COOPERSTOWN

While its owners were away overnight earlier this month, a Brooklyn Avenue home was ransacked, the latest in what, for Cooperstown, is an unusual string of break-ins.
Police Chief Diana Nicols said “a lot of valuables were taken,” many of them small items that could more easily be sold for cash.
The incident, which occurred between 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, and 10 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14, was part of what perhaps is a third wave of break-ins that have peppered the Cooperstown area since early last fall.
Two arrests were made after a spree in September. One of those suspects – they were also linked to incidents in Oneonta and Unadilla – told police they were inspired by reports that 24-7 police coverage wasn’t in force here.
After 24/7 coverage was restored in October – with Officer Jim Cox’s graduation from the county Law Enforcement Academy in January, full-time officers are on duty day around – two related burglaries occurred at Bassett Healthcare housing on Riverside Drive, the chief said.
Another burglary occurred on Route 33, just south of the village line, in December, which was similar to the latest one: Its owners were away for an extended period.
Nicols said that homeowners who often are away in the winter tend to alert her department and are put on “a very significant dark house list.” People who are away overnight are less likely to alert police, she said.
Other communities have noticed an increase in such incidents since the economic dip began, and the “little bit of a lag” experienced here may be ending, she said.

By JIM KEVLIN

SIDNEY

The March 3, 1951, edition of the Saturday Evening Post – then the largest circulation magazine in the country – electrified Sidney.
The headline was, “The Village We Can’t Do Without,” and it was about this community of 2,500 souls at the junction of the Susquehanna and Unadilla Creek.
“It was filled with page after page of color photographs of Sidney at that time,” said Chuck D’Imperio, a Sidney Hall of Fame inductee and author of “My Town Is A Cathedral,” a boyhood memoir from the 1950s and ‘60s.
Sidney’s reputation as indispensable didn’t just happen. It resulted from local people caring about their hometown and investing in it for the good of all.
Take Winfield Sherwood, an officer in the Hatfield Automobile Co., which took over the Cortland Car & Carriage Co. plant in 1917, and, for a while, competed with Detroit.
When Hatfield closed in 1924, Winfield Sherwood, at his own expense, went forth to find a replacement, and he recruited the Scintilla Magneto Co., a Swiss concern that had relocated to New York City after World War I.
Scintilla’s key players – General Manager George Steiner, Chief Engineer Walter Spengler and Ad Manager Thomas Fagan – took up where Sherwood left off.
D’Imperio credited them for “tens of thousands of jobs and paychecks and cars and college educations over many, many many years. I can’t imagine what Sidney would be like without the factories.”
In 1929, Bendix Aviation Corp. bought Scintilla, survived the Depression and, with World War II creating a huge demand for aircraft magnetos, launched Sidney into its glory days.
(Oneonta’s Tony Mongillo, a radio man on aircraft carriers during World War II, remembers the brass labels on fighters’ magnetos in the South Pacific: “Made In Sidney, N.Y.” Just the other day, Concetta Mirabito remembered Tony, who briefly worked at Bendix in 1942 before joining the Navy.)
“Trains were running from all over the area into Sidney,” said D’Imperio, “dropping employees off, picking them up at night. The bowling alley never locked its doors. Sidney really, really boomed.”
Sidney’s entrepreneurial spirit goes back well before Hatfield to the 1770s and the Rev. William Johnston, who established a mission where the airport is today.
The convergence of the Susquehanna and Unadilla made it an ideal spot for traders, who did business with the Oneidas and Iroquois who had traversed the area for centuries.
When Oneonta became a rail center, Sidney – railroad trestles formed a nationally famous giant horseshoe around the village – benefited as well, shipping milk, butter and cheese to New York City.
The French Cheese Co. – later Phoenix Cheese – was established in 1901, the only French-run plant in the U.S. making Brie and Camembert. There was a silk mill, and a cigar factory.
By the time the Saturday Evening Post article appeared, Keith Clark Inc., which became the nation’s largest calendar maker – it was At-A-Glance and is now Mead Westvaco – had established its first local plant.
In the 1960s, Unadilla Silo Co. moved its Uni-Lam division – stress-tested lumber rafters and arches – to the industrial park at the village’s east end, (today home to 8-9 businesses.)
“It was a big time in Sidney,” said D’Imperio, who was a teen-ager then. “Downtown thriving; every store front full. It was a shopping magnet, just like Oneonta is today.”
Community leaders like Tom Mirabito Sr., mayor during the 1950s, got things done, including the expansion of the village to encompass the airport and industrial park.
Chuck’s father Don had bought his downtown Imperio’s Market from Myron J. Kipp, a benevolent businessman the son labeled “the Lion of Sidney.” In those days, when the local companies needed added investment, people like Kipp contributed and rounded up the rest from others.
The Hospital – that was Sidney hospital’s official name, “The Hospital” – was thriving. (After closing for a year, it was recently reopened by Bassett Healthcare.)
About that time – as in the rest of Upstate New York – factories started downsizing “and Sidney started to land on hard times,” he continued.
The Flood of 2006 – a 100-year flood – “just devastated it. Half of Sidney was under water at one time four years ago,” said D’Imperio.
Since the economic downturn hit soon after, Mead Westvaco has laid off 100 workers and Amphenol 200.
But there are signs of a rebound, with Rite Aid building a new pharmacy on the main corner downtown, right across from the library, which is newly renovated with insurance money from the flood.

