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Bound Volumes
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Friday, October 30, 2009
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175 YEARS AGO
Pedestrianism – Walking, as it is the least expensive, so also it is one of the most healthy exercises of the human frame. By the introduction of vehicles with elastic springs and soft cushions, pedestrian exercises have been almost placed out of the pale of good society.
The brig William Tell, Captain Riley, from Tangiers, which arrived a few days ago, brought to this country, a magnificent present of animals from the Emperor of Morocco to the President of the United States. Among these, we understand, is one of the largest and finest lions ever brought to America.
November 10, 1834
150 YEARS AGO
Advertisement – Perry’s Patent Sausage Stuffers and Meat Cutters, manufactured by S. Stone. The above are the best articles now in use, both of which are for sale, and their operation warranted by me. Traps – 500 Rat, Mink and Fox Traps. Also, a complete assortment of rotary wire and wire spring mouse traps for sale by C.J. Stillman.
November 4, 1859
125 YEARS AGO
The election in this village passed off very quietly last Tuesday (Grover Cleveland was elected President). A warm rain fell gently during most of the day. The interest shown in the election was evinced by the fact that the vote exceeded that ever before cast at this poll, being 829. Four years ago it was 821; and at no previous year in many had it gone above 767. The parade on Monday evening last was an excellent burlesque and comic affair, which put everybody in good humor. About 50 boys dressed in girls’ clothes, with music, torches, and appropriate banners, paraded as followers of the woman’s candidate, Mrs. Lockwood, singing "O Belva Ann, Fair Belva Ann, I know that thou art not a man; But I shall vote, pull off my coat, and vote for thee fair Belva Ann."
November 8, 1884
100 YEARS AGO
Mr. and Mrs. Guy Palmer of Cooperstown, New York, who perform as acrobats under the name "The Aerial Wilsons," were in Wilmington, Delaware last Wednesday at the Grand Opera House. While working on a suspended, swinging ladder, one of the rungs upon which Mrs. Palmer was seated broke and she fell 15 feet to the stage floor, landing on her side, severely shaken and bruised. When the accident occurred, the ladder tipped and her husband followed her to the stage. He was hurt about the face, the cartilage of his nose broken, and that organ badly gashed. While neither Palmer is seriously injured, it was necessary to discontinue the act and cancel several engagements.
November 6, 1909
75 YEARS AGO
The death of Fred L. Quaif, a prominent and lifelong resident of Cooperstown, occurred under tragic circumstances on Thursday afternoon of last week. The body, seated in his car, was found by Mrs. Quaif in the garage at his home on Nelson Avenue at about 4:45 o’clock. The motor was in operation and the doors and windows closed. Dr. F.J. Atwell and Dr. Sidney B. Tryon were called and reported death was caused by carbon monoxide gas poisoning. Mr. Quaif was born here February 9, 1863, a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Robert Quaif. Following the business of his father, Mr. Quaif was a well-known hop dealer during the days of extensive hop cultivation in this county. He retained, up to the present time, a well-developed farm at Six-Mile Point on the Otsego Lake Road.
November 7, 1934
50 YEARS AGO
Editorial – At the beginning of the 20th century there were only 3 million persons in the United States over 65 years of age; now there are more than 16 million. According to Senator Pat McNamara of Michigan, 3,000 Americans pass the 65-year mark every day and by current longevity tables one fourth of these can expect to live 20 more years. Viewing a trend which has increased longevity by 45 percent in less than 60 years, Dr. Louis M. Orr, president of the American Medical Association, says, "We have added years to man’s life. Now we can face an even greater challenge – adding life to these years. The needs of the retired described by experts are primarily, but by no means entirely, financial.
November 4, 1959
25 YEARS AGO
The Cooperstown Emergency Squad has admitted its first members who were not firefighters and its first woman. Cooperstown’s former police chief Hank Nicols and his wife Joan, a lab technician and nurse’s aide, were the first people to join the squad without having to go through the fire department. The squad changed its by-laws several months ago and the Nicolses were the first to apply under the new rules. Both are qualified as EMTs.
November 7, 1984
10 YEARS AGO
Dale Petroskey, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, suggested Monday that, preliminary to further development in the area, a study should be undertaken to determine the region’s ability to welcome tourists without suffering a negative impact on the quality of life.
November 5, 1999
Labels: 11-07-08, Bound Volumes, Columns, Glimmerglass |
posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM   |
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Locals
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Sunday, November 2, 2008
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New Administrator Appointed To Lead Thanksgiving Home
COOPERSTOWN
 Laurie A. Blatt, clinical systems coordinator at Bassett Healthcare’s Nursing and Patient Care Services, has been appointed administrator at The Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home.
She succeeds Patricia C. Donnelly, who is retiring after 17 years.
Laurie Blatt began her Bassett career in 1982. Previously, she had been an R.N. at the Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, and head nurse at Buffalo Children’s Hospital.
She received a bachelor’s from Hartwick College, and her R.N. certification from Buffalo General Hospital School of Nursing.
Mrs. Blatt’s mother-in-law was a resident of the home and praised “the caring environment that it nurtures and provides its residents. I am looking forward to joining this wonderful organization and working with the creative, active community it serves.”
She and her husband Fred, an artist, sculptor and teacher, live in Fly Creek. Their three children are Alexandra Blatt of Boulder, Colo.; Dr. Jaimie Bertino of Indianapolis, and Christopher Bertino of Oneonta.
Bassett Dean New President At Grad School
COOPERSTOWN
Laura Schweitzer, who pioneered Albany Medical College’s collaboration with Bassett Healthcare, has been appointed president of Union Graduate College in Schenectady, effective in January.
Schweitzer, who is also Bassett Healthcare’s chief academic officer, replaces Sue Lehrman, who took a position at Providence College.
Schweitzer, 55, owns a home in Loudonville with her husband Michael Gruenthal, chair of neurology at Albany Medical Center.
The 500-student graduate college, which now leases space from Union College, is building a $8 million campus expected to be ready by next fall. It has a staff of 50 and a $5 million budget.
Prior to joining Bassett, Schweitzer was vice president of academic affairs at SUNY Upstate Medical University and vice provost at Syracuse University.
She also spent 18 years at Louisville University as dean of two schools and presidential fellow.
She has a doctorate in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and a post doctoral degree in neuroscience from Duke University.
Otesaga, Cooper Inn Honor 16 For Longevity
COOPERSTOWN
 The Otesaga and The Cooper Inn acknowledged 16 employees at its annual Recognition Breakfast recently, where owner Jane Forbes Clark and General Manager John Irvin presented longevity awards.
Serving 25 years are Luther Stalter (maintenance), Richard Daprie (Cooper Inn front desk) and Glenn Schilling (front desk).
Serving 20 years are William June (security), Deb Knoblauch (housekeeping) and Howard Jewell (beverage).
Serving 15 years are Barbara Thorn (laundry), Dick Sliter (gift shop), George Seiler and Ralph Ryan (both in the pro shop).
Serving 10 years are Keith Lindsay (golf maintenance), Terri Winter (accounting), John Adams (pro shop), Ken Wayman (Cooper Inn front desk), Stephen Beals (golf maintenance) and Harry Pierce (steward).
Seventh Coop Loop Run From Clark Center
COOPERSTOWN
 Cooperstown’s Caleb Edmonds, pictured at left took first place in the seventh annual Coop Loop 5K Sunday, Nov. 4, at the Clark Sports Center, with a time of 17:23.
The leading female runner was Cooperstown’s Nicole Wischoff, also pictured at left, with a time of 21:35. She was 14th overall.
Other runners who placed in the top 10 were Kevin Faller, Cooperstown, 19:15; Kyle Breier, Oneonta, 19:17; Toby Wilcox, Fly Creek, 19:22; Dalton Roe, Milford, 19:32; Clark Dickson, Cooperstown, 20:10; Derek Ratliff,
Cooperstown, 20:34; Nathan Sentz, Cooperstown, 20:45; John Raymond,Cooperstown, 20:45, and Zachary Fanion, Cooperstown, 20:52.
 ROOKIE OF WEEK: Maria Arnot of Milford was named North Atlantic Conference Women’s Soccer Rookie of the Week for scoring three goals for Castleton against Green Mountain to bring her team’s record to 1-1. She has score 9 goals and had 4 assists.Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown Area Events, Locals |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:18 PM |
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Parties Court Hayes
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Trustee Kull Retires; Milo Stewart Unsure
By JIM KEVLIN
COOPERSTOWN
Both Republicans and Democrats are courting Tim Hayes, director of SUNY Oneonta’s Center for Community and Economic Development, to run for village trustee in next March’s elections.
At least one vacancy will need to be filled: Grace Kull, who is 86, has decided not to seek another term. “I’d be 90 by the time it was over,” she said.
