Cooper, and Grace Kull – was a great way to put closure to this project.
JESSIE RAVAGE
Chairman, Friends of the Parks
Cooperstown

Unless Selig Truly Listens, Hall of Fame Game Is Lost

To the Editor:
You’re article encompassing the George Bush – Bud Selig scenario was right on the mark! Both have continually underscored their pathos via their repeated failures. Unfortunately for us as Americans, one has damaged us worldwide far more than the other.
Nevertheless, they both personify common denominators, one of which is an inability to truly listen to those around them, confining such “listening” only to what they want to hear. Both are the puppets of big business, prioritizing their actions relative to the monetary demands of the moment.
Selig recognizes the profit-margin far more than the fans who propagate the success of his teams.
In the end, like Bush, the unfortunate reality spells out the fact that Selig simply does not listen. He only plods on in his know-it-all manner. This does not portend any successful resolution of any future scheduling of the annual Hall of Fame Game, and that reality must be recognized

KENNETH J. KAVANAGH
Cooperstown

It’s Freedom That Creates Opportunity

To the Editor:
Governor Paterson and Mayor Nader of Oneonta have recently suggested eliminating or combining smaller, particularly local, government entities into more efficient economical bodies. In other words, centralization.
Our very successful well-liked adherent to constitutional principles of the past, state Sen. Edwyn Mason of Delaware County, always unfailingly insisted that “government closest to the people serves the people best.” This will never change.
It seems we’ve had enough of centralization in the name of efficiency and economic prosperity at the expense of guiding our future. After all, our own elected officials, our representatives in Congress, abrogated their responsibility to the rest of us by giving up their constitutional right to declare war, by giving up that responsibility to one efficient man, the President of the United States. This was easy, wasn’t it? Look at the consequence.
Margaret Thatcher in a letter to the Heritage Foundation in 2006 had this to say about President Reagan: “He taught us the economic principles which underpin our prosperity. He knew lower taxes and economic freedom brought boundless opportunity and increased wealth.
“He knew that helping people help themselves was better than state planning and regulation. State planning and regulation, far from building a land of opportunity, creates one of dependency.”
An article in the New American magazine by Jane Orient, M.D., January 2007, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, pointed out that, under Universal Health Care, your doctor will not decide your treatment, government bureaucrats would.
Medicare has tens of millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. George Quinn, senior vice president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association told the House Committee on ways and means that Medicare pays only pennies on the dollar for actual costs, shifting huge administration costs onto doctors and hospitals.
BETH WHITCHER
Oneonta

Support Burn Ban

To the Editor:
If you think it is time for the burning of trash to be banned in New York State, then heads up.
Now is the time for all persons who are tired of smelling that noxious trash burning smell in your neighborhood to stand up and let your voice be heard. The state DEC is re-writing the regulations that pertain to trash burning and open burning across the state.
Write a letter and share your thoughts on trash burning, and send it to: Mr. Robert J. Stanton, Director, Bureau of Stationary Resources, Division of Air Resources, Second Floor, 625 Broadway, Albany NY 12233-3254.
It’s time people stop wasting resources, polluting the air, water and soil, and time to stop contaminating our food supply.
MARTHA CLARVOE
Co-chair
Burn Barrel Education Committee


Beautification Evident In Village’s Downtown

To the Editor:
As someone who walks Main Street every day for the pure pleasure of observing its beauty, it was a pleasant surprise to see the new flower beds surrounding the many trees lining the street.
In the past, the area around these trees was all too often trampled down and covered with debris. Hopefully, the civic-minded individuals who planted these new beds, along with those who are committed to maintaining them, will turn an eyesore into a real enhancement.
Many thanks to the many volunteers who donated plants, labored on the street and adopted a bed to maintain.
And special thanks to a few who made it happen: Charlene and Jim Vrooman for their initiative, organization and work, Eric Hage for supporting the program and setting an example of participation, and Neil Weiller for gathering volunteers, assembling tools and supplies, and getting the job done.
ROD TORRENCE
Cooperstown

5 Cars In Doubleday Field Lot Reflect Village Short-Sightedness Downtown

To the Editor:
This is Wednesday morning June 25, 2008. 11:30 a.m. Doubleday Field parking lot has only five cars parked. Village residents get their wish.
Two stores are now empty on Main Street and many more are to come. The customer count at our restaurant is down 500 people in the month of June. Parking tickets will now be given in Doubleday Field on Sunday. The village’s short-sightedness will turn Main Street into a ghost town.
Doubleday Field scheduling has 30 open spaces in June and July. That’s 60 teams or 1,500 people who will not be in Cooperstown for a loss of ball field revenue to exceed $12,000.
Mr. Katz took over scheduling and drove one of our best town employees out. She did the scheduling job well. Mr. Katz took the job away from her, so he could be sure that he could exclude the teams that he did not want to be in Cooperstown.
The open spaces also may be due to the 50 percent to 75 percent raise in fees. When you have no knowledge of scheduling or the teams that have used our fields year after year you would think that the job would have been left to the girl that not only had the knowledge of the teams using our field, took her own time in off hours to be sure the job was done correctly would have been able to continue doing this job.
So here we are less than one year later with parking meters and meter maids, a fairly empty parking lot, teams that have disappeared from our Doubleday Field and God only knows how much revenue lost. It is my understanding that more than 50 parking tickets at $35 per ticket were issued the first day the actual signs were installed. By the way, this was two weeks after the meters were installed. You would have thought courtesy warnings would have come first.
For the residents who were here 20 years ago and can remember the shape of our Main Street, store after store went out of business and the buildings were in horrible shape. Whether we want to admit it or not, only baseball and the patrons of baseball saved our village from empty stores and decaying buildings.
Residents, your town is being taken away from you right before your eyes. The two stores that are now empty could turn into four or six or eight. Wake up and smell the coffee. It may be too late.
TED HARGROVE
Cooperstown

