Tons of Trash Removed, Water Line Installed At Countryside Trailer Park

By JIM KEVLIN

---

HARTWICK

It wasn’t long after Pat Ryan ousted an entrenched administration in Hartwick town hall that her phone rang.
It was a resident of Countryside Mobile Home Park, a few miles to the east, alerting her to woes that had gone on for at least three years.
The water system had slowed to a trickle, sometimes spewing dirt into sinks and bathtubs.
At least two of the trailers had been abandoned.
There was trash piled everywhere.
Two of the tenants were brothers who also happened to be mute, so they had additional challenges navigating The System to find help.
Ryan called Bob Pierce, the now-retired director of the state Department of Health’s Oneonta office, and he briefed the town board at a special May 5 meeting.
The town board, he told them, is also the board of health and can intervene, using town equipment, to clean things up.
The property was owned by the estate of a Constance Paige of Poughkeepsie, who had bought it 15 years ago, intending to double its size, as an investment.
After Mrs. Paige discovered that wetlands prevented that expansion, she gradually lost interest.
The supervisor contacted the attorney for the estate, Tom Dietz of Poughkeepsie, and things began to happen.
Town crews went in and removed tons of trash.
And Dietz contracted with Lamont Engineering, Cobleskill, to replace the water system.
The contract went to Fred Fields & Sons, owned by Town Councilman Delos Fields, who was shaking his head as he was completing the job Saturday, Sept. 13, assisted by sons Fred Jr. and Joey.
“It was the poorest installation of a pump I’d ever seen,” said Fields. The water pressure – 8 PSI – was so low, and the demand was such, that the pump had run continuously for the past four years.
The new pump, connected to the eight remaining mobile homes with adequate new pipe, is testing at 60 PSI, Fields said.
The contractor had also obtained permission from Dietz – even though the lawyer didn’t have to do so – to insulate the pipes going into the trailers so they wouldn’t freeze, crack and leave the rest of the park without water again.
Ryan sees this as an early effort; there are similar issues throughout and town and beyond.
Take a Sunday drive pretty much anywhere in the county, and you’ll see scattered trash that could use attention.
But the new supervisor found this early project encouraging, particularly because the neighbors wanted to do what they could to improve the situation.
“Every person came out of their homes and helped out with this project,” she said.

Labels: 062708, 09-19-08, Front Page, Hartwick, Pat Ryan

COOPERSTOWN

The fee to play baseball at Doubleday Field went up 50 percent between the summers of 2007 and 2008, but total revenues to the village went up a mere 6 percent.
Total revenues inched up from $115,000 to $122,000 between the two years.
The hike from $400 to $600 was a controversial move – the village trustees reduced the proposed increase from $1,000 under pressure from downtown merchants, The Legends of Baseball tournament organizers, and others – but the argument the village needs more revenues carried the day.
It hasn’t paid off.
Trustee Eric Hage, chairman of the trustees’ Doubleday Field Advisory Committee, reports the number of games played at the “Birthplace of Baseball” dropped from 287 last year to 223 this year. He said there were 44 rainouts this year, compared to 23 last year, and one league from Texas cancelled at the last minute and those games couldn’t be replaced.
Hage’s report to the village trustees at their monthly meeting Monday, Sept. 15, was met with little discussion, except Deputy Mayor Jeff Katz’s observation that the Goodwill Games and similar events should raise revenues in the future.
This is a second blow to the trustees’ revenue-raising efforts: Paid parking in the Doubleday Field lot yielded, when the cost of Pay & Display machines were subtracted, about $50,000, far less than had been hoped for.
According to the advisory committee’s minutes, Doubleday Field groundskeeper Joe Harris said the biggest loss he saw in rental revenues was in Legion League teams that used to play double-headers, but dropped back to single games due to the $200 increase.
In an interview, The Legends’ organizer Tom Lach, in town from Columbus, Ohio, for the annual September tournament, said “we’re committed to Doubleday.”
But due to the increase, he said, most of his tournament games are being played in Milford and Cherry Valley, where field rentals are $150 a game, with only the final rounds played at Doubleday.
Lach had raised the alarm last summer when Katz, then Doubleday committee chair, established a new method of reserving the field where single teams competed with the tournament organizers on an even basis.
As a result, the organizers found some of their tournaments broken up by individual games.
Since Hage took over, that system has been partially changed back, so tournaments have until a set date to submit applications; only then are individual teams allowed to submit applications.
“There’s no question that tournaments are very valuable to us,” Hage told his colleagues the other night.
Prior to last March’s village elections, Lach had challenged Katz about what had transpired.
But the trustees pulled together behind their colleague, saying no individual trustee could make policy changes without the support of the full board.
“Elected officials come and go,” said a philosophical Lach the other day. “Some, we hope, faster than others.”

Labels: 062708, 09-19-08, Doubleday Field, Front Page

COOPERSTOWN

The judge called Village Hall “arbitrary and capricious.”
But the village trustees are having none of it.
To a person, they unanimously voted at their September meeting on the 15th to appeal state Supreme Court Judge Kevin M. Dowd’s rejection of a village Planning Board decision limiting who can use Bassett Healthcare’s proposed 134-space parking lots.
Seventy-three of the new spaces would be added to 95 at Bassett Hall; and 61 to replace seven spaces at Harrison House. The argument was primarly over Harrison House, which is closer to the hospital and, also, to homes on Beaver, Pioneer and Fair streets.
The Planning Board had approved the spaces, but said they must be limited to employees, who tend to arrive at the beginning of the shift and leave at the end.
Bassett decided to use the spaces for patients, who come in and out throughout the day, a concern to the residential neighborhood, and sued, arguing – and Dowd agreed – that the village had no authority to impose that particular restriction.
“The trustees didn’t like the decision,” Mayor Carol B. Waller said Wednesday, Sept. 17. “They felt it wasn’t right.”
Earlier in the month, the Planning Board had also voted unanimously in support of an appeal. The village’s land-use lawyer, Joseph Catalano, will represent 22 Main.
Informed of the pending appeal, Bassett spokesperson Diane Wells said the hospital intends to go forward regardless.
“The parking plan is not in question,” she said. “It has been approved and we’re moving ahead with plans.”
The hospital’s Article 78 challenge to the Planning Board was over “techinical issues,” now resolved, she said, adding, however, that there is no time frame to begin construction.
Dowd’s decision, which came nine months after arguments were presented in the county Courthouse on Main Street, agreed – Bassett argued otherwise – that the Planning Board has the right to impose conditions on uses. But he said the record showed this condition – number 6 of 28 – was arbitrary.