Milo V. Stewart Jr., the other trustee whose term expires, said he hasn’t made up his mind whether to run again.
Hayes, 30, a Hartwick native and former Freeman’s Journal managing editor, confirmed Wednesday, Nov. 5, that he’s been approached.
“I’ve checked it over with my family” and received the go-ahead there, he said. Hayes and wife Lindsay, who live on Beech Street in the village’s Irish Hill section, have two young daughters.
Since he is a state employee, he said, he is checking to see what rules may restrict his activities in the political sphere.
While he is based in Oneonta, his role involves SUNY’s Cooperstown-based programs: the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies and the Biological Field Station.
“I’m just pleased to have been approached by both the Democrats and the Republicans,” he said, but added, “I don’t think it” – village government – “is necessarily a partisan thing.”
A trustee, he said, should focus on “the long-term best interest for the Village of Cooperstown.”
He’s registered as an independent, but “I would take either endorsement. But I don’t think it’s necessary, especially in our local elections.”
In decades past, a “unity ticket” was routinely put together by village leaders, but Bill Waller, when he became village Republican chairman, favored the idea of contested elections.
They raise interest in local issues, he has said, plus, many people felt disenfranchised by not being given a choice.
As it stands, both Kull and Stewart are Democrats, as are Trustees Jeff Katz and Lynne Mebust. The Republicans are Neil Weiller and the mayor, Carol B. Waller.
The seventh board member, Eric Hage, received the Republican endorsement but ran as an independent.
A CCS grad and cum laude graduate of Bowdoin College, Hayes is a candidate for an M.A. in business & policy studies from Empire State College.
Returning from college in 2000, he served as this newspaper’s managing editor for two years, then another two years as a youth development specialist with the LEAF Council on Alcoholism/Addictions.
He joined the SUNY center in 2005 as associate director, and was elevated to director last year.
He has served on the boards of the United Way, the Cooperstown Winter Carnival and the Cooperstown Lions Club.Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown, Front Page, Tim Hayes |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:13 PM |
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Testimonial Surprises Titan Of County Arts
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Macris Started Glimmerglass Opera, Much More
By LAURA COX
ONEONTA
 It took a great man to found five of Otsego County’s most prominent cultural organizations.
That was the consensus among speakers who came to praise Peter Macris, recently retired to Connecticut, at a surprise testimonial dinner Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Foothills Performing Arts Center, one of those five organizations.
“Peter does not just imagine, he lifts up one foot and changes the world around him,” said Ashok Malhotra, SUNY Oneonta philosophy professor. The longtime friend of the honoree recalled, “We did not compete; we inspired each other.”
As for Macris’ youthfulness: Malhotra always asked his friend where the fountain he drank from was located.
Other speakers included two Foothills executive committee members, Doug Reeser, president, and Gene Bettiol, first vice president, as well as Foothills colleague Sam Goodyear and Mayor John S. Nader.
Filling in for her campaigning husband, state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, Cindy Seward said, “Jim was delighted to partner with Peter and so many others to make it happen, but we certainly have to credit Peter for his drive and experience and perseverance.”
And what a difference Macris made, his friends said, bringing people together to found the Catskill Choral Society, Glimmerglass Opera, Orpheus Theatre, the Oneonta Boys Choir and, finally, Foothills.
Macris retired last summer, and in August moved with his wife Ursula to Connecticut, closer to their daughter and grandchildren in Connecticut.
He had been told this was a fundraising dinner; instead, he found his three children – from Colorado and Indiana in addition to Connecticut – and seven grandchildren there to cheer him on.
Macris was born and grew up in Buffalo. He attended University of Buffalo for his undergraduate studies, Middlebury for his master’s and New York University for his Ph.D., where he specialized in German playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Drafted into the Army, served as a singer and clarinetist in the 84th Army Band in Europe, as well as leading many trips for students to Germany and Austria.
He then accepted a job at SUNY Oneonta as a professor of foreign language, teaching German Literature, and spent his career at that ever-growing institution.
Macris started programs in German theater and music at SUNY Oneonta. He was influential in a self-instruction program for students seeking to learn rarely taught languages.
“Sometimes people wonder how a German literature professor ended up in theater,” he said. “But what is theater but words?”
From the start, he had a dream of founding an opera, and one of the things that attracted him to Oneonta was its proximity to Cooperstown, which he perceived as an ideal place to make his dream a reality.
“It reminded me of an opera festival I visited in Bregenz, Austria,” he said, which featured an open-air theater. “Surrounded by the hills and mountains, on Lake Constance, the festival was the model for Glimmerglass.”
Before the opera, Macris launched the Catskill Choral Society.
“I was personally invested in the choral society. I started it knowing I wanted choral singers ready for an opera company I wanted to start, and there have been singers from the society in the opera every year since it began.”
“The opera took off like wildfire, and at the same time, as an oddity of fate I became the head of the Language Department at SUCO.”
The opera’s first season, in CCS’ Sterling Auditorium, was cast mostly with people Macris knew from in Buffalo, New York and Europe. An audition in New York for two of the parts drew 50-60 people.
“The opera took off like wildfire,” he said.
The second season, the producers had to stop auditions at 200 people, and could have auditioned many more.
By the third season, Glimmerglass Opera performances had been reviewed in New York Times and Boston Globe, even a newspaper in England. It was launched.
This was a busy time for Macris who, as it happened, was named Language Department chair at SUNY Oneonta just as the opera got under way.
“I had a double life,” he said, “and that became very heavy; my summers off were spent leading the opera.”
After five years and four opera seasons, Macris turned to something he thought would be less demanding: Orpheus Theatre, which he envisioned as a professional organization.
“Even though we are in the country and not in the city, I thought there was enough talent to do that, as long as we bring a couple of professionals from outside this area to play key roles,” he said.
That turned into a 17-year gig, and Macris often thought of a building to house the undertaking. With support from many prominent community members, The Foothills Performing Arts Center took form.
“Gene Bettiol, a businessman, Jim Seward and so many others were important in making this happen, saw it would be good for the area,” said Macris. “We have been a railroad town and then a college town; we thought something like an art center would fit well.”Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown, Front Page, Glimmerglass Opera, Peter Macris |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:01 PM |
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Hanna-Arcuri Race Too Close To Decide
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On Presidential Line, Democrat Victorious,
But Voters Cross Back To Support Seward
By JIM KEVLIN
 Since the Bush-Gore standoff, Election Night doesn’t necessarily mean it’s over.
Yes, Tuesday, Nov. 4, was a historic day nationally as well in Otsego County: Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate since LBJ’s 1964 landslide to win Otsego County.
And, yes, the voters crossed back across the line en masse to support state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, who was facing his first Democratic challenger since 1996.
Republicans also gave enough support to John Lambert to make him county judge over Jill Ghaleb, who had the support of Democrats and Conservatives.
Dan Shea, retired SUNY Oneonta political science professor, was comfortable enough to say, “It says something about Otsego County changing. It’s still Republican, but probably less so.”
And, yes, Republican Sandy Treadwell conceded in the 20th Congressional District to Democrat Kristen Gillibrand.
But it isn’t over yet in the 24th, where incumbent Democrat Mike Arcuri, the former Oneida County D.A., is only 6,000 votes ahead of Republican challenger Richard Hanna of Cooperstown, and there are at least 9,000 absentee ballots still to be counted.
Hanna spokesperson Renee Gamella said it will be “about a week; at least a week” before the situation becomes clear.
In addition to the absentee ballots – the figure 9,000 has been widely reported, but Gamella said she believes it could be considerably more than that – the machines have to go through a routine recanvassing.
Also, there are affidavit votes – if a voter, for instance, isn’t on the lists in a particular precinct, he or she can fill out an affidavit and vote regardless. How many of those votes may have been cast in the 24th is still unknown, Gamella said, and they have to be identified and counted.
Only when all that’s done, she said, can the decision be made whether to ask for a recount or not.
“The campaign wants to make sure every vote it counted,” she said.
As it happens, Arcuri won every county – Otsego included – except Herkimer and his native Oneida.
As in the nation, Nov. 4 was a day of anticipation from Southside Oneonta to Richfield Springs.
While lines were nowhere as long as they were reported to be elsewhere in the nation, voting was steady throughout the county throughout the day, and the final turnout beat all recent records.
It was “tremendous,” said Charlotte Koniuto, former Republican elections commissioner, who was filling in at the county Board of Elections in the county’s Meadows Complex in the Town of Middlefield. “I’ve been to Exeter, Richfield, Roseboom. It’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen such a turnout in my life.”
Minor voting-machine malfunctions surfaced around the county, but only in the Town of Hartwick did a machine completely break down. Koniuto had to drive 150 paper ballots out to the polling place to ensure everyone could vote.