Labels: 062708, Letters to the Editor

EDITORIAL

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It hasn’t been much mentioned in the debate about Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s proposed music festival, but the Town of Springfield has already approved a 20-lot subdivision at Route 20 and Continental Road.
Say the music festival doesn’t happen; that lovely view to the southeast of that intersection may be dotted with 20 McMansions instead.
So what’s really being debated isn’t MSG Entertainment or nothing, it’s MSG Entertainment or something that may be less desirable.
Springfield Town Clerk Jeannette Armstrong is right when she likens the community to “the Garden of Eden.” But so is much of Route 166 between Milford and Cherry Valley Garden-of-Eden like. So is the Butternuts Valley. So is the east side of Otsego Lake. So are many of the fields, forests, hills, dales and byways that make up our delightful county.
We who live here want it to stay the way it is, mostly. But what have we done to ensure that? Some, but hardly enough, as indicated by the sprawl now developing around Hartwick Seminary and a near-miss: 100 towers, each 400-feet tall, could have been blowing in the wind by now, but for Otsego 2000 and a few hundred determined people who dug in their heels.
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One of the problems with win-lose scenarios is somebody loses.
In the case of the windmills, the losers were the developers. In Hartwick Seminary, the developers won and chunks – some, not all – of the surrounding communities lost.
Could there have been a win-win scenario at Cooperstown Dreams Park? As it is, there are some winners from the money spent, but many downsides, too. Rental housing has dried up. Indications are the Susquehanna is being polluted to some degree. The jobs are primarily minimum wage, and they’re seasonal. Cooperstown is ever more crowded.
With MSG Entertainment, there are definite pluses.
For instance, if there is only one three-day event a year, and if the fest-goers do indeed stay on the grounds, then the impact will be limited and, if anything, positive: Tepee Pete Latella will be selling a lot of seven-pepper chili; likewise his sisters, moccasins. The noise will go into the wee hours, no doubt, but folks in the area who may be bothered by that can plan to spend the weekend visiting Aunt Millie in Fort Plain.
Don Simpson, the MSG Entertainment vice president who outlined the plan June 5 at the Springfield Community Center was pretty convincing: MSG Entertainment in general, and Simpson and his team in particular, know how to do this right. No Woodstock II here.
Last year’s Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, attended by 85,000 people, would be an equivalent event. The Monday after in Cooperstown, you’d hardly know that anything out of the ordinary was going on just 18 hours before.
If – and again, if – MSG Entertainment follows through on the rest of its promises, there should be nothing objectionable about the other 360, or 361, or 362 days of the year. The required water towers, Simpson said, will look like silos. The few permanent buildings will look like your typical northern Otsego farm house. The open fields will be open fields.
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So how can any remaining objections be erased or fears quieted?
Here’s a concept that was suggested at one of the public meetings on the topic. If MSG Entertainment is really serious about preserving the open space, why not ensure that? (Not a bad marketing idea to appeal to aging hippies, either.)
The company, in acquiring the land, could surrender the development rights, ensuring it would remain agricultural forever. Or perhaps there could be a covenant in the deed: If MSG Entertainment were to fold its tent and slip away, and land would devolve to the Otsego Land Trust. That would be a curiosity: that commercial use of a piece of property would ensure its preservation. But why not?
MSG Entertainment contracted with Tony Casale of Cooperstown, the lobbyist and retired assemblyman who knows his way around the corridors of power in Albany and Springfield Town Hall. The town, likewise, should reach out to the expertise and clout it needs to go toe-to-toe with MSG’s mandarins. Happily, that clout is close at hand.
Kent Barwick of Cherry Valley, president of New York City’s Municipal Art Society, which advocates good urban planning, would be an excellent advocate and negotiator on the town’s behalf. As it happens, he knows how MSG’s somewhat difficult CEO, Jim Dolan, operates, through MAS’ efforts to ensure the optimum redevelopment of the Brooklyn Navy Yards.
Or Harry Levine of Springfield Center, who happens to be both leader of Advocates for Springfield and president of the Otsego Land Trust, could assume that role. He was associated with real estate and development in the Tri-State Metropolitan Area in and around New York, and could be as effective as anyone, bar none.
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The first question to answer, of course, is: Does the Town of Springfield want the music festival at all? The second: If not, does it have the regulations in place to stop it? (It seems unlikely, after months and even years of delay, that the town board will adopt any development moratorium.)
But if the town could ensure the perpetual protection of those lovely 1,000 acres between Continental Road and Route 33. And if it could receive some economic benefit, through temporary jobs, property-tax revenues and some retail spinoffs. And if the three days aren’t too hellish. Why not?

Labels: 062708, Editorial, Opinion

Johnathan Harnett, son of Donna and William Harnett, welcomes wellwishers at a celebration of his father’s life held Saturday, June 21, at the Old School Cafe in Cherry Valley. Johnathan’s wife Evie and Richard Saba performed an original work. Bill Harnett, founder of RBS Inc., the Cherry Valley software company, was “promoted to a better life” on April 12; instead of a funeral, he had asked for a party.



SPRINGFIELD CENTER

An Adirondack chair, built by Dan West of West WoodWorks of Cherry Valley and decorated by MaryLou Ganio, Roseboom, will be raffled off to benefit the Cherry Valley-Springfield Endowment Foundation for Educational Excellence during Springfield’s Fourth of July activities.
It will be on view the Community Center during and after Springfield’s fame Independence Day parade, and the winning ticket will be drawn at the end of the festivities.
The Foundation Endowment Fund provides grants to CV-S Central School for projects not funded by other means.
Tickets for the chair are available from any of the Endowment Foundation Directors. Call 264-3069 for information.
Bruce Hall Corp. of Cooperstown donated the wood.

