The Freemans Journal - Cooperstowns Newspaper Since 1808

Thursday, March 26, 2009

175 YEARS AGO
Mr. Cooper’s (James Fenimore Cooper) “Headsman” has been dramatized in London and performed with great success at one of the minor theatres.
Found in Cooperstown, on the 11th of March, a Sheepskin Wallet, with notes to the amount of eighty or ninety Dollars. The owner may have the same by proving property and paying charges. Enquire at this office.
March 31, 1834

150 YEARS AGO
The mania for bailing prisoners – Harrington was under indictment for rape, for which he is liable, if convicted, to be sent to the State Prison for life. He has just been bailed by Judge Turner. Is there any authority for this? And if not, is not the recognizance void? Has a County Judge any jurisdiction or authority to take bail out of Court, except in cases which the Court of Sessions, of which he is the presiding Judge has jurisdiction to try – and is it supposed that a Court of Sessions can try an indictment for rape?
March 25, 1859

125 YEARS AGO
The New York State Department of Public Instruction publishes notice of “An Act in relation to the study of physiology and hygiene in the public schools:
Section 1 – Provision shall be made by the proper local school authorities for instructing all pupils in all schools supported by public money, or under State control; in physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human system.
Section 2 – No certificate shall be granted to any person to teach in the public schools of the State of New York after the first day of January, 1885, who has not passed a satisfactory examination in physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human system.
W.B. Ruggles, State Superintendent”
March 29, 1884

100 YEARS AGO
There are 212 persons employed at the O-te-sa-ga today. The construction of the port cochere is completed and the painters are at work there. The large pillars present a very imposing appearance. The partitions and hall between the dining and breakfast rooms are now underway. The orchestra balcony will be situated over the hallway. A circular hall will divide the ball room from the sitting room and cloak room in the east wing of the first floor. The work of plastering is well advanced on the upper floors.
Many Cooperstown people enjoy inspecting the work on Sunday afternoons, the entire building being open to the public. From the round windows in the dome, a fine view of Cooperstown and Otsego Lake and the surrounding country is obtainable.
March 25, 1909

75 YEARS AGO
The Cooperstown High School basketball team, champions of the Eastern Division and the Southern Tier Conference will play Homer Academy for the Section Four Championship of Class C, Thursday, beginning at about 9 p.m. as that game will be the last of several played. If Cooperstown wins the championship of Class C, it will have the right to claim the championships of Classes A and B.
More than 1,500 seats are available at 35 cents each. A large section has been reserved for the Cooperstown fans by Coach Lester “Red” Bursey. Little is known about the opposing team but it has eliminated the best in the western part of the state.
March 28, 1934

50 YEARS AGO
A major breakthrough in the battle for control of leukemia appears imminent as a result of work done at the radiation laboratory of the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, according to Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, Bassett physician-in-chief, and a leader of the hospital’s research team which has been at work on the leukemia project for the past several months.
Dr. Thomas made this dramatic announcement, couched in cautious but hopeful terms, in a speech Tuesday before the Cooperstown Rotary Club at its regular weekly luncheon meeting at the Cooper Inn. Dr. Thomas described the treatment here of a U.S. Air Force officer’s four-year-old daughter, stricken with acute leukemia. Treatment of the youngster involved administration of 800 roentgens of whole body radiation from Bassett’s twin Cobalt 60 radiotherapy units and then the infusion of marrow taken from the bones of her twin sister.
March 25, 1959

25 YEARS AGO
As it begins the search for a new director, Bassett Hospital faces mounting financial problems like most other hospitals in the state. A variety of reasons are cited including new state mandated controls on costs.
In the past, whatever deficit Bassett has incurred has been made up by its endowment from the Clark Foundation. But that amount has gradually diminished due in part to inflation and advanced technology. The amount of endowment subsidy was 15 percent in 1967 but that has shrunk to 7 percent or about $2 million out of a $42.8 million budget.
March 28, 1984

10 YEARS AGO
Tucked between Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and columnist Maureen Dowd of the New York Times is caregiver Paul Donnelly of Phoenix Mills, one of the nation’s 100 Irish Americans, as listed in the April-May issue of “Irish America.”
Donnelly, director of the Kennedy-Willis Center on Down Syndrome at Pathfinder Village in Edmeston, is being honored for his work to provide assistance to people seeking information or counseling on Down Syndrome and related disabilities. “Being Irish has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up on Irish potato soup in an Irish community where we were proud of our heritage,” he said.
March 26, 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: 03-27-09, Bound Volumes, Columns

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:03 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Editorials

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Can CCS Board Enhance Education – And Save Money, Too?

President Obama is seeking “great opportunity in the midst of great crisis.”
Cooperstown Central School is not facing a “great crisis,” but is under some duress, given Governor Paterson’s 11 percent cut in CCS’ state aid – $600,000.
To paraphrase: A little duress creates an opportunity to take a fresh look at things.
That’s what the school board appeared to be doing. It sharpened its collective pencil, and the decision appeared to have been made – particularly with an enrollment drop from 1,500 to 1,000 in recent years – not to replace high school Principal Gary Kuch, who became Worcester Central School superintendent Jan. 1, thus saving $113,000 in salary and benefits.
The idea was to split Kuch’s duties – middle school Principal Mike Cring would become Grades 7-12 principal, and elementary Principal Theresa Gorman, K-6 principal.
One awkward outcome: Grade 6 is located in the middle/high school building, where it was shifted 20 years ago, spurred by a combination of the elementary school “bursting at the seams” – as former school board President Bob Hage recalls it – and curiousity about the possibilities of the then-novel middle-school configuration.
Under the new concept, Grade 6 would remain where it is for at least a year, while elementary-school renovations are under way, and Gorman would go back and forth between the two buildings as necessary.
•
That seemed to be the decision announced at a budget meeting Wednesday, March 11, and more than 100 parents, teachers and taxpayers turned out at the regular board meeting Wednesday, March 18, to discuss whether to move Grade 6 back to the elementary school.
Mike Cring and the middle-school teachers set the stage for the meeting, laying out the case for preserving the middle school, which has been developed along design principles associated with Outward Bound, emphasizing responsibility and hands-on learning.
Material distributed from the National Middle School Assocation declared the “belief” that middle schools – as a bridge between elementary and high schools – are “developmentally appropriate” for youngsters going through what most parents will tell you is a particularly trying transition.
Also distributed was recent research compiled by CCS board member Theresa Russo, a SUNY Oneonta education professor, which showed current thinking has it that shifting from one school is disruptive – academic achievement dips for 7-8 months after the move to middle school and high school – suggesting that one transition – from elementary to high school – is better than two – elementary to middle school, middle school to high school.
•
Reaction from the public was mixed.
“You need to slow this process down,” said parent Maureen Micek of Pierstown. Added parent Martha Heneghan, “I was not under the impression this was a done deal.”
Through questioning, Alex Thomas, the SUNY Oneonta sociologist who lives in Hartwick, established there’s no data showing whether the middle school program, as configured, is actually improving students’ performance. (Thomas’ conclusion: Until we know, don’t change it.)
No one in the audience had been around when the middle school was originally established, until Bob Hage was spotted, and he said: While then-current thinking favored the middle-school concept, finances – the overcrowded elementary school – was the impetus for the change.
At the time, he said, he thought to himself that, if the enrollment challenge shifted back – as it has today – the middle school might be divided up again. Good education, he said, “is predicated on the quality of the parents and the teachers.”
Another parent, Emily Cadwalader, then said that two of her children had gone through the Grade-5-to-Grade-6 transition. One had done it easily, one less smoothly. But, she advised the parents, a good guidance staff is in place to help the students through whatever rocky period might occur.
•
At that point, Superintendent of Schools Mary Jo McPhail spoke up, saying that moving Grade 6 back to the elementary school was not “a foregone conclusion” and, if the school board agreed, she would reopen discussion on how to split Kuch’s former responsibilities.
Later, she said moving Grade 6 and not replacing Kuch are two separate issues.
First, let it be said that any decision made should be based on maintaining or enhancing the quality of education in the CCS district. Any economizing that damages quality is shortsighted.
Second, enrollment has dipped from 1,500 to 1,000 in recent years, with no corresponding reductions in staff or expenditures. If next year’s budget does in fact go down 1.5 percent, it will be unprecedented.
But, given Theresa Russo’s synopsis of current thinking, that returning to the elementary-post elementary configuration may be better for the student, there’s a rare opportunity here to eat cake and have it too.
The middle-school teachers clearly favor the status quo, but they are just one interested party. The students have a stake, and the parents, and the taxpayers. The final decision is the school board’s, which should favor no stakeholder more than any other – except the students.
•
If it’s most logical for Cring and Gorman to split Kuch’s responsibilities evenly ... and if that means moving Grade 6 back to the elementary school ... and if, by doing so, disruptions are minimized and education helped, then that’s what should be done. If it saves money, so much the better.
Coming up with a jerry-rigged alternative might succeed in accomplishing none of the desired outcomes. The right balance may, in fact, realize “an opportunity.”