In Oneonta, Senator Seward, celebrating in Republican headquarters on Deitz Street, said he was “very pleased” when it appeared his tallies doubled his challenger Don Barber’s in every county in the 51st Senatorial District except one, his opponent’s home county of Tompkins. The Town of Caroline supervisor won there by 500 votes.
“The voters, particularly in this environment, looked at my record and my vision for the future, and supported me,” said the senator, first elected in 1986. “I’m just pleased and thankful to the voters of the district. We’ve had a good partnership. We’re facing tough times because of the fiscal crisis. But we’ve been through tough times together before.”
In Cooperstown, Lambert, who had lost the Conservative primary to Ghaleb in September, was visibly relieved by the outcome.
“I’m so thankful for what everybody has done for me,” he said.
His campaign consultant, Vince Casale of the Casale Group, expressed satisfaction with the Otsego County results, but predicted “a Republican bloodbath” statewide, with the GOP losing control of the state Senate despite Seward’s victory.
Of the voters splitting their ballots, Casale said, “I think this is indicative of what we’re seeing in politics and in our elections now. People are electing candidates they think are best for them ... People look at a race like county judge race, and they base it on candidate traits. Party label is secondary.”
As for consultants like himself, Casale – he’s the son of Vince and Theresa Casale of Cooperstown and a dean at Herkimer County Community College – said, “It certainly changes the dynamic. You’re going to run races based on the person and not on party labels ... You’re going to need some new ideas and some new thinking in this new dynamic.”
Meanwhile, his thoughts were elsewhere: His wife Amy was due to deliver their child Wednesday morning.Labels: 11-07-08, 2008 Elections, Cooperstown, Front Page, Jill Ghaleb, Jim Seward, John Lambert, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mike Arcuri, Politics, Richard Hanna, Sandy Treadwell |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:38 PM |
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Tom Morgan: Another View
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TOM MORGAN
ANOTHER VIEW
Veterans Day stirs up three memories: A boy tugs open a dresser drawer to talk to his dad. A man named Bucky beckons from a photo on a wall half a world away. A strange man thumps up our stairs at midnight to grab me.
The first memory belongs to a friend. His parents married in January 1942. He was born in November. Soon after, his dad went off to war.
His mother rode a train to Missouri to share a few tender hours with her husband near his Army camp. And that was all there was.
Her husband, his dad, died in Belgium in 1945.
“My mother probably never looked at, never thought of, another man,” my friend tells me. “She was like a swan who lost her life’s mate. She knew there would be no other.”
So he grew up without a dad, without even a memory of one, without knowing fully what a dad was supposed to be.
“When I wanted to talk with my dad,” he says, “I ran up to my mother’s bedroom and pulled open the dresser drawer and talked to his uniform and his medals and the flag that had draped his coffin.
“When I think of my dad, that’s what I think of. I think of all those times I talked to him in the dresser drawer,” he says.
•
The second memory is mine.
When I was in my mid-20’s, living in New Zealand, I joined a fraternal organization because it had given us our home mortgage.
The monthly meetings were mostly an excuse for a card game for other members. After a while I realized the only reason I went was to spend a moment before a photo on the wall of the club room.
It was one among a collection of photos of club members who had gone to war and not come back. This photo was of a young man named Bucky. His grin, his golden curls, his lively eyes captured me, beckon me to this day.
I knew and know nothing more about him. Nothing, except that in his photo he looks so eager to romp through life. Nothing, except that his was a pretty short romp. Nothing, except that if I could paint I would, after all these years, create his likeness as accurately as if he sat before my canvas today.
And if any message emanated from the image it would be that life is a banquet and lucky are we who make it to the main course.
•
Before I reach the third memory I must confess to falling into a schmaltzy habit. When I talk to a veteran of one of our wars, if we talk about his work in the war, I often blurt: “Thank you. Thank you for going.”
There. Confession over.
Now to the thumping stranger on our stairway. I am 3 years old and up at midnight. Why this is, I am not sure.
Clutching herself, my mother bolts from one room to another and back and I know from the way she behaves that this night differs from others.
She hears a car, rushes to the window, bursts into tears. I hear thumping on the stairs. The door flies open. I remember wrapping my arms around legs, my mother’s and some in brown trousers. I remember voices loud, then muffled.
Suddenly, I am swept into the air, higher than I have ever gone, and clutched into brown fabric, kissed by a swarthy man I do not know.
This is my introduction to my father. He has come home from the war. He will be more than the contents of a dresser drawer, more than a photo fading on a wall. He will be a dad. I am one of the lucky sons.
This is Tom Morgan’s favorite column. The host of the nationally syndicated radio show, Money Talk, lives in Franklin and is a frequent visitor to CooperstownLabels: 11-07-08, Columns, Cooperstown, Opinion, Perspectives, Tom Morgan |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:33 PM |
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EDITORIAL
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Don’t Repeat Disaster; Bring In A Facilitator For Parking Meeting
Here’s an idea: Let’s name Nov. 19 “Beat Up On Village Trustees Day.”
Every year, the village trustees can pick some hot-button issue and invite constituents in to yell at them for a couple of hours. This might develop into an evening that everyone looks forward to, maybe with tailgating outside and a pep band.
Bad idea, of course.
But that’s what the trustees are heading toward with the format of the public meeting on parking scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, at the county courthouse.
Last Nov. 19 was the Day of the Donnybrook, where a 300-celebrant crowd pretty close to out of control in CCS’ Sterling Auditorium hollered at the trustees for two hours about plans to put paid parking into effect.
It failed to satisfy anyone. Quite the opposite; it was counterproductive all around.
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In the old days, the experts in these things used to think that the way to ease anger is to let it out.
More recent research, however, has discovered the opposite turns out to be true. Anger begets anger.
If you’re angry, a better alternative to shouting at someone is to go for a walk along lovely Otsego Lake, or talk the issue through calmly with a loved one, or take a vacation.
So the outpouring of anger didn’t stem the anger; it built it up.
And it’s still going on. It’s the rare village person who can’t build up a head of steam these days by simply talking about paid parking for a few minutes.
The trustees, who sat there mum and took it last Nov. 19, emerged bruised, shaken and, when they started thinking about it, the experience locked them into their positions and made them contemptuous of those who disagree with them.
In recent weeks, Trustee Lynne Mebust, who chairs the Police (i.e. parking) Committee, and Deputy Mayor Jeff Katz have argued no more public input is warranted.
Under a republican form of government, they say, they are empowered to make decisions on the part of the electorate. If a majority of the electorate disagrees, vote them out in the next election – for Katz, two and a half years hence; for Mebust, one and a half.
Meanwhile, tough.
Mebust and Katz are accurate, but they’re not right.
•
For her part, Mayor Carol B. Waller has championed public input into the fiasco that was paid parking last summer, and input is good.
But the prospective Nov. 13 format is exactly the same as last year’s, which brings to mind the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.
A better solution was suggested by Trustee Eric Hage a couple of weeks ago: Bring in a neutral facilitator who can guide the discussion. Sit the trustees with the crowd, not in static opposition. The facilitator fields questions and comment, and bounces them to the appropriate trustee, police chief, village clerk or other individual with some expertise.
In other words, a confrontation becomes more of a conversation.
•
Since Nov. 13 is just a few days away, it’s a little late to cast the net too far for the proper person, but Dave Brenner of Oneonta – Ph.D., retired SUNY administrator, former Oneonta mayor and past chairman of the county Board of Representatives – does this kind of thing very effectively.
Please, it’s not too late to make the evening a helpful discussion instead of a standoff.
Let’s not repeat an exercise that, shortterm, made everybody feel bad and, longterm, prevented resolution of a so-far inconclusive and meanwhile very unhelpful local debate.Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown, Editorial, Opinion, Perspectives |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:23 PM |
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Letters to the Editor
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JIM KEVLIN
FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK
Telling Tales
Here’s a hot flash: When candidates win an election, they traditionally hold a victory party.
And – another revelation – champagne is poured, and even sipped. Also beer, and some revellers even partake of harder stuff.
This is common knowledge everywhere in the free world except, it seems, in Otsego County, N.Y., once – paradoxically – the hops capital of nation.
This story begins on March 20, 2007, the night Eric Hage was elected to the village board and asked an editor of a local paper to stop by the victory celebration.
Naive as this editor was – it turns out he cut his journalistic teeth in Pennsylvania’s hard-coal country, where Yuengling beer is the universal lubricant of local politics – he took a camera and snapped some pictures, never thinking there would be an issue.
The best photo of the batch – none was an Eisenstaedt – showed Trustee Milo V. Stewart Jr. toasting his newly elected colleague.
The next day, Eric stopped by the paper, saw the photo, innocently placed on the front page, and matters deteriorated.
Soon, attorney Mike Trossett was on the phone, demanding the offending photo not be published, saying the party occurred in a private home and therefore the photo was an intrusion.
