homage to baltistan

4-16-10

50 Years Later, He’s Still Immersed In Himalayan  Lore

By JIM KEVLIN : EAST SPRINGFIELD

OK, you may have missed John Travolta when he and wife Kelly Preston were in Cooperstown for Cal Ripken’s induction in 2007.
And maybe you never ran into James “The Sopranos” Gandolfino while he was partnering with Jim Johnson in The Vines restaurant in Oneonta.
But how many people around here can claim almost meeting the Faqir of Ipi?
And that just scratches the surface of the stories you will hear if you spend an afternoon with Jim Hurley, who was vice consul at the U.S. Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1955-60.
After a series of life adventures, he settled in Springfield Center in 1991 – moving to East Springfield a decade later – to operate James Hurley Books, a 2,000-volume collection on Kashmir in general and, in particular, the Baltistan province.  Also, explorer Aurel Stein, whose  discoveries include “The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” in western China.
How about this story.
In 1960, Hurley and an acquaintance he’d met hiking the Baltistan passes – plus two high-altitude porters – attempted to climb K12, a never-vanquished (until 1972) 24,370-foot tall peak.
Jim got as far as 21,000 feet, where he and his fellow climber had to traverse a 45-degree rock face.
“Bohot khatnach, sahib,” his porter told him, “Very dangerous, sahib,” and Hurley made the decision to turn back, although his companion continued on.
“If I fell, he could catch me.  But if he fell, I couldn’t hold him,” Hurley reasoned.  “We” – he and his porter – “wound ourselves down the spine.  I had to see some green.”
Or this culinary story.
In Lahore, the food was hot, hot.  But Balti food was milder – lots of vegetables – and Hurley enjoyed it quite a bit. 
With one exception:  Goat head.  His experience was with one that had been cooked 24 hours until it was “almost gelatinous.”
“I didn’t find that too great,” Hurley said.
Or stories about the people he met.
He maintained an ongoing conversations with “The Frontier Gandhi,” Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who was in jail in Lahore when Hurley first met him.  He became friendly with Khan’s sons, later prominent in Pakistan – Ghani, as a poet; Abdul, as a politician – and might have (but didn’t) marry one of their sisters.
Another pal was Abdur Rauf, a sub-editor at the “very good” Pakistan Times.  He would stop by Hurley’s after the paper was put to bed, and the two would debate partition, the Cold War and other burning issues of the day until the wee hours.
Hurley also had a chance to confer with General Nimo, the Australian then in charge of the U.N. peacekeeping forces tasked with keeping the Indians and Pakistani armies apart.
And another time, on a wooden saddle, he rode through the night from the Balti capital, Skardu, to the nearest airport to meet Eric Shipton, the famed mountaineer involved in a number of attempts on Everest.
James Hurley was born in 1929 and raised in Holyoke, Mass., along with five younger sisters.  He joined the Navy in 1946, and after a two-year stint attended Boston University, then Columbia, where he was “a bit of a Joe College,” managing the glee club and writing for the newspaper (under fellow student Max Frankel, later editor of the New York Times.)
As his college years neared their end, he happened to attend a lecture on Kashmir at the National Geographic Society, and was smitten.
He graduated in 1953, joined the State Department, and in 1955 arrived in the Pakistani capital.  A young single man among married colleagues – he was also the consulate’s assistant economic officer – he traveled quite a bit on the job.
His colleagues included Jim Spain, later an ambassador and author of “The Way of the Pathans.”   Another became Nancy Dupree – her future husband wrote “Afghanistan,” considered the best work on that country; their Dupree Foundation in Kabul has been in the news lately.
Since there was no consular office in Peshawar, the administrative capital of the FATA, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (which included Baltistan), Hurley found himself there with some regularity.
As soon as he earned some leave, he hopped a DC-3 from Rawalpindi to Skardu to begin his adventurous treks.
Skardu was the mud-hutted capital of a very poor region, overseen by a Pakistani political officer; the subsistence farmers couldn’t have survived without government subsidies.
Hurley stayed that night at a Dak Bungalow, one of a series of government rest houses maintained across Pakistan; then, with knapsack and tent on his back, headed up the Skora La pass.  By the time he left Pakistan five years later, he had spent four such summers.
Meanwhile, his wanderings had also introduced him to the Kesar Legend, an epic about a legendary king that had been passed down by oral tradition over many centuries.
As a guest of the Rajah of Kapalu – there were six valleys in the region, each with its own rajah – Hurley convinced him to assign a local scribe to write down the local version of the heroic poem.
When Hurley arrived back at the end of that summer’s wanderings, he was presented with five notebooks of tightly written script; they are now owned by the New York Public Library’s oriental section.
By his departure in 1960 – he hitchhiked through Afghanistan (where the U.S. Consulate at Kabul blocked his meeting with the Faqir of Ipi) – he had accumulated four tons of books, 500 volumes.
They were packed and put on a bullock cart, but were so heavy the wheels sank into the mud and a truck had to be called in.  Eventually, the collection ended up in storage in Virginia.
Hurley went to London, determined to become the foremost Western scholar on Kashmir.  After a disastrous love affair, he returned stateside as the 1960s’ riots were under way.  He stayed in New York, did community work in Bedford Styvesant, founded the Brooklyn (now Long Island) Historical Society, and developed what became the Weeksville Heritage Center, celebrating one of the first communities of free slaves.
He married twice, and has a grown daughter in Philadelphia.
He became a reference archivist in the city archives, then the first archivist of the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission – where, among others, he met Cherry Valley’s Kent Barwick.  Attending a session at NYSHA – Fred Rath became a friend – he fell in love with the area and, on retiring, moved here, and his books – moved to New York from the Virginia barn 10 years before – followed.
“I didn’t know anyone but Fred,” said Hurley.  “He introduced me to Willis Monie.  Willis gave me the advice to start a book business.”
Highpoints included a recent sale of 12 of 13 volumes by the Swedish explorer Sven Hendin, sold for $6,000 to a customer in Beijing.  The Arthur Paul Collection at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, has been a particularly good customer.
He’s in the process now of selling his whole collection.
“Despite all the people we’re losing and the money we’re spending,” he said, sadly, “there’s not a lot of interest in reading about the people who I found so interesting and attractive.”

Insurance Available

4-16-10

Q. I’m over 50 and have been turned away by health insurers who either won’t sell me coverage or charge so much I can’t afford to buy it, all because of my health problems. How long do I have to wait before I can get covered?

A. If you have preexisting medical conditions and have been unable to get health insurance for at least six months, you should be eligible to buy coverage through a temporary federally funded program called a “high-risk pool.” Under the new law, this option – expected to be available by July – will cover about 2 million men and women in your situation. Older members cannot be charged more than four times what younger members pay for this coverage, and out-of-pocket expenses are limited to $5,950 for an individual or $11,900 for a family this year.
More answers at aarp.org

U.S. Buoys State Help For Aging

4-16-10

Editor’s Note:  Mike Burgess, director, state Office on Aging, gave this assessment of how older New Yorkers are faring in this address to the General Assembly’s joint budget committee.

These are difficult economic times across the country and here in New York State.
Older New Yorkers, their families and their caregivers are feeling the impact of the economic downturn, as it affects their income (since this year there is no federal cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients), their investments, and their standard of living.
The impact on standard of living is particularly problematic for those who are already living close to poverty levels; many older New Yorkers rely on the services funded through the state, federal and local budgets for assistance with food, shelter, and tasks of daily living.
Counties continue to report escalating costs and diminishing revenue while needs are growing, in part due to the State’s changing demographics.
From 2000 to 2015, all but four counties in New York will experience increases in the proportion of their residents who are over age 65.
Governor Paterson’s budget ensures that the state Office for the Aging will be able to preserve the local infrastructure of the service network for older adults and the home and community-based services they and their families need to support independent living.
This is a network that has been very successful in leveraging local dollars, including significant contributions from the program participants themselves.
The network of Area Agencies on Aging and community-based service providers are the first line of support when an older adult needs assistance following an illness or hospitalization.
... The Governor’s budget will allow the agency to continue to support the independence of older New Yorkers.
It is important for all to continue to work collaboratively with local agencies and the nonprofit sector in our common effort to improve the quality of life for older adults.
At the state level, it is the Office on Aging’s role to support local partners and strengthen them as much as possible, while providing technical assistance and identifying grants and other alternative funding sources for new initiatives.
Across the state, many programs are available that maintain older adults’ independence and improve their quality of life. These include meals programs; the Expanded In-home Services for the Elderly Program; caregiver, respite and adult day services; transportation services; and economic security programs such as the Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
Access to objective information through resources such as the Health Insurance Information Counseling and Assistance Program and the state-wide Senior Citizens Help Line has helped hundreds of thousands of people. The NY Connects program is also helping older adults, people of all ages with disabilities and their families obtain and use information about long term care options and services.
...For many years, federal funding for our agency’s core services was relatively flat, but with the investment of American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds in meals (totaling $6,191,164) and in the Senior Community Service Employment Program (totaling $7,698,772), our Office on Aging has been able to weather the recent economic storm. I am pleased to note that President Obama has included an increase in his proposed budget for senior meals programs and other services such as transportation and adult day care, and the President has a new initiative to support family caregivers.
 New York State would expect to receive an additional $6-7 million as a result of these federal budget proposals, if enacted.

A Happy Day For A SADD Run

4-16-10

Runners, more than 400 strong, dash off the starting line of the 12th annual SADD “Strides for Safety” 5K Run/Walk on East Street Sunday, April 14.

And the winner is ... Oneonta’s Michael Hamilton, 22, who finished the course in 17:17.3

Cheering runners on the final turn – the East Street entrance to OHS – were, from left, were Maraya Fisher, Amelia Spaziani, Veronica Stamp, Leah Elsbeck, Jesse Wolf-Gould and Russell Rock, all OHS students.

On mountain bikes, Ron Wamsley, right, and Don Tubia of the city’s Fire Rescue Squad, monitored the runners in relative comfort.

Leading the women was Oneonta’s Beth Gollin, 17, finishing in 20:16.7

At the health fair inside the OHS gym, Colleen Hait, right, paints Sienna Glavin in preparation for the run.  In the background is Jennifer Jelic.  All are OHS students.

