The Freemans Journal - Cooperstowns Newspaper Since 1808

Sunday, March 1, 2009

EVAN JAGELS

NIGHT LIFE

The word “gamelan” comes from the Javanese word “gamel,” meaning to strike or hammer, and in Java and Bali it refers to the large percussion orchestras which are more or less the center of all sacred and secular music. 
Gamelan, referring to the particular set of instruments rather than the players, is built to stay together and necessary for ritual Hindu events in Indonesia as well as to mark any large social occasion.
This Saturday, March 7, Gamelan Galak Tiki will be the grand finale the 39th Cooperstown Concert Series at Sterling Auditorium at Cooperstown High School.
 Although Gamelan is a rich part of Indonesian history and its Hindu-Buddhist culture, Gamelan Galak Tiki began, in all places, as a set of instruments in a basement choral library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. 
Evan Ziporyn, MIT professor of music, founder and artistic director of Gamelan Galak Tiki, together with two students, began to try and make sense of the hand-carved instruments that MIT had recently purchased. 
Whether by fate or fortune, the musicians soon came in contact with I Nyoman Catra and Desak Made Suarti Laksmi, master Balinese musicians and dancers who had just taken up residency in Boston.  Since then, group has grown to approximately 30 members.
 Their CD, “Dangerous Things,” offers a purely aural taste of what their performance will bring to town – no doubt there will be the certain aspect of visual performance. 
Although predominantly percussive, the music has melodic and even chordal sonorities – usually pentatonic and almost airy in its spatial quality yet with regular crescendos of collective intensity. 
 According to Evan Ziporyn, traditional Balinese music is “ancient and modern…composed but unwritten, intricate but intuitive, formal yet always lyrical and carchy…both part of Balinese Hindu ritual and regarded as popular entertainment.”
I must admit that it has moments or themes of accidental beauty – a quality likely to be described by the Western listener.  Of course, further research into the music, its culture, and history licensed a different understanding. 
Regardless of the listener’s intent or knowledge of Indonesian music, it demands a certain level of patience and cultural curiosity.
Gamelan has had influence on classical European and Western music – most famously on Claude Debussy, who heard a Javanese gamelan play at the Paris Exposition of 1889 (World’s Fair). 
Direct references can be found in the compositions of Béla Bartók, John Cage, Andrew Schultz, Philip Glass, and others.
Tickets are available at Ellsworth & Sill and The Sage Center, Cooperstown, and The Fly Creek General Store.  Though often available at the door, concerts often sell out in advance.  For more information, visit www.cooperstownconcertseries.org  or call 547-1812.    

Labels: 03-06-09, Evan Jagels, Glimmerglass, Night Life

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10th Epicurean Festival Includes Alex’s
Shrimp, Elena’s Sweet Desserts

By LAURA COX

Who to dine with. How far to drive. Italian, Mexican, French? Fancy or casual. Price.
A number of variables go into dining out.
On Sunday, March 22, there will be just two variables: Do you like good food? Do you want to help a good cause, an organization that has been supporting community members through their hardest of times for 25 years?
For that day the 10th annual Epicurean Festival, Food Testing & Auction to benefit Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. at The Otesaga.
Cocktails and hors d’ oeuvres in the lobby of The Otesaga will launch the festivities, and festgoers can listen to Big Fish Combo while perusing silent-auction items. The buffet will follow, with offerings prepared by more than 31 local restaurants, including Stella Luna Ristorante, O’Hanlan’s Steakhouse, and The Quarter Moon Café, plus newcomers Gemini Café, Bulls Head Inn and Our Town Café & Pub.
For restaurateur Alex Webster of Alex & Ika’s in Cooperstown, the decision to participate in the Epicurean Festival was a simple one.
“We really like it,” said Webster, himself a cancer survivor. “It’s a chance to meet other restaurateurs in the area and it’s nice to actually do something to help out, other than just hand out money for charity.”
Alex & Ika’s has participated in the festival since its inception in 1999.
For Elena Doyle of Elena’s, a pastry shop and cafe in Oneonta, the motivation was more emotional.
A year ago, she leaned on Catskill Area Hospice as her husband, Edward, suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease, passed away.
“We want to support the organization that is constantly there for us as a community,” said Doyle. “it’s the least we can do. Even closer to my heart, they were there for me and there is no price you can pay to thank them.”
While interviewing Elena, customer Donna Leben of Goodyear Lake overheard the conversation and added her praise for Catskill Area Hospice, a mainstay while Donna cared for her daughter Stacey Beisler, who passed away from Huntington’s disease.
“I couldn’t have done without them,” said Leben. “They were a great support, and provided the very best care.”
The Epicurean Festival co-chairs Linda Evanczyk and Ann Wallace, both of Oneonta, shared that the festival began 10 years ago after two auxiliary members attended a similar event sponsored by Herkimer County Hospice.
The local event really took off, and last year raised a record $65,000 through sponsorships, silent auction, raffle tickets, dinner tickets and advertising.
The Epicurean Festival is Hospice’s second largest annual fundraiser and proceeds go to cover a number of the services the hospice provides to patients and their families, especially pro bono work, for hospice turns no one away.
“We could not provide the quality programs we do without the support and funding of people like this,” said Huemac Garcia, Catskill Hospice’s director of development.
Alex and Ika’s will be bringing a sake-seared shrimp dish Webster hopes to add to the restaurant’s menu if it is well received at the festival.
Elena’s will be collaborating with The Italian Kitchen and Oneonta’s new Mexican restaurant, Fiesta, to offer a whole meal from start to finish, with Elena’s serving up pastries and desserts.