Vote For Scott Murphy; He Does Have Experience Creating Jobs

Driving from Oneonta to Liverpool the other week to watch the Oneonta-Cazenovia game, you would have passed through town after charming town, all with large, elegant 19th century homes bearing witness to former prosperity.
But prosperity was then, and it hasn’t been now for decades. The tide of agriculture and manufacturing went out, and no new tide came in to replace it.
At first, when Republican Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy surfaced as the candidates to replace U.S. Rep. Kristen Gillibrand, D-20, the GOP Assembly minority leader seemed like the obvious choice.
Instead, Murphy came out of nowhere and has made a strong case. It’s clear he’s the more likely of the two to bring fresh thinking to the redevelopment of an under-achieving Otsego-Delaware economy.
It turns out that Murphy, a Harvard grad, was one of the first entrepreneurs to develop an online fantasy football league, Small World Sports. By the time he sold it in 2001, he had a million participants.
In the last few years, operating Advantage Capital, a venture capital operation out of Glens Falls, Murphy has been seeking out promising businesses Upstate and investing in them.
One, Golden Globe Tournament Park, Fort Anne, is a Dreams Park-like venue for lacrosse players. Another, Synacor, in Buffalo, provides cross-platform solutions for businesses; it has grown from 30 employees to 200 and from $1 million to $60 million in annual sales.
Gillibrand was absent from these parts, but Murphy has pledged to visit every town in his district every year.
Fresh approaches are needed, and he seems to have them.
Local voters east and south of the Susquehanna can cast ballots 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday, March 31. Pick Murphy.

Labels: 03-27-09, Editorial, Opinion, Perspectives

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:33 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Letters to the Editor

4 More Women After Eva Coo Got ‘Chair’ In New York State

To the Editor:
I was pleased to see your coverage of the reading of the first act of Isaac Rathbone’s play about the Eva Coo murder case.
However, your assertion that Mrs. Coo was the last woman executed by electric chair in New York State is incorrect.
Executed at Sing Sing prison on June 27, 1935, Mrs. Coo was only the fourth of eight women to be electrocuted at that prison.
She was followed by Mary Frances Creighton in 1936, Helen Fowler in 1944, Martha Beck in 1951 and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953.
Mrs. Rosenberg and her husband Julius were executed under the Espionage Act for allegedly selling atomic bomb information to the Soviet Union in the famous “Atomic Spy” case.
One other woman, Mary Farmer, was executed in the electric chair at Auburn prison in 1909. Prior to 1914 New York State operated electric chairs at Sing Sing, Auburn and – I believe – Dannemora prisons.
CALVIN W. CHASE
Oneonta

Tedisco Will Support Main Over Wall Street

To the Editor:
I urge voters in the 20th Congressional District to join me in voting for Jim Tedisco for Congress in the special election on Tuesday, March 31.
I have known Jim Tedisco and worked with him for years in the state Legislature. I can’t think of a more qualified individual to be our next congressman.
Jim Tedisco will cut taxes for working families, small businesses and seniors. We can trust him to rein in federal spending and make Main Street our priority, not Wall Street.
Jim Tedisco will help our farmers, and work to get government off the backs of small business owners on Main Street so they can create new jobs. He’ll work for our volunteer firefighters, and support the rights of hunters and gunowners.
While his opponent was working for the governor of Missouri, Assemblyman Jim Tedisco was right here in New York, working for property tax relief and economic growth.
Please join me in voting for Jim Tedisco, the right choice.
JAMES L. SEWARD
State Senator, 51st District
Milford

Let’s Protect Ourselves Against Gas Drillers

To the Editor:
I was in attendance at the “How Gas Drilling Can Affect You” forum sponsored by Sustainable Otsego Sunday, March 15.
The information presented by the well-prepared citizen panel was frightening, to say the least.
The future that awaits our county when (not if) natural gas development takes hold is one of almost unimaginable change.
We are about to morph from a peaceful, rural community into an industrialized nightmare, complete with hundreds of tanker trucks, ruined drinking wells, poisoned air and miles of pipeline.
I’ve been following the growth of natural gas development in the Marcellus shale for a while now, hoping that the horror stories I was reading and hearing weren’t true. But they are true and they are headed our way.
The personal accounts of folks in Pennsylvania (where gas extraction is in full swing) broke my heart. Their wells are contaminated, their health and that of their animals is compromised and they live with a 24/7 operation of high-decibel compressors just 500 feet from their homes.
I urge you to contact your county representatives and Chairman Powers to let them know your concerns and to ask them what the county can do to mitigate the dangers that are headed our way.
Conventional thinking is that we cannot stop this development; the gas and oil lobbies are just too powerful. We must however, do everything possible to protect ourselves and we have very little time.
BETH ROSENTHAL
Roseboom

