Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

It’s Not Unusual To Spend A Year Planning Wedding

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

By JEANNINE BOHLER

It happens somewhere between “Will you marry me?” and “They lived happily ever after.” The big day. The magical celebration most girls dream about all through their lives. It is, of course, the wedding.
Weddings are laced with time-honored traditions – the exchange of vows, the kiss, the cutting of the cake. And while most of today’s couples embrace tradition, they also want a day they can call their own, one that reflects the current trends, the present world.
So what can the newly engaged couple expect as they start to plan? A formal church wedding or something simple at the beach? A sit-down dinner of 200 guests or an intimate cocktail buffet? The answers are as diverse as those tying the knot.
“Weddings tend to be a little smaller than in the past” said Gordon Clarkson, The Otesaga’s director of catering and conference services. Guest lists tend to be down about 10 percent, around 130 to 140 guests from 150 to 160 guests. The trend is based on a desire for a more intimate event, and receptions have become a bit more casual. Buffet stations are increasingly popular, particularly at daytime weddings, as they keep people up and socializing.
“There is less of the old, ‘Sit down in a certain place.
Sit down for a speech and then have a slice of cake.’ Couples are looking for something that feels fun and casual,” he said.
Candy Bar dessert stations and cupcake centerpieces are taking the place of the traditional wedding cake, and again lend to the feeling of casual fun.
While the current economy has dampened almost every area of society, Clarkson said is has not seemed to affect wedding planning.
“People are still looking at their wedding as something to save for and are willing cut back on their day-to-day spending to make it happen,” he said.
That said, couples are seeking out value, and to that end, off season weddings have risen in popularity. Booking events in the winter months, rather then planning for the peak months between June and September allows for greater flexibility.
While package prices remain the same, resorts such as The Otesaga are able to offer more upgrades and greater values off-season. An early January wedding celebration at the hotel began Friday evening and lasted through Sunday brunch, with guests having the hotel virtually to themselves throughout the entire affair.
In tune with the times, many couples seek a “greener” celebration, one that is more environmentally conscious. Requests for local produce and food grown sustainabley and organically are on the rise. Clarkson has begun to work with local farmers to accommodate these wishes. Favors tend to be greener. Last year, one couple placed a small note at each table informing guests that in lieu of favors, they had chosen to make a donation to a nonprofit organization to offset the carbon footprint created by their wedding.
Fall weddings and weddings with natural themes – like wine tasting in a vineyard – are increasingly popular, according to Kerri Insinga, a wedding planner and owner of Celebration Creations in Sidney.
“Everyone wants something no one else has done before, something unique and something different,” she said.
Couples write their own vows, create their own invitations, have dresses handmade and seek out nontraditional favors in an attempt to set their day apart and make it more personalized and special.
All inclusive destinations – those that accommodate the ceremony, the reception, and even the guests – are gaining popularity, as they often allow guests a more relaxed and enjoyable time. In addition, package deals can handle most aspects of the wedding, from food to flowers, which means less effort in the planning and coordination for the bride and groom, she said.
Planning should ideally begin at least a year before the ceremony, Insinga said, especially if couples have their hearts set on a particular venue. Booking the event on a Friday or Sunday, typically considered off-peak days by most wedding vendors, can save the couple a significant amount of money and may ease planning.
A wedding just wouldn’t be a wedding without the dress and today’s brides will find it easier then ever to individualize their gowns. Wedding dresses of every style are readily available, many sporting an accent of color that would have been unheard of in years past, according to Norah Doyle, owner of Rainbow’s End Weddings and More in Oneonta.
The hemline of the bridesmaids’ dresses is creeping up from the popular tea length to knee length or above. Rich color hues like red and chocolate brown remain popular, although fabric samples from manufactures include shades of grey, teal and eggplant, Doyle said. For the past few years, it has been popular for the bride to choose a color and then allow each of her attendants to choose a dress in that shade.
Ordering dresses at least six months before the ceremony is essential, as it often takes four months for a dress to be sewn and shipped. Brides with less time will find options, including many off-the-rack dresses available at the store, but for a full range of possibilities, early planning is a must.
Grooms and groomsmen will still find the tuxedo the most popular choice, although gone are the days when the plain black tux was the only option. Men will find a variety of color options including subtle strips. Suits and linen suits are popular options for destination weddings on beaches, islands or cruise ships and tend to be popular with couples planning a second marriage, she said.
After the destination has been booked and the dresses chosen, it’s time to visit the florist. Couples this year are into themes and are choosing natural arrangements with a lot of green including herbs, green roses, carnations and hydrangea, according to Carol Waller, owner of Mohican Flowers in Cooperstown. A new color series – the moon series – promises to be popular, offering rich purples from lavender to deeper hues.
Hand-tied bouquets of freshly cut flowers remain popular with brides and many seek a more eclectic look for the ceremony and reception. Containers of the same color, but different shapes and sizes give a unique look to fresh arrangements. Flowers and favors tied to themes such as French country, Old World, beach or baseball help create the atmosphere the couples desire on their day, she said.
As the thrill of their holiday engagement gives way to the excitement of planning their special day, couples will find a mix of trendy and traditional at every turn. But each hopes to create a celebration as timeless as their love.

