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 In the News This Week -- Sept. 8, 2006 |
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 Hyde Hall Celebrates Covered Bridge's Status SPRINGFIELD They must have been awfully disappointed in Eaton, Ohio, and in Bath, N.H. For years, folks in those vicinities thought their covered bridges, each built in 1829, were the oldest surviving in the nation. No longer. Last year, papers unearthed in Cornell University's archives prove the small covered bridge associated with Hyde Hall – you can see it from Glimmerglass State Park – was built in 1825, setting the covered-bridge world on its head. So far, that discovery is little known locally, but Hyde Hall hopes to end that this Saturday, Sept. 9, with a day-long celebration of the bridge's new status. The day will include tours, a 10:30 a.m. slide show of New York State's covered bridges, lunch, and a 1:30 p.m. celebration with state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, as the featured speaker. "We've all known for a long time that it was built between 1815 and 1830," said Richard H. Wilson of Rome, New York State Covered Bridge Society president. "It just wasn't documented." Recent explorations of the papers of George Clarke, grandson of a British governor of New York who returned in 1806 to claim his family's lands, discovered documents that verified the date of the bridge's construction. The Roberts Bridge in western Ohio, near the Indiana line, and the Bath-Haverill Bridge, near Dartmouth on the New Hampshire-Vermont line, are now tied for second. "It's not being contested," said Douglas Kent, Hyde Hall's resident historian. By 1817, Clarke had won a sequence of court battles, gained control of the estate on the shores of Otsego Lake by Mount Wellington, and hired Albany architect Philip Hooker to begin construction of the Greek Revival limestone mansion. According to Kent, the covered bridge was part of a plan to maximize the "dramatic and romantic impact" of the approach to the mansion on a bluff. At the time, the tin-domed gateway – now just across the gully from Hyde Hall – was out at the road, a quarter-mile away. Coaches would travel through the gate and along a ridge with Otesgo Lake shimmering in the distance. The road then dropped down and around a glacial hill – removed when the park was built – to plunge suddenly into the darkness of the covered bridge. Back in the bright light, the coach would proceed along the lake and up the drive to the main house. According to Wilson, the Hyde Hall bridge has another distinguishing feature: A Burr truss, patented by Theodore Burr of Oxford, Chenango County, and reproduced in bridges around New York State and Pennsylvania. Many covered bridges have a single brace connected diagonally to upright posts. The Burr truss has a brace and a "counter-brace," said Wilson, and is thus double reinforced, doubly sturdy. Longevity, by definition, was important to most covered-bridge builders, Wilson said. Open bridges would deteriorate in 8-10 years; but a covered bridge – like a house – would last a good long time, as long as the roof and walls were kept in good repair. Sure, the oldest bridge is small. Sure, it lacks the engineering panache of the 228-foot North Blenheim Bridge in Schoharie County, with its 210-foot "Long Truss," devised by Stephen H. "Language Is Fate" Long, an Army engineer. It consists of three long connected trusses. Still, Wilson clearly remembers that moment, in 1964, when he first saw it: "It was like time stood still. It was a rarity to see a covered bridge that was untouched by humans hands for so long." It was on a private road, so it was hardly traveled. The original driveway was hardly visible. Wilson, an aviation electrician at Griffiss Air Force Base, happened on one of his life's passions by accident: He read an article in a 1963 edition of his wife's Woman's Day magazine which had a photo of the North Blenheim bridge. He was hooked.   Raspy Dylan Croaks Wins Way Into 3,078 Fan's Hearts By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN His once-whiny voice is now a croak. He rarely even looks at his audience, or says a word. He's 65, hardly rock-star vintage. Still, there's a certain something about Bob Dylan that gets under people's skin and keeps them coming back. Lucy Wood knows. She saw him live for the first time in Bournemouth, a resort town on England's south coast, in July. "He didn't play his guitar, so I left with ... eh," she said the other day, shrugging up her shoulders and scrunching up her face. She's a nurse's aide in a hospital and, taking a break in the wee hours one morning in mid-summer, reading Hello magazine, a supplement to the Sunday Express of those Parade-like magazines in her Sunday paper when she noticed a "little squib": Bob Dylan will be playing in Cooperstown. "I'm impulsive," she acknowledged, and called her daughter Dulcie, 21, who has an Internet connection at home. Dulcie checked airline tickets and found a special. "Book them," said her mom. Mom and daughter arrived in New York on Friday, Sept. 1, and called Polly Renckens, Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce executive director, to find out how to get them here. Polly found her a Trailways and, five hours later, Lucy and Dulcie were in Cooperstown. Being from Europe, they had expected there would be