Village Democratic chair Rich Campbell came by the newspaper offices in the old firehouse on Pioneer Street to reinforce the point in his particularly emphatic way.
So this editor I was telling you about, not looking for a fight, took the photo off the page, replacing it with a non-descript one of poll workers checking off lists.
Later, he confessed to me recently, he couldn’t resist the temptation to go with the better photo.
The result: Better art; hurt feelings.
•
Fast forward to last March’s village election, where Trustee Jeff Katz squeeked through to a second term.
Photos were taken at the fire house – the polling place – but Rich Campbell made a point of letting that editor know he wasn’t welcome to take photos at the victory party the Katzes hosted after the fact.
In fact, the message was more like: Go pound salt.
It being a free country, fine.
The other night, John Lambert was upstairs from the newspaper’s new quarters at 21 Railroad Ave. watching the returns come in at Eric Hage’s Mohican Financial.
Unfortunately, the beknighted editor I’ve been writing about ran into John in the parking lot as he headed to his law partner Mike Trossett’s for the victory party.
Congratulations! And, in a moment of weakness: May we send a photographer to the victory party? (Some people are slow learners.)
It turns out the paper’s photographer, Anita Briggs, was en route from Jim Seward’s headquarters in Oneonta, but wasn’t going to be in town for a while.
So this editor, slow-learner indeed, swung by Trossett’s with a camera to snap the elation of a historic moment.
No sooner was he back at the office then the phone rang.
It was Vince Casale, John’s campaign manager, lobbying to ensure no photo appeared that in any way suggested a link between the judge-elect and the fruit of the vine.
•
So, what are the lessons here:
One, newspaper editors don’t get it.
But, two, what are the sensitivities?
Do the voters of Otsego County really believe that victory parties are dry? If they discovered otherwise, would they be shocked and disillusioned?
Or do most people think that anyone 21 or over can responsibly partake of any legal substance to the legally permitted degree in a legally appropriate manner?
As for that editor, he’s mum on all of this; whatever shocking scenes he witnessed at 43 Nelson Ave. is for him to know and the rest of us to find out. So there.
When the episode was over, however, he did reminisce – over an amber libation, a glass of Yuengling, perhaps – about those high-spirited victory celebrations in the anthracite country, where towns of well-wishers would turn out to cheer on the victor.
Appropriately, newspaper people didn’t partake. Ahem. After recording the happenings, they were expected back at the office to put out the edition.
But celebrating democracy wasn’t just for the candidates and their closed circles.
•
Enough kidding around.
Congratulations to those who won the Tuesday, Nov. 4, contests – Judge Lambert, state Sen. Jim Seward as well as Congressmen Arcuri (likely) and Gillibrand.
And also to those who entered the political fray – Judge Ghaleb, Don Barber, our neighbor Richard Hanna and friend Sandy Treadwell – who just as likely as not will be successful the next time around.
Let’s Rethink Paid Parking From Customer Perspective
To the Editor:
As I will not be able to attend your (Nov. 13) meeting, I would like to put my suggestions forward to help resolve the dilemmas of paid parking in Doubleday Field.
Number one is to instruct our parking-meter attendants to be more sensitive to the customers who are parking in the parking lot. We must remember that the people who are visiting Cooperstown and paying for parking are customers. Customers need to be happy for what they are paying for.
Second, we need to have adequate signage, not after you enter the parking facility but before you enter it. It needs to be big enough, say what drivers will be paying for, where they will be parking and how long their duration of stay will be.
Three, the parking attendant must be sure the meters are working. Test them at the beginning and at the end of the day. Coin machines should be provided at each ticket machine, with adequate coins for the day’s business. Machines should be emptied of money and be in working order to accept money for the days business.
Over this past summer we should have made ourselves aware of the fallacies that caused the machines two break down. For instance, if machines weren’t level they wouldn’t work; and rainy weather caused the dollar-bill receptors to clog.
Parking-meter attendants are there to write tickets as their second or third responsibility. Their first responsibility should be tending the meters and being sure that the customer has the availability and the knowledge of what they are paying for.
Issuing parking tickets at $35 a pop because our parking customers don’t know where the parking-ticket machines are, or because the machines don’t work because they haven’t been emptied is very poor business.
If all of the mistakes are made in the second year, our village once again will be looked at as not only as uncaring of our business district, but for ripping of our parking customers.
I don’t feel that this was our agenda in this past year. However, this aspect of doing business in our community was poorly done.
If requested, I would be more than happy to sit on the committee to develop a business model to develop parking revenue.
TED HARGROVE
Cooperstown
Today, Proud To Be An American
To the Editor:
Political seasons bring out patriotic rhetoric in full force and this one is no exception. One statement that always comes to the fore is a phrase that really gets my goat: “I’m proud to be an American.”
I’m thankful I’m an American. I feel blessed. I feel privileged. But please, not proud.
The Founders could be proud to be an American but few of us can. Pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor was not bombast. The revolution was a risky venture and had it failed they would have faced the gallows.
Pride rightly comes from action or merit, and most of us are here by sheer good luck. We didn’t deserve it. America was handed to us, we did nothing to earn it. To borrow a hometown aphorism: We Americans today were born on the third base, and think we hit a triple.
We are privileged beyond the dreams of most people in the world, and with privilege comes obligation and responsibility, but not pride. It seems we should be humbled and grateful for our great good fortune, not boastful.
Fifty years ago, as a young boy on a trip to Florida, I had to ask my parents what the “colored” signs meant on the restroom door and over a drinking fountain.
Then, grown black men were called boy and sometimes treated as sub-human.
But Election Day the most amazing thing happened. I never expected to see anything like it in my lifetime.
And whether or not you care for Barack Obama’s politics, our country took a remarkable step toward fulfilling the promise of our founding documents. Racism and prejudice have not gone away, but for today, I am proud to be an American.
WILLIAM RALSTON
Cooperstown
Cooperstown Chamber Flying Blind In Supporting MSGE Music Festival
To the Editor:
It was with disappointment and incredulity that I read the banner headlines in last week’s Freeman’s Journal about the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce’s “endorsement” of MSG Entertainment’s music festival planned for Springfield.
For one thing, what power or standing does this body have in deciding what goes on in Springfield? For another, the basis for this endorsement – the “research” that was done – is so riddled with problems as to be almost worthless.
The sole “homework” the Chamber did on this issue – as reported in The Freeman’s Journal – was fact-gathering about the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn. The “data” compiled by the chamber, according to its president Marc Kingsley, consisted of statements by people in Manchester – the mayor, sheriff, chamber of commerce executive, local newspaper staff – about the economic boost the festival had given the community and overwhelming local support for it.
The reliability of these sources is unclear, since others in Manchester, including staff in the sheriff’s office, who were called in recent months by several Springfield citizens, characterized the festival as “a nightmare” that had been foisted on the town by certain local officials without due political process.
But even if the evidence from Manchester were rock solid, a graver problem in using it to assess the impact the MSG festival may have on Springfield lies in whether Manchester is in anyway a comparable community.
A quick web search reveals substantial differences between the two towns. Manchester’s population was 8,294 in the 2000 census. Springfield’s was 1,350. Manchester is a county seat and is part of what is called a “micropolitan” statistical area, a term used for metropolitan (urban) areas of certain characteristics; the population density of the statistical area where Manchester is located is about 809 people per square mile, over half as many people as the total population of the overwhelmingly rural Springfield.
This is significant because of the lack of highway and other infrastructure in Springfield needed to handle up to 75,000 festival goers. Manchester, because of its much higher population density, must be better equipped with roads, highways, and other services.
Over and above these shortcomings, Kingsley and his chamber are handicapped in making a judgment about MSGE in Springfield – as are we all – because the only people who have all the facts about the festival are MSGE officials themselves. In spite of the fact that they are going through the motions of working with the town planning board to assess the festival’s impact on Springfield, they are holding their cards close to their vests, as I noted in a recent letter. They have withheld and continue to withhold important information about their plans, instead of being up front at the outset, dribbling bits and pieces – like the plan for a helicopter landing port – at odd moments during public meetings.
The Cooperstown Chamber’s blithe welcome to the MSGE festival has rankled a number of Springfield citizens, who have been struggling for months to get a handle on what it will mean for the town. In a letter (October 10) to Planning Board Chairman Mary Clarke written by Advocates for Springfield President Harry Levine (who has a good deal of real-estate experience), he laid out many other shortfalls in information provided by MSGE and concluded that at present “it is virtually impossible” for the public or planning board to be able to properly and thoroughly evaluate the project.
Flying blind seems to be no problem, though, for Marc Kingsley and the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce. Maybe if they were talking about something that was going to happen directly to Cooperstown they would sing a different tune.