There Was Stuff Going On Everywhere

4-16-10

Patrick and Jessica Baker tally up scores during the Patrick Baker Benefit Bowling tournament Saturday, April 10.  The family is trying to raise $500,000 for Patrick, 37, to have a liver transplant. It was one of many events under way in northern Otsego County Saturday, April 10.

Crowds turn out for the Spring open house at Springfield Tractor, Route 20.

Brandon McEwan, Sidney, was grand-prize winner at the Clark Sports Center’s weight-lifting contest.  He bench-pressed 450 pounds.

Four generations of Garretsons attended Cherry Valley’s Community Healthcare Center Appreciation Day:  great-grandmother Beverly, granddad Tom, mom Celia Rathbun, and Jossalynn Rathbun, 9 months.

Bob Birch, right, the Cooperstown lawyer, sets off on the Walk for Autism at Glimmerglass State Park.

Kate O’Handley stacks Styrofoam brought to the fifth annual Earth Festival at Milford Central School for recycling.  It was quite a mountain.

Who Can Resist A Player Piano?

4-9-10

By JIM KEVLIN

The sound of ivories being tickled has been wafting through the air at the corner of Main and Dietz lately.
But peek in the door of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society, and you won’t find anyone tickling them.
You will see a G.B. Shearer Co. piano, though, and as you approach you will see the piano eerily performing all by itself.
It might be “Garibaldi’s Hymn,” “The President Coolidge March” – GOHS Executive Director Bob Brzozowksi’s favorite – “Polka de Concert” or dozens of other tunes not often heard these days.
Yes, spooky.
What your looking at is a gift – a player piano from the Crandell family of Otego, in memory of Margaret M. Crandell, who passed away in 2004 – that keeps on giving.
Brzozowski and Eric Mazurak, the piano tuner and GOHS board member, picked up the gift early in 2009 and drove it down to Outback Mechanical Music in Bainbridge.
There, David Smith – he and brother Tom are in business together – spent a year repairing the apparatus, painstaking step by painstaking step.
The $4,500 price tag was paid, in part, by a $1,500 grant from Oneonta’s Jackson H. Fenner Foundation.
As history/music enthusiasts became aware the player piano was there, they began dropping off rolls they happened to have around the house or in the attic.
Jim Strolin, a Hudson Street resident who used to have a player piano of his own and began collecting rolls, alone contributed 70, including “Spirit of Independence” and World War II marches.
(He hung on to a few of his favorites, including the theme from the “Batman” TV show autographed by Adam West, and a Little Rascals medley signed by Tommy “Butch” Bonds.  His wife, Melissa, enjoyed “Keep The Home Fires Burning,” so he kept that, too.)
And as passersby heard the wafting, many stopped in and before long have found themselves seated at the controls, pumping the bellows and enjoying the music.
The GOHS has a special player-piano bench – it’s slightly slanted to give players’ legs and little extra leverage against the pedals.
The Shearer company was assembling player pianos in the city – in the vicinity of The Depot, Brzozowski believes – during early decades of the 20th century, the heyday of the piano.
David Smith, who is giving a lecture/demonstration at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 10, at the GOHS, said there were “many hundreds, perhaps thousands” of piano-assembling companies across the U.S. at the time Shearer was in business.
Norwich had two.  Walton had one.  Chauncey Pease founded the Pease Piano Co. in Cooperstown in the 1840s, later moving it to New York City.
These assemblers would order parts from manufacturers – the Wickham Piano Plate Co. of Springfield, Ohio, for instance, made “harps,” the heavy frame that holds the strings – and put together the final instruments locally.
While redoing the Shearer, for instance, he found the hammers were from Pratt & Reed, “the king of the piano-action business.”
The GOHS piano, Smith said, “was your typical unrestored, unmolested find.  It had not been subjected to weather and any elements.”
Still, because the playing mechanisms have parts made of leather, rubberized cloth and rubber tubing, time takes its toll.
There’s a main bellows, then individual smaller bellows for each of the 88 keys.  Smith estimated he cleaned or repaired 800 individual parts.  All the gaskets had to be replaced.
He estimated the refurbishing took “a couple of hundred hours” over a year.  Brzozowski and Mazurak brought the piano to the GOHS headquarters in February.
The Crandell piano arrived just as the Smith brothers were rebounding from the Flood of 2006.
The water rose 4-foot high inside their 24-by-48-foot studio on Front Street, Bainbridge, ruining 100 pianos and organs in various stages of repair.
Except for occasional jobs like the Shearer, the brothers are making a living doing electrical work.  Still, David has an interest in the history of music and the piano in particular.
He quotes a favorite passage from the 19th-century “General History of Music” by Bill & Bill:
“Probably no greater or swifter progress was ever made in any artistic or industrial pursuit than marks the piano and organ manufacture in America.”

City Hall Financial Job Dream Come True

4-9-10

Opportunity Exciting For Meg Hungerford

By LAURA COX


Even while growing up on a farm just over the Delaware County line, Meg Hungerford was always “playing bank.”
“I always knew what I wanted to do,” she said Monday, April 5, the day before Common Council was expected to appoint her permanently to the job of city chamberlain.  “I get excited to go through numbers and have them come out right in the end,” said Hungerford.
After a retirement, two new hires and two resignations, City Hall must be equally excited about having its top financial position filled with a candidate who has been proving what she can do since her provisional appointment last September.
A 1997 SUNY Oneonta graduate, Hungerford earned an associate’s degree in business management and a bachelor’s degree in accounting while a bank teller at Sidney Federal Credit Union in Oneonta.
Since, she has been an auditor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, worked for the state Comptroller’s Office and most recently has been consulting for municipalities.
Hungerford launched her consulting business when she and her husband Randy  started their family. They have two daughters, Morgan, 8, and Jillian, 6, and a son Jesse, 2. The family resides in East Meredith.
Hungerford said she was attracted to the position – left vacant by longtime city chamberlain David Martindale when he retired after 22 years of service in June of last year – because she liked the idea of being able to focus on one municipality.
“I didn’t know Dave Martindale was retiring,” she said, but caught up to the news on reading a news story about his first replacement resigning.  “I thought it was for me.”
Hungerford was hired on as deputy city chamberlain last September, then elevated to full-time city chamberlain in a provisional capacity in November until she completed a required exam. The Common Council passed a local law in September removing the residency requirement for the job, so that wasn’t an obstacle.
 “The job is what I expected. This is what I’ve done; it’s what I do. I work with a great group of people and I am very fortunate Dave Martindale left things in a way that made it easy to come in and pick it up.”

Learn A New Sport: Crew

4-9-10

Oneonta’s Andrea Thies, two time Olympic rower, and coaches from the Cooperstown Crew, are holding a clinic for high school boys and girls 2-3 p.m. Sunday, April 11, at the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club.

SIGNAL OF SPRING

4-9-10

Temperatures neared 80 degrees as freshman, from left,  Kaitlyn Farrell and Alaycia Chickerell, and juniors Maria Keable, Brianna Rowe and Sara Mileski cheered for their friends on the Oneonta High School baseball team. The YellowJackets fell to Unatego 8-7 after the Spartans took an 8-5 lead in the top of the seventh inning with a triple run.

Kasey Hogan catches for the Jackets.

Conor Youngs throws out the season opening pitch during a Saturday, April 3, home game vs. Unatego.

City of The Hills

4-9-10

AFRICAN SANCTUS: Tickets are available for the Catskill Choral Society’s presentation of David Fanshawe’s “African Sanctus.” The multi-media choral work will have its regional premiere at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, May 8, in SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union Ballroom.

GAZEBO SALES:  Edward Dickman’s plans to sell sheds, gazebos and antiques at 241 Route 28, Town of Oneonta, will be reviewed when the county Planning Board meets at 6 p.m. Monday, April 12, at The Meadows.

HI!ART: UCCCA will celebrate the art of grade 7-12 area students with a reception and award ceremony 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 10, at the Wilber Mansion. Awards will be presented at 2 p.m.

THEM APPLES:  New York State is shipping fresh apples to India for the first time, 42,776 bushels since the end of the fall 2009 season.

DANCE!  Arc Otsego’s Spring Fling Dance is NEXT weekend, 7-9 p.m. Friday, April 16, at the Armory.  $2 admission.



Laura Cox/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Martie Meadows, right, and Patricia Lent enjoy refreshments at a reception on Monday, April 5 following a Eucharist service for retired St. Mary’s priest Father Paul Roman who passed away March 22. The women were sharing  memories of Father Roman. (For story, see A-2)

Father Roman’s Perseverance Recalled

4-9-10

By LAURA COX

‘God give me the strength to persevere.”
The Rev. Paul Roman, St. Mary’s Catholic Church pastor from 1989 to 2003, used to often say that, and his successor, the Rev. Joseph A. Benintende, repeated it for the benefit of the 200 parishioners who gathered at St. Mary’s Monday, April 5, to reflect on the priest’s accomplishments.
“That’s what all of us ask for, that’s what it’s all about, to dance our dance, sing our song, to be our unique self and to persevere,” he said.  “To go when the Lord calls us home.”
The retired priest, who was also dean of Otsego County’s priests, passed away March 22 after a long illness.  He was 73.
He was appointed to St. Mary’s after serving three churches in Granville. He entered the Mater Christi Seminary in 1962 and studied at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, where he was ordained in 1971.
 “Paul Roman came to Oneonta as a priest to proclaim the Gospel,” Father Benintende said during the homily, “to teach others to live the Gospel message. Live life to best you can in the presence of God. That’s what Paul Roman called the people of St. Mary’s to do… Paul Roman called you to serve God by dancing your own dance, ” said Father Benintende.
During a coffee and cookie reception following the service, many parishioners recalled some of their most memorable moments with Father Roman.
Joe Pondolfino and his wife Meri-K remembered the time when their grandson James was in town from Florida and Father Roman was to baptize the boy, who was 3.
Their granddaughter Heather was standing near when they were discussing the baptism and heard Father Roman whistling.
Being young and not fully grasping religious concepts, Heather said, “I didn’t know God could whistle.” The Pondolfinos and Father Roman got a laugh over this for years.
Additionally the Pondolfinos were grateful to Father Roman for helping them through Meri-K’s conversion to Catholicism and they considered him a good friend.
Another church member, Patricia Lent, had fond memories of the way that Father Roman involved her three children in church services.
“Every service he had a job for them, it made them feel like they had a part and they wanted to be here. They were excited to go to church,” said Lent.
Other parishioners remembered the great effort Father Roman went through to decorate the church on Holidays. A trained florist – he worked in a florist shop at the age of 14, Martie Meadows of Oneonta said – he decorated everything differently each year. A few other parishioners remembered he spoke fluent Polish, he always had his martini with three olives, and if anyone ever needed him, he was always only a phone call away.
“He had a very vibrant and real faith,” said Mary Ann Hartman.