Labels: 062708, 09-19-08, Bassett Healthcare, Front Page

Two of the Redskins’ biggest fans, twins Tom and Chris Hogan, cheer Scott Millea’s first varsity touchdown in Cooperstown’s first home game of the season, a 20-0 victory over Ilion Saturday, Sept. 13. The next game is 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19, at Saquoit.

REVOLUTION: Village Historian Hugh MacDougall’s second lecture of the three “Otsego Country” lectures, “During The Revolution,” is 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in village trustees’ chambers at 22 Main. If you see this in time, don’t miss it.

CONTROVERSY: Tim Robbins, who was barred from speaking at the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum on the 20th anniversary of “Bull Durham” due to his opposition to the Iraq War, will speak on the 25th anniversary at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19, at the beginning of this year’s HoF Film Festival.

LAMBERT WINS: Republican nominee John Lambert has won the Conservative Primary for county judge, 65-58, over Jill Ghaleb, the Democratic-endorsed independent, the county Board of Election reports. Initial results in the Sept. 9 primary were 63-53, but absentee ballots and a malfunctioning machine in the Town of Butternuts delayed the final count.

REBOUNDING: “Recovery Sunday,” in conjunction with National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, will be celebrated at 8 and 10 a.m. services at Christ Episcopal Church, with a 9 a.m. presentation by David Ramsey, founding member of Friends of Recovery in Delaware and Otsego Counties.

FLYING HIGH: During the Cherry Valley Kite Fest Saturday, Sept. 20, the Cherry Valley-Springfield Endowment Foundation for Educational Excellence will raffle off an Adirondack chair decorated by artist Peggy Traficante.

NATURE WALK: Joe Hart of the Adirondack Mountain Club will lead a 3.5-mile nature walk through Arnold Lake State Forest, Town of Milford, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21. For details, call 829-8358.

Labels: 062708, 09-19-08, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page

By JIM KEVLIN

---

COOPERSTOWN

Mary Jo McPhail was in her car in the Cooperstown Elementary School parking lot at 1:10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 16, when she suddenly found herself in the middle of a TV-like police drama.
“I saw a youth being chased down the street by a member of the sheriff’s department,” the CCS superintendent of schools said later. Shortly thereafter, she called for a “lockdown” at all school buildings.
The young man, with officer in hot pursuit, dashed down the alley at the west end of the elementary school and, when McPhail headed back to her middle/high school office a few minutes later, she found he had been captured and subdued near the Linden Avenue gate.
The suspect was later identified as Luis V. Cabrera Jr., 19, of Brooklyn, the last of three young men arrested on suspicion of peddling crack cocaine and heroin from New York City in Otsego County.
During the investigation, $11,000 in cash, $28,000 worth of cocaine and 100 bundles of heroin valued at $2,000 had been seized, according to county Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr.
“This is a group that ran together,” said Devlin, adding that it’s possible the suspected ring had been transporting drugs, not just to Oneonta, but to communities through Upstate.
The action had begun a little before 1 when sheriff’s deputies were alerted that Cabrera was aboard an Otsego Public Transit bus heading toward Oneonta. Deputies pulled over a bus just south of the village line, but found nothing.
Then, a man matching Cabrera’s description was seen near the Cooperstown Motel, according to Village Police Sgt. Mark Fassett, and Deputy Jack Wilkens took after him on foot.
The suspect dashed across the Great American parking lot, through a yard and down Walnut Street. He passed the elementary parking lot, then doubled back, which is where McPhail saw him.
Cabrera dashed down the alley with Wilkens on his trail, but when the suspect reached the entrance to the middle/high school he found two cruisers – Fassett’s and a sheriff’s, manned by Deputy Ray Freer – blocking the exit to Linden Avenue.
According to Fassett, the young man threw himself on the asphalt in surrender. Freer held him and Fassett cuffed him.
Cabrera’s two suspected accomplices – Steven A. English, Jr., 24, of Brooklyn, and Mark A. Santiago, 30, of Long Island and Broward County, Fla. – were already in Otsego County Jail.
The three men appeared before Supreme Court Judge Michael V. Coccoma and were jailed on $100,000 bail.
Sheriff Devlin said the arrests were the outcome of a 10-month investigation by his Criminal Investigation Unit conducted with Oneonta detectives.
Using federal funds, the local officers made alleged drug buys from the three men last January and February. They were the subjects of sealed indictments issued by a county Grand Jury in August.
English had been in jail since June 4 on another charge. Santiago was picked up Sept. 9 in Oneonta. Cabrera’s arrest ended the sweep.
Tuesday’s excitement was the talk of CCS, and a letter was sent home explaining to parents what had happened.
While McPhail couldn’t remember the last time there was an actual lockdown at the schools, she said periodic lockdown drills are conducted just in case.
“It just shows how important it is to have those kinds of procedures in place,” she said.
“Ten or 15 years ago, drug arrests were unusual,” said Devlin. “They aren’t unusual any more.”

Labels: 062708, 09-19-08, Front Page

FLY CREEK

---

This much is settled: The speed limit coming up to the blind intersection of Route 28 where motorcyclist Andrew Ellis, 24, of Hartwick, died July 7, has already been lowered from 35 to 30 mph.
And blinking light will be flashing at the intersection just as soon as the next round of state DOT bids are let, probably in the 2009 construction season.
But that’s not all.
Jack Williams, state Department of Transportation regional director, was brought here from Binghamton on Friday, Sept. 5, by state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, and he brought several other assurances himself.
DOT is completing a study that, if positive, could result in adjustments to the passing zones leading up the crest of the hill where the Day/Johnstons Road interssection meets often-busy Route 28.
It could result in signs prohibiting left-turns – across one lane of Route 28 – from either Day or Johnstons roads.
“This fall?” he was asked at a meeting at the fatal site, on neighbor Mary Winne’s front lawn, attended by a dozen other neighbors as well.
“Quite possibly,” Williams responded.
Looking down the road, part of the ultimate solution might very well be to flatten the crest of the hill to allow more visiblity coming from either direction.
That could cause other pain, Williams said: A few of the homes built close to the road might have to come down.
Among those attending the meeting were Waldo and Candy Johnston and his sister, Lin Vincent.
The brother and sister were raised on Johnstons Road, and they remembered how their mother – a half-century ago – would turn her car left onto the shoulder of the oncoming lane and creep to the top of the hill; only when she got to the point of sufficient visibility would she drive across the lane and head into Cooperstown.
After the crash that killed Andrew Ellis, neighbors of the scene and friends of the Ellis family collected more than 300 signatures on petitions urging the DOT to act to make that stretch of road safer.

