|
|
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
|
Saturday, May 23, 2009
|
Baseball Dip Worries MLB, WSJ Reports
Following the lowest-rated World Series in history, Major League Baseball is worried by a 4 percent dip in attendance and a 9 percent dip in Fox Saturday Baseball, the sport’s game of the week, the Wall Street Journal reports.
More interest in the NBA and NHL playoffs are blamed, but “additional revelations of steroid use certainly haven’t helped,” the newspaper said.
$400,000 ANSWER: The village trustees’ first Long Range Planning Committee meeting, where they are expecting an explanation of where $400,000 came from in the 11th hour of budget deliberations, has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 11, at 22 Main.
HORSE SHOW: Pre-registration is next Wednesday, June 3, for The Farmers’ Museum 13th Annual Benefit Horse Show, to be held the following Sunday at the River Road Showgrounds on Route 33 south of the village. Information, call 607) 547-1452.
MUSIC MINUTES: Roberta Rowland-Raybold, Christ Episcopal Church organist and choirmaster, is planning “Music Minutes” at 12 noon Saturdays until Labor Day.
MORE FIDDLIN’: The Middlefield Historical Association is planning a fiddlers school again this summer, beginning June 22. Interested? Call Katie Boardman at (607) 547-9300.Labels: 05-29-09, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page |
posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:28 PM   |
|
|
|
|
4 New Stores Open, And None Of Them Sells Baseball Cards
|
|
By LAURA COX
COOPERSTOWN
In the past couple of weeks, four new shops have opened downtown.
And, heavens, none of them sell baseball memorabilia.
“I want to help make Cooperstown a destination not all about baseball, but where everyone in the family can have a good time,” said Renee LaFond, who has opened a “tweens” boutique, Blue Sky, at 46 Pioneer St.
Jillian Bos opened an upscale-apparel consignment shop, Frugal Fashionista, at 209 Main St., Brenda Berstler found her already successful Internet business – Savor NY – a home at 171 Main St. And last but not least, Rich Busse opened the doors to his new ladies’ accessories and gift shop, Silver Fox, across Pioneer Street from his Christmas Store.
This may seem an unusual time to open a store, all acknowledged, but it was a risk they were willing to take.
Bos has a background in fashion and is excited to open a store where anyone can afford to buy gently worn designer clothing – sometime never worn, tags still intact – or to carry a genuine Coach pocketbook.
“If not now, when?”
Since May 7, she has already sold over 700 items and is preparing for her next round of buying. Her customers? The everyday working folks, the curious and wealthy, anyone who wants to find something beautiful at an equally beautiful cost.
“It’s a community-minded store and it’s priced that way,” said Bos, who is being assisted by Cindy Seward.
LaFond, saw a need for a niche market store aimed at the tweens who have grown out of the toys and clothing in her Little Bo’tique but are still too young for other boutiques.
The store which unofficially opened on Memorial Day includes clothing, jewelry, bags, decorative items, the “fun and edgy” types of things girls age 8 and up enjoy.
“Kids of this age are starting to walk around without their parents. I want this to be a place where they can come and find things they like and can afford to buy with their own babysitting money or allowance without asking their parents first,” said LaFond.
She plans to stay open at least 10 months of the year and offer workshops for girls on topics like beading, something to keep people coming in the winter months. Bos would like to stay open year ’round.
Rich Busse, also spoke about building up retail on Pioneer Street and making it a street to shop, instead of just pass by. His new shop, Silver Fox, opened on May 15 and offers women’s jewelry, Stephanie Dawn handbags, humorous cards and Root candles.
A factor in opening another business – he runs Pioneer Patio, All-American Café and Christmas Around The Corner – was to provide real-life business experience for his daughters Carly and, more particularly, Kristen, an accounting major SUNY Albany.Labels: 05-29-09, Front Page |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:26 PM |
|
|
|
|
Assisted Living OK In Otsego
|
|
Town’s Zoning Revisions Underscore New Thinking About Needs Of Retirees
By JIM KEVLIN
FLY CREEK
The assisted-living concept was pioneered in the 1960s in Newtown Square, west of Philadelphia.
The idea: You can retire, move in to a condo or garden apartment in a leafy community, and live as you will.
If you get sick, there’s an affiliated hospital that will care for you. Out of danger, you may spend a week or two in the nursing home right at the community, an easy visit for spouse and friends.
Recovered, you move back into your living quarters. You can cook your own food, or dine in a central dining hall.
The financing is settled upfront, so you don’t have to worry about those particularly treacherous last months of life.
The idea spread across the country in the 40 years
since, to every nook and cranny, except the one we
happen to live in.
There’s no assisted-living facility in northern Otsego County – although Robynwood, Hampshire House and, more recently, the Plains at Parish Homestead have been developed in Oneonta.
Everywhere you look, though, there are indications that may change.
Most concretely, the Town of Otsego has revised its zoning to allow a substantial adult-housing project, subject to the same regulation as, say, that girls-softball tournament park that had been proposed on Route 205.