COOPERSTOWN

St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Roman Catholic Church was packed, and all aspects of Stu Taugher’s life were represented.
The father: His five daughters was pallbearers and had roles in the service.
The public servant: Mayor Carol B. Waller praised his dedication of time – “something we give freely, something we cannot get back” – during his years of public service, as mayor, county representative and village trustee.
The fireman: A former fire chief, president of the fire company and founder of the EMT squad, his dress hat was on the coffin. The 1952 Mack pumper that transported the coffin stopped at the Chestnut Street firehouse, where the siren was sounded in commemoration.
The Irishman: A bagpiper played, and Ron Johnson sang “Danny Boy.”
The man of faith: A lifelong member of St. Mary’s, “he has seen many Lents and now he is enjoying Easter,” said Father John P. Rosson, pastor, during the homily at the Saturday, Feb. 13, funeral mass.
“He was the grand marshal of Cooperstown,” Father Rosson later reflected. “He was always its greatest cheerleader.”
Stuart Patrick Taugher, 87, passed away Wednesday morning, Feb. 10, 2010, at Otsego Manor.
Born March 22, 1922, a son of Patrick and Margaret (Doran) Taugher, he was raised on the family farm in Pierstown with three brothers and two sisters; only one sibling, Mrs. Eileen T. Goodenow, 89, of New Hartford, survives.
At first, the family milked 25 Holsteins, but then got into cauliflower. Throughout his high school years, he remembered in a 2007 interview, he would drive to New York City produce markets twice a week, beginning as early as possible in the spring to get a jump on the Long Island farmers.
He graduated from Cooperstown Central School in 1940; his future wife, Josephine Coleman, known as Jodie, was in the Class of 1943. Because two of his brothers were already in the Armed Forces, Stu, the youngest, and his oldest brother were barred from the military.
Stu and Josephine married on Nov. 24, 1945, and as he got into business – he was Allstate Insurance’s agent in Cooperstown for 39 years – the Taughers began their family at their Maple Street home.
In the fire department, he soon moved into a leadership position. In addition to deploying the crews when The Freeman’s Journal building at Main and Pioneer burned in 1962, he battled blazes that took out Wood’s dry cleaners, (site of T.J.’s today), and the Red & White grocery.
What he most remembered were the human tragedies. He carried a baby who succumbed to smoke inhalation out of a home on Irish Hill, and an 8-year-old boy out of a second-floor apartment in Oaksville.
“That’s one of the saddest things you can get involved in,” he said in the interview.
In 1969, Taugher and then-Fire Chief Malcolm Root – faced with the likelihood Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital would give up its ambulance service – convinced the department to sponsor an emergency squad. Nine men volunteered and spent 51 hours over the winter training. The squad completed its first successful call on July 4, 1970.
By then, Taugher had accepted elective office: In 1967, after 35 years of GOP dominance, he was elected mayor on the Union ticket. The streetlights that still illuminate Main Street were installed during his term.
He then ran for the new county Board of Representatives, becoming the first representative from the Town of Otsego (District 8), a position he held for the next 10 years.
At the end of 1969, even before he took office, he was designated to go to Albany with Guy Rathbun of Morris, the Republican chairman of the board, to work through the transition from a 19-member supervisors’ board to the new 14-member body.
During his tenure, he was proud to be the first Democrat to become chairman of a standing committee in county government.
In 1979, he left the county board and had a short hiatus from elective office, although he continued to be active in the fire department and ambulance squad. Soon, however, he answered the call again and returned to the village board. That stint, it turned out, would last almost a quarter-century.
One of Trustee Taugher’s memorable phrases, recalled Giles Russell, who served with him on the village board, was, “How’s this going to effect the good people of Cooperstown?”
He was especially proud of many positive changes in the village during his terms of office, when the new water plant was completed and the new reservoir dedicated in his honor.
A proud and supportive father, Stuart was also involved with his daughters’ education, and when the newly built Cooperstown Elementary School opened on Walnut Street in September 1955, he served as the first president of the Parent Teachers’ Association.
St. Mary’s communicants from those days would look forward to seeing the tall father entering the church every Sunday – he never missed a one – with his wife and five daughters following him in single file to the “Taugher pew.”
All the daughters received Clark Foundation scholarships, a source of pride and appreciation throughout Taugher’s life.
At St. Mary’s, Stuart served for many years as an usher. He was a past member of the former Leatherstocking Council, No. 1879, Knights of Columbus.
In his private life, Stuart always enjoyed digging in the dirt, especially on his land in Pierstown, and will be remembered by many for his well-tended and productive flower beds and vegetable gardens.
Surviving are his five daughters, Karen M. Taugher of Utica, Patricia T. Schultz of Fly Creek, Marcia Pugliese and her husband, Stephen, of Pierstown, and Jacqueline Ruck and her husband, Richard, and Colleen Sheldon and her husband, Scott, all of Milford, Pa. (Jacqueline and Colleen are twins); 11 grandchildren; 10 great grandchildren; his sister Eileen; a brother-in-law, Charles A. Coleman, Jr. and his wife, Dolores, of Cooperstown; two sisters-in-law, Mrs. Carol Coleman of Glen Burnie, Md., and Morganna Garbera and her husband, Michael, of Richfield Springs; and many nieces and nephews.
He was predeceased by his wife, Jody; three brothers, Gregory, Ogden and Reginald Taugher; one sister, Patricia A. Taugher; two brothers-in-law, Frederick Goodenow and Roger A. Coleman; and one sister-in-law, Jane A. Reich.
The service of committal and burial will take place later this spring in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Index.
As an alternative to flowers, it is suggested by the family that contributions be made to Friends of Bassett, 1 Atwell Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326, Cooperstown Fire Department, P.O. Box 1, Cooperstown, NY 13326, or Cooperstown Emergency Squad, P.O. Box 322, Cooperstown, NY 13326.
Funeral arrangements were under the direction of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.
In 2007, Chuck Coleman encapsulated his brother-in-law this way: “He was a pillar of the fire department. He was a pillar of the village board. He was a pillar of the county. He has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve known. He deserves all the accolades he can get.”