Row, Row, Row Your Scull At Boys, Girls Club Clinic

4-9-10

By LAURA COX


Rowing: some people know what it is, and some people think it’s like canoeing.
“Rowing is different than canoeing,” said Andrea Thies, a two-time Olympic rower and head coach of Cooperstown Crew, “the boats are much different, there are much longer oars, and you do not ‘paddle;’ there is different terminology.”
Thies, along with several accomplished rowers and coaches from Cooperstown Crew, will lead a free rowing clinic for high school age boys and girls 2-3 p.m. on Sunday, April 11, at the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club.
“It’s a great opportunity for kids to get a chance to try something they haven’t, something they never thought they could do,” she said.
It wasn’t until her freshman year at Cornell University that Thies gave rowing a try. She had never really participated in organized sports, but considered herself an athletic and “outdoorsy” tomboy.
The rowing coach approached her at freshman orientation and put on a hard sell, bragging that the athletes on the team had the highest GPA of all the sports. It took her a while to warm up to the idea, but eventually she made it to an introductory meeting and it became something she fell in love with.
“You never know until you try,” said Thies.
Her senior year – 1989 – Cornell won the collegiate national championship. After college she packed her backpack, hopped on a bus and moved to Boston where there was a training center. She wanted to try out for the national team.
Thies didn’t make nationals the first year, so she started to row in individual races called sculling – previously she was on an eight person boat. The next year she made the national team and competed with them in Vienna, Switzerland, Argentina, Czech Republic, Austria, Spain, and traveled all throughout Europe and the United States. She competed with the national team 1991 to 1996.
In 1992, Thies made the Olympic team for the races in Barcelona. She became ill and had to pull out, but stayed on as an alternate. In 1996, she finally got to compete in the Olympics when the games were in Atlanta. She competed in “double and quads” and the Olympic team came in 8th place.
After the Olympics the rower went into a career as an environmental consultant, but she started working with youth and kids and coached at the collegiate and high school level.
 In recent years, Thies has formulated plans to get rowing going in Otsego County and this clinic is just a start.
“When I proposed the idea to the Boys and Girls Club I had a response from them within 24 hours. They said they love rowing and would love to help,” said Thies. “They really are a facility designed for young people. You walk in and it’s all about kids and kids don’t have to feel like they are in the way of somebody.”
Petrea Delbert, from the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club said, “We are always thrilled to offer new programs to the youth of our community, and to be able to have this caliber of athletic experience and excellence in the Club’s tradition of affordability make this program that much more exciting.
At the clinic teens will learn the basics of rowing using rowing machines called rowing ergometers at the club. Several machines have been loaned to the club for use by University of Albany. The goal, for students who complete the program, is to row this summer on the water and have the opportunity to race this fall at regattas across New York.
For more information about the rowing programs at the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club, visit the Club at 70 River St., contact Petra Delbert at 432-1133 or at www.oneontaboysandgirlsclub.com.

DISTRICT IV HALL OF HAME INDUCTION

4-9-10

From left, Ryan Crawford, son of Sheila and Michael Serbay of Oneonta, Retired Edmeston Coach and past Cherry Valley Business Teacher Ron Tasior, and John Davis, son of Eva and Claude Davis, have their picture taken together when Crawford and Davis were inducted into the Section IV NYSPHS Athletic Association Hall of Fame on March 6. Crawford and Davis graduated from Edmeston Central School in 1991. Crawford was an assistant coach at Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta.

LOCALS

4-9-10

NEW OB/GYN: Sylvia Goodwin, MD, FACOG has joined the staff at A.O. Fox Hospital. Dr. Goodwin is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Medicine, as well as the University of South Florida, College of Medicine.  In her spare time, Goodwin enjoys creative writing, running, skiing and tap dancing.

SPCA WINNERS: Susquehanna SPCA Spring Bounty Basket Raffle winners are as follows: Paula Anderson, of Oneonta won the Easter basket at the Cooperstown Commons branch, John Genardo and Peggy Beaman of Oneonta won the dog basket at Oneonta’s East End branch and Lynn Monington of Oneonta won the outdoor backpack at the Wall Street branch in Oneonta.

CERTIFIED: Clayton Sunderland, an Information Systems Division, Inc (ISD) employee, has completed the ComTIAA+ Certification Examination and now the designation of “A+ Certified Professional.” By successfully passing this exam, he has demonstrated his knowledge, skills and customer relations as a microcomputer service technician. 

ON EXHIBIT:  Oneonta painter Madeline Silber and sculptor Stephanie Rozene of Oneonta are exhibiting at the Munson-Proctor-Williams Museum’s biennial exhibit, which invites regional artists from 26 counties across Central New York to the Utica venue.

LAUNCHED: Sweet Home Productions announced the launch of its online “video channel,” SweetHomeTV.com last week. The website features interviews with local people and businesses including Leslie Parmeter and Ray’s Downtown Adventures.

STIPEND: Artist Paula Friedman, of Otsego County, was one of eight artists to be awarded a Strategic Opportunity Stipend by the UCCCA. Friedman has been invited to show her work at the Vivian Hansen Gallery in Delhi.  Her “Hues of Blues” collection shows through April.

NEH GRANT:

4-9-10

Hartwick College Professor of English Thomas Travisano, a renowned scholar of the 20th century American poet Elizabeth Bishop, was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities to receive funding along with just 286 humanities projects nationwide. The summer stipend will fund Travisano’s archival research, interviews with Bishop’s surviving contemporaries, and the composition of the introduction of his biography.

6TH WARD AC DONATES $2370 IN FOOD IN MEMORY OF ANI COLONE

4-9-10

Laura Cox/HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Members of the 6th Ward Athletic Club delivered $2370 worth of food to the St. James Episcopal Church Food Pantry and Lord’s Table feeding program on Good Friday, April 2. The donation was a result of the Ani Colone Food Drive and was more than double last year’s. The club matched $1000 in donations in memory of drive namesake Ani Colone, who passed away in December at the age of 97. Helping deliver and stack food were from left, front, Cindy Cribley, volunteer, Jim Hanson, volunteer, Patrick Colone, Bob Liguer, Ken Machanny, church sexton, Mark Close, volunteer, back, James Mason, volunteer, Jim Walker, Bear Bryant, Joyce Mason, Director of The Lord’s Table,  Al Colone, Bob Stiefel, Dick Bryant, Raymond Hamilton, volunteer, John Chicorelli, Don Stiefel.

Ken Machanny, St. James Episcopal Church sexton, stacks food.

Bear Bryant, fills a cart for The Lord’s Table, behind him Al Colone supervises.

Bob Liguer unpacks one of four pick-up trucks.

EDITORIAL: Where’s There’s Life, Hope

Whenever things really get bad, it helps to remember that whatever happens to us, no matter how bad it may seem, has happened to many, many other human beings, and been overcome to various degrees.
The very good news about the Good Friday shootings in Cooperstown is this:  Both boys survived and both will likely go on to live happy and useful lives, whatever the near-term anguish.

•

The 16-year-old who was shot was back in school the following Monday, his wounded arm in a sling.  The alleged shooter, also 16, who then shot himself, was in Bassett Hospital, but out of danger.
This incident caused many long-time Cooperstownians to recall a contrasting case with a hopeless outcome:  On the evening of Saturday, Oct. 14, 1961, two 17-year-olds were shot and killed by a 16-year-old in a downtown alley.
In that case, the shooter was tracked down to his grandfather’s camp at Big Moose in the Adirondacks and shot.
That was almost 50 years ago, and many of the close relatives who suffered most keenly have passed away.  Still, they carried the burden of what happened all their lives.
And so the good news of today:  That was an irreversible tragedy.  This is merely a problem, albeit a serious one, that must and will be sorted out and resolved.

•

The rush to judgment in the latest case – that since the wounded boy was black and the alleged shooter white, this had to be a “hate crime” – is unfortunate.
The “hate crime” definition racheted up the potential assault charge to one that could draw a 25-year sentence.
Easy.  Easy.   Let’s just wait and see.  Whatever charges are brought, any “hate” allegation are far from being proved.
Various other scenarios have circulated that are equally plausible, or moreso.  So let’s take a collective deep breath and let the process work itself out.
Both boys and their families are suffering enough right now, from fear and dismay, as anyone who has endured and joys and challenges of raising teen-agers can imagine.
But perhaps there is some consolation in the realization that matters will sort themselves out.  Wounds will heal.  Any punishment determined and meted out will be endured. 
Life, with its delights and periodic setbacks, will go on, and the unhappy events of this Good Friday will be forgotten by many, and fade into the background even for the major players.

EDITORIAL: Sam Nader Takes Proper Place In Hall of Local Heroes

What can anyone say about Sam Nader?
He’s like Oneonta’s equivalent of Mount Rushmore:  The rock people have turned to and depended on for almost nine decades now.
Sam Nader has received many, many awards and recognitions, as the walls of his home at 95 River St. make manifest.
When asked about it though, he was particularly delighted with the honor he will receive Saturday, April 11:  The Eugene Bettiol, Jr., Distinguished Citizen Award at the Otsego County Chamber’s annual Dinner & Celebration of Business.
“I served on the board with him, and he was a very fine young man,” the older man said of the younger Bettiol, who was stricken by cancer and passed away when still in his 40s.

•

One quality that distinguished both men was accomplishment, so the award to Nader, as it was last year to Judge Robert Harlem, to former mayor Dave Brenner the year before, and to Bassett President/CEO Bill Streck the year before.
What do all these men have in common?
A determination that, unflagging, spans decades.
Take Bill Streck, for instance.  This year he marks his 25th anniversary at the helm of perhaps the greatest medical undertaking in Central New York, one of only two hospital systems in the state that stays in the black year after year, come what may, as it continuously innovates nonetheless.
Take Dave Brenner.  It’s hard to know where to start considering his accomplishment, whether as innovative chairman of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, or as Oneonta’s mayor for a dozen years, or for his years of contribution to SUNY Oneonta; he retired with the rank of dean.
Take Judge Harlem, a mainstay of local jurisprudence for decades.  His accomplishments are all around us, but to take just one:  As attorney for the Goodyear Lake Association, he intervened at the hair-raising last minute, blocking a utility from breaching the dam that impounds that lovely body of water.  Think of him every time you drive by it.