Comprehensive Plan Can Save Springfield

To the Editor:
Normally, this time of year, with spring finally here, I’m full of good thoughts and hope for the coming year.
This spring is very different. Instead I’m only feeling dread, and I’m not alone. The reason behind this feeling of gloom and doom is the possible future for my Town of Springfield.
In the last year events like Madison Square Garden proposing a rock festival, the voting down of the moratorium on Type One projects, the prospect of gas drilling, etc., leave little room for the future quality of the life we all have grown to cherish.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Recently, I attended a public hearing in Springfield that could be our town’s saving grace. A balanced committee of residents representing a cross section of interests in town were presenting their draft comprehensive plan.
It is a beautifully done document. Every page reflects the desires of our town as expressed by the results of an extensive citizens questionaire and by over two years of committee meetings.
As a comprehensive plan, it is a vision statement, a perfect way to express hope.
There will always be disagreement about such a plan, but this one is very well done and reflects the attitudes and wants of our town as a whole.
For those who worry that this plan sets new restrictive regulation: truly understand, it doesn’t.
The comprehensive plan is an important guide to how we see and want our town to be for future generations. It is not a new regulation.
Even after it is adopted by the town, none of our current laws can be changed without more discussion, more dialogue, and formal revised laws prepared by the town board. It is a wonderful thing what the town has done for its residents formulating this comprehensive plan.
So I say to you town board members: Please have the courage and the integrity to make it so.
ROSEMARIE HARRISON
East Springfield

Successful Candidate Thank Backers, Voters

To the Editor:
I am extremely grateful for the support that you gave me on Election Day.
It has been rewarding for me to walk the streets of Cooperstown and meet many of you. I greatly appreciate your input and concerns regarding our village. Thank you.
I would like to thank Grace Kull and Milo V. Stewart Jr. for their years of dedication to the board of trustees. Both Grace and Milo are honorable individuals and we are in debt to their service.
I would also like to thank Rich Abbate for his interest and willingness to step forward to help make our village better.
Instrumental in the election process for me were Bill and Carol Waller, Paul and Mary Kuhn, Frank Leo and Neil Weiller, who provided much support, hosted events, and helped raise funds.
Thank you also to those that wrote letters of support on my behalf to the paper in the days prior to the election.
I would like to congratulate Willis Monie, Jr on being elected. Willis is a dedicated, sincere, and hard working individual who will bring his expertise to the board. I look forward to working with Willis and the other trustees on the issues that face our community.
We have much work in front of us. I will dedicate myself to listening to your concerns and to working hard for our Village. Please continue to keep me up to date with your ideas and concerns at JBooan@gmail.com. Thank you.
JOE BOOAN, JR.
Village Trustee-Elect
Cooperstown

To the Editor:
I would like to thank the many people who helped me throughout my campaign.
There were so many people who provided me with support and donated a great deal of their time to help me. And I would like to thank all the people who allowed me to place my signs in their yards and stores.
I would like to thank Joe Booan and his family for all the help they gave me and for their support. Joe and I spent several nights going over the issues facing Cooperstown and countless hours letting people know about us and our vision.
I would also like to thank the present trustees, the mayor and the village employees. They made themselves available to me to help me understand the issues and provided me with a lot of information.
I also thank my wife and children for their full support. They were always there to help me and allowed me to spend a lot of my time learning about the issues and talking to the many citizens in the village of Cooperstown.
They picked up the slack when I was unable to get something done around the house and never complained despite my not being able to give them all the time they deserve. My parents along with my sister and her family were also very supportive and helpful.
Lastly, I thank the residents in the village, especially everyone who took the time to get out and vote. They provided me with many wonderful ideas and have always been respectful, even when we didn’t agree on all the issues.
WILLIS MONIE, JR.
Village Trustee-Elect
Cooperstown

Thanks For Inputs To CCS Board

To the Editor:
On behalf of the Cooperstown Central school board, I would like to express our appreciation to all parents, community members and staff who attended the March 18 board meeting.
Your input regarding the district’s feasibility study for Grade 6 and proposed budget plans is greatly valued.
It is the board’s intent to convene a committee as part of its study regarding Sixth Grade placement. The Curriculum/Instruction and Public Relations committees will meet to discuss the formation of the committee and the timeline for its work.
The group will be charged with studying the research, reviewing our local middle school data, gathering input from all constituents, and then making a recommendation to the school board as to what best suits the needs of our children and community.
It is important for the community to know that no decision has been made regarding Sixth Grade.
Again, thank you for your interest in the educational programs and initiatives at CCS.
ROSEMARY CRAIG
President
CCS School Board

Middle School Was, Is Necessary

To the Editor:
It was a great pleasure to read that some sound minds brought up the reality of middle school at the recent public hearing.
The middle school is not a building, but instead a solution to the great chasm between the old elementary, junior high and high school models.
Years ago many parents, teachers and students realized that the transition between these three institutions was extremely difficult for many students and something had to be done.
The middle school approach has eased much of the angst created by these academic movements.
Cooperstown Middle School is as much needed today as it was when it first began. The maturation, educational and social pressures of our young adults has not lessened, if anything it has probably become more stressful.
JIM RENCKENS
Town of Otsego

Labels: 03-27-09, Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Perspectives

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:57 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Locals

Friday, March 20, 2009

Stay-At-Home Mom Discovers Savings

When Luke was born a year ago, Sharon Hujik of Hartwick and her husband, Peter, agreed she would give up her sales management job with Merck to look after their son.
But that required some belt-tightening, and since then Sharon has been very adept at finding bargains, of leveraging loyalty programs, with coupons and with using online sites to maximize savings.
She estimates she’s cut her monthly grocery bills in half and has started a blog to share how she did it.
To check out the site, go here: http://goodtrueandbeautiful.blogspot.com/

MILFORD BOCES PROMOTES FITNESS AMONG STAFF

Forty staff members of the Otsego Area Occupational Center, located in Milford, finished the ONC Iditarod challenge last week. The program asked them to log 1131 minutes of excercise over the course of 7 weeks; one minute for every mile of the Iditarod. Participants celebrated with a Breakfast Bash on Wednesday March, 18. They include: Michele Baxter, crouching; second row, from left, Judyth Barnett, Cheryl Mason, Mickie Richtsmeie, Joan Martindale, Sue Morton, Caren Kelsey, Charlene Donnell, Rob Culver, Joe Booan and Jill Eichler; and in back Rob Lishansky, Eileen Hart and Chad Morey.