Labels: 03-06-09, Glimmerglass

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Obituaries

Cpl. Michael Mayne, 21; First Iraq Casualty

BURLINGTON FLATS – Army Cpl. Michael L. Mayne, 21, of Burlington Flats, died in a firefight Monday, Feb. 23, in Iraq, where was serving with the 25th Infantry Division.
He was the first soldier from Otsego County to die in the Iraq War.
Michael was born on Oct. 9, 1987, in Ilion, the son of Lee and Cathy (Francisco) Mayne.
With his two friends, Tony and Tom, he joined the Boy Scouts. His Eagle Scout project dedicated poles and flags for each branch of the Armed Forces on the Burlington Flats Veterans Memorial Park. Michael also played football, basketball and golf in high school, and participated in the ski club, and the Junior Rifle and Sporter Rifle Team at the Burlington Flats Fish & Game Club.
After graduation from Edmeston Central School, he joined the Army in July 2006. Before his Iraq deployment, Michael was stationed at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, the home base of the 25th Infantry’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The brigade deployed to Diyala Province last fall for a yearlong tour of duty.
Michael was a first-rate friend, he was a natural-born leader. He offered to many his unique sense of humor and compassion for others. For one so young, it is hard to imagine the diverse depths of Michael, be it his commitment to Boy Scouts, his family, close friends, God and country. He was a hero.
Michael is survived by his parents, Lee and Cathy Mayne; his sister, Sherry and brother-in-law, John Hawes; his grandmother, Lucille, great-aunts and -uncles, Anne and Dick Weiss, and Dawn Hull; aunts and uncles, Dale and Iva Mayne, Dennis and Theresa Mayne, Cindy Prill, Elaine and Rich Volpe, and Gloria and Rob Lindsay. Also, several cousins and spouses, Paula, Greg, Alan and Kristen, Jason and Robin, Brian, Adam and Dawne, Ryan, Marley and Gavin.
His grandparents, Herbert Mayne, Howard and Eloise Francisco, and cousin, Paul Prill, predeceased Michael.
A full honor military funeral service was held Tuesday, March 3, at Edmeston Central School gymnasium, with Pastor Jay Henderson and Lieutenant Colonel Olsen officiating.
Calling hours were the day before at the Burlington Flats Baptist Church, including ceremonies by Troop 9 Boy Scout and Cub Scouts and Wharton Valley American Legion Post No. 1311.
Interment will be in the Burlington Flats Cemetery in the spring.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Edmeston Central School Scholarship Fund.
Funeral arrangements were with the Houk-Johnston-Terry Funeral Home, Edmeston.

Bertha M. Drake, 88, of Hickory Grove Farm

PIERSTOWN – Bertha M. Drake, a long-time resident of Hickory Grove Farm overlooking Otsego Lake, died the First Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2009, at Otsego Manor. She was 88.
A daughter of Marcus and Lovinnia (Teeter) Laymon, Bertha was born at home in Pierstown on March 9, 1920.
Raised and educated in Pierstown, Bertha later attended and graduated from the Springfield School. Following her father’s death in December 1931, Bertha – along with her mother – moved into the home of her sister, Laura, and her husband, Clifford S. Drake, at the 240-acre Hickory Grove Farm that Laura and Clifford purchased in 1932.
For many years, Bertha was self-employed cleaning camps around Otsego Lake.
Throughout her life, she was devoted to The Grange, and was a long-time member of Pierstown Grange No. 793, Patrons of Husbandry, the Otsego County Pomona Grange, as well as the state and National Granges.
Following the death of her sister, Laura, in 1976, Bertha and Clifford were married April 30, 1978, in a ceremony in front of the fireplace at “the white frame house overlooking Otsego Lake” at Hickory Grove Farm, where she continued to reside until moving to Otsego Manor in 2005.
Bertha is survived by her step son, Donald A. Drake, and his wife, Susan, of Cherry Valley, and their three sons, John H. Drake and his wife, Lisa, and their sons, Jason and Adam, of Latham; Thomas E. Drake and his wife, Laurie, and their daughter, Emma, of Schenectady; and Michael A. Drake and his wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Miles, of Ann Arbor, Mich. She is also survived by the daughters of her predeceased step son, David C. Drake: Beth Drake of New York State, Melissa Goodman and her husband, Gordon, and their two sons, Matthew and Christopher, of Illinois, and Amy Drake of Florida.
Bertha was predeceased by her husband of 19 years, Clifford S. Drake, who died Dec. 3, 1997; one step son, David C. Drake, who died Sept. 11, 1993, his daughter, Deborah Drake, who died in 1994, and David’s wife, Joyce M. Drake, who died Dec. 17, 1999; two brothers, Earl Laymon, who died March 18, 1953, and William J. Laymon, who died Sept. 15, 1971; three sisters, Mildred Laymon (who died as a young child), Gertrude Steimer, and Laura Laymon Drake, who died April 4, 1976.
A funeral service was offered at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown, with the Rev. Joseph Bokel, chaplain for Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, officiating.
The service of committal and burial will be held later this spring in the Springfield Cemetery.
With respect for Bertha’s wishes, there were no calling hours.
As an alternative to flowers, expressions of sympathy in the form of memorial gifts may be made to Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care, 1 Birchwood Drive, Oneonta, NY 13820, or The Activities Fund at Otsego Manor, 128 Pheonix Mills Cross Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326.
Funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

Labels: 03-06-09, Obituaries

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Bound Volumes

175 YEARS AGO
To the friends of the Bible in the County of Otsego – Although the deficiency of Bibles in our own County has been supplied, yet God in his providence, is opening other fields, where the Bible ought to be sent, and into which the Bible must be sent, before the World shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. It is believed that the truths of God’s words are the means by which the nations of the earth will be subjected to the Prince of Peace.
Is Mohamedanism to bow to the scepter of Christ? Are the great pillars of Hindooism, ignorance and superstition, to be broken down? In one word, are all systems of false worship to give way to the true worship of God? Then the Bible must be sent everywhere.
March 10, 1834

