To the Editor:
I have, on occasion, stopped in the Cooperstown mayor’s place of business to offer an opinion on one village matter or another and often to give her thanks on a position she has taken.
I didn’t do it often enough!
It is difficult to see someone leave office who has done such an exemplary job of representing the best interest of all of us – business and residents, young and old, Democrat and Republican – with such a strong measure of good sense.
I’ve spent my career representing small businesses in several capacities, owning my own small business and reporting on workings of local municipalities for a community newspaper.
I understand that local government, to be effective, has to deal with its problems on the most basic “mop and shovel” level.
She has brought to the job the ability to cut through the rhetoric to see where the debris is the deepest and has worked to clean up those situations whatever they were, while others around her have often chosen to add to the piles of woe.
The job of mayor takes courage to make the decisions you feel are right – courage to go against the wishes of some of your friends and neighbors – the people you see every day, in your place of business, at church, at the gym, walking the dog.
It takes a special kind of courage for an elected official to cross the aisle to endorse the candidate of another party.
Mayor Waller has exhibited that courage in her endorsement of Democrat Jeff Katz to be her successor.
I will save anyone who is interested from looking up my registration; I am a lifetime Democrat. I look forward to supporting Mr. Katz in the coming election. His sign has a place on my lawn.
I feel his experience and tempered responses will keep balance between business and residential interests. I think his tenure will be guided by the same principles, as was Mayor Waller’s.
He is capable, but most of all, he has shown himself to be fair and reasoned. And, he has shown himself to be worthy of the respect of Mrs. Waller.
To Mayor Waller: enjoy those grandchildren – and enjoy going home after time spent with them.
SALLY R. ELDRED
Cooperstown


To the Editor;
The Freeman’s Journal editorial of Nov. 13 obviously supports HR 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act,” the avowed intention of which is: “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.” (My italics.)
I am attempting to plow though the entire bill, which is a daunting task, as it is 1,990 pages in length. It is a bill of incredible complexity and the legalese is at times mind boggling.
For example, Title II, Subtitle B, Sec. 212 reads, and I quote: “The requirements of sections 2711 (other than subsections (e) and (f) and 2712 (other than paragraphs (3), and (6) of subsection (b) and subsection (e)) of the Public Health Services Act, relating to guaranteed availability, etc.”
Now I am not sure if that is purposeful obfuscation, but as an otherwise reasonably informed and literate citizen, I am bewildered by the maze of references and exceptions in that sentence. Read it again at your peril. Such terminology is not rare in the bill. Read it for yourself.
The rest of the HR 3962 is broad reaching in its scope:
(1) It grants massive discretionary powers to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(2) It establishes a vast parallel bureaucracy that appears to have internal conflicts.
(3) It lays significant burdens of administrative, reporting, and underwriting requirements on the insurance industry, which will be passed on as increased premium costs to the policy holders.
(4) It does nothing to reduce the cost of health care at the delivery level, nor to address the cost of medical education, all of which are ultimately borne by those of us who pay for the medical/health care services we receive. We pay for them either through the insurance premiums we pay or out of pocket co-pays (or taxes for those who pay neither of the preceding.) Just as there is no free lunch, there is no free health care.
I have yet to read to page 1,990, but just scanning ahead, I see that there are provisions for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Public Health Services Act (PHSA), and of course the Internal Revenue Code, which provides for employer responsibility, small business credits, exclusions for Indians, surcharges and excise taxes, limitations on treaty benefits – the beat goes on. Congress regards the Internal Revenue Code as that ever-popular legislative vehicle for social engineering.
I suppose that I cannot be too critical of the proposed Public Health Care Insurance Option (Title III, Subtitle B.) After all, I am an active user of Medicare Parts A, B and D. There are parts of that section that are troublesome, but I will leave that for another day.
I respectfully suggest that concerned citizens take some time to read what Congress has proposed. The bill is available on the Internet. (My source is www.defendyourhealcare.us.)
As someone once said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
WILLIAM DORNBURGH
Cooperstown

The North Eastern Athletic Conference named SUNY Cobleskill senior Kane Seamon, Richfield Springs, the league’s 2009 Male Runner-of-the-Year.
The Fighting Tiger captain led the men’s cross-country team to its second consecutive North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Championship on Saturday, Oct. 31, in Utica.
Seamon won the league’s individual championship by covering the 8,000-meter course in 27:40.9.
“His teammates refer to him as ‘The Man’ and he lived up to that billing,” said Fighting Tiger Coach Mitch Tomaszkiewicz.

EAST SPRINGFIELD – William F. Murphy, 88, passed away Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009, at Otsego Manor.
He was born March 2, 1921, the son of Edward and Florence Murphy.
Bill was a 1939 graduate of East Springfield High School and one of the first members of the Springfield Fire Department. He was a dairy farmer, retiring in 1982.
Survivors include two brothers, Leo and Joe; two sisters, Sister Mary Theresa, CSJ, and Ann, and many nieces and nephews.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 20, at St. Joseph the Worker Church, Richfield Springs, with Rev. Terence P. Healy officiating. Burial will follow in St. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Canajoharie.
Calling hours are 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at the Ottman Funeral Home.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Otsego Manor Activities Fund.

PORTLANDVILLE – Eileen M. Damon, longtime proprietor of Blue Bonnet Antiques with her late husband, Steven, died Friday morning, Nov. 13, 2009, at Hampshire House Assisted Living Home in Oneonta, following a long battle with congestive heart failure. She was 87.
She was born Eileen Marie Noon on April 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, a daughter of William and Emma (Hamilton) Noon.
She married Steven N. Damon Jan. 24, 1954, in a ceremony at the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan.
In 1967, Steve and Eileen purchased an old mill in Portlandville on the banks of the Susquehanna River. In 1970, they also bought a home on Lake Street, Cooperstown, and spent endless hours on weekends and in the summers renovating the mill.
They soon moved Blue Bonnet Antiques, which they had been running on Long Island since the late ‘50s, to the mill, and moved permanently to Portlandville in 1981.
In later years, Eileen and Steve spent winter months at their home on St. Martin in the Caribbean.
After her husband died in November 2006, Mrs. Damon moved in with her daughter Lori and family in nearby Milford.
Due to deteriorating health, she spent the past year of her life with the exceptional people at the Hampshire House where she was adored by all.
Eileen is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Donna McQuillen and her husband, J.C. George, of Austin, Texas, and Mrs. Lori Henry and her husband, Ted, of Milford; one step-son, Wayne Rodier and his wife, Matoka, of Saratoga Springs; two beloved granddaughters, Megan and Krista of Milford; and one special daughter, Louann Liner of Milford.
She followed her husband of 52 years by three years to the day: He passed away Nov. 13, 2006.
Burial will be private in Lakewood Cemetery in Cooperstown.
Memorial contributions may be made to Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, 1 Birchwood Drive, Oneonta NY 13820 or the Lions Club of Cooperstown, P.O. Box 2, Cooperstown, NY 13326-0002.
Arrangements are with the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.