Thanksgiving Home Notes: Casino Night A Hit

There was much bustling about the Thanksgiving Home as preparations were made for our annual Casino Night. Black cat cookies for our Friday the 13th theme were prepared by Ruth Druse, Bobbie Mook, and Peg Hage. I hope none of them dared to cross the path of one of those cookies.
Our activities director, Susan Kenyon, had been so busy making superstitious decorations for the event, that at times, you couldn’t even see her in her office as she was buried in black cats, open umbrellas, a huge salt shaker, a large lucky penny and much more.
As it turns out, since Casino Night was held on Friday the 13th, it seemed only fitting that the theme for the event was “Very Superstitious.”
As guests entered, they each received a bag of chips and some tickets for the Chinese Auction. Art Laidlaw rang the bell and the five Black Jack Tables and the Roulette Wheel were immediately filled with gamers. Kathy Lindberg tested her skills at dealing Black Jack. Everyone liked the rule that the dealer paid double on a two-card black jack and cheered when the dealer went over twenty-one.
We were thankful that Bob Faller, Dave Allen, Brett Schilling, and our very own Gary Wadsworth were at the other Black Jack tables. Carol Affourtit and Tess Wadsworth ran the Roulette Table. Anyone who was not so lucky at cards or roulette and needed to replenish their poker chips wandered over to the Shell Game where the eyes were quicker than Deanna Gable’s hands. Darcey Schilling also made sure that everyone had enough chips by multiplying everyone’s winnings at the Horse Wheel.
Frank and Heather Miller served refreshments for the evening. The Chinese Auction was hosted by Ruth Swart, Art Laidlaw and Deanna Gable.
Friday the 13th proved to be unlucky for none and lucky for all as everyone left with a prize. We thank all the businesses who donated items for the auction
Each year, elders prepare luminary bags for the annual Relay for Life. This year is no exception as elders gathered in the Activity Room once again to place memory and honor stickers on the bags.
The strangest thing happened one day when I arrived at work. I noticed many elders and staff wearing green. At first I thought, what a coincidence everyone dressing in the same color. And then, I remembered, oh yes, St. Patrick’s.
And, what is more appropriate than wearing green and having an old fashioned corn beef and cabbage dinner… well of course, a good old Irish Blessing.

IN THE NATION: Ben Dangl, a CCS graduate and author of “The Price of Fire: Resource Warns and Society Movements in Bolivia,” had an article in the March 23 edition of The Nation entitled, “Lessons from Latin America: The regional’s social movements are a useful model for U.S. leftists want to influence Obama.” Ben’s mother is Suzanne Summers, Hartwick.

ON DEAN’S LIST: Two Cooperstown students at the University of Rochester have been named to the Dean’s List for the fall semester: sophomore Adam Richman, son of Jonathan and Jenny Richman, who is majoring in biology, and freshman Robert Bauer, son of Michael and Stephanie Bauer, who is in the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering.

WITNESS TO HISTORY: Jeff Woeppel of Cooperstown, a Bassett Healthcare vice president, was at Madison Square Garden May 13 when Syracuse upset UConn in that game that went into a record six overtimes.

SKIS IN CLASSIC: Doug Delong, the physician from Cherry Valley, raced in the 50-mile American Birkebeiner Classic in February at the former Telemark Resort in Colorado. He finished 615th out of 1015 men who participated at the pace of 6:10 per kilometer, finishing the event in five hours, 32 minutes and 52.3 seconds.

1ST GRANDCHILD: Owen Edward, son of Army Capts. Allison and Steven Flannigan, Fort Lewis, Wash., was born in recent days, the first grandchildren of Frank and Ann Capozza of Cooperstown. Owen weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.

CIA GRADUATE: Jason Donovan, son-in-law of Bill and Carol Waller, Cooperstown, graduated with a bachelor’s degree Feb. 26, from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. On April 6, he will help in managing the food service of a Poughkeepsie-area hospital, supervising 26 staffers. He is the husband of the former Kristen Waller.

FIELD STATION: Liza Hendricks, a SUNY Oneonta senior biology major from Milford was awarded SUNY’s Biological Field Station’s summer internship.

BONUS SLAM: Marion Maxson and Mary Ann Robinson won the bonus slam when five tables met at the Clark Sports Center for Sr. Citizen’s Bridge on Tuesday, March 24. First prize was won by Rosemary Sibbern, scoring 5150, second prize went to Jane Curtis, with a score of 4530, and third prize was won by Marcia Dunn, scoring 4320. Virginia Weiller won the Special Prize.

Labels: 03-27-09, Locals

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:03 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Editorials

Labels: 03-27-09, Editorial, Opinion, Perspectives

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:33 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Small Government? You Mean Big Business

ANDREW REINBACH

THE PARTIAL OBSERVER

For years, there’s been a loud voice in American politics that’s insisted that government should shrink so liberty can grow. It sounds great. But it’s what your lawyer would call a phony premise: A small government is a weak government that can’t manage a big country.
Governments – especially our government – aren’t necessarily vice-ridden parasites upon the people. Governments were created to protect people from each other. That may seem a bit dark, but ask yourself: Are there any animals more dangerous than humans?
Of course not; a tiger can kill a man with a spear, but it can’t kill five men with spears. Governments exist to protect the strong from each other, the weak from the strong, minorities from majorities – and vice-versa – and the society as a whole from outside threats.
To be able to do that, government has to be strong enough to stand up to any power or alliance of powers. It doesn’t matter what those powers are: If a government is too weak to stand up to them, it can’t do its job. It does that job through laws and regulations that set limits on what the powerful – and the powerless – can do to each other, and to society as a whole.
An example? Years ago, “Saturday Night Live” ran a skit with Dan Ackroyd as a sleazy toy manufacturer selling his latest product, Bag ‘O Glass – a bag of broken glass. No government regulator would allow that on a store shelf; but is the premise any more ludicrous than a drug company marketing a drug – with FDA approval – that includes death as a possible side-effect? Yet drugs like that are advertised on television every night, on the “limited government” premise that people can make up their own minds about things and don’t need government intruding on their lives.
The same is true about regulating other businesses. During 1999-2000, for instance, then-U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm pushed through Congress the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act: The first threw down the Depression-era walls between banks, investment banks and insurance companies; the second relieved derivatives from any regulation.
The result? Today’s economic crisis.
This crisis, in fact, gives the lie to the idea that government shouldn’t “interfere” in the marketplace because industries can regulate themselves. But as we’ve seen, given their head, many industries – especially the financial industry – will chase profits right off a cliff; in this area, government’s job is to lean against what Alan Greenspan called “irrational exuberance,” however much Wall Street may complain it’s not being allowed to create credit and finance American business.
And that would have been a good thing if Washington had done its job, because as we’ve seen more than once, Wall Street cares about its bonuses, not the rest of us, and begs for bailouts by threatening to take the economy down with it. Meanwhile, it lectures the country about personal responsibility.
Let’s face it: The people arguing for small government have taken us for a ride, and a lot of perfectly well-intentioned people bought into the patter. Why? Small government was a package deal, wrapped in lower taxes. And who doesn’t want more money in their pocket? It was brilliant tactics. The salesmen could even talk about “starving the beast” and leave the impression that when the government was finally starved into submission – by provoking a crisis – the result would be painless.
Meanwhile, lost in the sales pitch was the fact that in this country, corporations have all the rights of citizens. That’s right: When you shrink the government to maximize liberty, you make the world a better place for AIG. Surprise!
As we said earlier, government isn’t a parasite on the people – and tax money is the people’s money, spent by the people’s government, for the people’s purposes.
As Ben Franklin said, the Founders gave us a republic – if we can keep it. But to keep the republic, we need a strong government, and we need to be willing to pay for it. It’s our moral, patriotic duty.
If someone wants to call that socialism, remind them this is the government of, by, and for the people. If they still complain, remind them that the Constitution begins “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity….”
It didn’t say anything about making the world a better place for giant, irresponsible corporations.

Andrew Reinbach, a business journalist for 30 years with American Banker and other
publications, lives in Burlington Green.