“While the restrictions are substantial, the code at least does allow someone to come in with a potential project in any zone for some type of adult housing,” said Bill Michaels, the town board member who has been championing a flexible approach since 2006.
Adult housing has been allowed in commercial zones, he explained, but the town’s commercial zones are too small to accommodate any.
At the town board’s further direction, the Planning Board is exploring the concept of planned-unit development, which might be adaptable for an assisted-living community, Michaels said.
A more sophisticated approach to retirement housing regularly surfaces in discussions in Cooperstown.
Steve Mahlum, the former town board member and contractor, explored a project at one time. Richard Blabey, a village Planning Board member, has suggested an assisted-living community, fully taxable, as economic development.
Barbara Ann Heegan had been an advocate while volunteer coordinator at Bassett Healthcare, and her interest caused her to join the Plains at Parish organization.
Karen Sullivan, senior planner in the Otsego County Planning Department, pointed out that in the two instances that assisted-living projects are coming to fruition, it was because of local advocacy.
In Oneonta, Gordon B. Roberts, the now-retired insurance man, had been lobbying for an assisted-living development since 1972. He helped Plains at Parish wend its way through local regulations.
In Unadilla, the village board promoted the idea, and the 23-unit Clifton Street project is due to break ground in a few weeks.
Sullivan has been spearheading her Planning Department’s housing study – it is due for completion in early July – and has found the lack of alternatives is keeping elderly people in their homes longer than they can maintain them.
Patrick Tobin is president of Living Communities, which manages Plains at Parish, and vice president of Christa Development of Rochester, which built it.
In an interview, he said “we looked at Cooperstown as an opportunity,” visiting Woodside Hall and examining land on the west side of Otsego Lake.
For now, he said, “we don’t want to compete with our own community,” as Plains at Parish is still in development.
However, he praised Gordon Roberts’ role in making the Oneonta project happen, and said he would respond positively to a similar approach from northern Otsego County.
Essential to any project, he said, would be municipal water and sewerage, which would suggest that, if a development located in the Town of Otsego, it would require collaboration with the Village of Cooperstown.
Willing muncipalities, Tobin said, “would certainly move us more quickly toward that day.”Labels: 05-29-09, Front Page |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:24 PM |
|
|
|
|
GRAVESIDE SERVICES
|
|
Douglas C. Clinton
SPRINGIFELD – A graveside service for Douglas C. Clinton, age 81, who died February 22, 2009, will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 30, 2009 in Fly Creek Valley Cemetery.
Arrangements are with the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.
Charles F. Fritts
COOPERSTOWN – A graveside service of committal and burial for Charles F. Fritts, age 72, who died December 21, 2008, will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 29, 2009 in Hartwick Seminary Cemetery with the Rev. Douglas Deer, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Cooperstown, officiating. Military honors will be accorded by the New York State Military Forces Honor Guard.
Immediately following the service, Charles’ family and friends (especially the children) are invited to join together for a time of refreshment and fellowship at Fortin Park, which is located in the East End of Oneonta in Emmons, at the site of the former F&F Airport.
Arrangements are with the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.Labels: 05-29-09, Obituaries |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:13 PM |
|
|
|
|
WEEKEND’S BEST BETS
|
|
RELAY FOR LIFE – 6 p.m. Friday May 29, Westville Airport. To benefit the American Cancer Society. Opening Ceremony 6 p.m., Locks of Love haircutting 7 p.m., Fight Back Ceremony 8 p.m., Luminaria Ceremony 8:30 p.m. Closing Ceremony 7:30 a.m. Saturday. The public is encouraged to attend, support the many fundraisers and raffles, and partake in the food offerings. Information, 315-858-1451 or 563-9634.
OUTDOOR MOVIE – 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 29, Glimmerglass State Park. “The Wild.” West Shelter, refreshments available, bring a blanket or folding chairs. Donations appreciated. Information, 547-8662.
PLANT ABOUND – 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, May 30, Cornell Cooperative Extension Office, 123 Lake St., Cooperstown. A selection of perennials, annuals, houseplants, herbs and vegetables. Brooks Barbecue from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sales benefit the Master Gardeners. Info, 547-2536 x 228.
FARMERS’ MARKET – 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, May 30, Cooperstown behind Key Bank. Fresh veggies, locally produced cheeses, hand made crafts, organically raised meats, homemade baked goods and more. Live music. Information, 547-6195.
BIG RIG EVENT – 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday May 31, Fly Creek Cider Mill. Trucks, equipment, emergency vehicles and heavy machinery for kids to explore and play on for the day. A benefit for The Brookwood School. Info, 800-505-6455.
CHORAL EVENSONG – 5 p.m. Sunday, May 31, Christ Episcopal Church, 46 River St., Cooperstown. Pentacost will be observed with a special Choral Evensong including hymns, anthems, sung Psalm and responses. All welcome. Information, 547-9555.Labels: 05-29-09, Glimmerglass, Weekend's Best Bets |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:07 PM |
|
|
|
|
The Otesaga’s New Top Chef: ‘Make It Simple, But Elegant’
|
|
By JIM KEVLIN
COOPERSTOWN
 As Michael Gregory tells it, “I didn’t know five stars from four diamonds” when he took a job at the renown Williamsburg Inn.