2 SLAMS MADE: Victor Salvatore and Marie Murray bid and made a bonus slam and a regular slam when the Senior Citizens Bridge Group convened six tables Tuesday, June 24, at the Clark Sports Center. Overall, Salvatore was first with 5,780, Marie Murray second with 5,160 and Ruth Livermore third with 4,280. Kathy Senko won the special prize. The club meets at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays. All are welcome. Bring a bag lunch. Information, call 547-4423, 547-2471 or 286-7632.

ON CATALINA: George Kenneth Landon, son of Diane and Steve Elliott, Cooperstown, is spending two weeks as a Landmark Volunteer on Catalina Island, 22 miles off the Southern California coast. He is on a team that will work on trail construction, removal of invasive species, reforestation and facilities maintenance. Landmark Volunteers, Sheffield, Mass., offers opportunities for young people to do community service on historical or environmental projects.

HALL-KONCHAR WIN: The team of Bruce Hall and Anthony Konchar took first place Sunday, June 22, at the Kirn’s Body Shop Bass Tournament on Canadarago Lake, hosted by the Susquehanna Bass Association. The team’s five-fish limit weighed 18.58 pounds. Second were Tom Trelease and Dave Frederick, 17.7 pounds; third, Bob Gray and Don Hoag, 15.57 pounds; fourth Jim Dillenbeck and Vic VanSteenburg, 14.18 pounds. Bruce Hall pulled in the tournament lunker, a 5.08-pound largemouth bass, 20 inches long. The biggest smallmouth, 19 inches long and 3.93 pounds, was caught by Bob Gray. The association’s second tournament will be 6 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, June 29, at Delta Lake. For information, call 432-5262, 547-5794, or 432-7553.

GREGORY PROMOTED: Seth Gregory, New Lisbon, serving with the Forward Support Company 204th Engineer Battalion, has been promoted to the rank of specialist, Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Taluto of the state Army National Guard announced.

O-D TO HOF: Craig Muder, sports editor of the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, has joined the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum in the communications department.

LOW GOLFERS: Carol Steigelman scored the low 32 when the Leatherstocking Women’s Golf Association played for the best net score of holes 5-13 Tuesday, July 24. Liz Darling scored 33.5; Pattie Carrie and Barbara Schanz, 34; Martha Vaules and Dominica 36; and Elaine Bresee and Linda Kehoe 36.5.

PUBLISHED POET: A poem by Maggie Millner of Cherry Valley was selected for publication in the 2008 edition of The Apprentice Writer, a literary magazine published by the Writers’ Institute at Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa. Seventy works were chosen from 5,000 entries. She is the daughter of Barbara and Robert Millner.



COOPERSTOWN

Paul Kuhn, the recently retired deputy mayor, was installed as the 2008-09 president of the Cooperstown Rotary Club at the annual Pass the Gavel Dinner Tuesday, June 24, at The Otesaga. He replaces Cathy Raddatz, who becomes past president.
Other new officers are Gary Kuch, president elect, and Bill Glockler, vice president. Chuck Newman remains treasurer and Margaret Savoie, secretary.
The following awards were also presented:
• Educator of Year – Christine McBrearty-Hulse, guidance counselor, Cooperstowen Elementary School.
• Christopher J. Warrell Community Service Award – Ellen Tillapaugh, a past president of club and president of the local League of Women Voters for six years. The award was presented by her brother, Martin Tillapaugh; their father, George Tillapaugh, was a one-time Rotary president.
• Paul Harris Fellows – Marianne Bez and Ed Walsh. Irene Fassett, who has played the piano for the club for 17 years, was named a fellow, and also an honorary Rotarian.



SPRINGFIELD CENTER

Lisa Panzeri and Daniel Rosen were married Saturday, June 21, at home in Springfield Center. James Atwell, a Quaker minister, conducted the non-denominational ceremony. Thomas Pullyblank, a close friend of the bride, also participated in the ceremony. The wedding reception followed at The Otesaga.
The bride has enjoyed a 14-year career as an administrator, teacher, and coach at private schools in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine. She just completed her fourth year teaching at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Mass. Over her career, Mrs. Rosen has taught English, history, geography, served as an admissions director, supervised outdoor education and international exchange programs in western Europe, Scandinavia and Peru, and chaired an instrumental music department.
She has coached fencing, rowing, soccer, Nordic skiing and girl’s lacrosse. As a student at the University of Massachusetts, she was co-founder and co-captain of the women’s ice hockey team.
Mrs. Rosen owned and operated a worldwide, experiential outdoor adventure company, Luna Adventures, until the adoption of her teenage sons three years ago. She is the local liaison for the Sheffield-based Landmark Volunteers.
The groom spent most of his career with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in positions ranging from economist, chief of public information and special assistant. Before that, he was senior economic specialist at Chase Manhattan Bank, and was a consultant to Nelson Rockefeller when the governor was considering a presidential run.
Mr. Rosen also taught at New York University’s undergraduate and graduate schools, and at Pace University’s graduate business school. After the Fed, he served as executive director of the state Council on Economic Education, where he was responsible for overseeing 16 Centers for Economic Education on colleges and universities throughout the state.
After becoming a full-time resident of Springfield, he volunteered at SUNY Oneonta’s Biological Field Station, helping with its communications. He was a co-founder of the Otsego Lake Association.
Prior to his election to Springfield town board, he served on the Planning Board, playing a critical role getting a site plan review law adopted. As councilman, he helped introduce administrative reforms, built a community playground, revitalized the town’s public landing and helped give impetus to the town undertaking a comprehensive plan.
Mr. and Mrs. Rosen will make the Springfield residence their home.


Outgoing Cooperstown Rotary President Cathy Raddatz hands incoming President Paul Kuhn not only the gavel, but the Rotary blazer she wore during her year-long tenure. This was during the Passing The Gavel Dinner Tuesday, June 24, at The Otesaga.