150 YEARS AGO
Cure of Deafness – Mr. James Cruikshank, the talented editor of the New York Teacher, was so badly afflicted with Deafness as to completely shut him out from intercourse with society and to render life almost a burden. Mr. C. is a resident of Albany and was treated by several of the most eminent physicians of that city, among them the celebrated Dr. March, without success.
By a notice which he saw in the paper, he was induced to place himself under the treatment of Dr. Lighthill for a short time and has now entirely recovered his hearing. Dr. Lighthill, Oculist and Aurist, formerly of Syracuse and Utica, but now from 538 Broadway, New York, will, by request of many patients, shortly be at Cooperstown for a few weeks, when he will give his personal attention to the treatment of the various diseases of the eye and ear.
March 4, 1859

125 YEARS AGO
A Progressive Age – In July 1878, Erwin H. Bailey left this village for Silver City, New Mexico. He was sixteen days in reaching that place, traveling constantly and the regular fare, not including the expense of a sleeping car, was $192.50. Seven hundred miles of this trip was made on a buck-board wagon drawn by mules, the air being so thin in many places that the mules could not draw the passengers and hence they were obliged to walk more or less of the distance.
Mr. Bailey has just returned to Otsego. He was but five days in making the trip to Richfield Springs, coming all the way by rail, with actual travel expenses of $67.18 for the entire distance.
March 8, 1884

100 YEARS AGO
The Board of Health of the Village of Cooperstown has issued a report regarding the typhoid epidemic of two months ago. The fever was spread throughout the village by infected milk bottles.
Our people are urgently requested in the future to use care in washing milk and cream bottles. Thirty cases were recorded of which three proved fatal.
March 4, 1909

75 YEARS AGO
Over the weekend the local cage team annexed their thirteenth and fourteenth straight victories, trouncing Delaware Academy 43 to 7 on Friday night at Delhi and defeating Worcester 34 to 13 at home on Saturday night.
The victory at Delhi places the Crown of the Eastern Division of the Southern Tier Conference on the heads of the Orange and Black for the second year in succession regardless of the outcome of the one remaining game next Friday at Walton. A win at Walton will give the Burseymen a clean slate in the league and complete the season with only one defeat.
The championship of the Western Division has been corralled by Union-Endicott High. Stars of the CHS squad are Captain “Fantom” Mumford, “Dutch” LaDuke and “Dodo” Lawrence.
March 7, 1934

50 YEARS AGO
Construction of a new one-story service building and boiler plant at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital is scheduled to start in the near future, according to Earle Nicklas, assistant director of the hospital. William Francis Shorn is the architect.
The new building will be one-story high and will be situated between the present boiler room and the house staff residence. Oil will be substituted for coal as fuel and a 30,000 gallon oil tank will be installed underground in the angle between Fair Street and the present service driveway. Provision will be made for three new boilers, but only two of these will be installed at the present time.
March 4, 1959

25 YEARS AGO
Thomas Goodyear, Springfield Center resident and prime force behind the Glimmerglass Opera Theatre, will be the featured speaker this Sunday in the second offering of the Sunday Winter Lecture series at Fenimore House. He will focus on the history, legend and romance of Lake Otsego in his talk titled “From Blackbird Bay to Sleeping Lion.”
March 7, 1984

10 YEARS AGO
A plan to establish a fire brigade at The Farmers’ Museum is aimed at enhancing safety and security programs already in place on the complex, according to Director of Facilities Joe Siracusa. “The plan is designed to protect the public as well as to protect the buildings, which are irreplaceable artifacts,” Siracusa said in an interview. “Basically, in the event of a fire or an emergency, it will provide safe evacuation procedures out of the buildings at The Farmers’ Museum. Human life comes first and then the idea is to protect our buildings.” Following federally established guidelines the Farmers’ Museum staff will be trained and ready to perform basic tasks until the fire department arrives.
March 5, 1999

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: 03-06-09, Bound Volumes, Columns

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Letters to the Editor

They’re B-a-a-a-ck. Reunion Power

To the Editor:
It’s official, Reunion Power is back in Cherry Valley and in control.
Their first appearance came in the form of a letter they are sending to some nonparticipating property owners who live in the vicinity of their latest proposed wind project.
The letters dangle the prospects of “financial benefits” and even use the phrase “national priority” to entice people to sign away the protections that are spelled out in our current Wind Law.
To think anyone would think about putting their families and neighbors at risk for a few bucks and the exhortations of lobbyist-controlled politicians, shows how little respect Reunion Power has for the intelligence of the East Hill community.
The Cherry Valley Energy Committee is putting together a questionnaire to be sent to all non-participating property owners who could be seriously impacted by the wind project. This letter is neutral and seeks only to gather information.
By sending out letters promising financial gain and sending it first, Reunion Power is attempting to do an end run around the Energy Committee and the wishes of the town supervisor who in a Feb. 13 interview said in reference to Reunion Power, “They don’t need to be coming here, we’ll call them.”
I guess they decided not to wait for an invitation; instead they decided to kick the door down.
Many aspects of this renewed interest in a wind project are very troubling and begs the question:
• Why get involved with Reunion in the first place given their sleazy behavior in the past?
• Why only on East Hill?
• Have any other companies been asked to come in and submit proposals?
• What other sites have been considered for smaller projects that would fit into the current wind law?
• Why does Reunion mention a revised wind law in their latest sales pitch?
• Do they know something that we don’t?
• Last but not least, why aren’t we using the free-market system that we have in this country to encourage competition between other developers to create a project that everyone can live with?
Until these questions are answered, the suspicion that Reunion Power is in control and ready to throw the people of East Hill “under the bus” with the town’s blessings will fester into the same mess that we had two years ago.
If the town is willing to trade away the safeguards that the ordinance provides for a few bucks, then the town not only has a financial problem but a very serious moral problem as well.
JACK PALMINTERI
Cherry Valley