By the end of the first day on the job in 1986, he was ready to quit. But his grandmother wouldn’t let him.
He went back for a second day, and that decision set a career in motion that, Monday, May 18, found Michael Gregory elevated to executive chef at the renown Otesaga.
Back then at Colonial Williamsburg’s flagship hotel, he soon found himself in a three-year apprenticeship program, his week divided between working and training.
He broke away for a year, running his own restaurant, The Red Baron, in his native Hampton Roads, Va., but was soon back at Williamsburg and never looked back.
He was soon garde manger – literally “keeper of the food,” or pantry supervisor – responsible for cold food at an establishment that prides itself on offering “the finest regional cuisine in a classic, luxurious ambience.”
Many are called but few are chosen.
Every spring, Aerospace Industries Association’s Board of Governors – the industry association represents Lockheed Martin, United Technologies, General Dynamics, you name it – convenes its membership meeting at The Williamsburg Inn, a big deal.
The late William Swann, the inn’s fabled chef, thought his protege was ready.
“He left me on my own,” Gregory recalled.
When the multi-day conference ended, Swann told him, “You can make it in this business – if you work hard.”
Soon, he was executive sous chef – the chef’s chief deputy – at The Lodge, Williamsburg’s conference center, then executive bakery chef. He stayed with the organization for a decade.
In 1997-2001, he was executive chef for Omni Properties in Newport News, then spent three years at The Cloisters in Sea Island, Georgia, and since 2004 had been executive chef at The Ocean Edge Resort & Golf Club on Cape Cod.
He has three college-age daughters, Michelle, 22, at Virginia Tech, Leah, 20, at Randolph Macon. Nikki, 18, intends to follow in her father’s footsteps and will be following a culinary arts curriculum in Washington, D.C., this fall.
When the search got under way for an executive chef here, General Manager John D. Irvin was impressed by how Michael Gregory’s experience paralleled what The Otesaga does.
For instance, Gregory was experienced in American Plan hotels, where meals are included with lodging. The Williamsburg Inn and The Otesaga are both Historic Hotels of America. There was an affinity there.
He brought “wonderful culinary skills.”
Finally, Irvin perceived leadership for a key Otesaga department: “The leadership thing is what we need more than anything.”
For his part, Gregory projected confidence – and good cheer – as he wended his way through The Otesaga’s kitchen, humoring a photographer looking for the right image.
A one-time Atlanta Braves fan, he is looking forward to proximity to the world of Major League Baseball – every year, The Otesaga is closed off during Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, reserved for the best of baseball’s best.
But he’s directed hospitality aspects of two G-8 Summits – President Reagan hosted one at Colonial Williamsburg, and George W. Bush at Sea Island – so you suspect he will take Induction Weekend in stride.
As for any changes a diner might anticipate at The Otesaga, Gregory plans to take it slow.
He may start experimenting with the five-appetizer choice offered at dinner, and is intrigued by how he might dip into the resort-hotel’s 100-year-old history – 2009 is its centennial year – for inspiration.
He recalled his former mentor’s advice: “Make it simple. But make it elegant.”Labels: 05-29-09, Glimmerglass |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:06 PM |
|
|
|
|
Opera, Antidote To Tyranny
|
|
EVAN JAGELS
NIGHT LIFE
There is a painting by George Tooker (b.1920) titled “Government Bureau” in which the anonymous, impersonal and identical faces of municipal workers glare through small holes in the glass of their desk windows at lines of identical men and women, whose backs face the viewer.
Such is the callous drudgery of red tape in action and the feverish frustration that boils up is subject Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera, “The Consul”.
Tooker’s painting was fittingly projected behind the panelists of the final installment of the Glimmerglass Opera Guild’s spring seminar series Monday, May 18, in the social hall of Christ Church, Cooperstown, setting the mood not only of frustration, but also of, in Guild Board Member Thomas Simpson’s words, “the futility of being totally under control of someone else… the inability to be in control of your own destiny”.
Simpson led the discussion, which included Colby Thomas, lecturer, director and voice teacher at SUNY Oneonta; Dr. Timothy Newton, music director of the Catskill Choral Society and SUNY Oneonta assistant professor of music, and Ubaldo Valli, Glimmerglass Opera violinist since 1982 and founder of the Pierstown Summer Concert Series.
A recurring point of the discussion was the opera’s timeliness of theme.
Premiering in 1950 during the early years Cold War, “The Consul” tells the story of John and Magda. John has fled their hostile country to save his life and wants Magda and their baby to join him. However, Magda is strangled by the inhumanity of bureaucracy at the consul’s office.
Needless to say, yet without spoiling the story, it ends tragically.
However, it is on the small levels of daily modern life and on larger issues of human suffering and migration in which “red tape” make us near automatons – beings devoid of emotion, discretion and higher levels of human potential – in which the opera has real purpose in 2009.