On the other hand, given the fact that Otsego Lake is Cooperstown’s drinking water supply and that the MSGE festival would be located along Shadow Brook, one of the lake’s main tributaries, should Kingsley et al accept at face value the assurances of a factually challenged operator like MSGE?
CATHY MASON
Springfield Center
Voice Concern About Marring of Mountainside
To the Editor:
I continue to be very deeply concerned about the proposed subdivision and development in the middle of Browdy Mountain, just south of Five Mile Point above Otsego Lake. It’s the only tall mountain face on the west side of the lake. The application for this development, proposed by Ned Walker, is proceeding with the Town of Otsego Planning Board, and is close to being submitted for final decision.
Opposition to this subdivision, which will chop a huge chunk out of the pristine mountain face and plop houses in the middle of it, is growing as more people find out about it. Now is the time for everyone – the residents of Cooperstown and the Town of Otsego, and any others who love the lake, its surrounding mountains and their natural woods, and appreciates the meaning of the lake area’s historic designation – to take action. The time is getting short.
There are several serious environmental and aesthetic issues remaining with his proposal. But there is an equally serious ethical situation regarding the Planning Board which first must be addressed: Several of us have appealed to the Planning Board in the past two months, but no action has been taken, so we must bring this issue to the public:
Two Planning Board members have had business dealings with the applicant, but neither will recuse himself.
The citizens of the Town of Otsego and of the Village of Cooperstown deserve a totally impartial vote on this proposal that will powerfully impact the quality of our Otsego Lake, the appearance of the mountain in the lake’s viewshed, and value of historic designation. We call upon everyone to voice their objection to this egregious display of conflict of interest to the Planning Board and to the Town Board. The Planning Board meets on Nov. 11 and the Town Board on Nov. 12.
\Concerned citizens should write immediately to the Town of Otsego Planning Board. If by mail, by Saturday, Nov. 8. If by e-mail, by Monday, Nov. 10. Letters will be read at the next Planning Board Meeting on Nov. 11.
Write to: Town of Otsego Planning Board - (Walker proposal), Town Hall, Route 26, Fly Creek, NY 13337
Or e-mail your letter to the Planning Board clerk at dizdeane@peoplepc.com
Come to the meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 11 to learn the status of the application for development. For more information, or questions, please contact me at: savethemountainside@gmail.com
Please join our efforts to protest this development proposal that will have such a huge impact on our lake and its surroundings. The mountain face will never be the same again, and the atmosphere of the lake’s viewshed will be changed forever.
CAROL B. AKIN
Cooperstown
Thanks To All Who Helped Jesse Torruella
To the Editor:
Thank you to everyone who helped make the “One of Our Own” 5K Run/2 Mile Walk a huge success! With your help, we crushed our expectations.
Not only did you help us to help One of Our Own, you embraced Jesse Torruella as if he was one of your own. From his family and friends, to school mates, people who knew him only in passing, and even individuals who knew nothing of him except that he needed help; you all came together and we appreciate that more than words can say.
There were many area businesses and individuals who assisted us with donations and sponsorships. This helped keep all funds collected available for Jesse and was greatly appreciated.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you. We would also like to thank every single person that contributed in any way.
Things got wild at the end, and we did our best to keep track of all contributions. If you are not on the list, I apologize.
Together, we raised more than $25,000 and the amount is growing everyday. I would also like to thank the many volunteers who assisted with the meals and race. It could not have been so smooth without your help.
Stephanie Rich Church & Scott Otsego County DSBA
Otsego County DSPBA Cooperstown Bicycle Works Clark Sports Center
Leatherstocking Corp Springfield Tractor Cash Oil
Oneonta PBA Ron & Judy Wangerin Cooperstown Baseball Bracelet
Cooperstown PBA The Mindurski Family Cooperstown Dreams Park
Pioneer Patio/Christmas Shop Cooperstown Fire Department Smith Ford
The Kukenberger Family The Holbrook Family The Brooks Family
Gates Cole Insurance New York Central Mutual NYCM Employees
Cooperstown Med. Transport Spurbecks Tunnicliff Creamery
John Finch The Bordinger Family W.L. Taylor & Son
Sid & Deb Parisian Country Club Chevrolet Richard Duke
Westford Fire Department Martin & Gina Patton John & Linda Chamard
Leatherstocking Region FCU Denny’s Straws & Sweets
Strike Zone John Mitchell Real Estate Fargo Overland
Sue Baldy K&B Craft Supplies The Imperato Family
Maxwell’s Pizza Hut Depot Deli
Best Western Sal’s Pizzeria Box Office Video
The Clip Joint Cooperstown Glass & Mirror Daddy Al’s
Edison Computers Glimmerglass Opera National Baseball Hall of Fame
Heaven’s Hands Massage Heroes of Baseball Museum Miss Dawn’s Manicures
Park View Deli Price Chopper Riverwood Gifts
Smooth Operators Stewarts Shops Tally Ho Restaurant
The Body Shoppe Time to Tan Tino’s Pizza
Springers Tractor Take 2 Sports Dot’s Creations
Davidson’s Jewelry Tin Bin Alley Bennett Motor Sales
Daniel Brothers Auto Sales The Freeman’s Journal The Pennysaver
Bank of Cooperstown BJ’s Wholesale Club Great American
P&C Foods Otsego Sheriff’s Office New York State Police
Cooperstown PD Village of Cooperstown Town of Middlefield
Delaware Valley Spring Water Sodexho Services Haggerty Hardware
Brewery Ommegang Brooks House of BBQ The Putnam Agency
National Pastime Schneider’s Bakery Sports World
Copy Shop Fly Creek Cider Mill Jamaica Dream Farm
Losie’s Gun Shop The Shipping Room Stop DWI
Bassett Healthcare Bruce Hall Girls on the Run
McDonald’s TJ’s Place CVS Pharmacy
Boy Scout Troop 1254 Cooperstown Football Judy Wangerin
Laurie Wilson John Finch John Dillon
The Hensley Family Deb Miller Maurice & Beth Ann Torruella
Susan & Mark Colone Bradley & Gloria Beers Salvatrice Stokes
Sal & Jeanne Licata Lucas Boyer Lisa Tambasco
Paul & Deborah O’Brien Larry & Barbara Ainslie Gloria Robinson
Scott Brady Eric Fields Robert & Barbara Kane
John & Christine Ruland Dorothy & Bruce Quarltere Julia Capozza
John Shufelt Patricia Patkewec Kristen Licata
James & Margaret Wolf John Dobbie Michelle Couperthwait
Amanda Pinney Jason Hoag Jacqueline Marciniak
Kristin Harrison Aparna Muralidharan Jeanne Dewey
Richard Mallon Joseph McDonald Erwin Osuna
Patricia McDonald Theresa & Rick Hensley Matt McDonald
Julie Dadamo Jessica Rockwell Billee Jo Pickard
Ron Wangerin Robert McDonald Mark Wangerin
And the many that donated at the Pasta Dinner and Brooks BBQ lunch. We thank you.
Otesgo County Sheriff’s Sgt. MIKE RECKEWEG
Oneonta
POEM TO THE EDITOR
OBAMERICA
There’s a new wind blowing across the land,
Hope ripples in the air ~
Hearts and
Minds and
Souls
Are filled with gladness
Everywhere.
Off the mountains
Across the plains
Along city streets and
country lanes
The message is borne and kept aloft
By faith in
You and Me
Where we work
And where we play
And where we live
And where we pray
And where we toil
And where we rest
One Common Union We.
There’s a new wind blowing across America,
Fragrant
Sweet
And
Pure.
Breathe it in with humble thanks
Our Nation Shall Endure.
SAM GOODYEAR
CooperstownLabels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown, Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Perspectives |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:37 PM |
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Bound Volumes
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 175 YEARS AGO
James Fenimore Cooper, the Novelist, has arrived at New York, with his family, in the ship Samson, from London. He has taken a house in New York, and it is said he intends to make that city his future residence. Mr. C. has been abroad nearly eight years, and in that time has added much to his previous high reputation as an author. Mr. Cooper’s last work, “The Headsman” has just been published in this country, and is spoken highly of by several of the leading Journals.
November 11, 1833
150 YEARS AGO
Died in this village on October 27 – Adelaide Augusta, daughter of Rev. S.T. Livermore, aged 3 years and 9 months. “There’s many an empty cradle, There’s many a vacant bed, There’s many a lonely bosom, Whose joy and light is fled. For thick in every graveyard, The little hillocks lie, And every hillock represents an Angel in the sky.”
Married on Wednesday, November 3 at Christ Church, Cooperstown, by the Rev. Dr. Beach of St. Peter’s Church, New York – Hon. R.R. Nelson, U.S. District Judge of the State of Minnesota, to Emma F. Wright, daughter of the late W.T. Beebee, Esq.