Change Doesn’t Threaten Booan

To the Editor:
I am writing this letter as a personal endorsement for Joseph Booan Jr., who is running for one of the Cooperstown village trustee positions in the upcoming March 18 election.
On a personal note, I have known Mr. Booan and members of his family for more than 30 years. He is truly a family man whose integrity and dedication to a high moral standard and values are unquestionable.
He is honest, sincere and tells the truth, qualities that are very important for any individual who endeavors to enter politics.
I believe that if elected, his leadership style will allow him to make realistic and positive decisions that will improve all aspects of the Village of Cooperstown. This is sorely needed in this challenging economic environment.
As an educational leader, he has developed and successfully utilized skills that will help him to be an effective member of the village board. He is a “team player” who clearly understands that good decisions can only be made through compromise and consensus.
He does not live in the past nor is he threatened by change. His willingness to try new ideas, be creative and innovative and think “outside the box” is a realistic strategy that will prepare the Village of Cooperstown for the future.
“Business as usual” is simply not the way that Mr. Booan will lead if elected.
It is for these reasons that I wholeheartedly support Mr. Booan’s candidacy for village trustee.
BARRY GOULD
Retired School Administrator

Where Does Jim Tedisco Live?

To the Editor:
I just read a Letter to the Editor which erroneously claims Jim Tedisco is a “lifelong” resident of this Congressional district.
That’s not true. He has lived in this district for only a few months, if that.
He was born and raised in the city of Schenectady, and his true heart resides in that cesspool we call the New York State Legislature – you know the place where nothing seems to get done except old-school politics and tax increases.
Scott Murphy has lived in this district for more than a decade. His heart has been working with small business, creating opportunity and hundreds of jobs.
He is not old-school politics and, for me, that is a very, very good thing.
Scott Murphy is decisive, as a businessman and politician needs to be. He says that while President Obama’s recovery bill isn’t perfect, it’s still something that he would have voted for because it’s so desperately
needed.
Tedisco, in true state legislature form, refuses to say whether he would have voted for it. Maybe that’s why over the decades Tedisco’s been in the legislature, the state budget has been late more times than not. Our district deserves better than that in Congress.
I am supporting Scott Murphy for Congress. He’s intelligent. He understands the needs of small business and families. He can make a decision without months of prodding. He’s not old-school politics. It’s obvious we need Scott Murphy to be our
next representative in Congress.
TRACIE OLSSON ENGLISH
Saratoga Springs

Just Can Because You Can, Ought You?

To the Editor:
Just because engineers can drill for gas doesn’t mean that we must.
Just because we need U.S. sources of energy doesn’t mean we must burn more CO2.
Just because we have drilled for gas for 150 years doesn’t mean we know how to blast away, hydrofracking without damaging our aquifers.
Just because we trust the DEC to do the right thing doesn’t mean we have given them the money to do it. Unfortunately, the federal Clean Air & Clean Water Act has recently been superceded by Big Oil administration amendments.
The financial, human and environmental resources should be directed to actual clean and renewable energy.
Right now is the time to make choices to
not let big corporations make decisions for us.
There are three very lively informational meetings planned for the public: 7 p.m., Friday, March 13, Old School Gym, Cherry Valley; 2 p.m. Sunday, March 15, Templeton Hall, Cooperstown; 7 p.m. Monday, March 16, St. Mary’s Parish Center, Oneonta.
DOTTY HUDSON
Cooperstown

Intrepid Skaters Praised

To the Editor:
I would like to thank all of those adventurous kids who came out to participate in the Skating Clinic at Badger Park Rink Sunday, Feb. 22.
It was great to see so many kids having fun and trying out their new skills on the ice.
Friends of the Parks was fortunate to have the expertise of skaters Aaron Wilson and Ray Oulet.
They had a lot to offer the kids and were generous to donate their time.
Finally, I would like to thank Chris, Greg and Buzz for working so hard to maintain the ice this winter.
It is no easy task!
Keep your fingers crossed for lots more skating this winter.
Happy Skating!

SUSIE LASHER KNIGHT
Friends of the Parks, Inc.
Cooperstown

Labels: 03-06-09, Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Perspectives

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Even In Health Care, Bigness Alone Is No Virtue