COOPERSTOWN

Here are the winners in contests
held throughout the 44th annual
Cooperstown Winter Carnival:

Coloring Contest

Ages 0-3 – Ava Lasko, first; Olivia Enck, second
Ages 4-7 – Ireland Gable, first; Mackenzie Knapp, second; Reilly Mooney, third
Ages 8-12 – Lucy Meehan, first; Sophie Lasko, second; Will Weldon, third.

Drink Contest

Judges Choice – Alex & Ika’s
Audience Choice – Cooley’s Stone House Tavern

Carnival Court

King – Luke Folts
Queen – Elizabeth Szwejbka
Court - Carly Busse, Lauren Harris, Natalie Wrubleski, Edmund Donley, Jeremiah Ford, and Scott Millea

Bowling Tournament

First – Scott and Matt Curtis, 1203
Second – Nick Stearns and Barry Gray, 1184
Third – Dennis II and Dennis Dibble, 1166
Youth High Game w/hdcp – Spencer Vann, 239
Adult High Game w/hdcp – David Clinton, 247
Youth High Series w/hdcp – Spencer Vann, 633
Adult High Game w/hdcp – Chet Gould, 638

Snow Sculpting

First – Cooperstown Graduate Program, Class of 2011
Second – Andrew and Erin Rock

Parade

First – Cooperstown Girl Scouts and Cubs
Second – The Smithy
Third – SSPCA

X-Country Ski Race

First (female) – Emily Stein, 22:03
Second (female) – Susie Knight, 22:05
Third (female) – Deb Dolan, 25:16
First (male) – Gary Toombs, 13:55
Second (male) – Mark Gobel, 14:50
Third (male) – Thomas Cassidy, 15:51
(complete results atclarksportscenter.com)

Dessert Lovers

Best Business – Heckman’s Harmony House
Best Youth – The Falk Family
Best Individual – Whitney Selover
Audience Choice: Heckman’s Harmony House

Basketball

High School Boys – Jeff Flynn, Jimmy Donley, Isaac Huntsman
High School Girls – Emma Ryan Miller, Lexi Bloomfield
Middle School Boys – Park Summers, Jason Cadwalder
Middle School Girls – Mallory Arthurs, Addy Lawson
Elementary Boys – Jack Lambert, Reilly Hall, Tim Fuery
Elementary Girls – Annie Hage
Three-Point Shooting – Dave Kent, Scott Whiteman, Tim Fuery
Foul Shots – Dick Start, Dave Hunt

Sled Stampede

Overall – Johnny Hage
Adult – Ben Savoie
14 and under – Johnny Hage
11 and under – Joey Peterson, Annie Hage
8 and under – Josie Hovis
6 and under – Mary Hage
5 and under – Keenan Murphy

Bob Smullens Road Race

First 10K (female) – Lisa Brassaw, 45:08
First 10K (male) – Mike Rutledge, 35:20
First 5K (female) – Andrea Aldridge, 24:24
First 5K (male) Chuck Hollister

Chicken Wing

Cooley’s Stone House Tavern

Cheesecake Contest

First – Linda Smirk, Cooperstown B&B
Second – Elizabeth Dunn
Third – Bassett Healthcare, Nicoletta’s Italian Cafe, Cooperstown Diner

Pitch Tournament

First – Adam Sittler and Jeremy Holmes
Second, Skip and Chuck Coleman
Third – Brendan Hill and Reid Nagelschmidt

Last Stand Chili Contest

Best Business – Heckman’s Harmony House
Best Individual – Lynda Selover

Golden Horseshoe Hunt

The Toulson Family

50/50 Raffle

Stephen Pond, $271

Door Prize

Mike Kenney, tickets to Glimmerglass Opera

By JIM KEVLIN


COOPERSTOWN

The village Republican Committee is heading into local elections Tuesday, March 16, without a chairman, but the impact is being minimized.
“We’re OK for now,” said Glenn Hubbell, the committee’s treasurer, who agreed to assume the helm temporarily after long-time chair Bill Waller peremptorily resigned Thursday, Feb. 4, at a meeting with candidates.
As treasurer, Hubbell said, he can continue to write checks as needed to support GOP candidates in the four weeks remaining in the campaign.
Joe Booan, Jr., said Hubbell was hosting another gathering this Thursday, Feb. 11, for the slate to talk through approaches to the campaign.
He said it has been suggested that another caucus be convened and new Republican officers elected, but that can be done once things settle down after the election.
Tuesday evening, Feb. 9, Waller released a letter announcing his decision, saying it was prompted the need to take care of his wife, Mayor Carol B. Waller, who is suffering from arthritis.
“In addition, I feel it is the proper time to step down and let others continue the traditions that were started over 30 years ago when Tom Malone and I quenched the Union Ticket and brought competitive elections to Cooperstown,” he said. “Prior to that, candidates were “selected” by a few and voted in by as little as 15 in the village’s general elections.
“The culmination of this effort was dramatically seen at our last Republican caucus, where a record number of people turned out and selected their candidates for village office.”
According to those present at Hubbell’s last week, the candidates – Booan, Doug Walker and Chip Dunn for trustee, and Mike Molly for justice – had been invited to what they believed was a strategy session at Hubbell’s home.
Instead, Waller read a statement saying he was resigning, and left.
Carol Waller had declared a year ago that she would support her Democratic deputy mayor, Jeff Katz, as her successor.
When Booan announced he would also run, his supporters were rallied to attend the Republican caucus Jan. 21 to ensure the Wallers didn’t throw the GOP nomination to the Democrat.

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

‘Ten...nine...eight,” Tony Gambino remembered.
“When the buzzer went off, it was like nothing you would ever experience again.”
It was the night of Feb. 22, 1980, in Lake Placid.
Tony Gambino didn’t see the final seconds.
A 30-something cameraman for ABC covering his first Olympics, his lens was focused on the American bench for those final seconds.
When the young men straining with anticipation leaped to their feet in cheers, he knew history was made, a miracle had happened.
The young, fast, eager U.S. team had beaten the USSR, the seasoned grizzly, at its own game, and went on to claim Olympic gold a few days later in an anticlimactic defeat of Finland.
With the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, Feb. 12, that night 30 years ago is much on Gambino’s mind.
So is Sarajevo, 1984, when Jean Claude Killy wiped out right in front of his camera. And 1988 in Calgary. And 2002 in Salt Lake City, when speed-skater Apollo Ono’s dreams were shattered before his eyes.
Tony Gambino – he and wife Louise moved to Cooperstown in 2005 – graduated from Mineola High School in 1971, tried college but didn’t like it, then attended the RCA Institute in New York City, studying TV.
That led to a job editing film for WPIX, but it was a stint with WSNL, a start-up on Long Island, where he got to do some of everything, that grounded him in the business that was to be his career.
He rode his motorcycle cross country, and studied further at Sherwood Oaks Film School in California. Back in New York in 1976, he was picked up by ABC’s “20-20.”
At the time, ABC was merging its film and video efforts; the “young guys” were teaching the “old guys” video, but the “old guys” were teaching the young ones how to shoot, the angles, the lighting. Tony soaked it up.
Gambino spent the summer of ‘79 at Lake Placid, on a crew laying “miles and miles” of cable then necessary for the networks to transmit their images.
That night, THE night, Tony remembers “the calmness beforehand. As people began to come into the arena, with their American flags, cowboy hats, American shirts – it just started to feel, this was THE GAME. This was the Olympics right here.”
He continued, “When that game started, and the kids were playing, the place was erupting. When they pulled the goalie” – he paused – “These kids were skating their hearts out. These weren’t men. These were 19 year olds.”
Tony stuck to his post, next to the U.S. bench with a “hand held.”
He remembers 1984 in Sarajevo, sure, sharing Baby Ruths with his Yugoslavian guard, Goring. Tony gave him an ABC pin; in return, Goring gave him the Red Star off his cap.
That was quite an Olympics for the U.S., too, with Bill Johnson becoming the first American male competitor to win a Gold medal in an Alpine event.
But that night in Placid.
“Heart,” said Tony. “It was all heart.”

By JIM KEVLIN


COOPERSTOWN

‘The philosophy across Duvel” – Brewery Ommegang’s parent company – “is you get the right thing. You pay the price for it, but you get the right thing.”
Simon Thorpe, Ommegang’s new president, was enthusing over a beer-and-wire topping machine, top of the line, imported from Italy, that was being installed in the Medieval-style Town of Middlefield plant the other day.
“This is a big day for us,” said Thorpe. “Investing in little things makes the difference between great quality and really good quality.”
Ommegang’s goal: “The top of the pyramid for super-premium quality.”
“The right thing,” “top quality,” “the best.” These are the types of phrases you hear if you spend much time with the 47-year-old Brit who arrived in Cooperstown via a 25-year career that ranges from Brussels to Battle Creek, Mich.
Listening to Thorpe, you can imagine how the scene behind the brewery’s neat facade you see from Route 33 must pick at him: Kegs are stacked here, pallets there, crates over there.
But not for long. Accompanied by brewmaster Phil Leinhardt, Thorpe strides toward the frame of an 8,000-square-foot warehouse that is rising to the north of the main building.
By March, the building should be finished and a storage “pinch” that has been slowing Ommegang’s production should be eased. In addition to providing a home for all that material out back, the warehouse will contain an expanded “warm cellar” – the Belgian-style brews are further bottle-aged after the regular brewing is complete – that doubles the current space.
This is part of the effort to expand the 36-hectoliter capacity – a hectoliter is 100 liters or 26 gallons – to 45-50 hectoliters.
The need to expand is an outgrowth of success: In the past year, the Dow went up 2.2 percent; Ommegang’s volume rose 11 percent, and its revenues, 20 percent.
Thorpe sees the brewery’s success as a byproduct of the Europeanization of Americans’ approach to food and drink – a heightened interest in flavor and quality.
“We are in the perfect place at the perfect time to grow with that trend,” he said, perhaps to even 100 hectoliters in five years.
Grow where? “We have 148 acres here,” he said, with a nod out back. He anticipates the brewery, which employs 30-some people now – several of the new people are in sales and marketing, spreading the Ommegang word to all but four of the 50 states – could double in size in a decade.
Thorpe was raised in Southhampton, England, on the Channel, won a scholarship to a good secondary school and studied engineering at the University of Birmingham.
During a five-year stint with Unilever in the manufacture of margarine in London’s east end, he discovered his real interest was marketing and strategy.
He spent nine years with Tambrands in Belgium and Germany, then joined Kellogg’s in fabled Battle Creek, just as the company was discovering a market in convenience foods like Pop Tarts, Neutrogena Bars and Rice Krispie Treats.
He joined Hallmark just as people were shifting to e-mails, and found himself responsible for strategically retrenching Crayolas in the Binney & Smith division.
The link in all this: “I’ve always wanted to run companies that have beautiful brands, real high quality brands with growth potential.” (Hold that thought.)
Then, beer, and it gets a bit complicated.
Thorpe joined InterBrew; the Belgian beer company had established “flagship local brands” in Korea, China, the U.K. and elsewhere.
His first challenge was to merge InterBrew with AmBev – its South American equivalent – and create InBev. After a stint in Belgium, he returned to the States as InBev’s U.S. CEO, responsible for such brands as Labatt, Rolling Rock and Beck’s.
Foremost, he oversaw the rise of Stella Artois.
Innovation One: Every available billboard in the top 30 U.S. cities was obtained for Stella.
Innovation Two: The company provided “millions” of chalice-like glasses with the Stella logo on the side to bars that served the beer. So when you got a Stella, it was in a Stella glass, something that’s become a staple for quality beers.
Itchy to run his own company, Thorpe put together a private equity fund with some friends, but when the market collapsed in 2008, he reconnect with Michel Moortgat, president of Ommegang’s parent, Duvel Moortgat.
From what you’ve read so far, you can see how this would have been an ideal match.
In addition to ramping up production and sales, one of Thorpe’s novelties – he said he’s leaned heavily on brewmaster Leinhardt and Larry Bennett, director of marketing – has been the four specialty brews announced last month. Only six weeks’ supply of each will be produced, and a different beer will be released quarterly.
Ommegang has caused a splash in beer circles nationally, but, Thorpe said, everything gets old; this is an idea to keep the brand fresh.
Plus, “there’s competition down there,” said Thorpe, his head inclining toward the French doors at the end of the second-floor offices that look out to where the brewers concoct their potions. “It’s created a buzz in the brewery.”
Meanwhile, Thorpe is settling into Cooperstown, which he’s found he likes quite a bit. He’s met a lot of people. There’s a vibrant social life.
His wife Julie and son Robert, 17, who have followed him back and forth across the Atlantic several times, remain in Brussels for now until the son graduates from high school.