November 5, 1858
125 YEARS AGO
The idea prevails that boys, to be healthy, must have out-of-door exercise. But, somehow, it is not thought to be of so much consequence for girls. If they exercise, it is tacitly assumed that their place is in the house. That, under our present system and habits of life, it is more natural for boys and men than for girls and women to live in the open air, we do not deny. But, that boys should resort to such violent exercise as they do in base ball, foot ball, running and in rowing – indeed in all of the games – is rash and suicidal. These games have done more to injure the physical and moral health of young men than all other evils combined – if we except the practice of drinking beer and whiskey, and smoking tobacco. Through rivalry, every nerve and muscle is strained to its utmost tension by those unused to such extreme efforts, and the reaction unfits the boys for study, or for ordinary work.
November 10, 1883
100 YEARS AGO
Observations we have scanned lead us to the conclusion that Mars at this moment is inhabited, and further that the denizens are of an order whose acquaintance is worth the making. Whether we ever shall come to converse with them in any more instant way is a question upon which science at present has no data to decide. More important to us is the fact that they exist, made all the more interesting by their precedence of us in the path of evolution. Their presence certainly ousts us from any unique or self-centered position in the solar system. To all who have a cosmo-planetary breadth of view, it cannot but be pregnant to contemplate extra-mundane life and to realize that we have warrant for believing that such life now inhabits the planet Mars. Professor Lowell.
November 5, 1908
75 YEARS AGO
Advertisement – A call for help is quickly answered if you call by telephone. A serious automobile accident occurred on the road in front of the farm home of Abe Van Houte, Wolcott, Telephone 158F2. Mr. Van Houte went to the aid of the occupants of the car, while a member of his family called a doctor who arrived quickly at the scene and rendered medical aid to the victims. Such cases amply illustrate the value of telephone service in an emergency, when help is needed quickly. New York Telephone Co.
November 8, 1933
50 YEARS AGO
Where Nature Smiles. Another group of hunters left early Tuesday morning for the Weedocandors Camp in the Adirondacks. Members of the group included Ernest R. Lippitt, Waldo T. Ellsworth, H. Gregory Lippitt, Ernest W. Chase, DeForest Pickens, Gilbert E. Cummings, J. Gordon Fowler, Ernest Whitaker, and Richard White. Village Police Chief, William E. Ross wishes to take this opportunity to commend the young people of this community for making Halloween a night for good clean fun within the village. “This year was even better than last,” he said, “and there was very little commotion throughout the village, and the young people deserve a great deal of credit for observing Halloween the way it should be observed.”
November 5, 1958
25 YEARS AGO
Demolition work has begun on the Clark Foundation’s Iroquois Mansion to make way for a new gymnasium. The building will be torn down in about 10 days according to Edward Stack of the foundation. Filling, grading and planting on the site on the southeastern edge of the village will be done in the spring. The contract for the $7 million facility, which replace the 53-year-old A.C. Clark Gymnasium on Main Street, will be awarded in May 1984. The project is expected to be completed in three years.
November 9, 1983
10 YEARS AGO
Construction on the natural gas pipeline to Richfield Springs began on October 27. The line will be built by New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) and is funded by a $500,000 state grant designated by Senator James L. Seward with the cooperation of NYSEG and the Herkimer and Otsego County Industrial Development Agencies. “The pipeline will help retain existing businesses like Sentinel Products, employing 90 workers, and attract new ones to Richfield Springs,” Seward said. Sentinel Products had previously announced plans to relocate.
November 6, 1998
Bound Volumes is compiled from resources provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library. Tom Heitz is the Town of Otsego historian.Labels: 11-07-08, Bound Volumes, Columns |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:35 PM |
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Cooperstown and Around
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 ARTIFACTS: The jersey MVP Cole Hamels wore during Game 5 will be among the artifacts of the 2008 Phillies-Devil Rays World Series on display in an exhibit to open at the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum by mid-month.
HAIL, FAREWELL: The Village of Lake George has received the state’s first 2008-09 Local Government Efficiency grant, $44,999 to determine if the village should be dissolved into the surrounding town. A dissolution plan will be presented to village voters by next March.
NEW DUTIES: Diane Elliott of Cooperstown has agreed to serve as interim executive director of Hyde Hall, the National Historic Landmark, while the search for a permanent director is under way.
NEW CHALLENGE: The latest challenge to Abner Doubleday’s invention of baseball comes from an unexpected source: Brit Julian Norridge, in a just-published book, “Can We Have Our (Whatevers) Back?” points out Jane Austen described baseball in “Northanger Abbey” 40 years before the Cooperstown native purportedly invented it.
FOOD DRIVE: If you live in Cooperstown, Hartwick or Cherry Valley, you may have found a “Scouting for Food Drive” bag on your front-door handle in recent days. Boy Scout Troop 12 will be back Saturday, Nov. 8, to pick up non-perishable foods. Just fill the bags and leave them on your porch
WHAT NEXT? Hard on the heels of zebra mussels, the spiny water flea has been found in the Great Sacandaga Reservoir in the Adirondacks. Native to Eurasia, the fleas reproduce rapidly and devour.tiny crustaceans and other zooplankton, the food supply of native fish. Next, Glimmerglass?
Bassett Poised To Name Chief Of Physicians
A new leader of Bassett Healthcare physicians is about to be appointed.
Dr. Charles J. Hyman, chief of medicine, Kings County (N.Y.) Hospital Center, and an associate professor of clinical medicine at SUNY Downstate School of Medicine, has agreed to accept the appointment as Bassett’s physician in chief.
He will succeed Dr. Walter Franck, who is retiring.
The appointment will not be announced for two weeks, until Bassett’s board of directors meets to act on it.Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown and Around, Front Page |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 4:07 PM |
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Obituaries
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Jacquelin C. Ferns, 77; Endured Multiple Sclerosis For 37 Years
COOPERSTOWN – Jacquelin C. Ferns began her life in the month the flowers of spring open in all their glory and are strengthened by the light.
She died early Monday morning, Oct. 13, 2008, in the month the leaves begin to change, under the light of a beautiful harvest moon at Otsego Manor. She was 77.
Jacquie was born on June 14, 1931, in Alabin. The daughter and a jewel of Edward and Alberta (Shultis) Colwell, she was the youngest of their four children.
Raised in Slingerlands, Jacquie graduated from Bethlehem Central High School. She then attended Oneonta State Teachers’ College, graduating with a degree in elementary education.
From 1953 until 1958, she taught first grade at the Richfield Springs Central School, then devoted her life to caring for her family and their home.
It was in Richfield Springs that Jacquie and Ronald Edward Ferns met, courted and became engaged. On June 29, 1957, they were married in Delmar.
Jacquie is an indelible spirit. Her appreciation for life was expressed in her love of her family, nature, children, art, the elderly, sewing, cooking, volunteering, her pets and her church.
A member of the First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown, she served the congregation both as an elder and as a deacon. She also assisted with Head Start and taught Sunday school.
She was also a former member of the Cooperstown Women’s Club.
Jacquie had enviable courage as she faced the degradation of her health over the 37 years she was afflicted with multiple sclerosis.
She was a testament to faith, believing that God would not give any of us anything that we couldn’t handle. She uplifted and enriched every life she touched.
Jacquie will be deeply missed by her daughter and son-in-law, Amy and Timothy Cannon of Telluride, Colo.; her son, Jeff Ferns of Cooperstown; and her three grandchildren, Brandon Ferns of Lake Placid, and Morgan and Erin Pihl of Telluride, Colo.
She was predeceased by her husband, Ronald, who died Oct. 29, 2003.
A funeral service and celebration of her life was offered Monday, Oct. 20, at the First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown, with the Rev. Robert Herst, pastor emeritus, and the Rev. Betsy Jay, chaplain of Bassett Healthcare, co-officiating.
A service of committal and burial followed in Lakewood Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to First Presbyterian Church, 25 Church St., Cooperstown, NY 13326, or to a charity of one’s choice.
Funeral arrangements were under the care and direction of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.
Anthony J. Licci, 82; On USS Ticonderoga When Kamikazes Hit
FLY CREEK – Anthony Joseph Licci, 82, of Fly Creek, who survived kamikaze attacks aboard the USS Ticonderoga during World War II, died Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 28, 2008 at Otsego Manor.
Born Oct. 29, 1925, in Manhattan, He was the son of Carlo and Antonina (Coffaro) Licci.
On March 25, 1945, Anthony married Genevieve M. Kelly according to the Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in the Church of St. Gabriel in Corona.
During World War II, he served his country in the Navy in the Pacific Theatre of Operations aboard the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga CV 14.
On Jan. 21, 1945, the Ticonderoga lost more than 140 crewmen when it was attacked by two kamikaze suicide planes. Anthony and his shipmates were trapped in the engine room during the raid. The carrier was extensively damaged and returned to the U.S. for repairs.