Bigness isn’t the inevitable end to every progression. Take the dinosaurs. And, of course, the toppling of the Wall Street Godzillas in recent months.
Small business, it turns out, is the engine of job creation, not the Fortune 500 companies that are cutting tens of thousands of jobs.
For the moment, big is beautiful only in health care.
And so, A.O. Fox Hospital, after 109 years of independence, is planning a formal corporate affiliation with “a relatively young 79” Bassett Healthcare, which in recent years has swept all competition from its path.
If the affiliation happens – by mid-summer, it’s reckoned – Chenango Memorial Hospital, Norwich, will be the only health-care facility in the region not under the sway of Bassett’s medical legions.
It’s pointless to rail against the inevitable. Marcus Welby, M.D., has faded into quaintness, the stethoscope hanging from his pocket replaced by arsenals of CAT Scans, computer screens and MRIs.
The initial conversations between the two entities began in October, and the original idea was to see if medical specialities could be parceled out. Perhaps Bassett could put its resources into cardiology; Fox, perhaps oncology. Orthopedics was also in play.
The impetus for the expanded talks, it turns out, is EMR, the electronic medical record, where all patients records are stored in a single database, accessible from laptops.
Bassett CEO Bill Streck emphasized at several points in a Tuesday, March 3, joint briefing with Fox CEO John Remillard that EMR is essential for measuring outcomes and determining what insurers or the government will pay. “It’s not us,” said Streck, “it’s society saying we need to.”
Both hospitals, it turned out, bought systems from McKesson Corp. in recent months, so merging the records would be relatively simple.
•
There are other upsides.
Sharing specialities would reduce duplication in the purchase of expensive equipment and, by allowing physicians in each institution to do more of the same kind of procedure, elevating expertise.
From the perspective of individual patients and their families, convenience can’t be overemphasized. Families will be able to travel 22 miles from Oneonta to Cooperstown for cases now referred to Albany Medical Center, 70 miles away.
Still, some things will be lost.
For one, the existence of both entities has kept medical brainpower in the region that would have been lost otherwise. Who doesn’t know a surgeon here or a specialist there who, disillusioned with one hospital or the other, simply crossed the street? Without the two hospitals, that expertise would have been lost to the region. (Bassett’s more successful physician-recruitment model, cited by Streck, may overcome that.)
Second, because of competition, Oneonta is superbly served as Bassett, over some years now, has sought to draw patients there away from Fox by good ol’ customer service. Breaching the Bassett wall in Cooperstown through the main switchboard is nigh impossible at certain times of day; by contrast, the phones at its Oneonta facilities are picked up on the second ring.
Bassett, so excellent in so many ways, is not unusual in this regard in an increasingly monopolistic U.S. health care system. But the rare competition that exists in Otsego County works for the patient/customer and needs to be fully appreciated.
Finally, some of the facilities that pepper Oneonta – Bassett’s 125 Main, for instance – are likely to go.
They’re simply duplication.
•
One troubling aspect to whatever’s being worked out is the paucity of public input.
If, in fact, the hospitals were merging, or one was buying the other, or services were to be increased or decreased substantially, or construction was called for, a Certificate of Need would be required, and that would give a chance for the public’s case to be presented at hearings before the state Public Health Council or SHRPC, the state Hospital Review and Planning Council.
Since none of that is happening, there’s no formal public-input process. You can see how affiliation would help each institution, simplify things for regulators, reassure insurance companies – even the doctors want it – but what about the patient? That should be in the forefront of deliberations going forward.
Bigness is the order of the day. But, logically, shouldn’t computerization and the Internet at some point assist decentralization and expanded options?
Affiliation is fine. But beware. Fox – and Bassett’s other affiliates – should not become so impotent as to be unable to react to changing conditions when they inevitably change.

Labels: 03-06-09, Editorial, Opinion, Perspectives

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Locals

Auld Director of Finance at NYSHA, Farmers’ Museum

COOPERSTOWN

Marnie Auld, acting director of finance at NYSHA and The Farmers’ Museum since September, has been named director of finance.
She joined the institutions in 2003 as a staff accountant, and was elevated to senior staff accountant in 2004 and accounting manager in 2006.
Previously, she was fiscal officer for the University of Alaska, Aleutians Campus, and a staff accountant with Kohler, Schmitt & Hutchinson Public Accountants, Fairbanks.
She has a bachelor’s in business management from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
She and husband John moved to Cooperstown in 2002.

College Board Honors 16 CCS Students

COOPERSTOWN

CCS has learned the College Board has designated 16 students as AP Scholars for exceptional achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement Program (AP) Exams.
Sean Killian, Kyle Mackie and Erin Sullivan are AP Scholars with Distinction.
Laura Derouin and Weston Honicker are AP Scholars with Honor.
Additionally, 11 are AP Scholars: Robert Bauer, Kaitlyn Breiten, Roseanne Grigoli, Arum Habercorn, Peter Kearns, Anna Kieler, Joelle Lachance, John LaDuke, William Landon, Erin Marsala and Anna Weber.

ON DEAN’S LIST: Anna Kieler, daughter of Charles and Roberta Kieler, Cooperstown, has been named to the President’s List for her first semester at Elon University in North Carolina.  Anna is a 2008 graduate of CCS.

HONORED: Dana Leonard, daughter of Brent and Mary Leonard, Cooperstown, has been named to Skidmore College’s Thoroughbred Society, recognizing varsity student-athletes who have achieved a grade point average of 3.67 or higher. She is a junior.

WINNING ODYSSEY TEAM: Cherry Valley-Springfield’s Odyssey of the Mind team came in second in its division in the annual competition Saturday, Feb. 21, at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union.

Labels: 03-06-09, Locals

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Regional Spellers Vie To Spell Again In D.C.