As a verismo opera, it deals with real people in real situations. Both tension and sparseness are themes of this opera – created by the percussive and crisp elements of the piano (an instrument seldom included in opera), the focus on dramatic elements of character of singers speaking on pitch, and the sense of unease created by shifts between melody and dissonance.
Above all, it is an opera in which the text is easily understood. Not because it is sung in English, but because of the composer’s intentional use of space. In Menotti’s own words: “I rather like the sparseness which allows the text to be understood”.
So specific with his intentions, Menotti was very particular with the subtitles of his works. He wrote for TV, radio and Broadway, allowing the venue to influence his approach. “The Consul,” débuting on Broadway, was what Menotti called a “Music Drama.”Labels: 05-29-09, Columns, Evan Jagels, Glimmerglass, Night Life |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:05 PM |
|
|
|
|
ONEONTA LOVE STORY COMES A FULL CIRCLE
|
|
Couple’s Heirlooms Left To Swart-Wilcox House
By LAURA COX & JIM KEVLIN
 It began with a bit of a scandal, or at least tut-tutting.
Catharine Shaffer was a 40-something art teacher at Oneonta High School.
Raymond Beecher was a student at Hartwick College, then a young teacher at OHS.
They ended up marrying.
The May-July combination, more of an anomaly in the 1940s than it might be today, nonetheless turned out to be an enduring one.
The couple lived at 17 Church St., a home that had been in her family.
Raymond became an assistant professor at Hartwick College, but when Catharine retired in 1955, the couple moved to Coxsackie in his native Greene County.
Many of her heirlooms – born in 1899, her family’s history went back to her maternal grandfather Ammi Doubleday Dimmick and grandmother Catharine Martin Dimmick – went with them.
The wife died in March of 1995.
When Catharine passed away, Raymond wanted to make sure family heirlooms associated with Oneonta were returned to her home, where he thought they belonged.
He approached the Swart-Wilcox house in 1999 to see if they would accept them as part of the collection of the historic house.
At the time, the first floor of the house was still being restored and there was no place to keep any of the items, but the Friends of the Swart-Wilcox House told him they would appreciate the collection when they had a place.
Raymond donated money to restore one of the rooms in Catharine’s name and donated the items which they were able to find a place for. The rest he held onto until he passed away last October.
Some of the couple’s historical items were donated to the Thomas Cole House in Catskill, but the Friends were advised to select what they thought appropriate from the rest of the collection.
A four-person contingent from Oneonta – Helen and David Rees, Ann Schulz and Tina Morris – visited Coxsackie over the winter and returned with treasures aplenty.
The Hitchcock chairs, a grandfather clock, desks, glass candle sticks – a gift to Ora Dimmick from a Dr. Barnes, a local dentist – a tea set, porcelain figurines, family portraits, Civil War memorabilia, a glass bookcase, upholstered “ladies chairs” and a quilt were among the findings.
For people who have already visited the Revolutionary soldier Lawrence Swart’s 1807 German Palatine vernacular house at the end of Wilcox Avenue, this will be a reason to return, said Helen Rees. For newcomers, it will enhance the first-time experience.
When Swart died in 1841, two railroad entrepreneurs bought the 108-acre property. Securing the land then needed for the track – the north end, beyond West Broadway – they sold the remaining land and house to Henry and Phoebe Wilcox.
Their sons, lifelong bachelors, remained in the home until their deaths, and in 1972 the city bought the house – the oldest in the community – on the condition the Friends would operate it at no cost to the municipality.
Of the new treasures, Helen Rees is most excited about a silver-headed cane that belonged to Ammi Dimmick, who in addition to being Catharine’s grandfather was a Civil War veteran – a bugler at Fredericksburg – and originator of Dimmick’s Favorite Remedy (also known as Dimmick’s Kidney & Bladder Cure.)
Dimmick, who devised the cure, peddled it for years before the Federal Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906.
“This cane” – it bears the image of General Grant, and appears to be a memento of a Grand Army of the Republic gathering – “is so connected with the whole story of the Dimmick family,” said Rees. “And it was through Ray’s generosity these items came back to Oneonta.”Labels: 05-29-09, Glimmerglass |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:03 PM |
|
|
|
|
Locals
|
|
Pathfinder Fetes Outgoing President, Welcomes New One At Donors’ Event
Paul C. Landers, who will become the next Pathfinder Village president & CEO in August, is an advocate of the infectious power of optimism.
Landers keynoted Pathfinder’s annual Donor Celebration, held Thursday, May 21, at The Farmers’ Museum.
With a 25-year career in human services, Landers is executive director of West Tennessee Family Solutions, Memphis. In 2001-03, he previously served at Pathfinder, a residential community for 80 Down syndrome residents in Edmeston.
Retiring CEO Edward A. Shafer was honored, and William F. Streck, who chairs the Pathfinder board, announced the creation of the Dr. Shafer Chair in recognition of his six years of service.