Labels: 062708, 09-12-08, Andrew Ellis, Fly Creek, Front Page, Motorcycles

COOPERSTOWN

---

The Otsego 2000 Board of Directors discussed the Cook Foundation’s plans to sell a majority of the Brookwood Garden property when it met earlier this month, but was unable to reach a consensus.
Three Otsego 2000 board members – Kent Barwick, Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr., and Robert Poulson – serve on both boards. Michael Moffat also served on both before rotating off Otsego 2000’s.
Lacking that consensus, the Otsego 2000 board appointed a committee of directors Martha McGowan and Scottie Baker to study the matter and report back.
Nicole Dillingham, Otsego 2000’s interim executive director, said Wednesday, Sept. 10, that the committee hadn’t been given any deadline, but that the annual meeting is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 26.
Meanwhile, details are sketchy, but word has been received that Martha Frey, the former Otsego 2000 executive director, and others are circulating a petition that asks the state Attorney General’s Office to reject the Cook Foundation’s petition to vacate the late Robert Cook’s will and allow the sale of the acreage, located directly across Otsego Lake from Kingfisher Tower.
Citing financial straits, the Cook Foundation is planning to sell the Cook mansion, located to the north of the portion of the property that has been developed as the actual garden, to Richard Hanna, for $2 million. Hanna, a neighbor, also happens to be the Republican candidate for Congress this fall, challenging the Democratic incumbent, Michael Arcuri, in the 24th District.
The petition will be delivered to Michael J. Danaher, Jr., a lawyer in the Attorney General’s regional headquarters in Binghamton who would review the Cook Foundation’s request.
Poulson, chairman of the Cook Foundation board, said, since several steps are involved in the approval, he doesn’t expect a decision is near.

Labels: 062708, 09-12-08, Brookwood Garden, Front Page, Otsego 2000

Hometown Oneonta, a 13,000-circulation, full-service newspaper mailed to every household in the 13820 zip code, will be launched in the City of the Hills Friday, Sept. 19.
The undertaking is a collaboration of Bill Reeves, former advertising director of The Daily Star, and Jim Kevlin, editor and publisher of The Freeman’s Journal.
A kick-off celebration is planned at 8 a.m. on the 19th, the first day of publication, at Brooks BBQ on Route 7 east of Oneonta. You’re welcome to attend.
“Our goal is to create a community-based publication that is a friend to the community,” said Reeves. “In looking into Hometown Oneonta, Jim and I discovered we can publish that kind of paper very cost-effectively, and share the savings with our advertisers.”
“The Freeman’s Journal is such a local success story – the penetration in Cooperstown is 110 percent – that we’re very excited about publishing the same kind of newspaper in our county’s commercial center,” Kevlin added. “Bill’s experience and knowledge of the Oneonta market made Hometown Oneonta a natural.”
Laura Cox has joined Hometown Oneonta as its managing editor. A recent magna cum laude graduate of Luther College in Iowa, she recently moved to the county with her husband, Matt, who is student at SUNY’s Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies.
Evan Jagels, a graduate student at SUNY Oneonta, will cover Oneonta sports for the new publication.
Anita Briggs, Hartwick, a former Daily Star photographer who has been running a freelance business, will be the photographer.
Michael Popek, The Freeman’s Journal webmaster, is developing www.hometownoneontaonline.com to keep readers up to date between publication days.
The plan is to open an office in Oneonta shortly, but for now the business and production functions are being handled out of The Freeman’s Journal headquarters at 21 Railroad Ave., Cooperstown. For information and combination ad rates, call 547-6103. To contact Bill Reeves directly, call 437-2320.

Labels: 062708, 09-12-08, Front Page, Hometown Oneonta, The Freeman's Journal

By JIM KEVLIN

---

COOPERSTOWN

Judging from discussion in and around the village trustees’ Police Committee meeting the other day, paid parking in the Doubleday Field lot will only be tinkered with, not changed in any broad-brush way.
And the results of the tinkering may very likely be expanded to the rest of the downtown in the Summer of 2009.
The Police Committee’s meeting Tuesday, Sept. 9, was in preparation for the trustees’ monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15, when the whole village board will have its first crack at adjusting to any lessons learned during the first summer of paid parking in Cooperstown.
Yes, promotion and signage need to be improved, Trustee Lynne Mebust, the committee chair, noted in a checklist put together during earlier conversations with Police Chief Diana Nicols and Parking Enforcement Officers Mike DeSimone and Thomas “Stretch” Reddick.
The hours of operation may not be just right. For instance, paid parking takes effect at 9 a.m., when few tourists are yet in town; the lot is still busy after 5 p.m., after paid parking has been lifted. Maybe the hours should be shifted back to maximize revenues.
Perhaps the all-day rate should be lowered – from $15 to $10 – to encourage people to stay put, thus reducing traffic on village streets.
However, the two Pay & Display machines were deemed “sufficient.”
Repeated breakdowns at one machine were deemed to have been solved: The one near Main Street had been set crooked and improperly caulked; that has now been fixed.
The problem of wet bills getting stuck in the machines should be solved if the credit-card option can be put into effect by next summer.
On the question of a spike in parking-ticket challenges, Chief Nicols said she doubted it was much more than usual; a bigger problem, she said, is Village Court hasn’t held a parking-ticket trial since May.
She said she had sat with Mary Ann Travis, Village Court clerk, and culled tickets that were clearly the result of honest mistakes: three, for instance, were issued to drivers while they were en route to the P&D machines to buy their vouchers.
“I was told it was an experiment,” said Helmut Michelitsch, who said paid parking drove many of his regular Metro Cleaner customers away. “Now, we’re already planning next year.”
Even the issue of low revenues related to projections – when $20,000 is deducted for the two machines, the village cleared about $50,000 – it was put in the best light.
Rather much less than the several hundred thousand dollars mentioned during the planning, Mebust said the best the village can expect is about $125,000 a summer, 65 percent of full capacity.
Next year, Deputy Mayor Jeff Katz pointed out, with the machines paid for, at least $70,000 should be cleared.
“That’s equivalent to a 4 or 5 percent tax increase that doesn’t have to be made,” he said.
Interviewed after the meeting, Mayor Carol B. Waller, who is not a Police Committee member and thus was not present, said that – contrary to the views of some trustees that the matter has been discussed enough – she wants to seek broad public input on where to go from here.