Labels: 03-27-09, Columns, Guest Column, Opinion, Perspectives

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:03 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Bound Volumes

Labels: 03-27-09, Bound Volumes, Columns

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:03 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Tours of ‘Hidden Treasures’ To Open Fenimore’s Season

COOPERSTOWN

The Fenimore Art Museum is offering “Hidden Treasures” – works from its storage rooms that haven’t been seen for a while – on Saturday, April 4.
Special tours will be given throughout the day by Paul D’Ambrosio, vice president and chief curator; Eva Fognell, curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, and others.
Several notable paintings will be a part of a trivia quiz.
Four exhibits that open Wednesday, April 1, may also be viewed that day.
• American Treasures from the Permanent Collections, through May 6.
• New Additions/New Perspectives: American Indian Art, through Dec. 31.
• Our Stories Made Visible: Two Mohawk Women Artists, The 7th Contemporary Iroquois Art Biennial featuring Shelley Niro and Katsitsionni Fox, through July 5.
• American Photography: Recent Acquisitions, through Aug. 2.
Fenimore Art Museum houses American, folk, American Indian art, decorative arts and photography.
Its collections include works by Grandma Moses, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole and Benjamin West.
Highlights include William Sidney Mount’s “Eel Spearing” (1845), Cole’s “Landscape Scene from Last of the Mohicans” (1827), Stuart’s “Joseph Brant” (1786), and Asher B. Durand’s Hudson River Looking Toward the Catskills (1847).
The Fenimore House was constructed in 1932 by Stephen Clark’s brother, Edward S. Clark, on land once occupied by novelist James Fenimore Cooper’s early nineteenth-century farmhouse.
The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. seven days a week.

Labels: 03-27-09, Glimmerglass

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:03 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Obituaries

Janet L. Horne, 84; Raised In Cooperstown, Active Vounteer

Janet Louise (Atwell) Horne, 84, of Framingham, MA, widow of Dr. Herbert W. (Trader) Horne, Jr., died at home on March 19, 2009.
Born in Cooperstown, she was the daughter of Floyd and Helen (Murdock) Atwell and the sister of Robert and Sherman Atwell. A member of the Class of 1942 at Cooperstown High School, she met Trader Horne when he was a resident at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital. They married in 1944 and moved to the Boston area in 1946.
A resident of Framingham for 63 years, Jan was a homemaker, avid reader and English language usage maven, and active volunteer. She was a nurse’s aid for local Red Cross blood drives, on the board of the Framingham Branch of the Salvation Army, an officer of the Framingham Republican Town Committee, a member of the Ladies Committee of the Museum of Fine Arts, and a volunteer at the Garden in the Woods.
She is survived by 3 children: Betsy Horne of Salem, MA; Jake and Lisa Horne of Litchfield, CT; Hannah and Andy Lord of Framingham, MA; 5 grandchildren: Emily, Maggie and Amanda Horne; Kate Lord, and Sandy and Jenna Lord; and 1 great-grandchild, Evelyn Lord, as well as 3 nieces. She was predeceased in 2008 by her companion, Dr. David Paull of Tigard, OR.
Arrangements by the Eugene J. McCarthy and Sons Funeral Home in Framingham, MA. Services will be private.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be directed to Parmenter Community Health Care, 266 Cochituate Road, Wayland, MA 01778; the Salvation Army, 35 Concord Street, Framingham, MA 01702; or the MFA Associates, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

Kenneth ‘Johnny’ Gabrosek, 88; Lifelong Farmer And Outdoorsman

OAKSVILLE – Kenneth (Johnny) Joseph Gabrosek of Hoke Road in Oaksville, died Monday morning, March 23, 2009, at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown. A lifelong dairy farmer and outdoorsman, he was 88.
Of Austrian and Yugoslavian descent, Johnny - as he was known by his family and friends - was born Nov. 22, 1920 in the family homestead on lower Bedbug Hill Road in Oaksville. One of nine children, he was a son of Jacob and Louise (Kostelic) Gabrosek.
On July 15, 1968 he married Albeama E. McLean in St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown. “Beamie”, as she was known by her family and friends, died April 19, 2004.
A life long area resident, Johnny attended local schools and, with his family, owned and operated their dairy farm in Oaksville. Throughout his life he loved the outdoors, much preferring to be out-of-doors rather than inside. He especially enjoyed hunting, trapping and fishing. Raised in the Catholic faith, he was a communicant of St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church.
Johnny is survived by one sister, Miss Anna Gabrosek of Oaksville; one step son and daughter-in-law, Ronald and Carol McLean of Hartwick; two step grandsons, Eddie and Chuckie McLean; four step great granddaughters, Jessica, Brenda, Amanda and Shelby; and many nieces and nephews.
In addition to his wife, he was predeceased by his four brothers, Felix Gabrosek who died as a young child, Jacob Alosius Gabrosek, who died Jan. 6, 1946, Roman Gabrosek, who died Nov. 15, 1988, and Honorius Martin Gabrosek, who died Nov. 16, 1989; and three sisters, Mary Gabrosek who died as a young child, Mrs. Lucy Madison, and Mrs. Jennie Lesaevec.
A Mass of Christian Burial was offered at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church in Cooperstown, with Fr. John P. Rosson, pastor, presiding.
The Service of Committal and Burial followed in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Index.
There were no calling hours.
In lieu of 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 to Friends of Bassett, 1 Atwell Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326.
Funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

Labels: 03-27-09, Obituaries

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:03 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Letters to the Editor

Labels: 03-27-09, Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Perspectives

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:57 PM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Swindler Was Bernie Madoff Of Long Ago