Rotarian (and CCS superintendent) Mary Jo McPhail presents the club’s Educator of the Year Award to Christine McBrearty-Hulse, guidance counselor at Cooperstown Elementary School.











Irene Fassett of East Springfield, who has played the piano at club meetings for 17 years, was named an honorary Rotarian and was named a Paul Harris fellow.

Labels: 062708, Community, Locals

By CHARLIE VASCELLARO

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COOPERSTOWN

HAVING to come to Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame Game didn’t bother Greg Maddux at all.
Quite the opposite.
“To actually see it is pretty special, it’s a cool place,” the likely future Hall of Famer said of the Hall of Plaques at 25 Main St. “I’m kind of glad we came in early this year and had a chance to see it.”
During spring training, Maddux said during the pre-game press briefing Monday, June 16, players might look ahead and think: Why spend a day off in Cooperstown?
“But once you’re here you’re glad you’re here,” said the San Diego Padres’ pitcher. “For me it’s a great place to spend an off day. I enjoyed it last night and I enjoy it today.”
The prevailing wisdom is that the old guys have more of an appreciation for the game’s history than the younger ones.
But whether he was just trying to be diplomatic, Padres relief pitcher Heath Bell, who’s at that in-between age of 30 – not quite an old-timer, but not young enough to call green – shows an appreciation of Cooperstown’s relationship to the current game.
“It’s a little tiring and we could have enjoyed the off day, but it’s also part of the game where you look back and can be a part of baseball history,” he said.
“Kind of like when we went to China: It was a little tiring and what not being on a plane for a full day and playing a game that messed up our routine during spring training.
“But looking back, it was a great honor to be out there and see the Great Wall and all the stuff there is to see in China,” said Bell.
“I think in a couple of weeks or a month or two we’ll look back on being in Cooperstown and it’s going to be a good memory. Tomorrow we wont be thinking about this when we have to start playing again. We just get this one-day to have this reflection and kind of go whoa!”
Padres hurler Jake Peavy, 27, is another guy who tried to say all the right things, and said it in a way that seemed to ring true.
“There’s nothing like this in the regular season at all,” said Peavy.
“I just wanted to see it some time before I died and now I can mark it off the list of places to go and see. I love all the old school stuff and I’m a huge Babe Ruth fan so getting to see a lot of his stuff – getting to touch stuff that he touched – was big for me and getting the chance to walk through the Hall of Fame with Greg Maddux and listen to him tell stories about cleats and jerseys that are in the Hall of Fame and different games that he pitched in that are marked here it was a pretty cool experience for me.”
For a guy with as many links to the game’s history as Lou Piniella, if the fate of the future of the Hall of Fame game were held to a vote it’s not too hard to see which way Piniella’s would swing.
Piniella, the 1969 Rookie of the Year who played in five World Series with the New York Yankees and managed the Cincinnati Reds to a championship in another, probably stands a pretty decent chance of being enshrined in Cooperstown as a skipper some day and is old enough to have lived through plenty of baseball history.
But doesn’t seem to care much for it, at least not when it becomes an inconvenience.
“There’s a lot of history in Cooperstown, there’s a lot of tradition, this is the last game and from that standpoint the Cubs are honored to be here,” said Piniella, whose Cubs arrived in Cooperstown 15 minutes late, holding up the Game Day Parade.
“I played in it and I managed it. I’m well aware. I was in the home run hitting contest here one time. I didn’t win,” Piniella recalled going on to explain the logistics of the Cubs tedious travel schedule.
“...I understand. I understand the significance of the game. (But) I understand that it’s an inconvenience for the teams that are involved.
“For me, I could have had a day off in my hometown today. Cooperstown means a lot to baseball and like I said, this being the last game we’re honored as and organization that we’re chosen,” Piniella said, getting closer to his point.

Labels: Front Page, Hall of Fame Game

Fear Not: They Won’t Bother Neighborhood

COOPERSTOWN

The lions are back but, fear not, they won’t be roaring.
They are the “proper pair” that has graced the front of The Landmark Inn, 64 Chestnut St., for a century and a half.
In 1999, when Ed Landers bought the house – it was built in 1856 by J.P. Sills, Cooperstown’s foremost hops merchant when that meant something – the lions were in a deteriorated state.
As Ed improved the property, the statues continued to decline until, two years ago, he had them removed and his son-in-law, Mark Anderson of Cherry Valley, restored them, which actually required some minimal resculpting.
Well, they’re back. Mike Waro, who works for Ed, and his brother Mark took them by forklift from a neighboring garage Thursday, June 19, and hoisted them atop new bluestone pediments Mike had built by the front steps of the Italianate mansion.
The idea, said innkeeper Gary Sherer, is to paint them bronze, to better approximate the original color evident in photos from the home’s earlier days.
At the start, the lions were probably bronze, Ed said, but at some point the metal ones were recast in concrete and the originals sold.
Later, the concrete ones were recast again, this time in zinc oxide. The concrete pair ended up on the steps of the Major’s Inn in Gilbertsville, where they may be seen today.
An expert on this kind of statuary is Barbara Israel Garden Antiques of Katonah, in the Hudson Valley, and Eva Schwartz, who joined the company after graduating from Parsons School of Design 10 years ago, said she had never seen lions quite like the Cooperstown ones.
However, she checked the catalogues and discovered the lions were make by J.L. Iron Works , which also sold bathtubs to the White House. She even found the sculptor’s name: Schiffelmann
Lions, she said, are “traditional guardian animals” put on doorsteps going back to Greek and Roman times, but they enjoyed a revival during the Victorian period.
William Kent designed lion heads and paws into his massive furniture. Italian 19th-century sculptor Antonio Canova’s paired lions were widely copied, as were Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen’s.
The Landmark Inn lions are a “proper pair,” Schwartz said, because they are mirror images, looking in each other’s direction, (not just two of the same statues side by side). The original bronzes, she said, would be worth more than $10,000 today.
In 1864, J.P. Sill took the same plans and built the same mansion across the street in brick, which is known locally as the “J.P. Sill House” today. His daughter, a Miss Sill, lived in the original home until the turn of the 20th century.