By JIM KEVLIN


COOPERSTOWN

Money isn’t everything, but $5,600 is $5,600.
That’s the amount JGB Properties’ six-home “cluster” development – the first of its kind in the village – would generate annually in property taxes.
(Don’t take our word for it: $2.5 million market value, assessed at half, $1.25 million; apply the 4.6 per $1,000 village tax rate. The school district and county take additional pieces.)
Chestnut Crossing, as the developers call it, would consist of six, two-story, stand-alone houses, priced at an average of $400,000.
It would be the first housing development of any size since the 12-home, plus garden apartments, subdivision on Estli Avenue, developed for Bassett Healthcare some 20 years ago.
Doug Beachel, JGB’s director of real estate, appeared before the village Planning Board Jan. 25 for a second preliminary conversation, and plans to submit a formal application at the board’s Tuesday, Feb. 23, meeting.
At that time, a public hearing could be scheduled for the next meeting, March 23, and the Planning Board could grant approval any time after that.
Beachel, based in Syracuse, said he hopes to get a spec home completed in the upcoming building season.
Chestnut Crossing – the idea surfaced more than a year ago now – would stretch between Chestnut Street and Pine Boulevard, just north of the Inn at Cooperstown. It will require demolition of the former Smith Ford site, a low-slung one-story building that once was a meat cooler.
One home would front on Chestnut, one on Pine, and the other four on Stagecoach Lane, a public right-of-way.
There is actually room on the parcel for seven 5,000-square-foot lots – the village minimum – according to Tavis Austin, village zoning enforcement officer.
However, the developer chose to go with just six lots and the cluster process so as to fit the development on the site in a more “harmonious” manner, he said.
For his part, Beachel said JGB went the cluster route because it allows the development to be planned as an entity and approved in advance, which assists with the marketing.

COOPERSTOWN

Beginning with the Fenimore Quilt Club show, which opens 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, extensive damage from a steam leak is requiring all Cooperstown Art Association exhibits to be held until further notice on the second floor of 22 Main.
“We are taking this unfortunate circumstance as an opportunity to re-assess the use of our space, to make it better and more professional as we go forward,” said Janet Erway, CAA executive director.

By JIM KEVLIN


COOPERSTOWN

After all the support she’d voiced for her Democratic deputy mayor, Mayor Carol B. Waller sat mute as the village Republican Party, chaired by her husband Bill, nominated its own candidate, Trustee Joe Booan, by acclamation. While she kept her counsel during the best-attended GOP village caucus in memory, perhaps in history – it packed 70 people into the 22 Main meeting room on Thursday, Jan. 21 – the mayor hadn’t changed her mind. “I’m supporting Jeff Katz for mayor,” she repeated earlier this week, saying she believes his longer tenure on the village board better qualifies him. Village Democrats, as anticipated, had nominated Katz at their own caucus, in the same room 24 hours earlier, attended by two dozen of the party faithful. They also nominated Trustee Lynne Mebust for a second term, and village Democratic chair Richard Abbate for the seat now filled by Trustee Eric Hage, an independent who decided not to run again. Over the weekend, however, Abbate had second thoughts and withdrew. He was replaced by Sally Eldred, retired executive director of the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, who moved to the village five years ago. For the two trustee vacancies, the Republicans nominated Doug Walker, proprietor of 2 Chestnut B&B who also ran two years ago, and Alton B. “Chip” Dunn, III, a Laurens Central School teacher long-active in the Cooperstown fire department and EMS squad. Democrats nominated Leslie Freedman and Republicans Mike Molloy for the village justice position being vacated by Enid Hinkes. Mayor Waller had announced last March that she would be supporting Katz, who she’d designated deputy mayor, to replace her in village elections now upcoming on Tuesday, March 16. Her husband, as Republican chairman, when questioned about the potential conflict of interest, had insisted everything would be above board. Still, as of Monday, Jan. 18, three days before the GOP caucus, he had recruited no one to run for mayor or trustee. That evening, Joe Booan, a BOCES administrator elected village trustee last year, announced he would seek the top job, and his supporters sprung into action to forestall what they feared was an impending Waller coup on Katz’s behalf. Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, Booan supporters manned the phones, urging Republicans to attend Thursday’s caucus and vote their views. It later circulated that Bill Waller had been lining up proxy votes that he would then cast on Katz’s behalf. Whether he was doing so or not – Waller denies it, saying proxy votes aren’t even allowed in a caucus – a push for Katz never materialized. The Democratic caucus went forward routinely – Katz cited his longer tenure on the board in his acceptance remarks – but by 7 p.m. the next evening, every seat in the 22 Main meeting room was taken, and attendees were backed up into the hallway. County GOP Chair Sheila Ross nominated Bill Waller as caucus chair, and he was approved. When he called for nominations for mayor, Helen Chetner, Booan’s Irish Hill neighbor, nominated him; Lee Malone seconded. Addressing the caucus, Booan, who was recently promoted from Milford BOCES principal, recalled finding old equipment – training vehicles, on average, were 26 years old – a deteriorating plant and a fragmented staff on arriving there nine years ago, (issues that, to a degree, parallel current municipal challenges.) It took a while, but all of those issues have been resolved, he said, in particular “getting everybody on one bus going in one direction.” Any more nominations? Waller asked. “There being none, I cast one vote in the affirmative for the nominee.” The room burst into applause. Bill Waller said the caucus was the best attended in his 30 years involved in local politics. He researched earlier village GOP caucuses in The Freeman’s Journals, going back several decades, and hadn’t found one to match this one. Asked if the local Republican Party would be giving this year’s slate the same kind of support given to past candidates, Waller said he didn’t know and that the decision would be made by committee; he didn’t know when that committee might meet. The backdrop of last week’s events was a year of transition on the village board, and two new trustees – Booan and Willis J. Monie, Jr. – discovered they were of a mind with two other trustees, Hage and Neil Weiller, in their concern about the village’s declining financial picture. The four found themselves voting as a bloc on numerous questions, with Waller, Katz and Mebust in opposition. Some see the March election as a referendum on the two approaches. Katz, 47, a retired trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, moved to the village a half-dozen years ago with his wife and three sons. In addition to elective office, he published “The Kansas City A’s & The Wrong Half of the Yankees,” a history of New York’s use of the A’s as a farm team. Booan, 44, is currently one of two directors at ONC BOCES, seconds-in-command to Superintendent Nick Savin. A fourth-generation Cooperstownian, he was a school counselor in Virginia, where he met his wife, Lisa, before moving home. The couple has two children.