OLD TIME OTSEGO

HUGH MacDOUGALL

It was, said an 1863 Rochester newspaper, “one of the most stupendous frauds of the day ... It seems incredible that a man could carry on such a scheme over a period of nearly two years, without exposure and detection.”
The victim was Aristarchus Champion of Rochester; the swindler was Luther Calvin Saxton of Cooperstown. Most of this material comes from newspapers of the period.
Born in Massachusetts in 1806, Luther Calvin Saxton graduated from Hamilton College in 1825, and moved to Cooperstown, where he was became superintendent of the new Cooperstown Sunday school. He was able, ambitious and versatile.
In 1826-27 is published “Ten New Lessons for the Piano Forte,” and at least eight pieces of popular sheet music (25 cents each), all engraved by Cooperstown’s Elisha C. Tracy (1778-1827).
About 1828 Saxton started a “select school” on Elm Street, which operated for some years, under various teachers, as the Otsego Academy.
He became a lawyer and was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1832, and promoted to counselor in 1835.
By the 1840s he was arguing important cases, shuttling between Otsego County and a flourishing practice in New York City. He entered politics, and in 1832 was a delegate to the Otsego County Anti-Masonic Convention.
In December 1827 Saxton was married at the Presbyterian Church to Lucy Crafts Cook (1790-1873), a much older Cooperstown widow with three children. They had two sons: William Wirt Saxton (1828-1883) – named for the Anti-Masonic leader – was born in Cooperstown; Daniel Webster Saxton (1832-1870) was born in Cherry Valley, where the Saxtons moved about 1830. But by 1850, the family was back to Cooperstown.
In 1851, Saxton tried his hand at history. His two-volume, 1,000 page “The Fall of Poland,” on which he had worked for years, was published by Charles Scribner’s of New York. It went through three editions, was widely advertised and quoted, and a reprint appeared only last year.
In its preface, dated Cooperstown, Saxton promised to provide “a general view of all the learning necessary for the scholar, statesman, or traveller, in relation to that unfortunate country.”
By 1860, however, it seems that Luther Calvin Saxton’s life was falling apart. He was now living alone in Cooperstown’s Keyes Hotel; his grown sons had left town, and his wife was boarding in the home of James Cockett, a local bookseller.
One account says he was deeply in debt. And so, it seems, he launched his great scheme to get rich.
Early in 1861 Saxton appeared in Rochester, with only the clothes on his back, and struck up an acquaintance with Aristarchus Champion (1784-1871), a prominent and wealthy Rochester philanthropist, then aged almost 80.
After getting Champion to pay his hotel bills, Saxton explained his grandiose schemes. His “Union Book Company,” with a capital of $3 million, mostly in England, would publish over 5,000 volumes of historical works written by “distinguished European and American authors” and edited by himself. Champion forked over $100,000, in bonds and mortgages, in return for “stock” in this company.
Presumably as evidence of this scheme, Saxton produced Volume I, No. 1, of “The Union Magazine” (the only issue ever published) to promote these books. He said he had wealthy supporters, such as the Astor family in New York.
Saxton then told Champion about “The International Manufacturing Company,” with a capital of $100 million, plus an International Bank with a capital of $1 billion (to be raised to two billion!!!).
The manufacturing company alone would immediately realize an annual profit of 13 percent. All that was needed, Saxton said, was $50,000, to clear up a complicated $5 million real estate deal in New Jersey. Again, Champion came up with the cash.
Saxton then went off to Europe (presumably on Champion’s money), and returned with glowing promises for the new firm and what he said was a secret message from French Emperor Napoleon III to President Lincoln.
The Russian Government had agreed to supply Union Book Company books throughout the Russian Empire, and the capital of that company could be raised to $13,000,000 – with Champion as its new President.
Eventually Aristarchus Champion became suspicious, and when he learned that the Astors had never heard of Saxton, he called in his lawyers. Luther Calvin Saxton was arrested in May 1863, jailed in lieu of bail, and tried for fraud.
Despite a vigorous defense by Joseph Dottin Husbands (a lawyer originally from Cooperstown), he was convicted and in January 1864 sentenced to three years hard labor in Auburn State Prison. Perhaps $25,000 of the $150,000 taken from Champion was recovered.
Aside from a few rumors, that was the last of Saxton. He got one moment of probably posthumous fame when he was included in “Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography” (6 volumes, 1887-89), with the classification of “imposter.”
His wife lived on in Cooperstown until her death in 1873.
As for Aristarchus Champion, the gullible man from Rochester, he died there at the age of 90 – still rich enough to leave an estate estimated at $300,000.

Hugh MacDougall is Cooperstown village historian and a founder of the scholarly James Fenimore Cooper Society

Labels: 03-27-09, Columns, Glimmerglass, Hugh MacDougall, Old Time Otsego

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:13 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

That Thing In Your Eye: A ‘Floater’?

HEALTHY LIVING

FRED CICETTI

Q I’ve been noticing this thing in my eye. At first I thought it was an eyelash. Then I realized the thing was actually in my eye. One of my friends told me it’s a “floater,” and not to worry. What exactly is a “floater” and should I see a doctor?
•
To allay any fears you may have, I should tell you that floaters are usually nothing to worry about. I have them myself. More than 7 in 10 people experience floaters. Now for some biology.
The lens in the front of your eye focuses light on the retina in the back of your eye. The lens is like the one in a camera, and the retina is like film. The space between the lens and retina is filled with the “vitreous,” a clear gel that helps to maintain the shape of the eye.
Floaters occur when the vitreous slowly shrinks over time. As the vitreous changes, it becomes stringy, and the strands can cast shadows on the retina. These strands are the floaters. They can look like specks, filaments, rings, dots, cobwebs or other shapes. They move as your eyes move and seem to dart away when you try to look at them directly.
In most cases, floaters are just annoying. When you discover them, they are very distracting. But, in time, they usually settle below the line of sight. Most people who have visible floaters gradually develop the ability to make them “disappear” by ignoring them.
When people reach middle age, the vitreous gel may pull away from the retina, causing “posterior vitreous detachment.” That’s a common cause.
These vitreous detachments are often accompanied by light flashes. The flashes can be a warning sign of a detached retina. Flashes are also caused by head trauma that make you “see stars.” Sometimes light flashes appear to be little lightning bolts or waves. This type of flash is usually caused by a blood-vessel spasm in the brain, which is called a migraine.
If your floaters are just bothersome, eye doctors will tell you to ignore them. In rare cases, a bunch of floaters can hamper sight. Then a “vitrectomy” may be necessary, but this is a risky procedure most eye surgeons won’t recommend.

Labels: 03-27-09, Columns, Fred Cicetti, Glimmerglass, Healthy Living

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:12 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Requiem

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

It is official: Leatherstocking Theatre Company is no more. It was legally dissolved this past month.
There are two very important points that must be made.
A) The cause of its dissolution was not money. Strange, especially in these days of financial desperation worldwide, but true. The fact of the matter is that the entire Summer 2009 Season had been paid for at the time of the cancellation of two thirds of its offerings last August. Stranger still, perhaps, is the report that there was money in the bank after the company closed its doors.
B) The decision to abort the 2009 season, thus ushering in its eventual collapse, was made by the board of directors, without consultation with myself, the artistic director.
The cause of the company’s demise, as with that of a human being, does not need to be the ultimate focus upon it, no matter how untimely, unjust, or avoidable. What is done is done.
Of far greater value is to consider Leatherstocking Theatre Company’s remarkable history and contribution to the community.
When Carolyn and George Goetz of Piscatawy, N.J., and Springfield first called together potential supporters at their house overlooking Otsego Lake in March 1991, an anonymous $100 was given as a seed to get the enterprise under way. It wasn’t much, admittedly, but it did allow the company to open a bank account.
A letter inviting subscriptions and support went out immediately thereafter. Response was enthusiastic and generous (checking the post office box each day was like finding presents under the tree on Christmas morning), so much so that there was enough money to produce “Social Security” in June of that year.
Four productions followed through Labor Day.
All actors were paid, including some 10 members of Actors’ Equity. In fact, throughout its life of 18 years, every single performer was remunerated for his or her services. That seed of $100 could not have grown without the generous watering of the people of our region.
Leatherstocking Theatre Company’s very first offering, in a pre-season invitational evening in May 1991, was the world premiere of a hitherto unknown Cole Porter song, “Who, But You?” The company started at the top and stayed there.
How many theater companies can boast of hosting playwrights A.R. Gurney, Jerome Choderov, Terrence McNally, Howard Ginsburg, and Frank and Malachy McCourt? The latter two not only visited the company, but performed their hilarious and touching “A Couple of Blaggards” (much of which later found its way into “Angela’s Ashes”) in LTC’s third season.
And let’s not forget that actor Cliff Robertson hosted a fund-raising evening at Hyde Hall one pleasant summer evening.
People are still talking about the company’s production of “Inherit the Wind” at the Cooperstown courthouse in its second season, with Malachy McCourt’s unforgettable, towering portrayal of Matthew Brady/William Jennings Bryan.
It was Leatherstocking Theatre Company that first brought an original script, “Jefferson & Adams,” to life, the initial step towards its eventual nomination for an Emmy in the form of a television production aired on PBS on July 4, 2005.
The company was blessed to be able to perform in a wide array of venues throughout the county: the Milford Central School Auditorium, the Cooperstown Theatre Festival, Hyde Hall, the Upper Susquehanna Cultural Center, TJ’s, the Hoffman Bistro, the Louis C. Jones Center at The Farmers’ Museum.
And it was most especially blessed by hundreds – thousands – of patrons, benefactors and friends. There is much to be thankful for.
It was too short a life, perhaps, but it was a good one.