Labels: 062708, 09-12-08, Doubleday, Doubleday Field Lot, Front Page, Parking

NO WINNER: Republican-backed lawyer John Lambert won 63 votes in that Conservative Party primary to county Judge Jill Ghaleb’s 53; she is a Democratic-endorsed independent. But five absentee ballots, five ballots from a faulty machine in Butternuts, and the handicapped-voter’s ballot will decide the winner.

HOME REOPENS: The Farmers’ Museum will reopen the rebuilt 1845 Greek Revival Hosea Dimmick House Saturday, Sept. 13, for the Harvest Festival. Moved from Norwich in 2000, it will host “All the Modern Conveniences,” an exhibit of 19th-century appliances.

TRASH RECORD: A record 505 vehicles, representing 675 households, were counted at the 11th annual Hazardous Waste Collection Day Saturday, Sept. 6, at the county highway garage on Linden Avenue. Paint, solvents and electronic devices were disposed of through Care Environmental Inc. of Landing, N.J.

SCHOLARS SHINE: CCS’ Peter O. Kearns and Cherry Valley-Springfield’s Maggie R. Millner are among the 2008-09 semi-finalists for National Merit Scholarships.

BLOOD DRIVE: The National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum’s annual blood drive, sponsored by the American Red Cross and Bassett Healthcare, is 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13. Non-member donors get free admission; member donors get a gift.

VEGGIE POWER: The OCCA has won a $5,000 Norcross Wildlife Foundation grant to buy a diesel pickup to run on waste vegetable oil.

Labels: 062708, 09-12-08, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page

COOPERSTOWN

---

Who says the entrepreneurial spirit is dead?
Look at Devin Shannon Aguirre: He is hand-crafting pens that are being sold at Riverwood and at the National Baseball Hall of Fame store for $35, and he’s clearing $17 apiece.
He’s 10.
Devin, son of Chris Aguirre and Mary Beth Shannon, spends his summers in the Town of Middlefield, then goes back home to Balston Spa and is a fifth grader at the Waldorf School in Saratoga. (He has two older sisters: Mardy, 15, and Gracie, 14.)
Last spring at the Saratoga Environmental Expo, Devin happened upon a booth run by a company from Peapack, N.J. – Steebar – where wooden pens were being handmade.
He ordered the kit, but eventually ended up with supplies – a lathe, a skew chisel, a diagonal edge, pre-drilled rosewood and oak pen blanks, glue, sandpaper and a pen press (to hold the two sides together while the glue dries) – from Augum’s Penworks of Bartlesville, Okla.
School was out. Devin found himself in Middlefield, and got down to business.
“I just thought: It would be a thing to make me a couple of dollars every now and then,” he said. It’d keep me busy. And, also, I like making the pens.”
At first, it would take 45 minutes per pen, (although by summer’s end, he had it down to 15 minutes.)
A supply in hand, he went to ply his goods on Cooperstown’s Main Street and soon had an outlet: Rick Gibbon’s Riverwood.
“He really gave me my first big break,” the young entrepreneur said recently.
Rick, Devin said, began selling the pens for $17 apiece, but when the HoF picked up the line at $35, he followed suit.
Next thing Devin knew, a packet showed up in the mail from an Edward Breen of Kettering, Ohio, who, it turns out, was his first customer at Riverwood.
Here’s the story: When Edward’s father, Edmund, bought a home in the desireable Echo Spring Trail neighborhood of Kettering, his neighbor was James Cox, former Ohio governor and 1920 Democratic candidate for president.
As a house-warming gift, Cox retrieved an acorn from an ancient oak on his property and gave it to the elder Breen, who planted it out front.
Over the years, the little acorn – as they tend to do – grew into a great oak which the Breen family always called “The Governor’s Tree.”
A few years ago, the younger Breen had cut a branch of the tree and set it aside to dry.
The mystery envelope contained enough of that wood for Devin to make a half-dozen pens – ”Governor’s Pens,” if you will – which he sent back to Ohio, reserving just enough wood to make one for himself.
What a concept?
Wanna pen? E-mail Devin’s dad at aguirre_chris@hotmail.com. Just in time for Christmas.

Labels: 062708, 09-12-08, Baseball Hall of Fame, Devin Shannon, Front Page

Labels: 062708, Front Page

By JIM KEVLIN

---

HARTWICK

Last summer, Jesse Torruella, felt an odd lump.
The SUNY Oneonta grad, only 22 – he had only just joined the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department – stopped by Bassett.
“They told me I had testicular cancer,” he said matter-of-factly the other day.
An operation followed.
“That’s wasn’t so bad,” said Jesse, a standout senior on the Redskins football squad before graduating from CCS in 2003.
But it turned out to be just the beginning, and Jesse’s ordeal has rallied his fellow sheriff’s deputies.
Sgt. Mike Reckeweg and others are organizing a “One of Our Own” 5K Run/2-Mile Walk Saturday, Oct. 18, to raise money to help Jesse cover his bills. A Brooks BBQ will follow; an “All You Can Eat” pasta dinner is planned the night before.
(For details and to register, e-mail reckewegm@otsegocounty.com)
Three rounds of chemotherapy over the fall resulted in esophagitis, an inflammation that spiked fevers up to 105.
“I finally got through all that,” he said. “Then, this last May, my oncologist discovered a mass back by my kidney.”
A teratoma, impervious, as it happens, to chemo.
“The only way to get rid of it is to surgically remove it,” he said.
So July 1, this time at Strong Memorial in Rochester, surgeons made a 12-inch insertion in Jesse’s stomach and took the teratoma out.
Reconstructive surgery saved his left kidney, but, “I’ve been having complications” – lymphodema, he said.
During the testicular-cancer surgery, it’s standard to remove lymph nodes in the stomach, to prevent the cancer cells from spreading.
Now, without the lymph nodes, “this fluid that everybody has, my body can’t get rid of it,” he said.
Jesse Torruella looks like a strong young man. Not long ago, he used to bench-press 350.
But to try to control the fluid, he’s been put on a 5-grams-of-fat-a-day diet. He dropped 45 pounds, but the fluid keeps coming.
He’s had repeated “belly taps.” The other week, 10 liters were drained off; then, 8.5, then 6.5. He had dropped to 180, but the liquid pushes him back up to 200.
“If that doesn’t work,” he said, “they’ll put me back in the hospital with an IV. A shunt. That would be the absolutely last resort.”
Jesse – his father, William, was a state trooper; his mother, Lauren Wangerin, raises horses on Hunter Hill Farm, Hartwick – can’t get over how the other lawmen have stuck with him.
“The sheriff’s department’s been great,” he said. “I hadn’t been there a year, but I’ve been out three times. Everybody is very supportive.
“They’ve been taking care of me.”
Jesse sometimes feels discouraged, but sometimes he feels hopeful. This can be cured.
When he arrived at Strong Memorial, another young man was there with the same problem.
“Now he’s out,” said Jesse.