Labels: 062708, Front Page

by JIM KEVLIN

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COOPERSTOWN

Cooperstown Dreams Park is again facing fines from the state Department of Health, this time for installing a new laundry without the required permits.
Dreams Park opened for the season Saturday, June 7, and state health inspectors in Oneonta received an odor complaint five days later, according to Beth Goldberg, Health Department spokesman. At the scene, they discovered a sewer pipe had broken, and also discovered the laundry operating without any approval.
“Briefly, we’ve just recently imposed enforcement action,” Goldberg said Tuesday, June 24. “At this point, they could either agree to the stipulated settlement we’ve imposed, or they can go to a hearing.”
A hearing is scheduled July 17, with July 10 being the deadline for Dreams Park accepting the proposed fine, which Goldberg declined to specify.
The area around the sewer pipe was fenced off, and it was repaired the next day, July 13, she said.
Calls to Dreams Park owner Lou Presutti III and spokesman Mike Walter were not returned. But Walter had said previously he would only accept e-mailed questions about the youth-baseball-tournament venue’s activities.
This isn’t the first time unapproved work at Dreams Park has been discovered after the fact.
In spring 2007, the facility was fined after health inspectors discovered nine septic fields that had been installed without permits, spurring both the Health and Environmental Conservation departments into action.
A few weeks later, SUNY Oneonta professor Devin Castendyk reported his students, testing the adjacent Susquehanna River the previous August, had discovered a leap in coliform levels at Dreams Park. Those results were considered inconclusive because of dairying in the vicinity.
In the latest case, the DEC amended Dreams Park permit on learning of the laundry, said spokesman Rick Georgeson, but since the water is being pumped out daily and hauled to Oneonta’s Waste Water Treatment Plant, it raises no environmental concerns.
However, it seems Dreams Park may have proceeded without site plan approval from the Hartwick town Planning Board or a building permit from the Otsego County Code Enforcement Office, which handles enforcement for the town.
Hartwick Town Supervisor Pat Ryan said she had heard rumors that further construction was underway, but had been unable to verify what was going on, although she would explore matters further.
“I can’t find anything out without going down myself,” she said, “and I’m not sure I should be doing that.”
Nevertheless, she said, any new construction would require site-plan review by the town’s Planning Board, and she was unaware if that had happened.
The county’s Code Enforcement director, Dan Wilbur, said his inspectors discovered the laundry violation “some time back” while inspecting another building. The maximum penalty the county could levy now would be a late fee of $300.
“If they don’t comply,” he continued, “then we have to go the court route.”
Asked if he sees a pattern here, Wilbur said, “I can’t say that it’s a strategy. But it’s frustrating when people who should know better go ahead and do things without permits.”
He said two other buildings are under construction this summer on the property, an administration building and a dining hall, “but they have permits in place.”
Erik Miller, Otsego County Conservation Association executive director, said he was unaware of the details, but that a “red flag pops up” when it turns out there was no site-plan review at the town level.
“What you have here is a developer who totally bypassed the municipal regulation system,” he said. “That’s a problem. Sooner or later the Town of Hartwick is going to have to slap somebody’s hand.”
For now, said state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, this is “an enforcement action.” However, he said, if he receives citizen complaints about the matter, his office “will ensure the state agency is doing its job.”
Don Barber, the Democrat town supervisor from Tompkins County who is challenging Seward, said legislators shouldn’t meddle with state agencies, unless they have reason to believe the agencies aren’t doing their jobs.
He said he would encourage “transparency” for state agencies, so the public is clear that they are fulfilling their mandates suficiently.

Labels: 062708, Front Page

Sarah Groff, the top-ranked triathlete from Cooperstown, saw “my chance to make the Olympic team slipping away from me within the first mile” of the Hy-Vee Triathlon Trials in West Des Moines, Iowa, over the weekend of June 21-22. “My race mentally ended at that point.”
“What I didn’t realize until after the race, however,” she wrote on her blog, “is that I gave away my position as alternate in addition, a position that should have easily been mine ... Although I finished in ninth, a very respectable placing at a World Cup, I raced so far below my potential that I can’t help but be devastated by the result.
Sarah, a graduate of CCS and Middlebury College, was nudged aside by Sarah Haskins of St. Louis, Mo., who finished sixth overall to Groff’s ninth.
“As I look forward to 2012,” she wrote, “I have to remind myself of how far I have come and be excited by the improvements that I have yet to make. While I may not have been ready for Beijing, the lessons that I’ve learned through the 2008 Trials process will certainly pay off in the long-term.”

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Sports

Editor’s Note: With “Chris’ Law,” aiming to develop a 21st Century driver’s education curriculum, awaiting Gov. David Paterson’s signature, some of Chris Gentile’s friends are writing letters to alert the governor to the urgency of the issue. Here are two.