public transportation, and rented a room at the Lake & Pines Motel, six miles north of town, a pretty long walk. The Otesaga Resort Hotel came to their rescue, offering the ladies a room for the night at a reduced rate. They attended the Doubleday concert that night. "It was a really strange experience," said Dulcie, "seeing such an idol of our time in a baseball field in a small town." He was introduced, to the sounds of Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," as the "poet laureate of rock and roll," and the mother and daughter couldn't agree more. They have a dog-eared copy of a book of Dylan lyrics from the 1970s, and it's falling apart. As did the crowd, the Woods enjoyed Dylan mixing in old songs – "Lay Lady Lay," "Like a Rolling Stone" and others – with new ones. In particular, Lucy enjoyed how much Dylan seemed to be enjoying himself: "I could see him, and he was having a great time." He actually grinned at one point, came back for an encore – "Everybody Must Get Stoned" – and introduced his band. Dylan was the man in black, but band members were dressed alike, in light grey suits, black shirts and pork-pie hats. He didn't play "My Back Pages," Lucy's favorite (see Page 5 for lyrics). "If he had sung 'With God on Our Side,' I would have been moved," she continued, since their hometown, Colchester, in County Essex, England, 50 miles southeast of London, is headquarters for the British paratrooper units fighting in Iraq, and there have been fatalities: "The words fill my head/ And fall to the floor/ If God's on our side/ He'll stop the next war." While, again, he didn't play the guitar, Lucy nonetheless left satisfied. Standing to the left side of the stage (compared to the right at Bournemouth), she was able to witness his manual dexterity on the keyboard. Beside, Dylan – a skinny 65 – might lack the strength to play the guitar for two hours. On Wednesday, Sept. 5, Polly Renckens had the final count: 3,078 tickets, $55 each, had been sold for the Dylan concert, of which the chamber sold 1,138. (Children 12 and under are admitted free.) The chamber gets $1 for every ticket it sells; the village receives $2, and the fire department sells food and sodas at concession stands, netting the profits. "It looks like that" – about 3,000 tickets – "may be our niche," said Renckens, "unless we can bring in a big time country singer." She said it's up to the village whether to continue pursuing concerts next year. The next day, Gayle and Jack Smith, who run Overlook B&B on Pine Boulevard, put them up. The mother and daughter walked down to Lake Front Park and, as most visitors are, were impressed by Otsego Lake's beauty. It reminded them of Windermere, the largest lake in England's Lake District. Most impressive to Dulcie, who, as it happens, plays the drums in a band, Teevo (see www.teevo.co.uk), was the personality that seems to imbue American culture. "We have a reputation of being polite, tea-drinking," she said. "Here a person in a shop will say 'hello, how are you doing.' That would never happen in England, which is sad." Gayle Smith got them on the bus to Utica, with instructions on how to travel on to Buffalo. The Woods were hoping to make it to Chicago before circling back to New York City by Sept. 15 for their flight back. "I'll be back," the mother pledged. COOPERSTOWN The polls will be open from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, around Otsego County, with Republicans deciding on county sheriff and U.S. Senate nominees, and Democrats choosing gubernatorial, attorney general and U.S. Senate nominees. In the Town of Otsego, Republicans will nominate Orlo Burch or Joseph M. Potrikus for a town-board seat. In the Town of Hartwick, Democrats will also nominate Lynn A. Green or Caren G. Kelsey for a town-board seat. On the Republican ballot countywide, Sgt. Richard J. Devlin Jr., the third-ranking officer in the sheriff's department, and retired state trooper Kenneth W. "Skip" Beijen, will be competing for the nomination to replace retiring two-term Sheriff Donald R. Mundy. The undersheriff, A. Bruce Carroll, is also retiring at year's end. In the GOP primary, Republicans countywide will nominate either K.T. McFarland or John Spencer to run for U.S. Senate. Democrats will nominate either Eliot Spitzer and Thomas R. Suozzi to run for governor; Andrew M. Cuomo, Mark Green, Charles G. King or Sean Patrick Maloney to run for attorney general; and Mrs. Clinton or Jonathan B. Tasini for the U.S. Senate. In the sheriff's race, Mundy has endorsed Devlin, as have the department's two unions, one for the deputies, the other for correctional officers. The Republican County Committee endorsed Devlin over Beijen, who then collected enough signatures to get on the primary ballot. He says he is the "people's candidate" and, if defeated Tuesday, will run as an independent in November. Both candidates say they want to ensure there's sufficient staff so cars are available whenever an emergency call comes in. The Republican primary in Otsego pits Burch, who was appointed to fill a town board vacancy when Nancy Iversen was elected to the county board last year, against Potrikus, a newcomer to politics. Burch, 61, grew up in Hartwick, went away to college, and spent a 34-year career at Fleet Bank, moving with his unit to Affiliated Computer Services as vice president of financial