By JIM KEVLIN

SPRINGFIELD CENTER

The date is burned in memory: Nov. 15, 2005.
And the time: 2:03 a.m.
Bill Elsey and his wife Violetta were asleep upstairs in their Bartlett Road home when one of their cats – the one that would survive – awoke them.
“When I sat up in bed, I couldn’t see anything, the smoke was so thick,” the new Town of Springfield supervisor recalled recently on a one of those cold, sunny and clear, very clear, winter days.
The Elseys had only been in town for a few years and didn’t know that many people. Nonetheless, even before the fire was out – the house was destroyed – people began driving up.
“Clothes, food, they brought everything,” said Bill. “People we’d never met before.”
That night changed Elsey, who until then had been something of a wanderer, raised in Chicago, living and working in Florida and California. He’d found a home.
Soon, he was a member of the fire department. A year later, he was chief. In 2007, he was elected to the Springfield Town Board.
On Election Day in November, another chapter opened for the proprietor of Leather Stalking Books: He was elected supervisor, narrowly defeating Tom Armstrong, who had held sway for a quarter-century.
Elsey assumed the town’s helm during a calm in a particularly unusual stormy period in this serene, scenic town.
First, a group of downstate businessmen/motorcycle enthusiasts had sought to build a track near the Warren town line. Then, Chicago-area investors began exploring a sizeable youth baseball park – complete with a mini Wrigley Field and Fenway Park – near the Richfield town line.
Last, and the opposite of least, Madison Square Garden Entertainment proposed a three-day, 75,000 fan annual music festival at the East Springfield end of the 1,200-person town.
“I just felt it was time for us to change in the town,” said Elsey, “and start planning for the future. I just didn’t see that going on.”
The new supervisor was sworn in Jan. 4, and by month’s end found himself in an optimum situation.
Town Board member Dan Rosen and Elsey had been allies, but another like-minded individual, Fred Culbert, was elected in November. Since Elsey’s elevation created a vacancy, he had a say in his successor, who ended up as Bill Freeland, who operates an organic grain and cattle farm on Hoyer Road.
The fifth board member is Richard Rathbun, whose Rathbun Road farm dates back to the town’s founding. On the split Armstrong board, Rathbun was the swing vote with the reputation of someone who could be convinced by the facts.
If, for a freshman supervisor, Elsey is in a pretty good position to get things done, and he’s not wasting any time:
• Highway Superintendent Jeff Miles and Rathbun are exploring what regulations the town might adopt to protect its roads from heavy-truck traffic that would occur if natural-gas drilling happens.
• Town Clerk Jeannette Armstrong, and Planning Board members Rosemary Harrison and Maureen Culbert are identifying which high priorities in the recently completed comprehensive plan to pursue first.
• Elsey is looking into how to speed broad-band Internet access to the town. “If we have it, people are more likely to start their own businesses here.”
• Rosen and Planning Board chair Dave Staley will be recommending how site-plan review must be changed to reflect the comprehensive plan.
• $50,000 in NYSERDA and other funding is being sought to make the Springfield Community Center energy efficient. It still has single-pane windows, but Elsey’s discovered just adding energy-efficient light fixtures and a furnace could save significant money.
• Finally, he’s putting together a committee of citizens to identify “low-impact companies” that might want to relocate here: back offices for an insurance company, perhaps, or an assisted-living facility, much lacking in these parts. “Springfield is pretty easily accessible,” Elsey noted.
The new supervisor asked that this article not dwell on his personal story, but some of it’s too good to let slide.
Both raised in Chicago, Bill and Vi met at the University of Illinois, Chicago campus; both are Chicago Cubs fans. He was a wildlife biologist for a while. He spent 20 years in Mountainview, Calif., running his own medical-transcription business. Then the couple moved to Florida for 3-4 years.
Summers were so hot there, they would travel north to escape the heat, and eventually visited the Baseball Hall of Fame. They liked the area. The couple had been buying and selling books, and figured they could do that anywhere, and so bought a century-old home on Bartlett Road (since the fire, replaced with a ranch.)
The Elseys’ Leather Stalking Books specializes in mysteries. Conan Doyle, Hammett and Chandler are the gold standard, but Bill’s had some luck with lesser lights.
For example, he discovered a first edition of Cormac McCarthy’s first book, “The Orchard Keeper,” and bought it for 63 cents. He’d rather not say what he got for it.

Christopher Michaels, a CCS senior from Mount Vision, has been offered an appointment at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, U.S. Rep. Mike Arcuri, D-24, has announced.

Republican Richard Hanna of Cooperstown and Barnevelt, who was narrowly defeated in his 2008 race against incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Arcuri, D-24, has announced he plans to run again this year. The election is in November.

Arlen Roth, world-renown guitarist and investor in the prospective Guitar Hall of Fame, jammed for 90 minutes Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Hoffman Lane Bistro. He was in town as a judge of the first annual Choir Challenge at The Otesaga.

The Coopertown Central school board’s Public Relations Committee has scheduled a second “You Have Our Ear” session at the end of its Wednesday, Feb. 3, meeting at the middle/high school cafeteria. The topic is “Possibilities for District Collaboration: Maximizing Services While Saving Money.” BOCES Superintendent Nick Savin will attend.