‘Every Teen ... Deserves Chance To Live’

Dear Governor Paterson:
Over the last few years I have lost three friends to car accidents. Through these losses I have discovered that there is a way to stop the pain and suffering that I and many other Americans have been through. In America, 6,000 teens die every year due to car accidents, along with that many teens are physically and or mentally injured.
The American government makes education available, and drivers’ training should be a part of that education. If we as Americans cannot keep our children alive through the education system, then we have failed them much more then if they are unable to have an extra study hall or advanced calculus. Those classes are important, but will not do anyone any good if the teen is not alive to use them.
Many of my friends have a lot of potential; however, none of us is very good at driving. I personally have been in an awful car accident where I hydroplaned into a house. It was the scariest moment of my life, I had no idea what to do, and I am very lucky to be alive.
My friends and family members have had similar experiences. For example, someone you know, my uncle Marty Mack, has a daughter who almost died in a car accident daughter. Sarah Mack got in awful car accidents because she could not gauge a turn.
I believe that teens must be taught to drive, and the 21st Century Driver’s-Training Program, which we have set up at Cooperstown Central School, can do that.
In order for that, and other successful state-of-the-art programs to ever be implemented, passing the bill S.6985 is essential.
I hope you have not and will not experience the pain of losing a teen to inexperienced driving or anything else. I will let you know there is no pain greater than losing a friend or loved one when you know that something could have been done to prevent it.
You will keep many towns and schools from being turned upside down, in turn lessening emotional pain. You will decrease the economic cost of accidents by having better drivers and fewer accidents. The biggest problem you will be solving is the loss of our future.
Every teen out there has something to contribute and deserves the chance to shine.
LINDSAY M. ROWLEY
Cooperstown

‘Our Lives Depend on It’

Dear Governor Paterson,
I’ve had two minor accidents within my first two years of driving. Many of my brother’s and my friends have had accidents. Some totaled their family car.
My brother’s first accident took his life. He was driving 60-65 mph on a 55-mph country road without a seat belt on his way to church on Holy Thursday 2007, when someone swerved into his lane to avoid hitting a possum.
He ultimately lost control of the Jeep and rolled the jeep trying to avoid hitting her car. Not only would driver training have helped him, but also it might have prevented the other driver from crossing over into Chris’ lane instead of hitting the possum.
We are not prepared to face the challenges of weather, animals, and country road conditions without driver education and training. If we are not trained to be good drivers as teens, we will not be good drivers as adults!!
New York State needs to educate its teens, in schools, with a state of the art driver-training program such as 21st Century Driver Training!!
Restrictions alone do not work! We need to educate and train teens before they begin to drive unsupervised on the road!!
It is very important that you make Bill S.6985 law as quickly as possible. Our lives depend on it!!
ROBERT J. GENTILE
Cooperstown

Labels: Opinion

Labels: 062708, Glimmerglass

SAM GOODYEAR

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ART BEAT


Vladimir Horowitz suffered from such agonizing stage fright that he stopped playing in public for 20 years.
Gioacchino Rossini interrupted his prolific composing career for 30 years before picking up his pen again.
“Writer’s block” has been known to afflict countless authors.
Let’s face it, artists don’t necessarily have an easy time of it. By their very nature, they are outside the conventional box, and since each artist is “one of a kind” – there aren’t two Mozarts or two van Goghs, for example – the solitariness of their calling places burdens on them that are not always easy.
It is always good news when a Horowitz or a Rossini returns to the scene, and such is the cause for celebration of a recital to be given at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 1, at Grace Episcopal Church in Cherry Valley.
Agustin Anievas, born in New York City of Spanish-Mexican parents, had by age 8 performed at the Pan American Union in Washington, D.C., and at Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts, the youngest performer ever to achieve such a distinction.
Trained at the Juilliard School of music under the tutelage of Adele Marcus, he has played all over the world, starting with Carnegie Hall (where everybody else is trying to get to) and winning the first Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition along the way.
He spent 25 years as chairman and professor of piano at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, all of which adds up to a rich and rewarding life in art.
Then, after bypass surgery, he stepped aside for a bit. For five years, to be exact. But make no mistake, he didn’t sit at home brooding.
He launched into another form of artistic expression, namely photography, finding that considerations such as patience, composition, and the search for the correct tonalities were not unlike his approach to learning a piece of music.
He had kept his hand in musically by serving as judge at piano competitions all over the globe, and it was on hearing a young entrant’s performance of Bach’s famous “Chaconne” that he was inspired to resume his place in the public eye.
His big return appearance will take place at the Newport (R.I.) Music Festival on July 26, when he will appear at The Breakers, the famed Vanderbilt “cottage.”
But after such a hiatus it is advisable to ease back into the limelight rather than plunge in headlong, and we are lucky that he will be “warming up” to his come-back with a preliminary recital of the Newport program at Grace Church.
His choices are unabashedly romantic: some Schubert impromptus, some Chopin waltzes (as well as the Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise), and Liszt’s Sonata in b Minor.
A few months ago we waxed lyrical about the acoustics at Grace Church.
The lustrous wood of the interior provides not only visual warmth, it generously reflects all the sound waves it receives. Mr. Anievas will have just the venue needed for his recital, and we are indeed fortunate to have such an important event to add to our increasingly crowded calendar of events.

Sam Goodyear’s column on the arts in and around Otsego County appears weekly.