Having attained the rank of machinist’s mate, third class, he received his honorable discharge in March 1946.
For 29 years, Anthony was employed as a psychiatric aide at Pilgrim State Psychiatric Hospital on Long Island.
In 1983, he Genevieve moved to Leesburg, Fla., where Anthony volunteered with the Leesburg Fire Department. The couple moved to Fly Creek in 2000, to live on a farm near their daughter.
Throughout his life, Anthony enjoyed gardening, fishing and racing pigeons.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Genevieve; one daughter, Mrs. Ann Carr and her husband Richard, of Fly Creek; one son, Carl (Chuck) Licci and his wife Luisa, of Leesburg, Fla.; his grandchildren, April Sirvinsky, Richard Carr, Sandra and Eric Licci, and Frank, Richard, Valerie and Nicholas Scilabro; and several nieces and nephews.
Services were Monday, Nov. 3, at the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home, with Quaker minister James Atwell officiating. He was buried with military honors.
Memorial donations may be made to Otsego Manor Activities Fund for Rolling Hills, 128 Phoenix Mills Cross Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326, or to Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, 1 Birchwood Drive, Oneonta, NY 13820.
Arrangements were with the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.
Helen K. Ford, 97; Raised On Future College Campus
CHERRY VALLEY – Helen K. (Lockwood) Ford, 97, who was raised on an estate in Connecticut that later became the campus of Fairfield University, passed away Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008, at Otsego Manor.
She was born Jan. 13, 1911, in Fairfield, Conn., the daughter of Henry B. and Katherine (Sullivan) Lockwood. She married Arthur W. Ford on May 29, 1931, in Brewster, Putnam County. He predeceased her in 1991.
As a child, Helen grew up on the estate of O.G. Jennings, an industrialist who was on the board of directors of Bethlehem Steel. Her father was Jennings’ chauffeur.
She worked as a telephone operator in Brooklyn, (1929-30), at Jenkins Valve shipping office (1941-44), Beechnut Packing Co. (1944-45) and was a farm wife (1945-85). She resided at 433 Salt Springville Road for 64 years.
She was a member of St. Thomas the Apostle Church’s Social Card Club.
Survivors include a son, Philip Ford and his wife Daisy; a daughter Patricia Keegan and her husband Joseph; four grandchildren, James and his wife Karen, of Cherry Valley, John and his wife Amy, of Hartwick, Joseph and his wife Rebecca, of Rio Nido, Calif., and Michael Keegan of Washington D.C.; great grandchildren Tyson Jeremiah, Lucienne, Julietta, and Abbigail Ford, and several nieces and nephews.
Her husband of 60 years, and a brother, Harry Lockwood, predeceased her.
Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 7, in St. Thomas Church, Cherry Valley, with Father John Roos officiating. Burial will follow in the Cherry Valley Cemetery.
Calling hours are 7-9 p.m. the evening before at Ottman Funeral Home, Cherry Valley, with Rosary at 8:30 p.m.
Contributions in Mrs. Ford’s memory may be made in the form of Mass cards, flowers or donations to St. Thomas Church.
Arrangements were with the Ottman Funeral Home, Cherry Valley.Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown, Obituaries |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:53 AM |
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‘Stone Soup’ Dramatizes Dilemma
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COOPERSTOWN
 At noon on Saturday, Nov. 1, the crowds began to gather at St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Church for Stone Soup.
In works like this: Organizers simply boil water with a stone in it, and depend on contributions from the public – a carrot here, a potato there – to actually turn it edible.
This year, instead of the church’s annual Oktoberfest, Diane Koffer planned the soup exercise as a fund raiser for the Cooperstown Food Bank. Ladies from the church prepared multiple types of soup to serve those who participated in fellowship with other community members, while children spent the morning dropping off contributions for their own Stone Soup.
“I’d say we had 35-40 children stop by and drop vegetables into the soup this morning, and they were not just church members, but children from all around,” said Koffer. By day’s end, more than 150 people showed up and more than $3,000 was raised for the cause.
As community members came into the fellowship hall, many dropped cash donations into a plastic cauldron, some wrote checks, and others yet brought bags full of food, all to benefit the Cooperstown Food Bank.
“We are aware of the growing need for food, and we wanted to help out the food bank,” said Steve Heneghan; he and his wife Martha contributed purple potatoes.
The generosity of the community really stood out at this event. Koffer reports that many individuals dropped off unsolicited baked goods.Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown, Cooperstown Food Bank, Glimmerglass, Stone Soup |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:11 AM |
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As Rolls of Needy Rise, So Does Price of Food
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A Dozen Eggs Up 68 Cents;
Bread Goes Up 30 Cents
By JEANNINE BOHLER
A loaf of white bread cost $1.08 in September 2006. That same bread cost $1.38 in September 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.
A dozen eggs went for $1.25 in September 2006. The same dozen sold for $1.98 in September 2008.
Prices at the check-out are expected to increase and consumers are feeling more than a pinch. Many find themselves no longer able to make ends meet.
Grocery prices continue to rise. Fuel prices, although dropping in recent weeks, remain at a premium.
It is going to be a hard winter.
The demand for food always rises in the winter as families struggle with heating bills, but this year the need is expected to be unusually high, said Dan Maskin, Chief Operating Officer of Opportunities for Otsego in Oneonta.
The agency provides energy assistance and emergency housing to qualified individuals.
The increase in food prices, fuel prices and healthcare costs, combined with stagnant wages and an uncertain economy are making finances even tighter, not only for the families who often need assistance, but for those families who have usually been able to support themselves.
Many of these families are referred to as the working poor, meaning that although they work, many full time, they are unable to meet their living costs.
Often, their income is too great to allow them to be eligible for services such as fuel assistance or the supplemental nutrition assistance program, but not great enough to allow them to meet their families basic needs. Food pantries offer a source of support and relief.
“The demand at food pantries is increasing,” Maskin said.
So far, local pantries are meeting the need most of the time, but this may change as winter sets in.
The tight economy hits nearly everyone and people who typically donate money and food items to the pantries may find themselves needing to give less. Regional suppliers, like the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York in Latham, which supplies food to many of the area pantries, may also struggle to keep up as their suppliers cut back.
There is no easy solution. The Board of Directors of Opportunities for Otsego decided to discontinue it annual Holiday Adopt-A-Family initiative this holiday season, asking instead that groups and organizations make contributions to their emergency fuel fund and Holiday Basket Food Drive. It is hoped the additional donations will meet the increased demands in the month
ahead.
The need for donations is crucial, Maskin said, as it is difficult to get emergency funding for food because there are no federal grants for it and no federal food source.
The Cooperstown Food Bank saw a 60% increase in demand for its services over the past year. As a result, it has had to cut its service area to residents of Northern Otsego County only. Those who live south of Milford are asked to seek help in Oneonta or other area food banks.
During the summer, the bank, which is hosted by the Presbyterian Church and run by volunteers, saw 160 – 170 families each month. In the month of October, the first month the new policy went into effect, 130 families visited the food bank.
“We have seen a drop, but it isn’t huge,” said Audrey Murray, who co-directs the pantry with Ellen St. John. “At this point we are still able to handle it, but we worry what will happen if we ever reach 200 families.”
Families who need assistance may visit the pantry once per month and they receive a four day food supply of three meals per day. In all, the pantry helps nearly 500 people each month. No referral is needed and people are not turned away, Murray said.
She cites an end to seasonal jobs, taxes, heating bills and the tough state of the economy for the increase in the number of new families seeking help. An $8,000 grant the pantry received over the summer is already gone.
“We rely on the generosity of the community,” she said. So far, the level of donations has remained consistent. Food drives by local Sunday school classes, the Leos and monetary donations give much needed support.
The Salvation Army in Oneonta served 232 families in September, 40 of which visited for the first time.
“We are seeing a number of hard working families who have always made it before,” said Sharon Haines, officer manager at the Salvation Army. “Wages just aren’t going up and this is a hard, hard time for them.”
In addition to the need for food, the Salvation Army anticipates a greater demand for holiday help. Last year, nearly 400 families benefited from gifts and food baskets. This year, Haines anticipates applications from almost 600 families.
“We were short on toys because of the increase last year,” Haines said. “We got together and prayed.” A call a few hours later from a church in Binghamton answered the prayers. They had enough toys for last year and a few to save for this year. “God comes through,” she said. “Through people, God comes through.”
So far, donation levels are staying the same as in the past, according to Major James Smith, Commanding Officer of the Oneonta Salvation Army. Support from churches and civic groups as well as fiscal donations help keep things going. A grant from the regional food bank normally helps throughout much of the season – last year it lasted through December or January, Smith said. This year, it was gone by October.
The United Way formed a Hunger Task Force hoping community collaboration will help address the issues and challenges that lie ahead.