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Jesse Torruella

COOPERSTOWN

Parking-ticket appeals are “way up,” according to Village Justice Enid Hinkes, for three reasons.
Motorists who got tickets are saying:
• They didn’t see the modest parking signs set up at the Main and Chestnut street entrances.
• They put a Pay & Display slip on their dashboards, and still got a ticket.
• They got a ticket between the time they went looking for the Pay & Display machines and the time they got back to their cars.
“If there are more tickets,” said Hinkes, “you are going to get more protests.”
However, she said, the reasons for the protests are different this year, since this was the first summer tourists were charged for parking in the Doubleday Field lot.
In the past, the judge said, she had “an excellent acting judge” in the person of Jim Kelly, the retired Army officer who passed away last winter, to help her keep down the backlog.
Since, Mayor Carol B. Waller has appointed a replacement without consulting Hinkes, and the two are still at loggerheads.
Police Chief Diana Nicols reported to the village trustees at their last meeting that her department had issued 1,526 tickets over the summer, 50 percent more than the year before.
The trustees are planning an assessment of the first summer of paid parking this month to determine what adjustments may be necessary.

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Parking. Diana Nicols, Pay and Display

By JIM KEVLIN

---

COOPERSTOWN

When Gerald Evans went into pre-med at Columbia in 1947, the flood of students on the GI Bill made the prospect of getting into medical school very slim.
The now-retired Bassett Healthcare physician was told he needed, one, superb grades, two, to get elected to student council and, three, to get a varsity letter.
Suffice it to say, he got into medical school.
Many varied, challenging and exciting experiences – the military, a medical career; in recent years, he has circumnavigated the globe five times – occupied a busy life and kept him otherwise preoccupied for the next 57 years.
Then, on May 12, a packet marked “CONFIDENTIAL” in bold red letters arrived at his Fair Street home.
It notified him: He had been selected for induction into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame.
He and wife Anne and others associated with Columbia’s undefeated basketball season will be wined and dined at a black-tie dinner this October at Columbia’s Lehman Library, treated like VIPs, and introduced during halftime at the Columbia-Princeton football game on Saturday, Oct. 4, to receive the fans’ acclaim.
It all began with an overconfident young man, fresh from The Bronx, where he had demonstrated considerable prowess at schoolyard basketball, determined to take Columbia’s hardwood by storm.
“I thought I had this game down pat,” Evans recalled the other day. “What do these guys know?” he said to himself.
Soon, however, he noticed Coach Lou Rossini was spending most of his time on the other side of the court with players, Gerald learned, who had been recruited from top high school teams all over the country.
“I was just a walk-on.”
At the end of the first season, the coach told him bluntly, “You can’t play with these guys. But why don’t you become a manager?”
That, it turned out, was challenge enough.
Sophomore year, there are four “candidate managers.” Junior year, two assistant managers. Senior year, only one was asked to stay on.
In 1950-51 it was Gerald Evans, and what a year.
Princeton, Penn, all the big Ivy League rivals went down as Columbia swept to a 21-0 season.
The biggest hurdle, it turned out, was a surprise: Holy Cross, which boasted a certain player named Bob Cousy.
Columbia had just the tool, “a sloughing man-to-man defense.”
The pick – along with the player assigned to cover Cousy – would roll with the future NBA star when he came through, an effective double-teaming tactic that kept the dangerous foe in check, and Columbia won the game.
John Azary and Jack Molinas, two big men, were key contributors in taking the Lions to the NCAA.
At season’s end, a key player – Evans is too discrete to say which one – failed to turn in an assignment. (Yes, in those days, players who failed to meet their academic responsibilities were barred from play.)
Columbia lost in the first round.
Through all this, Gerald Evans had his hands full.
As manager, it was his job to host visiting teams, to welcome them, escort them to the locker room, and so on.
During games, the home-team manager was the official scorekeeper; the visiting manager, the official timekeeper.
At the same time, the coach was expecting the manager to keep him apprised if any player was getting into foul trouble, and to let him know where the team stood on time outs.
Evans had to be financially responsible, too. He was handed a wad of cash to cover team incidentals on road trips. For instance, he distributed 35 cents to each player to buy a hot dog at the end of every game.
Most of all, “you were in the thick of the action,” he remembers.