By LAURA COX

ONEONTA

What do the Cooperstown and Oneonta Spelling Bee Champions have in common?
They both have a love for reading, playing music, and cooking.
C-O-I-N-C-I-D-E-N-C-E? Maybe, but this reporter thinks not.
Where else do you get exposed to hundreds of new words including ones in different languages such Italian French and German, and that is exactly what you need to win a spelling bee, exposure to a lot of words.
Jack Siegel, 13, son of Mo Micek and Tim Siegel, will be representing Cooperstown Middle School in the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 7 at SUNY Oneonta’s Goodrich Theater. The public is welcome to attend.
Nathan Van Dyke will be spelling for Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School, and Spencer O’Bryan for Milford Central School.
A piano player and swim team member, Jack Siegel enjoys cooking, eating, sailing, creative writing and reading. His favorite subjects in school are math and history followed by science and Spanish.
To qualify for the regional spelling bee, Jack explained, he had to take a test along with all the rest of his fellow middle school students. After passing the first, he took a second, qualifying for the school bee. He won it over 15 other students.
“None of the words were incredibly hard; I got easy ones that sound how they are spelled,” said Jack. His winning word was hydraulic.
Jack is a seasoned spelling-bee participant; he placed in the top five at Cooperstown Central School in seventh grade and seventh place in sixth grade.
“When I have to spell a word, I try to think about the way it would look right, and carefully spell it so I don’t mess up.”
As for studying, Jack said, “I am not really nervous, I am just going to do it and spell (the words) how I think they are spelled. It’d be cool if I got to go to D.C., but I’m not super competitive.”
A bright young lady, Patsie says she is one of the busiest people in school. She does karate two or three times a week, and ballet and tap weekly at Oneonta Dance Center. She takes flute lessons and is active in the school newspaper and student council. Her favorite subjects are art and social studies.
Patsie participated in her school’s spelling bee in 6th grade but lost in the second round. So when her 5th period English teacher Susan Batill announced this year’s spelling bee, she thought she would give it another try.
The spelling bee took place after school in early February.
“I was this close to losing,” said Patsie, crossing her fingers. “My word was ‘manslaughter’ and halfway through it I forgot what I had just spelled. Mr. Johnson let me start again and I got it right and quickly sat down.
“My heart was pounding.”
The hardest word she said she was asked to spell was “antipasto,” but because she does a lot of cooking, she remembered seeing a recipe and was able to spell it out.
“My mom says studying is good, but doing a lot of crosswords and reading adult books certainly helps too,” said Patsie, who loves to do the New York Times crossword puzzles with her mom.
Patsie has been doing a lot of studying in the weeks since her school’s bee, using the Scripps National Spelling Bee Booklet her English teacher gave her to prepare. Looking through the whole booklet, she has chosen to focus on the German and Slovak languages section, as she thinks those have the most difficult language rules.
“My friend Michael Lee has been in the spelling bee twice, and so I have been studying with him in the car on the way to our karate lessons in Binghamton,” said Patsie. “His advice was to always ask for the meaning of the word because sometimes you may think they are saying one word and really they are saying another that sounds just like it.”

Labels: 03-06-09, Front Page, Spelling Bee

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:49 AM 0 comments

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Lady Redskins Rebound From 2-0 Deficit To Claim Region’s Top Volleyball Laurels

By LAURA COX

COOPERSTOWN

‘It couldn’t have been scripted any better,” said CCS Lady Redskin Volleyball Coach Rich Jantzi, describing the emotional ups and downs of the girls’ Class C Regional Championship victory Saturday, Feb. 28, at Beekmantown Central School.
After a huge win over Lafayette on Tuesday, Feb. 24, winning the match 3-1 and clinching the Class C Section Three Title, the Redskins headed to Plattsburgh that Friday to participate in the Regional Championship competition with Section 4 and 7 winners Sidney and Northern Adirondack.
“It was almost surreal from the moment we stepped on the bus,” Jantzi said.
The team was sent off on Friday morning with a pep rally in the school gymnasium – the coach called it “perfect.” Meeting in the cafeteria before the rally, Jantzi sensed from the girls’ smiles that they were in a “really special” fame of mind.
During the five-hour bus ride to Beekmantown, the girls sang and munched on fruit and trail mix in goody bags parents had prepared for them.
The team had a chance to practice before a team dinner at Applebees. Energy was high, but the girls were in bed by 10:30 p.m.
Saturday morning began with pool play. Winning three games against Northern Adirondack, the Redskins went on to play Sidney, winning two of three games after a 23-25 first-game loss.
Cooperstown and Sidney came out of pool play with the best records and advanced to the final.
“Sidney did a good job of scouting us in the first two, but I wasn’t worried about Sidney,” said the coach. “I was more about keeping my own girls on task.”
The first game of the five-game match was brutal. CCS lost 25-16, having only had one kill in the game. The second game went a little better, but again the Redskins lost, 25-21.
“It wasn’t typical of my team, but in the third game it’s like they woke up,” said Jantzi.
“Sidney had a 9-5 lead. And I told the girls I didn’t care if we won, I just wanted them to play hard. I was on my knees in front of my chair and Sidney scored. I slapped the floor with my hands and said , ‘Are we going to play now?’ and they woke up.”
The Redskins won the game 25-19 after regaining some control and confidence after the Beekmantown athletic director hushed the Sidney fans, who were whistling during Cooperstown’s serves. The Redskins regained some control and confidence, coming back to a 25-19 win.
The fourth game was another victory, a 25-19 blur.
“The last game they were talking, they were happy, they were so together,” said Jantzi. “They made their coach really proud.”
The team won 25-15 and the celebration began on the court with many pictures and lot of socializing with more than 100 Cooperstown fans who traveled to the game, including many parents and the “Seventh Man Group” of supportive high school students.
After a quick dinner stop at Olive Garden – the coach said the underclassmen started to plan for next year already – the team got back on the bus to Cooperstown and sang Taylor Swift songs all the way home.
On Sunday, March 1, the village welcomed them home with a ride around town on a fire truck.

Labels: 03-06-09, CCS, Front Page, Girls Volleyball, Sports

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:43 AM 0 comments

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WEEKEND’S BEST BETS

Otsego Kids’ Art: At 5-7 p.m. Friday, March 6 the Cooperstown Art Association Gallery will be bustling with the opening for “An Artistic Discovery” by Otsego County high school students and “A Life in Paradise” by Martha Greenbank Sharer. Call 547-9777 for information.

St. Patty’s Dance: Get out your boots and head to Cooperstown Elementary School
at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 6, for the Doubleday Dancers Western Square Dance Club’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Dance. Ray Taylor will call and Elma Taylor will cue. Admission $10 per couple. For more information, call 264-8128 or 547-8665.

Good Food, Drink: Beat that cabin fever with a trip to Brewery Ommegang after noon on Saturday, March 7. Vinny Avanzatto of Stella Luna Ristorante will prepare mussels; tastings until the food runs out. Call 544-1800 for more information.

Reader’s Theatre: The 1st Annual Playwright Project Competition will be held this weekend by Orpheus Theatre at First Presbyterian Church, Main Street, Oneonta.. Tickets are $5 per play or $10 for all three plays. The first reading at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 7, “Just Kidding,” by Scott Icenhower, North Carolina. The second reading will take place at 6 p.m., “What You Wish For” by Duncan Smith, Oneonta. The third and final reading will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 8, “House Call,” by Anthony Dangerfield, Massachusetts. For information, call the Orpheus Theatre office at 432-1800.

BEAT WINTER BLUES: The Cooperstown Concert Series continues this month with Gamelan Galak Tika at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7. Tickets $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, and $5 for students. Cooperstown High School. Information and tickets, 547-1812.

More Dancing: At 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, Fiddler George Wilson, Guitarist Tom Hodgson and Caller Bob Nicholson will lead an “Irish Family Dance” at the Presbyterian Church in Cooperstown. All are welcome. Adults $7, teens $2, 12 and under free. Call 965-8232 or 315-735-0846 for more information.

Labels: 03-06-09, Cooperstown and Around, Glimmerglass

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:42 AM 0 comments

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Fox Hospital Likely To Move Under Bassett’s Wing

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

Never, Never Land is beginning to look like Maybe, Maybe Land for Bassett Healthcare and A.O. Fox Hospital.
At a joint press briefing in Bassett President & CEO William Streck’s Cooperstown office Tuesday, March 3, he and his Fox counterpart, John Remillard, announced that talks over possible shared services had turned into something more serious, and predicted the two hospitals may achieve a formal corporate affiliation by mid-summer.
In the course of the initial talks, the men said, “larger and longer-term questions naturally entered the dialogue.”
Friday, Feb. 27, the Fox board of trustees voted to move toward affiliation. “It was not a big debate,” said Remillard. “It’s been an ongoing process.” Streck said the Bassett trustees are aboard as well.
Under the affiliation, Fox would maintain its board of directors.
How things might change for Fox would depend on the affiliation agreement, said Karen Huxtable, Bassett spokeswoman, and there are differences between the relationships with the four other hospital affiliates.
While all are involved in group purchasing, not all the physicians at Little Falls Hospital, for instance, are Bassett employees, as is the rule elsewhere.
Whatever the details, “it’s a good thing,” Streck emphasized at the end of a half-hour press briefing he and Remillard, held in Streck’s Cooperstown office. “It’s a very good thing.”
“It’s clearly not a done deal,” Remillard said earlier, but the question being asked, he said, is, “How can we do this?”
Several revelations surfaced:
• Fox’s failure to attract an orthopedist, and other physician-recruitment challenges, made it realize it could benefit from plugging in to Bassett’s more successful recruitment model.
• Bassett’s expertise in developing an EMR, electronic medical record – computerizing all patients’ records, accessible from any laptop – was attractive to Fox, since the tool will be necessary in determining success rates and reimbursement rates going forward. Both hospitals, it turns out, had independently bought McKesson Corp.’s systems.
• While both CEOs said the audits for 2008 had just begun, Remillard said he anticipates Fox will be in the red, and Streck, that Bassett will be in the black.
• If the affiliation with Bassett goes through, Fox will end its affiliation with Albany Medical Center.
The original impetus for the talks was sharing specialties, with one hospital focusing on cardiology and the other on oncology. Those discussions will continue, Remillard and Streck said.
The cornerstone for the original 22-bed A.O. Fox Hospital was laid on Oct. 5, 1900, through a $10,000 gift from Col. Reuben Fox, a prominent local politician and businessman, as a memorial to his wife.
By contrast, Bassett is “79 years young,” as Streck put it, built by Edward Severin Clark for Mary Imogene Bassett, a physician whose work he admired.
Dr. Bassett died soon after the hospital opened, and the institution struggled financially and then closed in 1925. Soon after, Dr. Henry S.F. Cooper, a young resident in New York City, convinced Edward Clark’s brother, Stephen C. Clark Sr., to reopen it.
The drive that may lead to the Bassett-Fox affiliation began in the 1990s, when the Cooperstown-based hospital began to expand regionally. Today, it has affiliations with O’Connor Hospital in Delhi, Cobleskill Regional Hospital and Tri-Town Hospital, Sidney, as well as Little Falls.
If the new affiliation happens, Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich will be the remaining independent in the surrounding counties.
“The world has changed on several fronts regarding health care” since Fox and Bassett last negotiated, Remillard said during the briefing.
And Streck said, “We have to be open to the models of the future.”