services for the Federal Director Student Loan Program; he works four days a week in Utica, and one at home. He and his wife, Cindy, have six children and six grandchildren. Since joining the town board, Burch wrote a capital assets policy for the town. Looking ahead, he would like to see an ethics board established, plans for upgrading highway department facilities on Cemetery Road and Route 26 improved and the new comprehensive land-use proposal put in place. The town crew has been without a contract for three years, and he would like to see that resolved. Potrikus, 47, spent first 20 years in Fly Creek, his second 20 running landscaping businesses in New Jersey and the Hudson Valley, and now runs Greener World Landscape Maintenance. He and his wife, Doreen, have three children, two in college and one in high school. He said he's participated in town government as an observer, adding: "At all levels of government, we spend too much money. While I can't do a lot for change on the global level, at least I can on the local level." He said he particularly wants to participate in the revaluation, in particular to ensure people on a fixed income are protected. The Democratic primary in Hartwick involves two people involved in education. Lynn Green, who has lived in Hartwick for 29 years and has been a teacher's aide at Cooperstown Elementary School for 23 years. She served on the planning board from 1988 to 1995, then filled Harold Ennis' vacancy for another 4-5 years. She was appointed to the town board in January when Mary Balcom was elevated to town supervisor. She is particularly concerned about "haphazard growth" in the town, and thinks zoning is needed -- not as strict as Cooperstown's -- but to designate commercial and residential zones. Caren Kelsey works for BOCES. Due to crossed telephone calls, several efforts to interview her for this article were unsuccessful. If the connection is made, her comments will appear on www.thefreemansjournal.com before the election.  Old Glory Stolen Off Local Diner ONEONTA In the mid '70s, State Trooper Kenneth W. "Skip" Beijen was on night patrol near the Soccer Hall of Fame, when they happened upon a car stopped at a green traffic light. They drove past, turned around, and pulled up behind the car. The light turned green again. The car didn't move. When the light turned red again, Beijen approached the car. "Who's car is this?" he asked. "Mine" both young men inside -- from Rome, it turned out -- answered simultaneously. Get out of the car, they were told. The officers ordered the men to open the trunk, and found it filled with stolen goods from a J.C. Penney. One of the men suddenly yelled "now," and jumped the officers. In the ensuing struggle, the other officer's gun went off and the bullet hit Beijen "right in the heart." Beijen, now a candidate for the Republican nomination for Otsego County sheriff in the Tuesday, Sept. 12, primary, said everything seemed in slow motion: "I saw the bullet coming from the gun." As it happened, Beijen was one of the few officers in those days who wore a bullet-proof vest, the only one in Troop C. He had read about the vests and, with a young wife, Peggy, and two young children, Jeffrey and Kendra, cashed in a couple of savings bonds to raise the $75. It turned out to be the best investment. He was taken to a hospital, but was discharged eight hours later, albeit with a very bruised chest. He became the first officer who survived a bullet from a .357 Magnum, and the 36th officer nationwide saved by a bullet proof vest. In the years that followed, Beijen testified before the state Senate and the Assembly on the utility of the vests. Today, every officer in New York State is required to wear one, and the vests are credited with saving the lives of 900 officers. Beijen retired in 1994 after 22 1/2 years, and since has worked as vice president and director of police at the Susquehanna & Western Railroad, as investigator for the Delaware County D.A. and, currently, as an investigator for Progressive Insurance Co. A couple of years ago, he said, he was approached by prominent Republicans who asked him to run when county Sheriff Donald R. Mundy Jr. retired, as he plans to at the end of this year. At the Republican County Committee session in May, however, "they sat on their hands" and the endorsement went to Richard J. Devlin Jr., a 15-year sheriff's department employee who Mundy endorsed as his successor. "Now, I picture myself as the people's candidate, not the party's candidate," he said, "and that's how it should be." He said he expects to win Sept. 12, but if he doesn't he still plans to run in the general election in October as an independent. Beijen, 59, was born in Oswego. He is a Vietnam-era veteran, on active duty from 1966 to 1968 and in the Reserves from 1964 to 1970. A Sea Scout when he was a boy on Lake Ontario, he also attended the New York State Maritime Academy. In 1970, he was married, raising a family, going to college, working, when he took the state police exam. That year, however, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller imposed a 2 1/2-year austerity program. Of the 95 candidates who took the test with him and passed, none was hired until the middle of 1972. Beijen said he took to the state police: "It was like being in the service again." He was assigned to Troop C, Sidney, and ended up spending