Sam Goodyear, long active in The Leatherstocking Theater Company, writes a weekly column on arts in the Otsego County area.

Labels: 03-27-09, Art Beat, Columns, Glimmerglass, Sam Goodyear

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:10 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Lady of the Tower

Famed Photographer Departs Beloved ‘Shabby Old House’ For Comforts Of Oneonta Highrise

By LAURA COX

‘I did it my way.”
That is the way photographer Lady Ostapeck, famed from Fly Creek to Finland, is happy to have lived her life, the past 50 years of which she has spent in a Fly Creek Valley farmhouse and, since December, at Oneonta’s Nader Towers.
Facing failing eyesight from macular degeneration and having given up her car, friends became concerned about Lady Ostapeck being snowed in and about her ability to stay warm enough, and so she decided to make the move.
“I miss my shabby, old farm house and my feral cat, Meow,” said Lady Ostapeck in an interview at her apartment the other day. “But it is so warm here, I can walk around barefoot, and back there I had all these heavy winter sweaters I had to wear.”
Her small efficiency apartment is decorated with some of her favorite pieces of art and collectibles, including a large portrait she took of her late son, Bruce, when she was first discovering her photographic talent.
A screen separates the bed from the rest of the room. An old typewriter on the desk is used to hold envelopes and letters she intends to write. Another desk holds a computer where she plays spider solitaire – she states she is addicted to it, but doesn’t know how to do anything else on the computer.
The neighbors are very private, and she has yet to make many new friends, but the programs planned for residents include movies, cards and bingo – something she says she is starting to enjoy.

Among her favorite things about her new living quarters are its proximity to the Salvation Army Thrift Store – she can walk there on a nice day – the very reasonable rent and not having to pay for her trash to be taken away – she happily showed off the garbage chute.
At 91, as of Feb. 22, she has lived a life full of unusual stories and exciting adventures, starting as a child born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a Finnish family. Lady’s mother passed away when she was just five days old and her father left them, so she went to live with her aunt in Brooklyn, Conn.
Her aunt was killed by a neighbor in a famous mass-murder rampage in that northeastern Connecticut town, and Lady was adopted by another Finnish family.
As a photographer, Lady gained renown for transforming her subjects from “ordinary” and “modern” people to historical figures – kings, queens and nobles, Indian braves and princesses – with props that filled her Greek revival cottage from floor to ceiling. (Her favorite historical figure: Eleanor of Aquitaine, who went through several husbands and played a role in governing several kingdoms.)
At her Fly Creek studio, a sitting could take all day as she explored her subjects’ personalities.
While her career as a photographer came to a true start late in life, her calling came in the crib.
“Psychologists say that your first memory affects your life, my first memory is from the crib,” Lady Ostapeck: “I was waking from a nap and I saw a picture I had never seen before, it had a gold frame and was of a country scene.
“My uncle from New York was there visiting and I wouldn’t look at him because I was focused on this picture.”
Lady studied dressmaking to start off, learning about all the fashions from “Adam and Eve on,” but found a talent for negative retouching after responding to an advertisement in the New York Times looking for people who could sketch well. She was described as a retoucher with soul.
After moving to Fly Creek in 1960 and feeling really down having no work, Lady Ostapeck was drawn to buy a beautiful old Corona 4 by 5 camera she saw at a Salvation Army store in Utica. Her background as a retoucher helped her to know the trade and how to make people beautiful in her pictures.
“The camera shows all of our defects, that the human eye doesn’t notice,” said Lady Ostapeck, “this was a magic camera which makes everyone so beautiful and elegant.”
Her magic camera, and those which she has since purchased provided her with a career which may not have brought her much money, but certainly brought her joy and accomplishment. A portrait by Lady Ostapeck was amongst the must-haves of locals and her work is well known in her ancestral land of Finland.
She stayed true to form in her art, having never switched to digital photography saying “digital is a dirty word.” Lady Ostapeck felt that making a portrait was like birthing a baby and she didn’t even want to know anything about the digital side of things.
Though she is unable to do portraits anymore because she cannot see clearly enough to focus the camera, her work is still being shown at the Photocenter in Utica, by owner Nick Argyros, who sees to many of Lady Ostapeck’s affairs.
A gallery titled “Somewhere in Time: Victorian Portraitist Lady Ostapeck” is planned for Nov. 6 through Dec. 20 of this year in Utica; the reception is Nov. 2.

Labels: 03-27-09, Glimmerglass

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:59 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Front Page Images

Labels: 03-27-09, Front Page, Images

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

Bookmark this post with:

Mayor To Retire In ’10, Picks Katz As Successor

Republican Wife Of GOP
Chairman Backs Democrat

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

It’s still a year out, but Carol Bateman Waller, mayor of Cooperstown since 2002, has decided not to run for a fifth term when her current term expires next March.
And, a Republican herself and wife of the village Republican chairman, she is endorsing her deputy mayor, Democrat Jeff Katz, to replace her at the village’s helm.
“He’s worked very hard. He loves this village,” she said in an interview Wednesday, March 25. “It’s what’s best for Cooperstown, and that’s all that matters really.”
For his part, Katz said, “I appreciate that – her faith in me and her trust in me. I’ve put in a lot of hard years and taken on controversial issues. If the voters so choose, I would be honored to be mayor of Cooperstown.”
Waller’s announcement came a week after the Republican village trustee candidates outpaced the Democrats by a wide margin in the annual village elections.
Joseph Booan Jr. led the ticket with 341 votes, followed by GOP running mate Willis Monie Jr. with 276.
Democrat Richard Abbate, a Katz protege, garnered 177 votes, and incumbent Milo V. Stewart Jr., 137.
When he sought a second three-year term as trustee – in 2008 – Katz ran behind Republican Neil Weiller, 313 to 283, and only 24 votes ahead of Republican Doug Walker, a newcomer to politics.
That election came soon after a peak in the controversy over whether to institute paid parking downtown, where Katz was identified as a paid parking advocate.
After the election, Waller named Katz as her deputy mayor, replacing Republican Paul Kuhn, who had retired from the board.
Asked about Waller’s intention, Kuhn said she’s been talking up the idea for some time, and said he wasn’t aware of anyone else interested in leading village government.
“I don’t think anybody wants it,” he said of the mayor’s position. “It’s a thankless job, let’s face it.”
Kuhn said he endorsed Katz and his runningmate, Jim Vrooman, in 2008, and would endorse the deputy mayor “in a split second and work for him” if he ran for the top office.
Party politics, he continued, matters little in small towns, and he recalled that, for years, leaders of both parties in Cooperstown would get together and craft a “union ticket” that both would then endorse.
Ironically, it was Waller’s husband, Bill, who as village GOP chair revived the idea of contested races, saying voters deserve a choice.
If he continues in that vein, Bill Waller could be crafting the campaign for a Republican mayoral candidate at the time his wife is working for the Democratic standardbearer.
“I may have to move back to Main Street,” joked the mayor. She and her husband moved a couple of years ago from the vicinity of their store, Mohican Flowers, to Beaver Street.
Carol Waller, daughter of the late Charles Bateman, an influential county representative, was in the third year of her third three-year term as village trustee when then-mayor Wendell Tripp decided to step aside. She ran for the two-year post in 2002 and was elected again in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
Because of the sometimes bitter divide over paid parking, she ran last year because “I felt I needed to do it one more time.”
Katz, who was raised in New York City and had a career as a floor trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, retired to Cooperstown earlier this decade with his wife Karen and three young sons. A baseball enthusiast, he researched and published “The Kansas City A’s & the Wrong Half of the Yankees.”

Labels: 03-27-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:31 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Crosby, Stills, Nash Plan To Perform At Doubleday

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

‘It seems likely that the drugs, booze, and groupies at the backstage parties have been replaced with Ensure, Viagra, and grandmothers. Not even rock stars are immune to the unstoppable creeping of time – and hairlines,” The Tech, MIT’s student newspaper, concluded when Crosby, Stills and Nash performed in Boston in 2001.
What may seem negatives to a college-age reviewer may be just the thing for headliners who perform in Doubleday Field, where the trio’s website, crosbystillsnash.com, says the 1960s icons will be performing Friday, June 12.
“All the shows we’ve done have appealed to a wide range of age groups,” said Deputy Mayor Jeff Katz after news of the website listing surfaced. Plus, “classic rock stars do tend to have a built-in following. Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, have a pretty devoted tour fol-
lowing.”
The two Doubleday Field concerts of 2006 – Paul Simon on the Fourth of July Weekend and Bob Dylan on Labor Day Weekend – followed a successful formula that, after a one-year hiatus, is being tried again.
The 2006 concerts netted the village a guaranteed $20,000 each, Katz said. And that didn’t include $2 for every ticket sold locally (at the time, through the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce), and money the fire department generated by running the concessions.
Those concerts were organized by Jam Productions out of Chicago. This one’s promoter is Stuart Green, a co-owner of Magic City Music Hall in Johnson City, near Binghamton.
So Katz said this summer’s deal doesn’t necessarily have to conform to the earlier ones: “What we’ve always said is: Propose a business deal to us.”
The recent history of bringing headliners to Doubleday Field goes back to 2004, when Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan did a joint concert that was deemed a big success. In 2004, Ed Tripp of Cooperstown spearheaded a concert by the Beach Boys, which was deemed less of a success.
Katz and Mayor Carol B. Waller said, even though the band is listing Cooperstown on its itinerary, nothing is certain since a contract has not yet been agreed upon. The village trustees intended to meet Friday, March 27, to hash out the details.

Labels: 03-27-09, Concerts, Doubleday Field, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:27 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

CCS Principals, McPhail Confer On How To Divide Kuch’s Duties

COOPERSTOWN

It’s back to the drawing board, at least partly.
CCS Superintendent of Schools Mary Jo McPhail planned to meet Thursday, March 26, with her principals to revisit how to divide up the duties of former high school principal Gary Kuch among remaining administrators.
Two weeks ago, the CCS board announced middle school Principal Mike Cring would become Grade 7-12 principal, and elementary Principal Theresa Gorman would become K-6 principal. Under that plan, Gorman would go back and forth as necessary between the elementary school on Walnut Street and the high school on Linden Avenue, where Grade 6 is located.
McPhail emphasized that there are two separate issues here.
One, how to divide up Kuch’s responsibilities, which is driven by the opportunity to save money in the face of a $600,000 cut in state aid, the result of Governor Paterson’s need to close a state budget gap that has grown from $14 billion to $16 billion in recent days.
Two, whether to move Grade 6 back to the elementary school. That question was one of the Curriculum Committee’s objectives for the year, approved last September, well before the scope of the state aid cuts became clear.
On Wednesday, March 18, before an audience of more than 100 teachers, parents and taxpayers, some voicing support for the elementary-middle school-high school structure as it now exists, the superintendent said “it is not a foregone conclusion” that Grade 6 will be moved, and she pledged to reopen the matter.
McPhail didn’t want to discuss what she would recommend when she, Cring, Gorman and interim high school Principal Amy Kukenberger met Thursday afternoon, but said “the only piece that is being revisited is the administrative assignment.” The Grade 6 question is yet to be addressed.
In the report on the March 18 meeting, a quote misattributed to Elizabeth Redd, a neurologist, should have been attributed to parent Maureen Micek, a pediatrician. Micek asked that the school board not rush any decision.

Labels: 03-27-09, CCS, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:23 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Cooperstown and Around

Openings Herald Arrival of Spring

It must be spring: Two local stalwarts of the tourism trade – NYSHA’s museums and the Fly Creek Cider Mill – are opening.
The Fenimore and Farmers’ museums open Wednesday, April 1. The first features “Hidden Treasures” from its archives; the latter, self-guided visits of offerings. (See Page 9)
Opening Friday, April 3, the cider mill will feature curd tastings 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Also, Glimmerglass Opera tickets go on sale Monday, March 30.

SPRING FLOWERS: Enjoy “Build-A-Bouquet Saturday,” March 28, where flowers will be available from establishments throughout the downtown, a promotion of the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce.

RESERVATIONS DUE: For tickets to the Otsego County Chamber’s Celebration of Business – former Judge Robert Harlem and The Otesaga will be honored Friday, April 3, at SUNY Oneonta – call 432-4500, extension 201.

SP-O-O-O-KY: Cooperstown Candlelight Ghost Tours begins its fifth season at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, departing Pioneer Park. Reservations, 547-8070.

BEACH FAIR: The Friends of Glimmerglass State Park are seeking antique, crafts and food vendors for its beachfront “Glimmerglass Marketplace” fundraiser 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, May 9. E-mail nboshart@yahoo.com

SPRING GALA: Cherry Valley Artworks Art Show & Auction is 7 p.m. Saturday, April 4. $10 for hor d’oeuvres, desserts. Cash bar.

Labels: 03-27-09, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:18 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with: