HOMETOWN PEOPLE

1-29-11

Dr. William Ashbaugh, Associate Professor and Chair of the History Department at the SUNY College at Oneonta, has been awarded an international Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research in Kyoto, Japan.
As part of his assignment, Ashbaugh will teach courses on U.S. Foreign Relations and the Cold War through film to graduate students in the new Global Studies program at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
A recipient of the 2008 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, William Ashbaugh joined the SUNY Oneonta faculty in 2001.  He holds a doctorate in history from Temple University and a master's in Asian history from San Diego State University. 


Otsego County Chamber board officers for 2010 will include Mark Grygiel, of NYCM Insurance, as chair, Roxana Hulburt, ISD, as 1st vice-chair and Tanya Shalor, Publisher of The Daily Star, as 2nd vice-chair. Chamber President and CEO Rob Robinson will continue as secretary/treasurer.
New Directors for the Chamber include Carolyn Lewis, economic developer for Otsego County Economic Development, Nick Savin, district superintendent of ONC BOCES in Stamford, Steve Sinniger, Otsego County Farm Bureau, and Eric Jervis, Harlem and Jervis Law Office.
The chamber also thanks Peter Livshin, past chair and Rich Harlem for their two terms of service to the Board.

Oneonta Schools Moved To Help Stricken Haitians

1-29-11

By LAURA COX
OHS’ French Club was selling Hershey Kisses and sending the proceeds to Haiti.
Sapphira Koerner, an adoptee from Haiti, was briefing her classmates at Greater Plains Elementary about her homeland.
And Valleyview Elementary pupils were posting “Hearts For Haiti” on the school’s wall to dramatize their solidarity with suffering youngsters on that Caribbean isle, where the death toll in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12 may reach a quarter-million.
The tragedy spoke to students, as they read news reports in classes and watched the news.  And school groups sprung to action to help raise money to for Haitian relief.  Quickly, the efforts had raised $2,000, and they were just getting started.
At Greater Plains, the U.N. Ambassadors – each sixth grader learns about and represents a different country – headed up a school-wide fundraiser which launched just after the earthquake hit Haiti.
 “We decided we wanted to make a difference,” said Michael Kleszczsewski, one of social-studies teacher Maria McMullen’s students.
“We went around to the classrooms and told them about what happened in Haiti and left a jar in each room. At the end of the week we collect the change and count it,” said Sapphira Koerner.
The goal was $500, but first-week collections topped $1,000.
By Monday, Jan. 25, the tally was $1,876.77, so the kids raised their goal to $2,000.  The drive was due to end Friday, Jan. 29, and the money donated to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund.
“They know we are doing something special,” McMullen said. “My goal is to teach them that the single most important thing is to help someone in need.”
At Oneonta High, “En bissou pour Haiti” – or “ A kiss for Haiti” – was collecting $1 per Hershey Kiss, and a paper Hershey Kiss would go up on the wall outside the auditorium to mark the progress.
The other day, $200 had been raised toward a $650 goal, one dollar for every student, said French Club advisor Janis Labroo. The fundraiser will continue into February.
At Valleyview Elementary , the “Hearts for Haiti” had similarities to the OHS drive.  As money is donated, sixth-grade Safety Patrol members hang hearts on bulletin boards and in the library windows.
On their first day, Monday, Jan. 25 they had already raised $200, said Principal Walt Baskin.
Fliers were sent home with students announcing the fundraiser and on their first day, Monday, Jan. 25 they had already raised more than $200, said Principal Walt Baskin.
Donations are also accepted in the office throughout the day and the fundraiser will continue through the month of February, with the donations being given to the Salvation Army periodically as they are collected.
According to the Oneonta City School District website, students at Center Street School are also participating in the “Hearts for Haiti.”
Milford Central School’s annual Winterfest has been dedicated in part to Haiti relief efforts this year. The day long festival at the school features, a pancake breakfast, a chili cook off, rummage sale, entertainment, and badminton and volleyball tournament among other events. Part of their proceeds from the tournament entry fees will go to Haiti.
In addition to the Winterfest funds, the CIA/Interact student group which organizes the festival has organized a “Hats for Haiti” event.
Group advisor Jane O’Bryan explained how the fundraiser works, “Students and faculty are invited to wear a hat to school on Friday, Jan. 29, after making a one dollar donation to aid earthquake victims in Haiti.”
The funds raised from both Milford events will go to the American Red Cross.

We Must Take Care Of Us

1-29-11

All of a sudden, Mayor Dick Miller must feel a bit like Barack Obama inheriting 1.8 trillion deficit.
It’s more of a case, as the amended saying goes, of “stuff” happening.  Or as Elbert Hubbard, our philosophical friend from western New York, had it: “Life is just one d----- thing after another.”
It’s like losing the trifecta, one fecta at a time.
We already knew the National Soccer Hall of Fame & Museum was in trouble.  In recent weeks, soccer’s high priests have announced this year’s inductees, who will be entered into the Hall someplace, somewhere, somehow.  Meanwhile, word on the street is the West Oneonta property is about to be sold.
Second, the Foothills Performing Arts Center hits a wall, as Albany decides to hang on to an anticipated $100,000 grant the center had anticipated.  Then, the county Board of Representatives does the same with $25,000.  (The recent exodus of Foothills staff may be a good thing; it gives the able board of directors a chance for a clean-sheet review.)
Then, it turns out in recent days that the Oneonta Tigers, which had pledged to stay at Damaschke Field through the 2010 season, may be scurrying off by the time you read this to vacant Dodd Stadium in Norwich, Conn.  The only financial commitment to the city is $7,500 rent for the upcoming season.
Do you see a trend here?
Lessons?  Here’s one:  When the community allows local institutions to fall into out-of-town hands – the soccer hall, the Tigers – the community loses control.  (Happily, Foothills is still firmly anchored in a local foundation.)
In truth, no one cares as much about Oneonta as Oneontans, (or, if you will, Otsego County as Otsego Countians.)
Edna St. Vincent Millay did Elbert Hubbard one better:  “It’s not true that life is one d--- thing after another; it’s the same d--- thing over and over.”
That certainly seems to be the current case in Oneonta.  But it doesn’t have to be.  Let’s learn the lesson.  Apply it.  And move on.

We’re All In ‘It’ Together, But Tackling ‘It’ Differently

1-29-11

Spending a couple of days in Stamford underscores the inter-related nature of the towns in and around Otsego County today, historically and – more to the point – tomorrow.
To begin with a little inside baseball, it was interesting to discover that Simon Bolivar Champion of Bloomville, a hamlet between Stamford and Delhi, apprenticed in Cooperstown in the 1840s for John Prentiss, then publisher of The Freeman’s Journal, Hometown Oneonta’s sister.
He applied the lessons he learned to create the Bloomville Mirror, which he later moved to Stamford.  It evolved into the Mirror-Recorder, and continued to publish into 1992.

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Like many of our downtowns – with the exception of Cooperstown, perhaps  – Stamford’s has been challenged in recent years:  by the opening of I-88, by Scotch Valley Ski Resort’s bankruptcy and by the ease in getting to Oneonta just a few miles west on Route 23.
This year alone, however, Stamford (and nearby Hobart, to a lesser degree), has obtained $3.5 million in state Main Street and Restore New York grants to renovate venerable, but deteriorating, downtown buildings.
While Hobart is getting only $500,000 of that, it’s enough to redo six buildings, including the former Delaware Valley Propane Co. plant, which will then house the Liberty Tree Book Store, expanded to 85,000 volumes.
Hobart is becoming ever-more successful as “Book Village of the Catskills” – a brand it’s been promoting for five years – but promoter Don Dales believes Liberty Tree’s expansion will hit “critical mass,” catapulting the tiny village into the book-selling stratosphere.
Brand-wise, Stamford is taking lessons from Hobart.  Oneonta, which is undergoing a brand-building exercise now, could likewise benefit.
That tiny Hobart – it’s about the size of Schuyler Lake or Milford – can make big things happen means Cherry Valley, Springfield Center, Middlefield, Milford and Hartwick can as well.

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Another lesson:  attorney Mike Jacobs, believing Stamford’s population of 1,200 – Cooperstown has 1,900 – was too small to support a fulltime police department, was able to convince the powers-that-be in Albany to assign two more troopers to the area.
When former mayor Anne Slatin pressed ahead with plans for a full-time police department regardless, Jacobs ran for mayor in March 2009 and defeated the incumbent.
There’s a question worth asking as the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department and Cooperstown village police press to expand:  As costly local forces grow, does it simply mean state police will cut back their presence?
In other words, does more local money invested in police mean no greater police protection?
Mayor Jacobs would have an opinion or two on that.

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Another quick one – we could go on and on – is the Catskill Watershed Corp.’s $2 million renovation of Stamford’s historic Delaware Inn.
As former Oneonta Mayor John S. Nader discovered with Bresee’s, private financing alone couldn’t make the project viable.  The public piece – public investment, if you will – was needed.
(Delaware County’s Clark Foundation equivalents – the Robinson Broadhurst and O’Connor foundations – are in the thick of all this; could the Clark play a fuller role in community revitalization here?)
The Delaware Inn experience brings to mind the $7.5 million in public money obtained to make Bresee’s viable.  It closed the gap, allowing a private developer to take on the project and make money.
Once complete, Bresee’s offices and apartments and the Delaware Inn’s conference center will be catalysts for the revival of their individual downtowns.  It’s not Communism, but simply common sense.

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There’s an intrinsic logic to all of these projects – Eklund Farm Machinery’s owners are planning a processing plant for the Stamford area’s organically grown meat, an idea that would make sense across our rural region.
One community’s thought-provoking ideas can inspire another.  One community’s experience can show another community it’s on the right path.
Once a month during 2010, our reporters will be spending a day or two in a town in our region that most of us might not usually happen to visit.  From the Stamford experiment, we can anticipate the rest will have a lot to share as well.

TOULSON

1-29-11

COOPERSTOWN
It was late afternoon on Friday, Jan. 22, and Mike Toulson and son Emerson had been scouting Lakefront Park in search of the “Golden Horseshoe.”
Where could it be?   About to give up, Mike focused on an ancient tree on the east side of the parking lot at the top of the park, just off Lake Street.
Between two trunks that branched off, 7-8 feet above the ground, there appeared to be a hole, or at least the hint of a hole.
A long shot, thought the CCS math teacher, but why not?
Dad and son walked half a block to borrow a ladder from Martin Tillapaugh, mom Molly’s dad and Mike’s father-in-law.
Mike leaned it against the tree, climbed up and peered in, but couldn’t see anything.  Gingerly, he stuck his hand, then his arm, into the dark hole, and into debris – wood chips, leaves – at the bottom.
Nothing yet. He pressed on, into the muck.  Suddenly, he felt something, not wooden.  A few more seconds rooting around, and Mike Poulson pulled the sought-after prize into the dwindling light.
By finding the horseshoe – object of the 44th annual Cooperstown Winter Carnival’s treasure hunt – the Toulson’s will win a $500 check, provided by The Freeman’s Journal & Richfield Springs NEWSPAPER, and its sister publication, Hometown Oneonta.
The check will be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7 – the three-day carnival’s last day – at closing ceremonies in Hoffman Lane Bistro.

COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND:

1-29-11

Freeman’s Journal Now Available Earlier
Friends,
Beginning with the edition you hold in your hands, The Freeman’s Journal is shifting its publication day from Fridays to Thursdays.
That means it will be available on newstands Wednesday afternoons and should arrive in local subscribers’ mailboxes on Thursdays.
Our hope is this change will allow you to better plan your weekend activities via our “Happenin’ Otsego” calendar and related advertising.
This shifts our production schedule from Wednesday nights to Tuesday nights.  If you can, plan on getting news and advertising copy to us by Mondays or first thing Tuesday mornings.  However, as always, we continue to be flexible and will accommodate you to the degree possible.  If you’re unsure about an insertion, call 547-6103.
We will continue to update our Web site 24/7 when news happens.  Check www.thefreemansjournal.com and sign up to be alerted by e-mail when that happens.
Any inputs you may have on these changes are welcome.  Call me at the above number or e-mail jimk@thefreemansjournal.com


JIM KEVLIN
Editor & Publisher

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

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

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


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

LOCALS

1-29-11

Mark Grygiel, assistant vice president at New York Central Mutual Insurance, Edmeston, is new chairman of the Otsego County Chamber.
New directors are Carolyn Lewis, Cooperstown, the county’s economic developer; Nick Savin, Springfield Center, BOCES superintendent; Steve Sinniger, Otego, county Farm Bureau, and attorney Eric Jervis, Oneonta.


RICHFIELD SPRINGS

Alex Shields, the Oneonta native and retired county representative from Richfield Springs, has been reappointed to the MOSA board he served on in the 1990s.
The county Board of Representatives made the appointment at its reorganizational meeting Wednesday, Jan. 20.
He replaces Martha Clarvoe of Hartwick.
Shields rejoins the MOSA board – his first meeting was Tuesday, Jan. 28 – at a critical time:  With the three-county solid-waste contract due to expire in 2014, the member counties are considering dismantling the authority and finding another garbage disposal option.


Susan Ethington, Springfield Presbyterian Church organist, will directed an area choir now being formed in the Easter cantata, “Forsaken.”
Singers are now being sought for the performance, planned Palm Sunday afternoon, March 28, at Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School.
Anyone interested in singing is invited to the first rehearsal at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Cherry Valley Methodist Church.  All future rehearsal dates will be decided that evening.
For details, call Mrs. Ethington, 264-3000, or organist Irene Fassett, 264-3795.