•

Sam Nader rightfully takes his place in this hall of local heroes.
Look at SUNY Oneonta.  His crusade to push through the utility lines that allowed the campus’ greatest period of expansion in the 1960s may seem a mundane battle, but it was an essential one that continues to pay dividends today.
It is typical that, in determining to bring baseball back to Oneonta, he was inspired by a larger vision.  Baseball is fun, sure, but Nader saw it as a way to repair the community’s fabric that was wrent during the protests of the 1960s.  Baseball as celebration is a community unifier for sure.

•

It’s hard to take Sam Nader for granted, he is so much larger than life.
Northern Eagle Beverage, to be honored with the NBT Bank’s Distinguished Business Award, keeps a lower profile as it performs its mercantile mission.
Its response to the Great Flood of 2006, however, when the company truck-lifted in immense amounts of clean drinking water to ensure rescue workers didn’t go thirsty, was a dramatic example of the simple services the company had been quietly doing for the community for decades, unheralded.
There are few better ways to enjoy than to celebrate lives well lived and jobs well done.  It’s going to be quite an evening.

3 Teens Killed In ’61 Case

4-9-10

Latest Incident Revives Thoughts Of Other Tragedy

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

The parallels were uncanny.
But the shooting of a CCS junior and senior on Oct. 14, 1961, by a freshman ended tragically.
The two older boys, Philip F. Lindroth and Howard D. Lindstadt, both 17, were killed, shot in the alley between First National Bank (now the wax museum) and the National Commercial Bank & Trust Co. (now Key Bank).
The younger boy, Charles E. Warner, 16, fled the scene in his father’s car.  He was located nine hours later in his aunt’s summer camp at Big Moose Lake; state troopers shot him as he tried to escape, and he died nine days later in the Utica hospital.
“They were picking on me,” the boy told authorities, echoing one of the scenarios that has been circulating since the shooting and suicide attempt that occurred last Friday, April 2, in Cooper Park.
Then as now, though, police were mystified.
Everyone who was in town at the time remembers the event vividly to this day.
Gary Baldinger, for instance, happened by and remembers Lindstadt’s sheet-covered body in the alley.
He recalled a poignant story.
Gerry Smith, then the town police officer, hurried from the scene to 22 Main, where the police station was then on the second floor, to call state police at Sidney.
There, he met Herb Warner, the young Warner’s father.
“I’ve got to talk to you,” he said.
“Herb,” the officer replied, trying to unlock the door, “have you heard what happened?”
Warner interrupted, reporting he was looking for his son,  who had taken four guns from the family’s Bowerstown home at 5 p.m. and left in the family car.
“You better come in,” Smith told him.
“So even before the state police were called,” said Baldinger, “they knew who it was.”
According to the report in the Oct. 18, 1961, edition of The Freeman’s Journal, young Warner stopped for gas at Crain’s Service Station, then at Chestnut and Elm, a few minutes before the shooting.
Attendant Robert Gorence later told police he spotted a shotgun and six shells on the front seat.  He asked him about it, and was told the gun was new.
At about 7 p.m., Warner was spotted driving east on Main.  He turned into the alley, where police surmised he had arranged to meet the two older boys.
He stepped out of the car, firing the shotgun five times.  Lindstadt died immediately; Lindroth was taken to Bassett Hospital, where he died at 9:30 p.m.
Warner drove through Pioneer Alley and turned right on Pioneer Street.   An all-points bulletin was issued throughout Central New York, and road blocks were set up at various points, before Warner was apprehended five hours later.
Police said they shouted to him, but he sped off down a dirt road.  They fired warning shots, then shot the youth three times.
“Word of the tragedy spread rapidly throughout the village,” The Freeman’s Journal reported.  “...Acquaintances of the three boys, including their school teachers, were shocked by the tragedy.
The three were described as long-time boyhood friends who had a falling out about a year before the shootings.
“Warner ... was described as a quiet and rather shy youth.  He was called an average student in school, but one who approached the school work seriously.  He was pictured as being moody, and as ‘the kind of person who feels things more deeply’ than the average boy.”
Lindstadt was “a better than average student, and somewhat outspoken, candid and ready to joke with people in a happy go lucky way.” Lindroth was called an average student, and quieter than Lindstadt.
Herb Warner has since passed away, but he never got over what happened.
“It was a heavy burden,” said Baldinger.

Rare Shooting Rattles Tranquil Cooperstown

4-9-10

Boy Shoots Classmate, Then Self

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

At 3:08 Good Friday afternoon, rookie officer Jim Cox was sitting in the front room of the police station at 22 Main, doing paperwork.
All of a sudden, loud shouts broke out in front of the glass window that separates the police department from the foyer at Village Hall’s Fair Street entrance.
“Pop” – the characteristic sound of a gunshot.
“Pop,” and a bullet pierced the wall, shot past Cox and went through the next wall into Police Chief Diana Nicols’ vacant office and hit the back of her desk.
Cox, the county Law Enforcement Academy valedictorian who joined the police department full time Jan. 31, rose, pulled out his department-issued handgun and sharply ordered the young man with the 22-caliber rifle to drop it.
Instead, the young man fumbled with the rifle, succeeded in pointing it to his chin, and fired; the bullet exited through the area around his nose.  Anthony Pacherille, 16, a Cooperstown Central School sophomore, was soon being transported to Bassett Hospital and, as of Tuesday, April 6, was still there, recuperating from his wounds.
Lying on the floor next to the police department door was Wesley Lippitt, also 16 and a classmate of Pacherille’s.  The first bullet had passed through his upper left arm.  He was bandaged at the scene and transported separately to Bassett, where he was treated and released.
By then, 3:45 p.m. on April 2, the news of the shooting – a rare incident for Cooperstown – had spread through the village, and clumps of spectators, some tourists, some local residents – perhaps 150 people – had gathered between Cooper Park and the police department entrance.
County Sheriff Richard J. Devlin, Jr., who heard an initial report on the scanner in his office at The Meadows, was the first officer to join Cox.  Undersheriff Cameron Allison was close behind him, and cordoned off the west side of Village Hall with that characteristic yellow tape.
With the two wounded teens transported, Devlin shifted his attention to Cooper Park, where the action of the afternoon had begun.  A silver 2005 Chevy Trailblazer SUV had run up against the metal fence at the Main Street end.
When Chief Nicols arrived, Devlin deferred to her.  Soon, then-Mayor Carol B. Waller and Mayor-elect Joseph J. Booan, Jr., were also at the scene, although they remained outside the yellow tape.
Shortly after 4 p.m., village staff was allowed to go home.
The events of the afternoon began at about 2:45, when a number of CCS students, out of school for the sunny and warm Good Friday holiday, were lounging, chatting or throwing Frisbees around Cooper Park when the SUV entered the loop, according to a sheriff’s department statement.
Two or three boys went up to the vehicle and began kidding the driver about whether he had a learner’s permit or driver’s license.  Suddenly, there were words.  Then, one of the boys shouted, “He’s got a gun,” according to the sheriff’s statement.
The driver emerged with a rifle – the SUV “lunged forward” into the fence – and the other boys scattered; Wes dashed through the Cooper Park gate, down Fair Street and into the police station, with the rifle-bearing SUV driver in hot pursuit.
At 11:33 that evening, thedailystar.com, quoting an unidentified source, was calling what had happened “a hate crime,” and Associated Press sent out a dispatch with this lead:  “A white schoolboy with a rifle chased a black classmate into a police station and shot him, then himself, as the lone officer on duty closed in, authorities said.”
Lippitt, an Eagle scout and JV basketball player, is black, although the other boys who approached the SUV were not.  Pacherille, who played JV baseball and is active in his parish, is white.
The lead caused the story to be prominently played across the country – the story even led googlenews.com for a period, and was the topic of an AOL Alert – and focused media attention on America’s Most Perfect Village™.
However, various other scenarios have been circulating the community, including that the alleged shooter had been subject of taunting, or that the argument had been over a girl.
For his part, Anthony’s pastor, the Rev. John P. Rosson, who called the teen “a vital, vibrant member” of his St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Catholic Church, said he has visited the boy several times and supported the view that bullying or taunting provoked what happened.
Of the race-based explanation, Rosson said, “I believe that’s unfounded.”
“It’s not just one individual,” he continued.  “I believe it’s a climate in that particular school,” particularly a focus on athletics.
“We had no prior indication that there were any issues,” said Superintendent of Schools Mary Jo McPhail.  “As you know, it’s not our job to investigate this.  That’s up to the authorities.
“But should it become necessary as time goes by, that there are topics we need to discuss, we certainly as a school district will discuss them,” she said.
For his part, county District Attorney John Muehl, quoted Tuesday by reporter Lizzie Cooper in the Utica Observer-Dispatch, said Pacherille’s tongue had been too swollen for him to tell anybody anything.
“My understanding is very simple,” the article continued, quoting Muehler.  “The defendant, as far as I know, never told any police officer or official he hated black people.”
Perhaps the village only seemed particularly subdued over the weekend, although everywhere people spoke of nothing else.
First thing Monday morning, Waller and Booan were being interviewed by Arthur G. Sulzberger, a reporter for the New York Times, great-grandson of Adolph Ochs, founder of the modern Times.  (Sulzberger and Times photographer Nathaniel Brooks had been kicked off the CCS campus a few minutes before.)
The story, which appeared in Tuesday’s edition, was headlined, “After a Shooting, Cooperstown Searches for Answers.”
At CCS Monday, Wes was back in school, his arm in a sling.  A hundred or so parents had convened at the Fly Creek home of his parents, Craig and Tracey Lippitt, Saturday evening to express their support; Wes’ father is a Bassett Hospital physician’s assistant, Tracey a fiber artist.
Over the weekend, McPhail convened “our crisis team,” and administrators addressed a middle-school and a high-school assembly, then met individually with sophomores.
At the assemblies, the students expressed “their support for their fellow classmates; the importance of focusing on facts rather than rumors, to be supportive of each other,” the superintendent said.
“As you would expect, a small number of students were visibly upset, students who may have had closer relationships with the students involved, but that was to be expected,” she said.
Meanwhile at Village Hall, Booan met with the village office staff, then separately with the village crew, with the idea of reassuring them and also to begin developing “protocols” on how to respond if similar events were to happen in the future.
“What was considered invulnerable became vulnerable,” Booan said at the beginning of the reorganizational meeting Monday evening.  “ We are confused and saddened.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the two young men and their families.  We can’t imagine what they are going through. “
He added, “I will take every measure to ensure that our village remains a safe, healthy and vibrant community in which to live and work.  Life will go on,  and together we will move forward from this event. “
“Out of respect for the families” and concerned about the scenarios sweeping the community, Booan directed village officials to refer all questions from the press to him.
He was concerned, he said, that Village Hall not do or say anything that would interfere with Muehl’s investigation.
For his part, Muehl said he expects to file charges of attempted murder, second degree, against the Pacherille boy when he is released from Bassett, which was expected to happen by week’s end.
He said he will then have 144 hours to present the case to a grand jury, or he could seek a felony hearing before Village Justice Leslie Friedman to have the matter turned over to county court; village courts can only handle misdemeanors.
For now, Anthony’s parents, Tony – a patent attorney – and Kathy, a Bassett nurse, “aren’t focused on themselves.  They’re focused on their son,” said Father Rosson.
At his Sunday sermon, the priest exhorted his parishioners to “pray for peace at the school.”  He added, “We can find help in compassion.”