Labels: 062708, Art Beat, Glimmerglass, Sam Goodyear

ELIZABETH BUCHINGER

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THIS WONDERFUL LIFE

When I was a kid, I used to cope with the possibility of disaster by employing the same method we were taught at school: Fire Drills.
My logic – if you had asked me – was that you prepare for the unthinkable by, well, thinking about it, practicing for it. At school, that meant recognizing the fire alarm, calmly closing books and lining up behind the teacher at the door. The teacher would demonstrate the prudent way to open the door, checking it first for heat with the back of her hand before touching what could be a searing metal doorknob. Once in the hallway, we would file quickly, but carefully to the nearest exit. Once outside, the teacher would perform a head count to be sure we were all safe.
When confronted with something both horrible and inevitable, I would run through an emotional fire drill, imagining how I would find out about the tragedy, how I would react, what I would do, how I would get safely out of the building.
Once, when my parents took me to a Pink Panther movie that, as a 9-year-old prude, I felt was far too racy for me to be watching, I became convinced that the authorities were going to burst into the theater and arrest my parents. I fire-drilled it. The cops would haul them away. I would beg them not to take my parents, and do my best to convince them that none of us knew just how sexy Dyan Cannon was going to be on screen. In the end, they would listen to me, and my parents would be so grateful, they would finally let me have a phone in my room.
I also used to fire-drill my grandmother’s death. This is unsurprising because a.) I’ve always been very close to my grandmother and b.) she has been fire-drilling her own death for as long as I can remember.
For at least 30 years, Stormy has been giving instructions about what I am to do when the Lord finally takes her. She has even provided me with a helpful roster of who is and who is not allowed to shed tears at her funeral. To be honest, now that she is going on 96-years-old, much of that list is a moot point.
Two weeks ago, I got word that she was in Richmond, where my aunt lives, battling a case of shingles. A day later, I got word that she had fallen in her room at the assisted living facility and was in the hospital. Stormy wasn’t eating, she asked the doctors not to treat her. She wasn’t even interested in her favorite subject, politics, and, according to my aunt, it looked like it was time to say goodbye.
The next morning, I packed my suitcase and raced to Virginia as quickly as state speed limits would allow. When I saw my grandmother, I was shocked. In just a few months, she had aged exponentially. The hair that remained thick and dark well into her 70s was thin and white. She was absolutely skeletal – probably not even 80 pounds. And she was in terrible pain as a result of both shingles and a possible fracture in her lumbar spine.
I held her hand and stroked her head and was grateful, for the first time, that she is no longer able to see, because I did not want her to see how I cried, leaning my head on the bedrail and letting tears pour onto the white, waxed floor.
This was never in my fire drill. When my grandmother was 2, her Irish grandfather nicknamed her Stormy, and his descendants have agreed with his insight for generations. My grandmother is tough as nails, stubborn, tenacious and willful. When her husband became abusive, she raised four children by herself in the 1950s, and then went on to practically raise one grandchild and a great-grandchild.
I never expected her to go gently into that good night – I expected her to go with great force of will and commitment. I expected she would wake up one morning and tell the Lord, “It’s time,” and that, like everyone else who knew her, he would listen.
When I saw her in that hospital bed, utterly vulnerable to such wrenching pain, running her thumb across the crucifix of the rosary beads wrapped on her wrist, I got stormy myself. On my way to get coffee for my aunt and cousin, I stopped in the chapel, sharing what must be familiar sentiments of unfairness.
Over the next two days, her pain seemed to subside, and as it did, she became more aware of who was visiting her. We had real conversations. I had a chance to thank her for being good to me, and she replied with a shrug, “Well, I always loved you.”
Although I wished I could stay to help my aunt, I had to come home, where I would rely on daily updates. The first day was grim – her doctor wondered if it was time to shift goals from treatment to comfort.
Then the next day, she seemed a little stronger. Another day went by, and she asked for lunch. Three days later, she ate an entire plate of spaghetti.
As of press time, she has been released to a rehab facility, where she’s proving just how Stormy she can be.

Elizabeth Trever Buchinger remembers to stop, drop and roll. She can be reached at
VillageWordsmith@gmail.com.

Labels: 062708, Columns, Elizabeth Buchinger, This Wonderful Life

by JIM KEVLIN

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COOPERSTOWN

New carpet is new carpet.
A magazine rack is a magazine rack.
A leather sofa’s a leather sofa.
But the list goes on and on, inexorably.
And when you add up all the improvements to the Village Library of Cooperstown in the last couple of years, little by little has become a lot.
When you asked Rebecca Weil, Friends of the Library president, about it, she responds in what might seem like a tentative way about the improvements, many unheralded, that library cardholders can’t have helped but notice.
“I think it’s building,” she said.
But if she were to pull out the reports of what’s happened over the past couple of years, it’s hard not to come to a more emphatic conclusion.
Between 2006 and today, the Friends of the Library has spent $45,080 on improving the venerable institution at 22 Main St.
Of that, $24,380 came from a ramped-up annual appeal. The rest came from a $17,000 grant from the Scriven Foundation, along with smaller grants from the Gronewaldt and Libra foundations, and the Council for Community Services.
Last year, Rebecca said in a recent interview, the annual appeal raised $12,000, a 50 percent increase over the year before: 400 solicitations went out, an astonishing 200 came back.
“That really shows the great support for the library that’s out there,” she said. “People love the library and they want to help.”


Open up your checkbooks, fans: This year’s appeal will be going out in the next few weeks, and the mailing list has been increased to about 1,000, reaching beyond the village into surrounding towns where many of the cardholders live.
Rebecca Weil, mother of two young sons, Peter and Glen, assumed the Friends’ helm in 2006 with modest goals.
“For lack of a better word,” she said, the idea was to “freshen it up. Everything was worn out.”
The library is a department of the financially strapped village government, which was contributing about $70,000 annually (not counting the facility itself, maintenance, heating and electricity) and it showed.
When you look at the check list Weil presented to the village trustees a couple of month ago, the improvements came fast and furious.
Two leather chairs ($5,250 in all) were added to the Nancy Dunn Room, a leather sofa ($2,093) appeared in the children’s library, which was also populated with book bins and pillows.
A partition was removed in the back, opening up a window and brightening up what became the Richard Carr Room. Additional chairs went in there as well. And behind it, a teen room with a bright rug and computers.
Paint, new bookcases, more computers, computer chairs and, a particular point of pride for Rebecca, a coffee-making machine, paid for on the honor system.
And it hasn’t been just bricks and mortar.
Programs have multiplied, including a Bicentennial Lecture Series last year in collaboration with The Freeman’s Journal. Friends program chairman Peg Odell has developed “Family Wednesdays” and Family Story Time on Saturdays, plus special after-school programs.
Library Director Dave Kent devised “Nights at the Roundtable,” inviting authors in for informal conversations with library patrons. Village Trustee Jeff Katz talked about his “The Kansas City A’s & The Wrong Half of the Yankees.” CCS grad Ben Dangl discussed his “The Price of Fire,” about Bolivia’s challenges.
This fall, plans are to open the library Sunday afternoons, in addition to Saturdays, and Monday evenings in addition to Wednesdays.
Dave Kent said he’d never seen so much change. He was a little concerned, he said, about how his staff and volunteers would respond, but he was soon caught up in the enthusiasm, and so were they.
Asked how it happened, he says two words, “Rebecca Weil.”