Labels: 03-06-09, A.O. Fox, Bassett Healthcare, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:41 AM 0 comments

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Baseball Franchise Debated

Neighbors Say Nay, But Russo, Others Say Aye

By JIM KEVLIN

It started like a replay of the village trustees’ meeting a couple of weeks ago, when the idea of a minor-league baseball franchise for Cooperstown was batted about.
Doubleday Field neighbor Anne Marie Leinhart, echoed by Phinney House B&B owner Jim Vrooman, noted “20 kids under the age of 14” live on Elm Street between Pioneer and Susquehanna, and the franchise would mean “more strangers on our street.” Also, fans from Doubleday Field tend to climb over the backyard fences.
Jim Florczak, a landlord and proprietor of Where It All Began Bat Co., and Larry Petraglia of Doubleday Batting Cages both said, at $5,000 a season, Cooperstown Amateur Baseball is getting too good a deal.
Then Vinnie Russo, owner of Mickey’s Place and dean of the baseball merchants, hit a game-changer.
“I’m absolutely at a loss to understand how this would have a negative impact on the village,” said Russo, a former Hertz vice president who is also a member of the village’s Doubleday Field Committee.
When he was done addressing the 50-some people who attended the trustees’ “town hall meeting” in the county courthouse Tuesday, March 3, Florczak declared, “I am for it,” as long as the village extracts a fair share of the potential profits.
And Trustees Eric Hage, who chairs the Doubleday Committee, and Jeff Katz, a baseball writer and deputy mayor, went to pains to emphasize that the proposal from Tom Hickey of Fly Creek and Kevin McCarthy of Cobleskill, both SUNY Cobleskill administrators, is simply the starting point.
Assessing inputs, Hage identified five issues that need further discussion: Whether local Pony League and Legion League teams will be bumped; whether the P-A system will be too noisy; whether beer should be sold; whether temporary advertising signs should be allowed, and whether $5,000 a season is enough.
For his part, Hickey noted several times that he lives in Fly Creek and has children he expects will be attending games: “There is no way we are going to allow this to turn into something that is bad for the Village of Cooperstown.”
The following morning, while Mayor Carol B. Waller said she “was very pleased with the attendance” – she plans three more such meetings this year – but she was non-committal about the baseball team: “I didn’t hear any particularly new concerns. Have I made up my mind? It was for us to listen; now it’s time to go back to Doubleday and the board and decide what to do.”
The Doubleday committee will discuss the matter at 10 a.m. Tuesday, March 10; the trustees will then take it up at their monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 16.
In his remarks, Russo traced the rise, then decline of attendance at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
It rose by 7,000 a year from the end of World War II until the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-74. By 1978, it had dropped from 260,000 to 180,000, then began to climb again, peaking in 1993 at 405,000, when the baseball strike drove it down into the lower 300s.
“In 1993 it stopped growing,” Russo said. “For the past 15 years, we have actually seen a decline in visitorship,” adding, “the fact is that business is declining on Main Street.”
When he opened Mickey’s in 1991 at Pioneer and Main, summer evenings would be busy, but no more; today, it’s more like a “ghost town.”
Dreams Park brings many people to the area, but they tend to stay at the Hartwick Seminary youth tournament venue in the evenings, and – by claiming so many motel rooms and driving up the prices – have kept the traditional visitor away.
In that context, Russo said, a minor-league baseball team bringing hundreds of fans downtown in the evenings – the average gate for New York Collegiate Baseball League games is 700 – would actually be good for business, as they may stay downtown afterwards for a beer or a meal.
That changed the tenor of the commentary.
Mary Margaret Kuhn, who lives on Chestnut Street, recalled when she and her family would attend Milford Mac games at Doubleday Field years ago: “It was great. I don’t think you have anything to be afraid of.”
Peg Hage said, “Don’t we already have a loudspeaker going? I can hear it in my house on Pioneer Street” and is untroubled by it.
Businessman James Dean agreed that $5,000 for a season is too little, but then told a story about his workshop on Pioneer Street that backs up to the field: So many foul balls land there he collects them and gives them to visitors passing by: “Tell your friends it was knocked out of the park at Doubleday Field.”
And Ted Peters said, “I’d like to put in a word for baseball,” adding, “I hope it brings some spark to the town.”
The opponents swelled at the end of the discussion, but discussion continued mixed.
Former trustee and village adminstrator Giles Russell recalled a past contract whereby the Hall of Fame paid the village $6,000 a year from the Hall of Fame game. He asked advice on the contract, and was told it was an “all for me and nothing for the other document.” The payment was renegotiated for $20,000.
Russell said he would not vote for the current contract with a $5,000 rate.
Charlene Vrooman repeated her husband’s concerns, voiced earlier, but ended by saying when she’s working around their B&B, “the crack of the bat, the cheers of the crowd: It just makes your heart race.”

Labels: 03-06-09, Baseball, Doubleday Field, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:37 AM 0 comments

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Cooperstown and Around

SOLDIER RETURNS: The funeral for Spec. Michael Mayne of Burlington Flats, who was killed in Iraq Monday, Feb. 23, was held Tuesday, March 3, in the Edmeston Central School gymnasium. (For obituary, see Page 5)

DRILLING DANGERS: Forums, “How The Dangers of Gas Drilling Affect You,” are planned at 7 p.m. Friday, March 13, at the Cherry Valley Old School Cafe, and 7 p.m. Monday, March 16, at St. Mary’s Parish Center, Cooperstown, sponsored by Sustainable Otsego.

REOPENING ELM: Pat Governale, proprietor of the Triple Play Cafe in downtown Cooperstown, has purchased and is reopening the Elm Inn, Milford, in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

PEACE VIGIL: A “Christian Peace Witness for Iraq and Afghanistan” is planned at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 14, at Cooperstown Presbyterian Church’s chapel to pray for the healing of the wounded. All are welcome.

PLAN TO BE AIRED: A public hearing regarding a draft of Springfield’s Comprehensive Plan will be at 7 p.m. Monday, March 16, at the Springfield Community Center in Springfield Center. Copies are available at the library and town clerk’s office, and on the Otsego County Planning Department Web site.

FIGHTING ON: Due to the success of the fundraiser for cancer-fighter Jesse Torruella, county Correctional Officer Michael Reckeweg said a “One Of Our Own” Foundation is being created to help other sheriff’s deputies in need. The first fundraiser is a breakfast 8-11 a.m. Sunday, April 5, at the Cooperstown Fire Department.

Labels: 03-06-09, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:30 AM 0 comments

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