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Gerald Evans

BURLINGTON FLATS

Bernie Kassoy’s characteristic vitality may not have been as evident since the fall, in April, that led to his death Friday, Aug. 22, at Bassett Hospital.
But, undimmed by his passing, Bernard Kassoy’s energy, imagination and creativity – manifest in paintings, prints, photos and sculptures (he was also a filmmaker) – burst from the walls of the studio behind his County Route 16 home.
There’s a brilliant landscape in watercolor. There’s the human figure in a master draftsman’s hand. There’s the carved sculpture of a loving couple. There’s a gripping sequence of oils provoked by the Vietnam War.
From the deck of the studio you can see the sculpture garden, the result of the annual “junk sculpture” picnics that Bernie and Honey, his wife of 62 years, is famous for around here.
“He was truly an artist to the core, living the artist’s life,” said Sydney Waller, who showed his work at the Smithy-Pioneer Gallery and later at her Gallery 53.
She spoke of “his amazing inner fire and strength” and “his wonderfully confident sense of self.”
And you can see it in photos from the ’30s, the ’50s, the ’70s, when he moved to Otsego County parttime, and beyond.
Bernie Kassoy was born Oct. 23, 1914, in The Bronx, son of Toby and Harry Kassoy, immigrants from Uman, in The Ukraine, and the youngest of five siblings. The artistic gene was evident in his father, a tailor, whose colorful throws, created from scraps of material, stand up to the paintings in the son’s studio.
Bernie went to City College and, a year later, entered Cooper Union as well pursuing both programs “simultaneously, day and night,” his daughter Sheila reports. He began his art career as a WPA (Works Project Administration) artist and teacher.
He later taught art in New York City at Morris High School, DeWitt Clinton High School – where Sheila teaches today – The Bronx High School of Science and the High School of Music and Art.
During WWII, Bernie served as a photographer in the top secret Canadian-American unit known as the First Special Service Force, celebrated in the 1968 film “The Devil’s Brigade,” with William Holden. (He was later assigned to Lord Mountbatten’s headquarters in Ceylon as a mapmaker.)
Honey and Bernie met just before he went into the Army. Both were active in the teachers’ union, which organized plays, and he brought Sammy Mostel (later Zero Mostel) to an audition. Sammy cracked up the cast, a memorable evening.
Bernie knew how to ride a horse, but had always used an English saddle, with stirrups that slipped off easily. Training near Helena, Mont., Bernie was riding a horse that panicked; as he slipped from the Western saddle, his foot got caught in the stirrup and his leg was wrenched.
Recuperating in New York, he was sitting in the balcony at another teachers’ union event and, seeing Honey – Hortense is her given name – coming up the stairs, he immediately knew she would be his wife.
“That was in February,” said Honey. “We were married in June.”
Twin careers in art and teaching followed, and as retirement approached, they saw an ad in the New York Times for a property upstate.
“I want that one!” said Bernie, pointing to a small white house perched on a hill, as they approached what became their home in Butternut Valley.
Since that time, 1973, his paintings, pastels and prints have been exhibited regularly at the Pioneer Gallery in Cooperstown, including the current exhibit, and the Hilton-Bloom and Stahl Galleries in Gilbertsville, as well as in numerous galleries in New York City.
Some of Bernard’s photographs are in the permanent collections of The Fenimore Art Museum and the New York Public Library. His cartoons of social commentary, originally published in Teacher News, are in the Theodore Kheel Collection of the Labor Library at Cornell University.
More recently, Bernie and Honey appeared in the documentary film, “Strange Fruit.”
They were featured in a photography/interview project about couples who had been married over 40 years by Robert Fass entitled “As Long as We Both Shall Live.” (The complete interview is accessible on the Internet).
In Cooperstown, the Kassoys were often seen walking down village streets, lunching at The Otesaga, or attending the opera and openings at the Pioneer Gallery. He would wear a white hat or black beret at a jaunty angle, cane in hand, and a smile on his face.
Bernard Kassoy is survived by his wife, his daughters Meredith Kassoy of Bedford, Mass., and Sheila Krstevski of Yorktown Heights, and his grandchildren Alexander and Toby Krstevski.
Donations in his memory can be made to ASCA (the American Society of Contemporary Artists), the Rosenberg Fund for Children, or the War Resisters’ League.
Sunday, Aug. 24, friends gathered at the Route 16 property for a memorial. Another memorial was planned Sunday, Aug. 31, at Amalgamated Housing in The Bronx, the oldest limited equity housing cooperative in the U.S., where the couple lived while in New York.
When he was a boy, Bernie trained with Joseph Pilates, the exercise innovator, and continued to exercise daily throughout his life.
While Honey would sculpt, Bernie would paint or pursue another of his artistic outlets. While they supported each other, there was a bit of competition in their relationship, too.
A few days ago, Honey began sculpting a large log next to the studio. Not to be outdone, Bernie took out his paint box and did three watercolors, which were set on a table to one side of the room.
Surveying the scene, his wife said it all, “He was my darling.”
Four days before he died, he attended the Smithy-Pioneer Gallery’s Aug. 18 opening.

Labels: 062708, Bernie Kassoy, Front Page, Obituaries

GARRATTSVILLE

Where the County of Otsego has expressed no interest in a moratorium on natural-gas exploration until the impacts are studied, the Town of New Lisbon is taking matters into its own hands.
“Lacking anyone else’s moratorium,” said Town Supervisor Robert E. Taylor, “we decided to do it ourselves.”
The town is consulting with its attorney, Martin Tillapaugh of Cooperstown, and if the wording is in place in time, the question may be voted on at the next town board meeting, the second Tuesday in September.
Taylor said the town board was responding to 20 people who turned out at its last meeting expressing concerns about natural-gas drilling, primarily in two areas:
One, how much damage would be done to town roads and bridges if big drilling rigs are going back and forth on them?
Two, what chemicals are going into the ground during the hydro-fracking process, and where will they end up?
(Under horizontal hydro-fracking, a vertical shaft is driven 10,000 feet into the ground, then pipes run out horizontally from that central point.
(Water and chemicals are pumped into the ground to break up the Marcellus Shale Formation, and sand to keep cracks from closing. Natural gas can then seep to the surface.)
Taylor said the town board’s intent is not to stop drilling, but to delay it sufficiently so the impacts can be understood and, perhaps, minimized.
Asked how many of New Lisbon’s 1,116 residents have been approached by companies seeking to lease natural-gas rights, the supervisor said, “I have no way of knowing the figure, but I would say it’s widespread.”
County Attorney Jim Konstanty declined to comment on powers relegated to towns, compared to those of a county, but he said the town moratorium may be “duplication.”
Gov. David Paterson has directed the state Department of Environmental Conservation to update its Generic Environmental Impact Statement and, until that’s done, a de-facto moratorium is in place statewide, Konstanty said.
The county attorney said he was unaware of any other town considering a natural-gas moratorium.
Howevrer, Adrian Kuzminski of Fly Creek, a Sustainable Otsego leader, said he proposed a moratorium to the Otsego Town Board, although he hasn’t heard back yet.
He said he’s heard similar rumblings in Otego and Cherry Valley.
Thursday, a Sustainable Otsego contingent planned to attend a meeting of the county’s Solid Waste and Environmental Concerns Committee to present the enabling legislation to establish a county energy authority.
James Andela, a Richfield Springs businessman, proposed the county establish its own authority to develop natural-gas resources for the maximum benefit of the county.,

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Garrattsville, Natural Gas Drilling

COOPERSTOWN

---

‘The air is so clear,” said Cici Qu.
“...and the sky is blue,” added Paris Pu in wonderment.
“The environment is wonderful,” chimed in Tracy Chen.
The three, among 11 students who had just arrived from China’s earthquake-rocked Sechuan Province a few days before, were lunching on “all-American food” Saturday, Aug. 23, at T.J.’s & The Homeplate Restaurant on Main Street.
They were answering the question: What surprised you most about the United States?
And what surprised them about Americans?
“Passion,” came the reply.
Americans, they had been told, are cold, selfish and standoffish. Not so, the girls said; everywhere they’ve gone they were warmly welcomed.
The 11 students arrived on Friday, Aug. 15, in New York City, and were feted that evening at the Chinese Consulate before heading north to Herkimer. HCCC President Ann Marie Murray and several administrators traveled to New York City for the festivities.
The 11 are among 150 students from Sechuan in New York State for two semesters through the SUNY China 150 Program.
The students are being housed off-campus, so as to better experience life in the U.S.
Since their arrival, Associate Deans Rob Palmieri and Janet Tamburrino, who were chaperoning the giggling, high-energy crew at T.J.’s, have scheduled visits around the region daily to acclimate students before classes begin.
Tracy was finishing up a plate of spaghetti. She wasn’t sure what it was called, but she’d experienced back home in 500,000-population Mianyang City, her hometown, at Peter’s, a Western-style restaurant. Cici, also from Mianyang City, went with a chicken Parmesan sandwich, and Paris, from Deyang, turkey with gravy and the trimmings.
The 18-year-olds said their anglicized first names were given them by their English teachers. (Paris said the Hilton one wasn’t her namesake. Her Chinese name, Puwei, is pronounced like “Paris” in Chinese. Also, “I love the City of Paris.”)

Labels: 062708, China, Front Page

Little Madison Hastings was the center of attention at the Saturday, Aug. 23, fundraiser in Cherry Valley to help pay medical bills for treatment of her heart defect. With her is mom Sharon Timzano, seated, and Belinda Mott.

NOT YET: Ballparks of Cooperstown, based in Glenview, Ill., which plans to build a mini Wrigley Field and mini Fenway Park on Route 20 just east of Richfield Springs, may close on the required 300 acres in the next 30 days, according to Realtor Nancy Schroeter, Springfield Center. The anticipated date of sale was Aug. 4.

NEW LEADERS: SUNY Oneonta classes began Wednesday, Aug. 27, under the leadership of new president Nancy Kleniewski; Hartwick College classes begin Tuesday, Sept. 2, under the leadership of its new president, Margaret Drugovich.

FUTURE FOCUS: Chairman Bill Waller planned to convene the first meeting of the village’s 2025 Commission at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, at 22 Main.

THE OTHER ONE: M-Power LLC is planning a 72-turbine wind farm near Cooperstown, N.D. The plan is before the North Dakota Public Service Commission.

...AND AGAIN: There are 6,000 natural-gas and oil wells in Otsego County, Mich., which is 500 square miles.

OFF TO ROME: Novelist Dana Spiotta and her husband, Clem Coleman, closed The Rose & Kettle in Cherry Valley for the winter on Tuesday, Aug. 26. Dana has a fellowship with the American Academy in Rome. Daughter Audrey is going along with her parents. The restaurant will reopen in 2009.

NEW COOPERSTOWN? Babe Ruth’s granddaughter, Linda Ruth Tosetti of Connecticut, has expressed support for the idea of preserving “old” Yankee Stadium to be developed as an alternative to Cooperstown.

WIND AT ISSUE: The PSC will vote Wednesday, Sept. 3, on whether to allow Iberdrola to buy Energy East and continue to pursue Upstate wind farm.

Labels: 062708, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page

By JIM KEVLIN

---

COOPERSTOWN

The goal of Buddhism is “tame your own mind,” in the words of Yogi Patchok Rinpoche, whose acolytes will be showing people how to do so beginning next summer on Glimmerglen Road, four miles outside of Cooperstown.
Gloria N. Neilsen has donated her 200-acre Winterglen farm in the Town of Otsego to the Chokgyur Lingpa Foundation. On a flagpole in front of the low-slung but extensive ranch home, you can see a Tibetan flag, as well as several of the sect’s banners.
Based in Nepal, the foundation operates centers in Denmark, Germany and Malaysia as well as the U.S., the Rangjung Yeshe Gomde in northern California.
The yogi – monks are celibate; yogis are not – in charge of the local operation, Patchok Rinpoche, is only 27 years old, but has been in the U.S. since 2003, mostly involved in programs art the Mendocino County center.
This is the organization’s first East Coast location, he said Sunday, Aug. 24, during an afternoon reception at Winterglen. In all, about three dozen people attended two sessions.
In an interview, Patchok Rinpoche said he will be here – along with his wife and their son, now one-month old – during summers, when most of the activities at the farm will occur.
A handful of monks will live there, but the programs – meditation, philosophy and also yoga instruction – will be primarily for the public, and will be in the large green barn, the former dressage ring. There will be 1-2 week sessions; also a long session of about a month.
“In America, everybody needs to work,” Patchok explained.
Buddhism, he continued, is 2,527 years old; Tibetan Buddhism, 1,300 years old. By contrast, the foundation’s tradition is fairly short, dating back to the 19th century.
Its founder, Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, born in 1828, was considered a “manifestation” of past Buddhist leaders. The current leader of the movement is Chokling Rinpoche, Patchok’s father, who was at Winterglen over the weekend as well.
Jaime Choe, a native Malaysian, will be on the property year ‘round.
Patchok said the foundation is making sure all of its activities are in line with Town of Otsego zoning regulations and other requirements.

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Otsego

By JIM KEVLIN

---

ROSEBOOM

Every year, Barbara Lucas is thrilled as Roseboom’s “Antique Power Days” approach.
At day’s end, she cries.
Then Barbara, a retired Cooperstown postal clerk, starts preparing for the next year.
“She’ll be crying again tonight,” predicted Jack Van Buren, looking around the field on the hamlet’s east end on Sunday, Aug. 17, at dozens upon dozens of vintage tractors and antique machines, and hundreds of happy people, looking at the displays, bidding on auction items, or chomping on Gaige’s Old-Fashion French Fries.
“You don’t see ‘Made in China’ on any of this stuff,” said Chuck Brainerd, who had brought his machines up from Gilboa.
One stripped the kernels off corn cobs. Another ground the kernels into corn meal, and so on.
Van Buren and his wife, Norma, started the Power Days 10 years ago out of “the love of old engines – and people.”
They’d been to the one in Sharon Springs, and why not?
Year One – 1998 – there were 70-some tractors in the parade that loops around the hamlet. This year, there were a record “278, 279 tractors,” said son Aaron, who was 19 when it all started. Now, daughter-in-law Lorel helps too.
Old-engine lovers, a breed apart, are also birds of a feather: People who haven’t seen each other for 5-6 years is common. The other year, two men who had been neighbors in the Hudson Valley and hadn’t seen each other in 20 years ran into each other in Roseboom.
Come over and meet Bob Scramlin, Jack suggested.
Scramlin had more than a dozen tractors, many of them International Farmalls, in the parade. It turns out he had another couple dozen at home, 36 in all.
He has been driving tractor since age 9, when he started helping his father, Louis, on the family farm off Route 61 between Cherry Valley and Roseboom, and continued right up until he went off to SUNY Cobleskill.
Returning in 1960, he went back to work with his father, and the two worked side by side until the older Scramlin died in 1988. In 1992, he sold the cattle and retired, although Bob’s son Ronald is still involved.
For his part, Jack Van Buren had 25 tractors when he was running a farm, “and we used them all,” said Aaron.
Everyone agreed that a John Deere B.O. Lindeman Crawler, brought to the show by Steve Witham of Cherry Valley, was the most unusual entry in this year’s show.
For one thing, it’s small. Few were made. And it gets its traction, not from those big wheels, but from treads like those on a tank.
About that time, Barbara Lucas, in a straw hat, rode by on a small yellow tractor.
“I look forward to this, because it’s back to the way it ought to be,” she said, “simple country life, loving neighbors.
“I’ll cry,” she admitted, “and then I’ll start planning for next year.”
Lacking brakes, Barbara had a tough time keeping the tractor still, and finally it did nose off down Beaver Street toward Route 166.
“Get yourself a tractor,” were her final words of advice. “It’s the most relaxing thing.”

---

Labels: 062708, Antique Power Days, Front Page, Roseboom

By JIM KEVLIN
COOPERSTOWN

There was a bit of a gasp when the number was announced.
Over the summer of 2008, the village Police Department’s parking officers handed out 1,526 tickets, $35 each, Police Chief Diana Nicols had just told the village trustees.
“A new world record for parking tickets,” she added.
That’s a 45 percent increase from 1,055 the year before.
This was at the trustees’ monthly meeting on Monday, Aug. 18.
Paid-parking revenues are $45,306, reported Trustee Lynn Mebust, who chairs the Police Committee.
If you add in parking fines – as some other communities do, she said – that’s another $20,000.
But there was another wrinkle, Mebust said, “an increase in the number of people who are pleading not guilty,” which is causing a backlog in village court.
Some of the cases may not be heard for months, and if no officer appears to testify, the tickets will be thrown out, she said.
Parking Enforcement Officer Thomas “Stretch” Redding’s appointment runs out on Labor Day Weekend.
So the trustees determined to explore keeping Redding on a retainer of sorts, so he could appear at court dates in the months ahead.
In an interview the next morning, Chief Nicols said she’s seen good things and challenges coming out of the first summer of paid parking in the Doubleday Field parking lot and beefed up enforcement generally.
It’s easier to find a two-hour parking space downtown, she said. Local people are complaining less. And tourists seem to like having the Doubleday lot available.
In years past, when tourists asked where to park, she said, “we didn’t really have an answer for them.”
The chief herself has noticed a “bubble effect,” with drivers
who used to park all day in the Doubleday lot fanning out to new areas: upper Main Street and the streets leading up from Lake. Bassett employees, she said, have begun parking on Walnut and Eagle streets, where residents hadn’t complained about all-day parkers before.
Some things will have to be addressed, she said.
For one thing, there needs to be some sort of cover on the Pay & Display machines. The chief’s seen prospective customers juggling with an umbrella, a purse and a $1 bill in the rain, trying to feed the machine.
Also, one of the machines – the one by the Main Street entrance – keeps breaking down, and often will only accept coins.
Neither machine, she said, will take credit cards until the new cell-phone transmitter is installed in the courthouse tower to provide dependable wireless service.
On the issue of tougher enforcement, the chief said, a new approach has “made it harder to mess with the system.”
Previously, the parking officer would chalk the tires of cars parked in two-hour zones.
Now, the chief said, Redding and the other parking officer, Mike Desimone, will write down license plates. If a car has only been moved a couple of spots after two hours, or if two drivers have swapped places, they will be ticketed.
This is within the law, she said, as long as the cars remain in the same zone as defined in the law – Elm Street between Pioneer and Chestnut, say.
If drivers were to move from one defined zone to another defined zone, they should not be ticketed.
At this point, Mayor Carol B. Waller happened by, and she was unrepentant about the need for paid parking: With clay pipes in the 1899 sewers collapsing, the village is faced with $3 million in sewerage, road and sidewalk repairs on the south end.
“It’s either parking,” said Waller, “or raise taxes.”
Trustee Mebust is already preparing for the September post mortem, and said she plans to have an initial conversation with the chief and enforcement officers in the next few days.
“Are we maximizing the use of Doubleday Field?” she asked. “It’s always been used heavily by locals, but it’s not featured on any of the promotional materials. It’s not marked on the maps or promoted on the web sites.”
The tricky challenge, she said, is to make people aware of the Doubleday lot “without undermining the trolley system.”
The Police Committee will continue the review when it meets on the second Tuesday in September, and then the trustees on the third Monday.
Mayor Waller said some trustees are against bringing the public back into the conversation, since the debate became so inflamed last year, but she feels the public has to be consulted.
For his part, Marc Kingsley, Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce president, said he hasn’t seen anything that would change his support of the chamber’s position last fall: That a comprehensive plan for parking – a big picture look – needs to be done.
Meanwhile, “they’re enforcing it very strongly,” he said. “If they’re too strong, they drive tourists away. Is this level of enforcement necessary?”

Labels: 062708, Doubleday, Front Page, Parking

COOPERSTOWN

---

It may be the jewel of Otsego County government, but can Otsego County afford it?
That’s what the county Board of Representatives’ Otsego Manor Committee was thinking as it was planning to meet Thursday, Aug. 21 to begin deliberations on the 2009 budget.
“It’s not that anyone is in favor of selling it,” said county Rep. Scott Harrington, R-Oneonta, who chairs the committee.
“But it’s one of the options we have to consider.”
The state, facing its own fiscal crisis, is cutting back, probably Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.
And the impact of skyrocketing oil prices on the heating bill is still uncertain, Harrington said.
Other than selling, options include turning it over to a management company, or simply finding ways to make deep cuts to keep it affordable.
A county-owned facility like Otsego Manor “is really unusual in rural Upstate New York. I think it’s the only one,” Harrington said.

Labels: 062708, Front Page, Otsego Manor