On Turbulent Day, Mayor Booan Takes Office

4-9-10

Monie New Deputy Mayor; Chuck Hage Fills Trustee Spot

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

Mayor Joseph J. Booan, Jr., wants village government to set goals and streamline government to them.
He also appointed Chuck Hage, the retired Eastman Kodak executive, to fill the vacancy his election as mayor created, and Trustee Willis J. Monie, Jr., as deputy mayor, replacing Trustee Jeff Katz.  Mike Molloy was named deputy village justice.
“We will need to determine over the next few months if our structure is efficient,” the mayor told his colleagues Monday, April 5, “or if we have continued to create an expanding bureaucracy that may have lost its sense of mission, and therefore has become less effecTive.”
Booan merged the Fire, Police and Pedestrian Safety committees into a new Public Safety Committee, with Trustee Neil Weiller as chair. 
The Streets & Buildings and Adopt A Site committees became the Maintenance Committee, with Monie as chair.  Monie will also chair the key Finance Committee.
Katz remains chair of the Doubleday Field Committee, and Trustee Lynne Mebust will chair the Parks and the Trolley committees, replacing former village administrator Giles Russell, who asked to step back, on the latter.  Hage will chair the Gateway Committee.
Newly elected Trustee Alton G. Dunn, III, won’t chair a committee, but was appointed to sit on three key committees – Finance, Maintenance and Public Safety – in preparation for responsibilities to come.
Former trustee Eric Hage remains on the Finance Committee, ex officio.
Booan will be directing the committee chairs – they still number about two dozen – to come up with a mission statement and goals within three months.
“I will hold the committees to their goals,” the new mayor said.
By August, he continued, he plans to issue the first of annual “State of the Village” reports, letting residents know where matters stand.
The reorganizational meeting came at the end of a daunting first day, as Booan, who was sworn in at 12 noon, replacing four-term mayor Carol B. Waller – she attended, and embraced her successor warmly – sought to allay village employees’ concerns resulting from the Good Friday shootings.
He met separately with office staff and the village crew, and was preparing “protocols” to guide people if such an emergency were to occur again.
While most of the mayor’s suggestions were routinely approved, there were some bumps.
After Trustees Katz and Mebust objected, Booan’s recommendation that David Borgstrom, Cooperstown Youth Baseball president, be named to the Gateway Committee, was rejected, 4-2.
Katz argued since Borgstrom had opposed the project, which in one form would have absorbed the Little League’s Beanie Ainslie Field, he would not be an objective participant in deliberations.  Weiller and Monie agreed.
The trustees also rejected Booan’s suggestion that they hold shorter meetings twice a month, instead of the single marathon meeting that often extends to the wee hours.
However, they agreed to shift the starting time from 7:30 to 6:30, and expressed the desire that the single meeting be shorter.  It was also moved from the third to the fourth Monday of the month.

COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND

4-9-10

'Leatherstocking’ Name Taken Off Tourism Region



COOPERSTOWN

The state Legislature has renamed the “Central Leatherstocking Region” used in tourism promotions to simply the “Central New York Region.”
“I think it will be easier to market ourselves,” said county Tourism Director Deb Taylor.  “At the end of the day, people didn’t really understand what ‘leatherstocking’ is/was.”

APPRECIATE! Cherry Valley’s Community Health Center Appreciation Day is Saturday, April 10, at the Old School gym, featuring raffles, live music and a spaghetti dinner.

MEAT PLANT: Lawrence Althiser’s plant for a USDA meat processing plant on Route 205, Town of Hartwick, will be reviewed by the county Planning Board when it meets at 6 p.m. Monday, April 12, at The Meadows.

EARTH FEST:  Flowers, plants, breads, eggs, meat, jams and jellies from the Cooperstown Farmers Market are among the many offerings at the Earth Festival, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 10, at Milford Central School.

HIRE BALLPLAYER:  Cooperstown’s NYCBL team is asking businesses to “Hire A Hawkeye,” this summer, to help the collegiate players make a little money while playing ball at Doubleday Field.  Call David Pearlman at 547-4186 or e-mail david@cooperstown-hawkeyes.com.


Laura Cox/The Freeman’s Journal
Sly The Fox rests on the stoop at 194 Main St.;  it needed to rest, having just finished off one of NYSHA’s heritage chickens.  (Other photo, B-6)

CCS Junior Accepted At Writing Conference

4-9-10

COOPERSTOWN

CCS junior Adrian Lynch has been accepted into this year’s New England Young Writers Conference May 13-16 at Middlebury College’s Breadloaf campus in Ripton, Vt.
 The site became famous after 1922, when Robert Frost, Willa Cather and Louis Untermeyer organized the first Breadloaf Writers Conference there.
At the May conference, Adrian will join 5,000 other students and 500 teachers from throughout the region for four days of workshops and readings.

Rise Up
Got a mind, better use it,
let it be naked for all to see
The sadness or Amusement
In the brain, which is your very own galaxy
Express yourself like emotions,
with words like movements
To pierce us like arrows into your descriptive illusion
Take us on a ride, that will never be forgotten
laughing, crying, excitement and the such
Show us the measures of your unique logic
and please show us more than just enough
Be your self, because being you is the key
to unlocking the reality, in this world of dreams
much may give you hell but don’t you give up
Take your heart into words and with your expression
Rise UP

HAPPY AS HATTERS

 4-9-10

Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal

The cast of “Alice in Wonderland,” this spring’s CCS play, ham it up in Sterling Auditorium during a dress rehearsal for this weekend’s performances, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, April 8-10, with a 2 p.m. Saturday children’s matinee.  The play boasts THREE Alices -- two of them in pinafores in the center are Virginia Ofer, left, and Cat Hetu; Jessie Haggerty is the third.  The White Rabbit is Sarah Pohlus; the Mad Hatter Evan King, and the Red Queen Lizzie Kenison.

EASTER EGGS GALORE IN SPRING PARK

4-9-10

E. Lawrence Budro/ The Freeman’s Journal and Richfield Springs NEWSPAPER

And their off! More than 250 kids participated in the Richfield Springs Lions Club Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 3, in Spring Park. The 5-8 age group is shown leaving the start line here.

The Lions Club gave out six bikes during the Easter egg hunt.  In the 0-4 age group, bikes went to Riley O’Conner, left, and Isaac Burdi, second from left and in the 5-8 group Brooklyn Knox, center, and Dylan Walsh brought home bikes. Not shown: Jennifer Boepple and Brenton Bond won bikes in the 9-and-up division.

Benjamin & Marie Armstrong stop to count their eggs.

Lion Robert Pross announces the winners.

SPRING BOUNTY:

4-9-10

Winners of the Susquehanna SPCA Spring Bounty Basket Raffle held in area NBT banks include: Nicole Seamon, Karen Wright and Joy Miller of Richfield Springs, Claire Kepner of Fly Creek, Rachel Soules of Hartwick, Vicki Bucklad of Cherry Valley, and Adina Smith and Perry Calderon of Edmeston.

Giant At Fenimore Museum Comes Down

4-9-10

When James Fenimore Cooper moved his bride from Westchester County to the future Fenimore Farm on Otsego Lake, it was a mere sapling.
When future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Nelson lived in the former Cooper house in the mid-19th century, it was a sturdy 30-something.
It grew and grew into, in recent decades, that familiar giant maple tree on the front lawn of The Fenimore Art Museum.
By the end of the week, however, it will be  just so much cord wood.  Monday, April 5, crews from Tallman Tree Services, Fly Creek, began to bring the old man down.
Tallman proprietor Charles Graham, who was at the scene, said the trunk was 4-foot wide; the rot inside the tree was 34 inches wide, making the felling inevitable.
Extraordinary efforts were made in past 20 years to keep the tree alive, he said, but time ran out.
He pointed to the sizeable maples that line The Fenimore’s driveway, and estimated they are about 100 years old.
When the main trunk is cut and the circles counted, Graham said, a precise measure of the tree’s age will be possible.
NYSHA spokesman Todd Kenyon echoed that sentiment, saying he counted 20 cables that had been strung over the years to try to keep the tree upright.

LETTER: NBT Bank Made Benefit A Success

4-9-10

To the Editor:
A huge thank you from the staff and board of the Susquehanna SPCA to NBT Bank for its assistance in our Spring Bounty Basket raffle. 
The branches in Cooperstown, Oneonta, Edmeston, Cherry Valley, and Richfield Springs  displayed the baskets for the month of March and the staff at each of the banks sold the raffle tickets.
The raffle was a great success: We sold over 1,000 tickets due in great part to the enthusiasm of the NBT employees. Many thanks to everyone involved and particularly to Chris Amos and Rich McCaffery for conceiving the idea.
Jane Goodwin Duel
Director of Development and Community relations
Susquehanna SPCA
Hartwick Seminary

LETTER: Brother Doug Answers Public Service’s Call

4-9-10

To the Editor:
I spent most of my life living and working in beautiful Cooperstown, the village my family has called home since its earliest days.  Destiny has brought me to South Florida where I am enjoying a wonderful new life.
I write to publicly thank my brother and mentor, Douglas Walker, for making himself available for public service, not once but twice.  Those who are called to public service rarely receive any rewards, their gifts come at different levels.  Cooperstown is worth fighting for.
STEVE WALKER
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 

OTHER VIEWS: Steroids’ Living Legacy

4-9-10

Editor’s Note:  This is an excerpt from The Big Lead’s interview with Michael Schmidt, who covers steroids for the New York Times.  thebiglead.com is an independent sports blog.