St. Mary’s Food Pantry in Oneonta is struggling like the rest.
“I see it getting worse,” said Janice Hinkley, outreach coordinator. “People can only stretch their money so far.”
In October, 160 families visited the pantry, 40 of them for the first time. In the past, the pantry has served about 100 families each month, with an average of ten new families.
“A few bags of groceries can cost $60. Things have really gone up, fuel prices, gas prices, grocery prices,” she said. “Salaries are not going up much. What are people supposed to do?”Labels: 11-07-08, Cooperstown, Cooperstown Food Bank, Glimmerglass |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:59 AM |
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Here Are Ways To Help Needy
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Saturday’s Bread, the hot meal program at First United Methodist Church can always use help with preparing, serving, and cleaning up meals on Saturdays, call ahead to be put on the schedule. For more information, call 432-0803.
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Opportunities for Otsego has started their Holiday basket collection, with local businesses collecting food for those in need. Non-perishable, non-glass donations, such as canned vegetables, fruit, stuffing, instant potatoes, tuna, pasta, and peanut butter, are welcome. Businesses collecting include:
• Country Club Chevrolet (70 Oneida St, Oneonta)
• Country Club Kia (Southside, Oneonta)
• ISD (98 Chestnut Street, Oneonta)
• NBT Bank (Wall Street, Oneida Street, Route 7/East End, Southside, and Hartwick Seminary branches)
• Otsego Automotive (55 Oneida Street, Oneonta)
• The Powell Company (219 River Street, Oneonta)
• Southside Mall .
• Additional drop-off locations include
• Valleyview School (Valleyview Street, Oneonta)
• Cooperstown Elementary School (21 Walnut Street, Cooperstown)
• The OFO Administrative Office (3 West Broadway, Oneonta)
• Community Connections Warehouse (183 Roundhouse Rd, Oneonta).
Opportunities for Otsego can help individuals and organizations put together food drives. Call 433-8000.
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All the Food Panties accept food and cash donations, cash is often a best bet as they can purchase food from the regional food bank for a huge discount (such as 16 cents a pound), so your assistance can stretch further if you donate cash.
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The Salvation Army starts bell ringing in November and will continue through Dec. 24. It is in search of families, businesses, clubs and organizations to volunteer to ring bells to raise money for emergency assistance services, and a variety of other projects within the local community. It is also always in need of volunteers to help sort food donations and pack boxes at their Food Pantry. Call the local Salvation Army at 432-5960 to find out how else you can help.Labels: 11-07-08, Community Service, Glimmerglass |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:10 AM |
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Prime Angus
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SAM GOODYEAR
ART BEAT
It’s the best there is. And so is David Angus, the recently appointed music director of Glimmerglass Opera.
The New York Times praised his “sensitive leadership” in conducting Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” (2008), noting as well the excellence of the Glimmerglass orchestra in general. Ringing endorsements from the New York Times don’t come easy, and a nugget of gold from Steve Smith last summer is akin to the famous food critic Duncan Hines’ going into raptures about a cut of prime rib.
(Your columnist was particularly taken with the Bellini musically last summer as well.)
You might ask, as I did, what exactly does a music director do?
One thing he does NOT do is automatically conduct all the operas of the season. He will conduct Menotti’s “The Consul” in 2009, and that’s it.
That’s it for conducting, that is, for his duties outside off the podium are numerous and extraordinarily important.
He oversees everything on the musical side of things. This means some delegating, of course, but you can’t delegate without knowing what you’re doing or having the good of the company close to your heart.
Clearly, Mr. Angus scores high on both counts. He will report directly to General & Artistic Director Michael MacLeod, but there is a collegiality and gentleman’s agreement aspect to the relationship.
Mutual respect and collaboration are understood.
Mr. Angus didn’t exactly go kicking and screaming into the field of opera, but it did come about thanks to some happenstance and unexpected attention.
He, in fact, did not even start conducting until fairly late, specializing initially as a pianist at the University of Surrey (he is a citizen of Great Britain).
He started conducting, and then his musicianship caught the attention of people who saw his dramatic potential. He eventually, and rather quickly (and very prestigiously), ascended to the position of chorus master and staff conductor at Glyndebourne.
His first opera experience was with Claude Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande,” not exactly rollicking oom-pah-pah “easy listening.”
In a recent telephone interview, he described the incremental seduction of that first close encounter with the medium: by the time all the elements had been put together in their final form – singers, orchestra (rather than rehearsal piano), sets costumes, wigs – he was enthralled and an ardent convert.
Perhaps not an original question, but I did ask him who his favorite composer is. He replied that it might sound disingenuous, but his composer of choice was whomever he happened to working on at any given time.
So last summer, for a few weeks, it would have been Bellini. He does have a special place in his heart for Britten, and Janacek, and Tchaikovsky, and Verdi, and an even higher passion for Mozart. But he was genuine in his love for the composer-of-the-moment.
In fact, one of the particularly appealing characteristics of Mr. Angus’ personality is his genuineness all around.
No divo unapproachability for him. No musical snobbery. No affectation. No musical clubbiness.
When asked if he had any parting comment before closing the interview, he said, “I am genuinely excited about [the position], and looking forward to it.”
We believe him, and we are genuinely excited about his tenure as well. Welcome!
Sam’s column on the arts in Otsego and Delaware counties appears weeklyLabels: 11-07-08, Art Beat, Columns, Glimmerglass, Sam Goodyear |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 2:41 AM |
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All That Jazz, Plus
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EVAN JAGELS
NIGHT LIFE
It’s hard to fill a room with just guitar and bass.
A jazz duo is the real skeleton of swing, a truly exposed dialog where every grammatical mistake radiates without cover from other voices.
Without drums, the bassist’s rhythmic role becomes equal to that of its harmonic one, demanding absolute musical foundation.
As sole harmony, the guitarist must be especially tasteful with note choice and volume. Too loud, complex, or self-indulged and it is no longer a dialog.
This is a truly professional task.
So on Tuesday, Oct. 28, it was a pleasure to see bassist Rich Mollin and guitarist Bill Farrish perform at My Father’s Place behind the Rainbow Inn on Route 7, not only for the musicianship, but as an introduction to a new venue supporting area musicians.
Quite frankly, there seem to be a disproportionate number of professional musicians and venues able to sustain them in the Oneonta area.
My Father’s Place promises a little change in a good direction.
Brothers Eddy and Ryan Pereira would like to bring more authentic Portuguese cuisine and diversity of music to this space behind the Rainbow Inn, owned by their father Ed for the past 25 years after moving to New York from Portugal.
Authentic Portuguese tiles already line the floors and large wine barrels, cut in half, serve as impressive oak arches on top of the bar.
This most recent jazz performance, with dates to follow, is due in part to the promotion of SUNY Oneonta professor Tony Scafide.
“I want this to grow exponentially, because adults need something to do, too, as well as people who like jazz,” Scafide said.
Speaking of Mollin and Farrish, he expressed his delight in hearing “...two people approach standards and play them completely differently.”
As any jazz aficionado in 2008 would agree, this is a laudatory remark.
To work with root motions and melodies – many from the first half of the 20th century – and to play them in such a way that they are presented as new material, yet still easily recognized as their original form, and without relying on any notes or chords on paper, and you can call yourself a jazz musician.
Once more, it is special to see a double bass player who can accomplish all this with flawless pitch even in the highest register of the instrument.
The ability to cover the range that a horn would normally play in while not neglecting the bass of the bass and keeping all the feet tapping against those Portuguese tiles in lieu of a drum set is what really brings a fresh breath to a jazz duo – or just “breath,” if you are familiar with Don Byas and Slam Stewart, or other phenomenal duo performances.
No surprise, however, as Mollin has studied with some of the best, including Milt Hinton, “the dean of jazz bass players,” and Coltrane bassist Dr. Art Davis among others.
Mollin has taught at SUNY Oneonta for the past six years, where he leads one of the largest bass programs in the state university system.
Prior to his appointment at the college, he was music director at The Otesaga in Cooperstown and band leader on Norwegian Cruise Lines, Costa Lines, Holland America Lines and Carnival Cruises.
Upcoming at My Father’s Place, Mollin will be performing with pianist Rob Roman on Saturday, Nov. 8, and Friday, Nov. 14.
Guitarist Dennis Turecheck, founder and president of the Classical Guitar Society for Upstate New York and accomplished jazz guitarist, is due on on Friday, Nov. 21, and Saturday, Nov. 29.
Both Roman and Turecheck are also professors at SUNY Oneonta.
With all hope, these engagements and others of their promised caliber truly will grow exponentially at My Father’s Place.
Evan Jagels is a SUNY Oneonta music major.Labels: 11-07-08, Columns, Evan Jagels, Glimmerglass, Night Life |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:45 AM |
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