his whole career there, living in Oneonta. In 1978, he was promoted to sergeant and entered the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation the same day. In the years that followed, he investigated a wide range of serious crimes. A family of four was murdered in Ithaca, by accident, it turned out. (The gunman was looking for the former owner of the family's house.) In Trout Creek, a woman was shot to force her boss to open a safe; then he was shot, too. In those days, troopers didn't get overtime. They got "premium pay," and the department could work them as hard as it liked, often 16 to 18 hours a day when an investigation was hot. He often was picked to accompany dignitaries when they visited Otsego County, escorting Rockefeller and three of his successors, Malcolm Wilson, Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo, when they visited locally. (He liked Rocky best.) While working, he obtained a B.S. in psychology from SUNY Oneonta, and did graduate work in counseling. He has gone through numerous training programs, has been a member of 14 professional associations; he's lectured and taught, and been involved in civic life in the Oneonta area. He's a past commander of American Legion Post 259, Oneonta, and has served as county commander. He was a director of the county Chamber of Commerce. Gov. George Pataki appointed him to the state Fraud Prevention Board. "I still think I can do some good," he said when asked why he's running for office. "I like being a policeman." His focus as sheriff would be to launch more road patrols and ensure a better response to emergency calls. He said some people, callling the dispatchers, are told, "We don't have anyone to send; getting police to the people is an important responsibility." When it was pointed out his opponent has the support of the two deputies' unions, he didn't see it as an obstacle if he is elected. "I know most of the people in the department," he said. "I've worked with them for years.  High-Tech Would-Be Kuralts Head 'On The Road'
PORTLANDVILLE At the start of "Easy Rider," Peter Fonda famously threw down his watch, ground it into the pavement with his heel, then hopped on his Harley and headed cross-country. When Drew Rossman padlocked his Route 28 Paddleshack canoe-rental business for the season on Labor Day, he must have had that Peter-Fonda feeling. For he and his significant other, Bud Davidson, were about to head on a two-month journey across country in a Ford Econoline van, loaded with high-tech recording equipment. "We plan to emulate Charles Kurault," said Drew, a reference to the long-time star of the CBS Evening News' segment, "On the Road with Charles Kuralt." That emulating is also echoed in the "On The Road with Bud and Drew" Website - www.budanddrew.com - which is being updated minute-by-minute as you read this. You may have heard about Drew via The Kayak Lock Inc. He invented the novel lock and marketed it on the Internet, where he developed skills and became proficient in the tools he plans to use on this trip. Those tools include: * A Canon Z-40 Digital Video Camera that burns DVDs. * A Nikon Coolpix 7600, a small, compact camera - smaller than a cigarette pack, although a little thicker. It has MP3 capacity; MP3 is the common audio program. "It has the ability to use rechargable Double-A batteries," said Drew, powered off a recharger he plugs into the cigarette lighter on his dash. * A Samsung SC-X105l camcorder, very small, weatherproof, with a headband that allows you to attach it to your forehead. * An LG VX8300 cellphone, with a two gigabyte micro F-D card in it, allowing you to take 200 photos with it. (While being interviewed at The Freeman's Journal, he snapped a photo of the staff which was automatically updated to his site by the time staffers walked back inside.) * A Canon Z-40 dash-mounted video camera. * A Bushnell Nighthawk Digital Night-Vision Camera. * An Apple I-Book G4, "the hub of this whole thing." It will allow him to edit video, audio and photos on the road, then upload them to budanddrew.com via unsecured wireless Internet access. Anyone under the age of 13 understands all this, although fewer of the rest of us do. The bottom line is this: For less than $2,000 Bud and Drew will be able to chronicle their travels instantaneously, and those chronicles will be immediately accessible to anyone with Internet access. Drew was born in Patchogue, Long Island, and moved to Otsego County, where his family had a summer home in South Worcester, after a stint in the Air Force that ended in 1985. He's been here every since, in between travels to as disparate places as Machu Picchu in Peru and Ayres Rock in Australia. He has visited all the continents except Antarctica. Bud is from Franklin, and hasn't travelled at all, so she was a little apprehensive about the adventures ahead. The high-tech-loaded couple had their picture taken at noon Tuesday, Sept. 5, in front of the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum in downtown Cooperstown, then headed off for Niagara Falls, then through Canada to Mackinaw Island at Michigan's north end. They plan to visit the L.A. ghetto, the bats in Carlsbad Caverns, the Las Vegas strip, the Jack Daniels factory in Lynchburg, Va., before returning to the Hall of Fame, sometime before Christmas. 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