Q: Is the Steroid Era over? How serious is H.G.H. and do you believe a significant amount of baseball players use it?
A: On one hand I can see Selig’s point that the era of the late ’90s and early part of the 2000s when the use of steroids was rampant and the home run numbers were through the roof are over.
On the other hand, I think Selig engaged in a little wishful thinking. Baseball, like football, still doesn’t have as strong a testing program as the Olympics. In particular, their out of season testing – when athletes are believed to benefit the most from using steroids – is fairly weak and they still don’t test for human growth hormone, although that may change shortly.
Q: What will be the legacy of the players in the Steroid Era?  How should the great ones, like McGwire, Bonds, Sosa, A-Rod, Clemens be handled as it relates to the Hall of Fame?
A:  ...The only thought about McGwire, Bonds and even Rafael Palmeiro that I have is that, because they were the first high profile players tied to PEDs, they appear to have paid a greater price in the eyes of the fans for their apparent indiscretions compared to players who were tied to them in the past year.
When they were tied to the substances, it sent the message that drugs were pervasive in the game and shattered the thoughts of fans who up until that point have blissfully followed baseball thinking that everyone is clean.
When a high profile player is tied to PEDs now – like A-Rod or Manny Ramirez – it is old news to the fans in the sense that we know that players have and perhaps will continue to use drugs.

After Good Friday Shooting, There’s Life – And Hope

4-9-10

Whenever things really get bad, it helps to remember that whatever happens to us, no matter how bad it may seem, has happened to many, many other human beings, and been overcome to various degrees.
The very good news about the Good Friday shootings in Cooperstown is this:  Both boys survived and both will likely go on to live happy and useful lives, if only our community – in other words, all of us – have the determination and wisdom to make it so.

•

The 16-year-old who was shot was back in school the following Monday, his wounded arm in a sling.  The alleged shooter, also 16, who then shot himself, was in Bassett Hospital, but out of danger.
This incident caused many long-time residents to recall a contrasting case with a hopeless outcome:  On the evening of Saturday, Oct. 14, 1961, two 17-year-olds were shot and killed by a 16-year-old in the alley next to Key Bank.
In that case, the shooter was tracked down to his grandfather’s camp at Big Moose in the Adirondacks and shot; he lingered nine days at St. Luke’s Hospital, Utica, then passed away.
That was almost 50 years ago, and many of the close relatives who suffered most keenly have passed away.  Still, they carried the burden of what happened all their lives.
And so the good news of today:  That was an irreversible tragedy.  This is merely a problem, albeit a serious one, that must and will be sorted out and resolved.

•

The rush to judgment in the latest case – that since the wounded boy happened to be black and the alleged shooter white, this had to be a “hate crime” – is unfortunate.
It catapulted the story onto front pages nationwide.  Googlenews.com even led with it for a while, and even the New York Times sent a reporter – young Arthur Sulzberger, the venerable Adolph Ochs’ great-grandson – to plumb the mysteries of America’s Most Perfect Village™.
The “hate crime” definition racheted up the potential assault charge to one that could draw a 25-year sentence.
Easy.  Easy.   Let’s just wait and see.  Whatever charges are brought, any “hate” allegations are far from being proved.
Various other scenarios have circulated that are equally plausible, or moreso.  So let’s take a collective deep breath and let the process work itself out.
Both boys and their families are suffering enough right now, from fear and dismay, as anyone who has endured the joys and challenges of raising teen-agers can imagine.
But perhaps there is some consolation in the realization that matters will sort themselves out.  Wounds will heal.  Any punishment determined and meted out will be endured. 
Life, with its delights and periodic setbacks, will go on, and the unhappy events of this Good Friday will be forgotten by many, and fade into the background even for the major players.

OTHER VOICES: The First Steps

Editor’s Note:  Here are excerpts of remarks delivered by Cooperstown’s new mayor, Joseph J. Booan, Jr., at the Village Board reorganization meeting Monday, April 5.

Tonight we transition into a new Board of Trustees.  ... As we begin, let us define where we are and where we want to go:

1.  Audit
It is important that we completely understand our financial status as we come to a conclusion of budget development for the FY 10-11 year. To that end, I have attended a meeting with our auditor to better understand our financial status …  I will be working with our treasurer and trustees over the next few weeks to finalize a budget that is appropriate for our needs. (Budget has to be adopted by May 1.)
I look forward to a collaborative partnership with the Otsego County Treasurer’s Office, Dan Crowell, in an attempt to begin a dialogue with the county and subsequently other towns in the county to explore ways to provide more cost effective services. 

2. Status
 I will be making committee assignments in a few minutes for the Trustees to examine and approve.  I have made recommendations to the committee structure and ask that each appointed chair or trustee representative undertake the following actions:
A. Conduct initial meetings of their respective committees with the goal of defining mission:  a set of priorities that are central to the operation and function.  Decisions will be based and focused around each committee’s stated mission.
It is imperative that each committee set both short and long term goals; goals that we are to accomplish within the next three months, goal that we want to have accomplished by this time next year.  I will hold committees to these goals and measured outcomes.  I will provide each committee recommendations prior to their first meeting to help facilitate this assignment. 
We will review the missions of our committees to determine likeness and whether we can consolidate our efforts in a more focused manner.   I ask that mission statements and goals be developed no later than our June 2010 meeting.
B.  I want each committee to provide an updated inventory of assets, the status of assets, and any schedule to upgrade, alter, or improve these assets. ...
C.  We will need to determine over the next few months if our structure is efficient, or if we have continued to create an expanding bureaucracy that may have lost its sense of mission, and therefore has become less effective. 

3. State of Village
I believe that we should set as a goal the objective of producing a status report to our community.  Once we have completed our budgetary process, entered into the new fiscal year, and I have received an updated mission and status from our appointed chairs and representatives, that we will be able to produce to our community, a “State of Our Village” report.  I will set a goal of August 2010 to release this report.

EASTER SOLEMNITY AND CELEBRATION

4-9-10

More than 100 celebrants gather at Lake Front Park at 7:24 a.m. Easter Sunday for the annual ecumenical Sunrise Service. A breakfast followed at First Presbyterian Church.

The Easter Bunny takes Caitlyn Powers by the hand as he leads the Easter Parade from Lake Front Park to the Tunnicliff for a Mad Hatter’s Easter Party.  Caitlyn was visiting her grandmother Joan Leventhal from New Jersey.

Born In ‘League of Nations,’ Oneonta Ex-Mayor Embraced Full Range Of Friends, Allies

4-9-10

By JIM KEVLIN
For Sam Nader, a high point of his mayoral years was the opening of the Oneonta Municipal Airport in 1965.
Catskill Airways took the VIPs on a “maiden flight” to Syracuse, and among them was city GOP chairman Sterling Harrington AND city Democratic chairman Dr. Alexander Carson.
Republican Rockefeller’s lieutenant governor, Malcolm Wilson, cut the ribbon at the airfield up on the end of West Street. 
And yet Sam Nader recalls friendly relations with U.S. Sen. Bobby Kennedy and Congressman Sam Stratton, both Democrats.
You don’t have to chat long with Sam Nader to realize he’s been able to get along with a lot of people over his almost 90 years, going back to his early days in what he calls “The League of Nations” – Oneonta’s Sixth Ward, the River Street
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neighborhood where he still lives today.
He can list a lot of accomplishments that would qualify him for the Otsego County Chamber’s Eugene Bettiol, Jr., Distinguished Citizen Award – he will received it Saturday, April 10 – but that underlying ability to get along with people, to bring people together, underlies them all.
When parents Elias and Rose brought him home from Fox Hospital in 1920, it was to a D&H-owned home at 90 West Broadway, a neighborhood of not just Lebanese, but Italians, Polish, Russians – “they were all my pals,” said Nader.
Growing up in the Great Depression, he recalls “we didn’t know we were poor” – everyone was in the same boat.  Still, he remembers his dad, a laborer on the D&H, coming home with two old railroad ties, one under each arm.
That, and coal picked up along the railroad tracks, warmed the family in winters.
Nonetheless, the Naders put enough aside to buy their own home, at 107 River St., when Sam was in high school, and move their growing family there.  Sam had an older brother, Nausif (Nate), and sisters Julia (Church), Adele, Dorothy (Minogue) and Jemele (Mitrano), who is living in New York City.
Nader’s mother emphasized education.  Nate graduated from Hartwick College. Sam played baseball and basketball at OHS, Class of ‘38, attended Hartwick for a year, then spent a year at Bates College in Maine, before taking a year off.  He got a job at Scintilla (later Bendix) in Sidney, and never went back.
After Pearl Harbor, Nader’s job was considered critical to the war effort, and he was exempt from the draft for a while, but only for a while.  With the 28th Infantry Division, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, coming home with a Bronze Star and other decorations.
Productive years followed at Bendix, where Nader rose from salesman to director of purchasing.
A pal, Leroy “Sonny” House, got him on the board of directors of Oneonta’s Can-Am League baseball team, and also gave him additional contact with Sonny’s sister, Alice – “I just knew she was the girl for me.”
The two married, began raising a family – son John, recently retired mayor, and daughters Suzanne (Longo, of Havertown, Pa.) and Alice (O’Connor, of Lilbern, Ga.) – and bought the home at 95 River, where the father still lives today.
Nader credits his wife, who died in a car crash in Georgia while the family was on a trip 19 years ago – “a kid was reaching down for a tape casette,” and his car collided with the Nader vehicle – with his ability to balance job, family and political career.
“You have to have an understanding wife,” he said, sitting in an armchair in his sunny living room, under her photo as a young woman.  “Without her, nothing would have been possible.”
As he tells it, Nader first wanted to be a big-league ballplayer, but lacked the skills, then a lawyer, but lacked the money for the education.  His third ambition:  mayor of Oneonta.
With his career and family settled, he successfully ran for alderman as a Republican in the late ‘50s, then for mayor in 1960 on the Good Government Ticket.  The Democrats endorsed him, and “I won by 13 votes” against John Dunn, an attorney.
The second time, he went for both parties’ endorsement.  He lost the Republican primary against former mayor Roger Hughes – “I couldn’t get over the railroad tracks.”  (He’s too modest:  wife Alice was a doctor’s daughter; brother-in-law Sonny went to Choate) – but swamped him in the general election.
He ticks off what he wanted to accomplish – and did – as mayor:  Not just the airport, but extending water and sewer lines to allow SUNY Oneonta to catch the Rockefeller wave; annexing land from the Town of Oneonta; embracing fledgling Urban Renewal; getting the Susquehanna dredged; routing I-88 in an optimum way for the city.
When JFK launched the novel Accelerated Public Works Program in the early ‘60s, Nader made sure Oneonta was first in line, standing outside the door of PWP administrator Frank Trentacosta in New York City on the program’s first day.
When Trentacosta advised him a certain resolution was  required, Nader – City Clerk Christine Mannona and Chamberlain Tom Natale accompanied him – said, “Where’s the typewriter?”  And they hammered it out right there.
Oneonta ended up with more PWP money than any small city in the state, but Nader wasn’t shy about bonding, either:  “It’s fine to be debt-free.  But if your children are hungry and your roof is leaking, it’s not bad to borrow money to repair it.”
His circle of advisers was typically eclectic:  Joe Molinari, the future judge who recruited him to run for alderman; Dr. Carson; Sid Levine of Oneonta Sales (the two later became long-time partners on the Oneonta Tigers); Dan Bolton, Oneonta S&L president; Harold DeGraw at the Oneonta Chamber; attorney Al Farone.
“I had a lot of very good people around me,” Nader recalled.
As the ‘60s went on, the anti-Vietnam War protests were roiling the nation – and the local campuses. Baseball, Nader figured, “would be a cohesive thing.”
For a while, he haunted the minor leagues:  “If there were two baseball people meeting somewhere, I would be the third.” So he was among the first to hear the Boston Red Sox wanted to pull their NY-Penn League team out of Hornell.  “We want it,” Nader told them.
When the Red Sox left after a couple of season, Sam put together 10 investors (again, the full gamut) in the Oneonta Athletic Corp. – 10 investors chipped in $1,000 each, and bought the Yankee franchise for $7,500.
Nader made a deal with his investors:  He wouldn’t ask them for any more money; they wouldn’t second-guess him.  “They kept their promise and I kept my promise.”
Forty years of baseball followed, four decades of fun, challenge and accomplishment, attested by the plaques, trophies and memorabilia that fill his first floor study and pack his basement.
There’s the famous story about going down to New
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York City to retrieve the hard-drinking Mickey Mantle, to make sure the famous hitter wouldn’t duck out on Yankees Day at Damaschke Field.
Another time, Sam got Joe DiMaggio – then, national spokesman for the coffee industry – up for another promotion.  Would you like a cup of coffee? Alice asked.  I only drink Sanka, DiMaggio replied.  Nader sent John scooting to a neighborhood store for a jar.
As the years went on, there were some disappointments.  To get New York City to build a new Yankee Stadium, George Steinbrenner – “a very good friend” – promised then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani he would bring the Oneonta Tigers to Staten Island.
Undeterred, Sam made the best deal he could with Detroit, and the Tigers’ franchise came to the city for three decades.
Yes, he said, he was disappointed that E. Miles Prentice, the New York City lawyer who bought the Tigers from him and Levine, moved the team earlier this year to Norwich, Conn.
Prentice is entitled to make money, he said, but he wishes the team had fulfilled its commitment to remain in Oneonta for two seasons.

Nader, Northern Eagle Beverage Honored

4-9-10

When Community Needs It, Flourishing Northern Eagle Beverage Comes To Rescue


By JIM KEVLIN

When the Great Flood of 2006 began to recede, George Allen took to a drive down to Walton.
Many of the roads were blocked, and he had to wend his way through hill and dale on secondary roads.
Coming into that southern Delaware County village, he was greeted by an unforgettable image:  Three cars stacked on top of each other and pushed against a garage.
“There were some hurting towns out there,” George, vice president and operations manager at Northern Eagle Beverages Inc. recalled the other day in an interview at his Railroad Street office in Oneonta.
How Allen and the company responded is part of the reason Northern Eagle Beverage will receive NBT Bank’s Distinguished Business Award Saturday, April 10.
Within a matter of hours, two 18-wheelers loaded with canned drinking water had pulled off I-88 and were unloading at the local distributorship.
At a reporter’s request, Allen pulled out a calculator:  That’s 98 pallets, 5,500 cases, or 130,000 cans of drinking water.
Soon, Northern Eagle’s truck fleet was fanning out across hard-hit Delaware County, ensuring responders and volunteers helping to clear up the mess didn’t lack for clean drinking water.
But that’s not the only reason Northern Eagle was chosen for the award, according to chamber President Rob Robinson:  Whenever there’s a community need, the company is there, from the massive water distribution to a home-run contest during the recent Cooperstown Winter Carnival that raised $250 for the local food bank.
The Anheuser-Busch distributorship was founded as LaMonica Beverage after World War II by Frank “Diz” Lamonica, who sold it in 1986 to Cooperstown’s Lou Hager, a member of the famed Busch beer-brewing family.
At the time, Hager was working for Anheuser-Busch corporate in Pittsburgh and was eager for the independence, according to Matt Curley, a Norwich native and Northern Eagle general manager who had returned to Upstate New York in the mid-’80s from a corporate career to manage Cooperstown’s Tunnicliff Inn.
Curley joined the company in 1987, followed the next year by Allen, an Oneonta native and OHS grad who had recently graduated from SUNY Oneonta.
Anheuser-Busch, sold to Belgium-based In-Bev last year, has dominated the U.S. beer market for decades, controlling about 50 percent of sales.
Northern Eagle, with 32 employees and an eight-truck fleet, reaches across three counties – Otsego, Delaware and Chenango.  Its furthest outlet is in Fleischmann’s, 125 miles away.
You would think a Budweiser wholesale operation would be like a public utility, stable, profitable, unchanging, but it’s a whole different world than it was 20 years ago, Allen and Curley said.
When George joined the company in 1988, he was sent out with an order book under his arm, transcribing orders back at the office.  Now, salespeople are wired, shooting back orders to the main office via Blackberry.
Then, 40 percent of the business was chain stores; today, that’s 70 percent.  Then, 53 percent of the business was with bars and taverns; today, with tougher DUI laws, bars account for only 20 percent.                
Most of the Anheuser-Busch products sold locally are brewed in Fulton, outside Syracuse, and computer forecasting has become so sophisticated the local wholesaler doesn’t even have to place an order – it is automatically and accurately supplied from afar.
Then, Northern Eagle was distributing 50 products.  Today, it has 350, and is constantly seeking and testing new libations.
“If you throw 10 things against the wall and one of them sticks,” said Allen, “you make a lot of money.”
The scope of Northern Eagle’s business is immediately evident if you stroll into the cavernous cooling rooms – the CEW, for controlled environmental warehouse – behind the multi-bay loading docks at the green-fronted depot.
Cases of beer are stacked many times the height of a man, pallet after pallet after pallet.  Bud and Busch are well represented, in all manifestations – for instance, Bud Light Lime has been a huge seller since it was introduced four years ago.
But that’s just the start of it.  Over against that wall are a range of imports known to few outside the aficionados:  Hacker-Pschorr, Paulaner, Toohey, LaRossa.  Over there are the Jones Soda selections, aimed at the back-to-the-earth crowd, using natural ingredients and flavors like pomegranate, crushed melon and green apple.
And there’s a brand new addition:  Johny Bootlegger with 12 percent alcohol, a sweet drink in a flask that invites you to relive Prohibition.
“Now, the big thing that’s coming out is coconut milk,” said Allen, as – on his approach – the overhead door to a CEW stacked with kegs opened before him.
Even the loading dock area has changed.  In the old days, truck drivers would come in at 5, load their own trucks, deliver all day and go home at 8-9.
Today, the company has a night shift that loads the trucks, so when truck drivers come in at 7, they’re ready to go.  This has also yielded savings in overtime.
As the tour neared the end, Allen confessed there is one constant:  It’s fun to be in the beer business.
“When you’re dealing with beer, everybody’s always glad to see you.”

Winners Distinguished Citizen/ Business Awards Otsego County Chamber

2009
Sam Nader
Former Oneonta Mayor
NORTHERN EAGLE BEVERAGE

2008
Judge Richard Harlem Sr.
The Otesaga

2007
Dr. David Brenner
Former Oneonta Mayor
Catskill Area Hospice
& Palliative Care

2006
Dr. William Streck
Bassett President/CEO
Oneonta Block/
Otsego Ready Mix

2005
Carl Delberta, Sr.
Founder, Oneonta
Boys & Girls Club
Mang Insurance

2004
Jane Forbes Clark
BK Assocs./Neptune Diner

2003
Geoffrey A. Smith
Medical Coach President
The Daily Star

2002
None, But Award Renamed
For Eugene Bettiol, Jr.
Bassett Healthcare

2001
Marian Mullett
Pathfinder Village Founder
Brooks’ House of Bar-B-Q

2000
Edward W. Stack
Clark Foundation VP
SUNY Oneonta

1999
William Davis
Otsego Automotive Founder
Fox Hospital

1998
VanNess D. Robinson
CEO, New York Central Mutual
Oneonta Athletic Corp.

1997
Hiram Skinner
Skinner & Damulis Founder
Hartwick College

1996
D.K. Lifgren
Founder, Astrocom
New York Central Mutual

1995
Robert W. Moyer
Wilber Bank President

1994
Walter G. Rich
Delaware Otsego Founder

1993
Gordon B. Roberts
Gordon B. Roberts
Agency Founder

1992
Dr. Phillip Wilder
Hartwick College President
Medical Coach

1991
Sidney Levine
Oneonta Tigers Partner Wilber National Bank

1990
Wilmer & Phillip Bresee
Bresee’s Partners
The Clark Foundation

1989
Leroy “Sonny” House
Oneonta Businessman

1988
Joan Lutz
Oneonta Chamber Executive

FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE AND VILLAGE

4-9-10

This red fox was spotted multiple times last week in the front and backyards of 194-198 Main Street in Cooperstown. Here, the fox is seen on Easter Sunday carrying what is believed to be the head of one of the four heritage breed chickens reported missing from The Farmers’ Museum located one mile up the road.