Labels: 062708, Glimmerglass

New Jackie Robinson Plaque Reflects His Role In Breaching The Color Line
COOPERSTOWN


A new Jackie Robinson plaque was unveiled at The National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum Wednesday, June 25, for the first time reflecting his role in breaking down baseball’s color line when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948.
Robinson’s widow Rachel and their daughter Sharon were at 25 Main St. for the unveiling.
HoF chairman Jane Forbes Clark said Robinson, when he was inducted in 1962, wanted the plaque to reflect his outstanding statistics alone, just like everyone else’s.
“He told baseball writers that when considering his candidacy, they should only consider his playing ability – what his impact was on the playing field. At his induction in 1962, his plaque reflected his wishes – it only recounted his magnificent playing career,” said Miss Clark.
“But as we all know, there’s no person more central and more important to the history of baseball, for his pioneering ways, than Jackie Robinson. Today, his impact is not fully defined without mention of his extreme courage in crossing baseball’s color line. We are proud of the changes we have made.”
The new plaque reads:
JACK ROOSEVELT ROBINSON
“JACKIE”
BROOKLYN, N.L., 1947-1956
“A player of extraordinary ability renowned for his electrifying style of play. Over 10 seasons hit .311, scored more than 100 runs six times, named to six All-Star teams and led Brooklyn to six pennants and its only World Series title, in 1955. The 1947 Rookie of the Year, and the 1949 N.L. MVP when he hit a league-best .342 with 37 steals. Led second basemen in double plays four times and stole home 19 times. Displayed tremendous courage and poise in 1947 when he integrated the modern major leagues in the face of intense adversity.”
The new plaque is on the same spot in the Hall of Plaques. The old plaque will be kept by the Hall of Fame.


Brian C. Horey/The Freeman’s Journal

Cooperstown’s American Legion Post 579 catcher Val Paige tags the Chain Gang’s Brendan Johns out at home during Monday evening action in the first game of a double header in Co-Ed Slow Pitch League at the Clark Complex. Paige fielded a nice throw from third baseman Bianca Bello on the play. Johns had tripled and attempted to score on an infield hit. The Legionnaires won the game 15-6.

Labels: 062708, Sports

Joseph Ranker, 86; Jersey Native Was Collector Of Model Trains

FLY CREEK – Joseph Ranker, 86, of Fly Creek, passed away on Tuesday, June 24, 2008.
Joseph was born in Jersey City, N.J., in 1922. He was raised in Cliffside Park, N.J. He served our country in the Army during World War II in the South Pacific.
After his military service, he married Margaret (nee Vernooy) Ranker, with whom he spent over 50 happy years of marriage. The couple retired to Fly Creek, where Margaret predeceased him in 2001.
Joseph was an avid model train collector and a friend to all the people he met.
He is survived by his son Joseph, grand-daughter Alyssa, brother Richard, sisters-in-law Erma Martin, Helen Walker and Jean Ranker, and many nieces and nephews.
There will be no calling hours and a memorial service will held at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at the Johnston Funeral Home, Morris.

Labels: 062708, Obituaries

DAVE KENT

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BOOKENDS

What a crazy time of year! And I’m not talking about the influx of tourists from the Dreams Park. This time I’m referring to the library and all the changes that are going on. We just got new carpeting installed in the adult and children’s areas and the result is a brighter future (literally).
Anyone who has experienced moving (who hasn’t?) knows what a nightmare it can be. We were fortunate. The only nightmare we experienced was self-inflicted but I’ll get to that later. The moving of books and bookcases, the installation of new carpets by Krazy Tom’s, and the putting back of the materials could not have gone smoother. The library is blessed by a community that really cares about its institutions.
We had several volunteers arrive on Thursday, June 5, to help box books. We allowed ourselves two days to fully pack and move everything. Instead it took less than two hours! Talk about efficient!
The return of the books to their rightful place went just as well. Much thanks goes to Tom Steele, the village building maintenance man, who almost single-handedly moved some of the bookcases himself.
But special citations go out to the many volunteers, including Carla and Roger MacMillan, Andy Timmerman, Sally Trossett, Sally Goodwin, Rebecca Weil, Carl Quimby, Betty Davidson, Sandy DeRosa, Mary Brodzinsky, Katie Lambert Suzanne Stack, May-Britt Joyce, Lois Edwards, Lang Keith, Dottie Hudson, Ann Marie Bascio, Hugh MacDougall, Lin Vincent, Nancy Herman, Barb Harmon, Peg Leon, Maureen and Melissa Schuermann, and Debra LeCates.
Special thanks go to the Scriven Foundation and the Village of Cooperstown Trustees for funding this project.
I also want to compliment Brian Clancy for his assistance, and also my staff (Martha Sharer, Claire Ottman, Mary Nolan, and Sarah Wilcox) for their enthusiasm during this process. Their efforts helped the move proceed like a dream.
Now for the nightmare…
The adult room required little in the moving of books as only the mysteries were shelved on movable bookcases. In order to save time later (yeah, right!) yours truly decided it would be a good time to re-shelve the mysteries in with the general fiction. This idea required removing a bookcase-and-a-half worth of non-fiction out of the stacks where they were currently located.
All I can say is that we will get this “mess” cleaned up eventually. For my sake please just admire the new carpeting and avoid tripping over a pile of books.