In his remarks, Dr. Shafer called his tenure in Edmeston “one of the most transforming opportunities of my life.
Third-Year Bassett Resident Presented Donnall Thomas Award
Tepsiri Chongkrairatanakul, M.D., a third year postgraduate medical resident at Bassett Healthcare, was presented with the E. Donnall Thomas Outstanding Research Presentation Award for 2009. Tepsiri’s research project was among 13 presented recently as part of the E. Donnall Thomas Research Day.
The E. Donnall Thomas Award is given annually to a Bassett trainee who has conducted exceptional research while at Bassett for medical training. The award is named in honor of E. Donnall Thomas, who served as Bassett’s physician-in-chief from 1955 to 1963.
Tepsiri’s research study project, titled, “PKC Delta in Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis,” examined the mechanisms involved in the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a common liver disorder associated with metabolic syndrome characterized by obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes. The study was conducted under the direction of Bassett research scientist Mike Greene, Ph.D.
Danette Smith Summa Cum Laude Colgate Graduate
Danette Lynn Flint graduated summa cum laude from Colgate University on May 17 with a B.A. in chemistry.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she received the Roy Burnett Smith Prize in Chemistry and the Bernard and Sydell Citron Pre-Medical Scholastic Prize for the highest GPA in the pre-medical program.
She will attend the University of Rochester School of Medicine in the fall of 2009.
Danette is the daughter of Laura Smith Flint (CCS class of ’80) of Cooperstown; granddaughter of Roger (CCS class of ’54) and Dorothy Smith of Cooperstown; great-granddaughter of the late Leroy (CCS class of ’32) and Gertrude Spurbeck Smith (CCS class of ’29) and the late Joseph and Martha Vidosic, all of Cooperstown.
 Six Head Abroad With Rotary Exchange Next Year
The Cooperstown Rotary will send six Cooperstown Central School students to coutries in Europe and South America next fall.
The Students from left are, Krystal Tandle, Germany, Emily Davidson, Belgium, Julia Nelson, France, Anna Weber, Belgium and Chelsea Moakler, Argentina. Missing from the photo is Ryan Davine who will travel to Germany.
Grandson Graduates Summa Cum Laude From Fla. University
Eric Smith, grandson of Donald and Jean Huntington, Cooperstown, graduated summa cum laude May 2 from the University of Florida College of Journalism & Communications at Gainesville.
Raised in Claremont, Fla., he is the son of Herbert and Jill (Huntington) Smith. Four years ago, he was valedictorian in a class of 526 in his high school in Claremont.
While at college, he wrote for the college newspaper, the Independent Florida Alligator, and also the Gainesville Sun, the local daily. He also served a term as president of the College Council.
Eric intends to continue his studies at the University of Florida Law School, focusing on patents and trademarks.
CCS STUDENTS OF THE MONTH
Cooperstown Central School students of the month for April from left are, front, Jason Cadwalader, seventh grade and Thomas Fay, sixth grade; back, Erik Mebust, eighth grade, Anne Leonardo, eighth grade and Lindsey Harloff, seventh grade. Missing from the photo is Elizabeth Russo, sixth grade.
RACHEL RAVES: Everyday With Rachel Ray magazine focuses in the current issue on Cooperstown, and praised Yum Yum Shack owner Dave Neil as “one talented guy,” particularly when it comes to seafood. He and wife Donabeth operate the Route 28 establishment. Alex & Ika’s on Main Street, Cooperstown, was also targetted for praise.
COOPER UNION GRAD: Alyssa Kosmer, daughter of John and Linda Kosmer of Fly Creek, graduated May 27 from Cooper Union in New York City, where she was majoring in fine arts. Her areas of interest are illustration, animation and cartooning. Again this summer, she will be assistant director at the Smithy Pioneer Gallery.Labels: 05-29-09, Locals |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:03 PM |
|
|
|
|
Letters to the Editor
|
|
Attend Hearing On Springfield Comprehensive Plan
To the Editor:
Springfield’s Town Board has scheduled a public hearing on its Comprehensive Plan for 7 p.m. Monday, June 1, at the Community Center in Springfield Center.
The plan was compiled through diligent efforts on the part of the eight-person Comprehensive Plan Committee, using information and data gathered about the Town of Springfield, as well as input from the town residents through a resident survey, a Planning and Visioning Workshop, public attendance at monthly meetings, and previous public hearings on the draft document.
I wish to commend my fellow committee members for their public service, commitment to the plan, and for their efforts to create a plan that represents the wishes of the citizens.
The Planning and Visioning Workshop was well organized, well attended and openly run. The survey questions were carefully considered, the survey broadly distributed, the returns closely monitored and independently tabulated, and the level of community response statistically valid.
While working over particularly difficult sections of the plan, the committee would often refocus itself with the idea that our task was to develop a plan that reflects the results of community polling and not by our own personal feelings or agendas.
I am proud to have taken part in the development of the plan and feel that its adoption by the town board is critical to Springfield.
The plan provides a clear vision and goals and suggests strategies and action plans to reach those goals.
I am very excited about the opportunities afforded by this plan to the populace for community service and civic involvement. The plan calls for the establishment of various committees to focus on and support economic development, recreation, historic preservation, community events coordination, and agriculture.
I strongly encourage all who have participated in this most democratic process – the folks who attended the workshops, the meetings, all residents and landowners who completed and mailed your surveys – to demonstrate your support for the Comprehensive Plan by attending and speaking at the town Board meeting.
DAVID STALEY
Springfield Center
Staley co-chairs the Town of Springfield Comprehensive Plan Committee and member of the town Planning Board.
Thanks! ‘We’ll Continue Difficult Fiscal Decisions’
To the Editor:
The Cooperstown Central School Board of Education would like to thank the community for its support of our recent budget proposal for the 2009-10 school year.
As you know, we have all been faced with the challenges of local, state and national economic conditions.
The recent federal stimulus funds enabled the state Legislature to reinstate school-aid funding to levels comparable to those in 2008-09.
While this is very helpful and appreciated, it is important to note that stimulus funding will continue for only one additional year beyond the coming year.
This means we will continue to have difficult fiscal decisions facing us in the near future. It is our intent to continue to monitor district expenses very closely, strive to maintain programs that are valued, maintain our facilities, and work diligently to negotiate contractual agreements that provide a fair wage while being sensitive to ever increasing health care costs.
This will not be easy, but with your input and understanding we hope to continue to develop fiscal plans that the community feels it can support.
Again, please accept our appreciation for your support of Cooperstown schools.
ROSEMARY CRAIG
President
SUSAN L. MULLIGAN
Vice President
DAVID C. BORGSTROM
PAULA M. GREENE
THERESA J. RUSSO
ANTHONY J. SCALICI
CCS Board of Education
Here’s Last Chance To Speak Out On Subdivision Above Otsego Lake
To the Editor:
Residents are needed more than ever to voice their objection to the steep-slope development proposal of Edward Walker to build houses in the middle of the mountainface of Browdy Mountain, just below Five Mile Point and above Otsego Lake.
The final public hearing on Mr. Walker’s proposal will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, at the Town Hall, Route 26, Fly Creek.
This is it – our last chance to be heard.
The Town of Otsego has no regulations for steep-slope development around the lake. Until regulations are created, the onus of protecting the lake rests squarely on the shoulders of the Planning Board members.
The Planning Board must consider the following:
• If there is, in this development proposal, a property requiring revision after revision by the DEC over 15 months, which by the mere fact of its staggering steepness precludes the possibility of eliminating all stormwater runoff, (even Walker admitted that),
• If there is a property that has a road that violates four town regulations governing roads, a road cited by many as dangerous.
• If there is a property where meticulous regular care in maintenance of silt basins must be required if an enormous increase in stormwater runoff into the lake is to be avoided, and there is no mechanism for future oversight,
• If there is a development proposal that could have a long term negative effect on the Village of Cooperstown’s drinking water,
• If there is a development proposal that will seriously and permanently destroy a large area on the pristine forested mountainside above Otsego Lake, which is in the designated Historic District, and is a part of what makes the lake valuable to so many, and – even worse – sets a dangerous precedent that over time, could mark the destruction of more lake mountainsides, and the end of the pristine forests that define and surround Otsego Lake,
• If there is a development proposal which has neighbors, residents all over Cooperstown and the Town of Otsego in strong opposition to it, and see this opposition joined by the Dr. Willard Harman, of the Biological Field Station, Win McIntyre, watershed coordinator, Paul Kuhn of the Village of Cooperstown Watershed Supervisory Commission, OCCA, Otsego 2000, Ted Peters, first OCCA president, Jane Clark
...then there shouldn’t be a doubt in the mind of any Planning Board member that this is NOT the right thing for our lake.
Come speak on June 2 and urge the board to vote “NO” on Mr. Walker’s development application.
CAROL BRADSHAW AKIN
Cooperstown
Beware Of Theocrats, Totalitarians
To the Editor:
I have always considered the question of same-sex-marriage and the anti-abortion non-issues not really a matter for public debate, let alone political and legal actions.
Not being one directly concerned with either matter, I have never read deeply on either subject.
Most of what I have read on same-sex marriage and abortion has been magazine and newspaper articles and letters therein from both sides of the question. I don’t recall, in any of those articles, having seen mention of Constitutional Amendment 9.
The amendment states: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage other rights retained by the people.”
Those words would seem an adequate defense of individuals’ rights to marry whom they choose and their right to choose how they determine their own bodies are treated, adequate defense against the disparagement of, and intent to deny these rights by would-be theocrats and other totalitarians among us.
WILLIAM F. ROBERTS
OtegoLabels: 05-29-09, Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Perspectives |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 5:59 PM |
|
|
|
|
Graduations Show It’s Never Too Late To Start Life Anew
|
|
After two weeks of back-to-back college commencements, it’s hard not to wax philosophical, or reflective, or rueful, as your predisposition might incline you. Turning points, observed as well as experienced, provide fodder for rumination.