BOOK HONORED:

4-2-10

Hartwick College Professor of Anthropology David Anthony’s The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppe Shaped the Modern World, has been honored with the Society for American Archaeology’s Book Award, which will be presented at the organization’s annual conference in St. Louis, MO on April 16.

D3HOOPS:

4-2-10

Hamilton College’s Madie Harlem, OHS Class of ‘09, has been selected the 2010 Division III East region women’s basketball rookie of the year by D3hoops.com. Harlem was a unanimous choice for 2010 Liberty League rookie of the year and was voted to the all-league second team in February. She was named the league’s rookie of the week four times.

AMERICORPS:

4-2-10

As part of the AmeriCorps National Community Civilian Corps (NCCC) program, Shawn Speller of Oneonta recently began work at the Denver Children’s Home (DCH). This is Speller’s third of four projects with AmeriCorps. Having started his service in October, Shawn has already worked on building homes with Habitat for Humanity in hurricane-affected Lafayette, La. and providing low-income residents with free tax preparation through the United Way in Tucson, Ariz..

TOP PRODUCER:

4-2-10

Mortgage Development Officer Selina Gelatt was recently named top producing mortgage loan officer for 2009 by Wilber National Bank. Gelatt, an employee of Provantage Home Loans, the bank’s mortgage division, successfully closed 65 mortgages representing over $8.5 million during the year. In the previous two years Gelatt was top producer in the number of loans closed but this is the first time she topped the organization in dollar volume as well. A resident of Edmeston, Gelatt has over 23 years experience in the mortgage processing industry. She primarily serves clients in the bank’s Central New York Market which includes Otsego, Delaware and Chenango counties.

SUNY Oneonta Names Brannan Senior Assistant

4-2-10

Colleen E. Brannan has been selected to serve as the Senior Assistant to the President at the SUNY College at Oneonta, beginning April 26. Brannan has been employed at the College since 1985 in several positions, most recently as Assistant Executive Director of Oneonta Auxiliary Services.
Brannan joined SUNY Oneonta as a residence hall director in 1985 and was appointed as Assistant Dean of Students in 1988.  Since 2001, she has worked for Oneonta Auxiliary Services, the not-for-profit corporation that oversees services at the College such as dining, the bookstore, vending, and laundry.  With OAS, she served as Special Projects Assistant, Marketing and Communications Manager, and Assistant Executive Director.
Brannan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education and a Master of Science degree in counseling, both from SUNY Oneonta.  She served as President of the College’s Alumni Association Board of Directors from 2004 to 2006.
As Senior Assistant to the President at SUNY Oneonta, Brannan will be responsible for building and maintaining ties with businesses, nonprofit agencies, and community organizations; communicating with federal, state, and local officials; serving as liaison to the College Council; acting as the College’s Freedom of Information Officer; and representing SUNY Oneonta President Nancy Kleniewski with on-campus and off-campus groups.
An Oneonta resident, Colleen is married to Alex Brannan, who teaches math and coaches soccer at Oneonta High School.  In the community, she serves on the administrative council and as education chair of the Elm Park United Methodist Church.

NEW TO FOXCARE CENTER:

4-2-10

Yusuf Tatli, M.D. has joined Bassett Healthcare Network at the Center for Spine Care as physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians, or physiatrists. Dr. Tatli will see patients in Cobleskill, in Cooperstown at Railroad Ave., Hartwick Seminary Specialty Services, and as part of Bassett’s orthopedic group at FoxCare Center in Oneonta.

Dr. Tatli, has clinical interests in spine and interventional pain procedures and sports medicine. Before joining Bassett, Dr. Tatli was an attending physiatrist and assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Tatli received his medical education at Istanbul University, Istanbul College of Medicine.
Dr. Tatli will see patients in Cobleskill, in Cooperstown at Railroad Ave., Hartwick Seminary Specialty Services, and as part of Bassett’s orthopedic group at FoxCare Center in Oneonta.

ONEONTA SOCCER CLUB CLEANS UP FIELDS AT FORMER HOF

4-2-10

Oneonta Soccer Club players volunteered last weekend to clean up the soccer fields at the former National Soccer Hall of Fame. They worked two hours picking up trash from the fields and fence lines. Players include, from left, Alex Brownell, Toby Wobling, Tom Talbet, Seamus Murphy, Ben Gollin, Griffin Rule, Tom Tolley, Matt Morlock, Justin Shray, Derek Joyce, Dan Kleeschulte, Troy White, Alex White, Peter Fabrykiewiez, Petyton Griffiths.

Garfield Places Third At State Swim Meet For YMCA Team

2-4-10

Oneonta’s Akiva Garfield came in third place when he competed in the 50 yard breaststroke at the state swimming championship with the Oneonta Family YMCA swim team on March 12-14 in Buffalo.
 Garfield, who competes in the boys 9-10 division, also placed 25th in 100 yard individual medley and 28th in 200 yard freestyle
In the boys 8 and under division: Gabe House placed 10th in the 50 yard freestyle, 15th in 25 yard freestyle and 28th in 25 yard breaststroke.
In the girls 9-10 division: Lucy Bischoff placed 14th in the 50 yard freestyle, 17th in 100 yard freestyle and 18th in the 50 yard backstroke, teammate Abby Miller placed 50th in the same race
In the boys 11-12 division Patrick Calhoun placed 32 in the 50 yard butterfly.
In the girls 13-14 division: Stephanie Havens and Kari Knudson placed 18th and 25th in the 50 yard freestyle, Havens placed 21st in the 100 yard freestyle, Knudson and Madison Allen placed 14th and 27th in the 100 yard breaststroke, and Knudson placed 18th in the 200 yard individual medley.
In the girls 15-18 division: Mackenzie Miller placed 35th in the 50 yard freestyle, 43rd in the 100 yard freestyle and 34 in the 100 yard backstroke.

Deals Draw Many

4-2-10

Hannaford Celebrates Renovation


By LAURA COX

You might have wondered.
Three hundred people lined up in front of Hannaford at 7 a.m. Saturday, March 27?
It turns out they were there waiting for the supermarket’s grand re-opening after it had undergone renovations for the past four months.
And it wasn’t just curiosity.
The 300 were braving the cold snap because Hannaford was handing out gift cards qualifying the bearer to save $5, $50, up to $250 on “mystery values” throughout the store.
Store Manager Angelo Malone said all the gift cards were gone in 15 minutes.
The store’s renovations began in November with updates to the Southside building’s exterior, the upstairs offices and, on the main floor, the ceiling and lighting.  The idea was to not in any way interfere with customers over the busy holiday shopping season.
The holidays over, work began in earnest on Jan. 2 with the replacement of display shelves and cases. First the deli space, then the bakery, next the “fresh” department – meat, seafood, produce.
Then the pharmacy.  Next, crews began upgrading shelving in the center of the store and worked outwards, removing every item in stock at one point or another and replacing it onto new shelving.
The renovations allowed the store to reorganize sections that didn’t make sense before, said Malone, who has been managing the store for the last two years and has been with the company since 1991,  when he started as a bagger.
“The goal is to create ease of shopping,” he said. “The aisles and registers are wider, and the shelving is 6 inches lower now, so you can reach all the way to the top.”
 Additional changes to create easy shopping include an increase in the number aisle markers –there are now two markers per aisle instead of one – and the markers are now three-sided so they have maximum visibility from anywhere in the building. The store also has all new shopping carts, kid’s carts, and mart carts. 
During the renovations, the store hired on a multitude of temporary employees to wash shelving of any dust and guide customers to the items they were looking for.
It was not usual during these months to be approached by a Hannaford associate and asked if there was anything they could help you find. The most questioned after item was the Bread – it is in Aisle 10 if you are wondering.
Most of the construction was done overnight when there was minimal customer impact and they changed their hours so they were not open 24 hours a day during a portion of the week so they could do any dirty work then and have everything cleaned up and unwrapped by morning.
With the new shelving and cases in place Hannaford is able to add about 5000 new products they did not carry in the store previously, Malone said. The biggest impact was made in the frozen aisles where the multi-sided “freezer pods” were removed and the more traditional aisle-long cabinets were installed. Instead of having just two doors of pizzas there are now nine, and frozen snacks now take up 10 doors instead of just one. A total of 40 more freezer doors were added to the department. Additionally the new freezer and refrigerator cases are much more energy efficient and will save the store a lot in energy costs.
Customers looking for small or special cuts of meat can now meet the butcher behind Hannaford’s new butcher shop. It was not a part of the original plans, but Malone said he thought there was a good demand for it and it has been well received by customers.
“We can now provide more customer service to shoppers,” said Meat Department Manager Frank Vendemnia, adding that he expects sales to increase now because customers who only wanted one of something like a pork chop can purchase just one. They also offer more in the way of marinated and rubbed meat, potatoes and shaved beef.
Malone said that since the renovations customers have commented that the store looks bigger, is brighter, and “beautiful.”
“It is so much easier to shop now- and easier to look at,” said Malone.

City of The Hills

4-2-10

 ENDORSED: Otsego County Republican Chair Sheila Ross and Delaware County Chair Leonard Govern endorsed Bruce Blakeman for U.S. Senate candidate helping him qualify for a Republican primary in New York. Blakeman has now received the support of 15 county Republican Chairmen.

SPRING SPORTS: Oneonta High School spring sports started playing games this week, check the school website for schedules.

AT GRADUATION: Hartwick College’s commencement speaker this year will be William V. Campbell, Intuit’s chairman of the board.  Graduation is at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, May 29, on Elmore Field.

QUILTS FOR BABIES: The SCRIDS Quilting Guild wants to provide a handmade quilt or knitted/crocheted baby blanket for every newborn at the Fox Hospital in 2010 – about 400 babies. Donated quilts and blankets should be 36 x 36 inches to 36 x 45 inches in size, and can be left at Pieceworks quilt shop, 453 Chestnut St.

SAVE THE DATE: Arc Otsego’s Spring Fling Dance is coming up 7-9 p.m. Friday, April 9, at the Armory.  $2 admission.



Laura Cox/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Jan Andrews, right, and Rennie Brown complete baby care kits at First United Presbyterian Church’s Baby Shower For Haiti on Saturday, March 27.