Graduations, of course, are not just about graduates, as is immediately apparent to anyone who hasn’t attended one for a while.
The generational mix of the celebrants makes that clear, from babies – cousins and nieces and nephews of the grads – at one end, to grandparents, even great-grandparents, in motorized wheelchairs.
Graduations are multi-generational celebrations of life, and of life’s possibilities.
Attorney Cyrus Mehri, Hartwick ‘83, who spoke at Hartwick College’s commencement Saturday, May 23, spoke specifically on “Turning Points,” recalling how he’d been a so-so student until a semester in Washington, D.C., turned him on to public-interest law. (His eventual career, bringing class-action lawsuits challenging racial and gender mores, has transformed the world we live in.)
Curiously, it was the science courses – geology, astronomy – that, but causing Mehri to realize how small individuals are in a vast universe, to commit to discovering what he might do, however tiny in the grand scheme of things, and do it.
If Mehri provided a conceptual overview, Don Garber, SUNY Oneonta ’79, Major League Soccer commissioner who spoke the Saturday before at the SUNY commencement, spoke of the qualities needed to get there.
“I worry these times can breed too much caution,” he said. “... I would much rather hire someone who ... shows initiative and guts.”
Both these men recalled starting on the way to these conclusions while studying at the local colleges, which confirm what we expect: That education is going on there.
As Whitman said, “I was simmering, simmering, simmering, and Emerson brought me to a boil.” Some of the grads of the past two weeks are, no doubt, simmering, simmering, but – from Carleigh Bettiol to Nick Forst – many are already at full boil.
To stay with the Transcendentalists, then there’s Thoreau, “(Most) men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Not me, has been the gut response of so many young people on first stumbling across that line.
It’s also said that youth is wasted on the young, but seeing how the college graduates enjoyed the past two weekends, that’s wasn’t particularly evident. Young people these days seem to enjoy life more than ever, as they should.
Which leaves the rest of us – graduation groupies, if you will – trying to reconnect with first principles.
With the average American having lost 40 percent of his or her stock-market portfolio, let’s throw caution to the winds. The farther along any of us may be, the better to come to a boil. If not now, when?
Lives of quiet desperation? The farther along we may be, the less the point.
Not just the graduates need take heart. The best is yet to come – or it can be – if we follow the lessons of the heart we’ve known all along.
Yes, Class of ’09, life is good.Labels: 05-29-09, Editorial, Opinion, Perspectives |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 5:56 PM |
|
|
|
|
HoF Connects Low-Tech Game, High-Tech Curriculum
|
Friday, May 22, 2009
|
By JIM KEVLIN
RICHFIELD SPRINGS
‘When I walk into the school today, I leave my world. It’s like going to another planet.”
Jim Hill calls that the Ferris Buehler model.
The student’s world is TV, DVDs, video games, cellphones, Youtube. Twitter, whatever that is.
The other planet was textbooks, chalk, reading, the kind of things we traditionally associate with school.
What if, instead of fighting cellphones or Facebook or the Web, Jim Hill asked himself, teachers could use these tools to help students learn?
What if, instead teaching boring stuff – however youngsters may define it – schools taught whatever kids are intensely interested it?
Hill, Richfield Spring Central School District technology coordinator, and his boss, Superintendent of Schools Bob Barraco, had been asking themselves these questions for a while.
The electronic tools were at hand – in pretty much every young hand, in fact.
“That’s the world they’re in,” said Hill in an interview in the bright, high-ceilinged fully wired wing at the high school, completed just a half-decade ago. “You can fight them; or you can join them.”
OK, Barraco and Hill concluded, we’ll join them. But the content?
With the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum just 15 minutes down the road, the answer came to Jim Hill naturally. (He lives on Pink Street, outside Cooperstown, and has been involved in HoF educational initiatives for more than a decade.)
Last summer, Richfield Springs Central School hosted its first professional e-development seminar in its whiz-band high-tech facility, where teachers from across the state – Long Island to Buffalo – learned to teach lessons using all those electronic gadgets that today’s students understand completely but are Greek to the rest of us.
The Hall of Fame provided the audio, the video, digital content, everything the teachers would need. That first-year theme was “The Pride and the Passion,” the Hall’s exhibit on the Negro Leagues.
One teacher, for instance, combined the data at hand with Google Earth to created a Negro League “virtual road trip.” The idea was that, as students hop-scotched from city to city, they would learn geography, as well as longitude and latitude.
The sky’s the limit, said Anna Wade, the Hall of Fame’s director of education and Hill’s point of contact. (Other member’s of Hill’s team include a representative from Apple Computers – the school has 1.55 students per computer; the place bristles with screens – and the futurist from Herkimer County BOCES.)
Baseball can teach, not just geography, but social studies, math, science, women’s history, labor relations, you name it, Wade said.
“We have 16 different educational lessons – modules – created over the past 10 year,” she continued. “It’s a huge variety of resources people can use in the classroom.”
For this summer’s program, Jim Hill chose art in baseball as the theme, and Anna Wade can tick off the intersects with the Hall of Fame’s collections. from fine art – Norman Rockwell’s “The Umpires” – to movies – “League of Their Own” and “The Natural” – to dance, theater, broadcasting.
“They can hear Branch Rickey explaining why he hired Jackie Robinson,” Wade said.
All the partners want something, which makes the partnership vibrant.
RSCS wants to train its teachers to experiment with new ways of learning. Apple sees Hill’s initiative as a way to sell computers, big time. The Hall, by introducing teachers, and they their students, to the wonders of 25 Main, are building a customer base.
Jim Hill, who is 50-something, has a foot in the past as well as the future.
“I love this stuff,” he said, “but it’s not everything to me.”
Not so with his charges. It is everything – or most everything to them – and the while the nation as a whole dithers, is education losing its constituency – its constituents?
“In Korea, the entire population has high-speed access.” He asks: “Why can’t we do that here?”Labels: 05-29-09, Baseball Hall of Fame, Front Page |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:57 PM |
|
|
|
|
‘Greater Love Hath No Man’
|
|
14 Local Soldiers, Sailors Who Gave Lives For Country Remembered
Editor’s Note: Attorney Paul Elkan of Cooperstown, former Otsego County district attorney and county attorney, keynoted Cooperstown’s Memorial Day ceremonies Monday, May 25, at the Soldiers & Sailors Monument. He is a Marine veteran.
If there is a meaning to human life, its ultimate expression is to die for one’s country.
We are the only species whose continued existence depends upon altruism, behind its offspring.
People care about one another to the point of subordinating their own well-being to the benefit of their family, clan, tribe, culture and nation.
Every society, from cavemen to aboriginal, from Grecian and Roman, to the United States, has survived and thrived, dependent upon its warriors.
The job description of the warrior includes dying.
In obedience to the values installed by our families, churches and schools, in obedience to the orders of a government, elected by us – several young men from northern Otsego County have in the recent past died for us, their country.
They died bloody deaths in countries whose names they could not pronounce, among a group of people they barely knew, for causes we still do not understand, in wars mostly lost.
None of which diminishes their exemplary self-sacrifice, for their deaths manifest the very finest human behavior.
• David Ames, Schuyler Lake, staff sergeant, Army, Iraq, 1991, KIA.
• Robert Atwell, Cooperstown, private first class, Army, Vietnam, 1968, KIA.
• Butch Baldwin, Cherry Valley, lance corporal, Marine Corps, Vietnam, 1968, KIA.
• Jeffrey Calkins, Richfield Springs, F.T.I. Navy, USS Stark, 1987, KIA.
• Brian Cary, Edmeston, specialist, Army, Vietnam, 1968, KIA.
• Kevin Coulman, staff sergeant, Marine Corps, Lebanon, 1983, KIA.
• George Gierak, lieutenant, Army, Vietnam, 1966, KIA.
• Terry Grauss, Edmeston, first lieutenant, Marine Corps, Vietnam, 1968, KIA.
• Michael Mayne, Edmeston, corporal, Army, Iraq, 2009, KIA.
• Frank Pietras, Springfield, lance corporal, Marine Corps, Vietnam, 1968, KIA.
• Jack Taylor, Schuyler Lake, specialist, Army, Vietnam, KIA.
• Franz Tines, Roseboom, corporal, Marine Corps, Vietnam, 1966, KIA.
• Roger Walton, East Springfield, private first class, Marine Corps, Vietnam, 1967, KIA.
• John Winslow, Hartwick, sergeant, Marine Corps, Vietnam, 1969, KIA.
In northern France is a large World War I cemetery. At the rear of that cemetery is a large stone cross overlooking the remains of 3,000 unknown soldiers – American, German, French and British.
At the base of that cross are engraved these words, “Greater love hath no man than this: That he lay down his life for his friends.”
Today, we celebrate not war; for war is madness. We celebrate not death; for death is nothing. We celebrate the love of the fallen because we care.
Semper Fi.Labels: 05-29-09 |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 5:57 PM |
|
|
|
|
| EMAIL ALERTS |
|
|
| COOPERSTOWN HOMES |
| See the latest area real estate listings and meet your local realty professionals. |
| GLIMMERGLASS SHOPS |
| Ad listings for Cooperstown area gift shops, retail stores, boutiques, antique shops and more. |
| GLIMMERGLASS AUTOS |
|
Automotive ads from local dealers Find you new car, or find someone to fix your old one. |
| DINING & ENTERTAINMENT |
Discover Cooperstown's unique eatieries, bed and breakfasts, resorts and hotels, or find out about the latest gallery openings, festivals and events. |
| BUSINESS & SERVICES |
Find the right person for the job, from banking to photography. |
| FALL FOLIAGE |
Discover Otsego County's unique businesses while enjoying the changing colors. |
HOME IMPROVEMENT |
Make upgrades to your home before the winter settles in. |
|
|