Labels: 01-16-09, The City of the Hills, Weddings

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Here Come The Brides...

Packed Bridal Show Heralds Start of Season

It was a cold January afternoon, when everything seems to be in hibernation.
Not so inside the Foothills Performing Arts Center, where 102 brides-to-be, plus another 250 moms, bridesmaids and an occasional groom viewed, discussed the sampled the offerings of 38 vendors at Bridal Expo 2009.
“There’s no recession here – and you can quote me on that,” said Mark LaValle of Cooperstown, who was talking to prospective patrons about his DJ service.
“It seems like this was a better turnout – vendor- and customer-wise – than any bridal show ever,” said Tina Costa, Foothills business manager.
“There was no comparison,” said Norah Doyle of Rainbow’s End Weddings & More, the co-organizer. “It was far beyond what I ever expected
Doyle has done these in past years, but this was Foothills’ first hosting of such a show.
“One, we did it right after the holidays,” said Costa, in explaining the turnout, “and a lot of people get engaged during the holidays.”
But the central location, with parking just across the street in the city-owned deck, made it convenient as well, she said.
“The Foothills name is starting to be recognized. A lot of people have been in the facility. And we did a tremendous amount of advertising,” said Costa.
A highpoint of the afternoon was a the 100-model fashion show in the second floor little theater.
Foothills has been hosting weddings – eight this year – in its current building, and can accommodate about 150 guests.
Beginning in August, however, weddings of up to 325 guests can be accommodated in the the atrium of Foothills’ main theater, which is rising in the lot to the east of the building and is due for completion in June.

Labels: 01-16-09, The City of the Hills, Weddings

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Joe Hughes, Hometown Hero

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

SPORTS BEAT

‘There is no place like home,” says a smiling Joe Hughes.
A three-sport athlete who earned eight varsity letters while donning the blue and yellow, Hughes is now OHS athletic director and couldn’t love the job more. He has contributed to OHS athletics as a player and coach, and saw his name on the wall in October as he was inducted into the OHS Athletic Hall Of Fame.
Hughes graduated from Oneonta High School in 1976 and went on to Florida International University in Miami to play baseball. While at FIU, he earned the title of 1st Team Collegiate All-American in 1980 and even had a brief stint in professional ball with the Baltimore Orioles.
While at OHS, Hughes started on the varsity soccer program for four years. He also was a two-year varsity player in basketball and baseball, and captained both his senior season.
The soccer program at OHS during Hughes’ years won the school’s first ever STAC championship.
“At the time, SUCO and Hartwick both had established varsity programs, and both were in the top ranks in the nation,” said Hughes. “With our program being successful as well, and the Hall of Fame deciding to open here, it was a really great time to be involved in what is essentially ‘Soccer-town USA’.”
For Hughes, there really is no place like home. After completing his baseball career he returned home 1,500 miles to the City of the Hills where he coached Boys JV Basketball for nearly 15 seasons.
Hughes ended his stint as basketball coach when he was offered the job as athletic director. He still coaches varsity baseball for the Yellow Jackets.
The weekend of Jan. 16-18, Hughes gets a chance to re-live the good old days.
He will be driving with the Yellow Jackets men’s basketball squad eight hours up to Maine to take on nationally ranked Camden Hills. The top ranked team in the state of Maine and currently 9-0, the 6-3 Yellow Jackets will have a gigantic mountain to climb.
Camden Hills has a Hughes for an athletic director also well, only his name is Bill. Bill Hughes, who was a participant in the NCAA College World Series as a baseball player for the University of Maine, and an Oneonta graduate in the class of 1974, will see his basketball team play his brother’s team this weekend… the backyard all over again.
The Jackets (6-3) will be taking on Camden Hills (9-0) and then the following night they will be taking on another solid team at the neighboring Rockland High School. The whole trip will be a fantastic experience for the two programs, and it will be a homecoming of sorts for the Hugheses.
The tournament, appropriately called “The City of the Hills Basketball Tournament,” likely will not disappoint.
Whether you are from Oneonta or Camden Hills, this weekend will run rampant with hometown nostalgia. Two brothers, both of which have accomplished major feats, both of which were born and raised in Oneonta, both of which, are hometown heroes, will be on the court together again.

Labels: 01-16-09, Hometown Sports, Joe Hughes, OHS

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Moratorium First Step To Protect Tax Base, Create Opportunities

There’s no mystery to what will happen if nothing is done.
Go no further than Ithaca, a city with a enough brainpower – you would think – to get it right.
But drive through that city’s neighborhoods, you see it’s otherwise.
Virtually every single block has been degraded by student housing – not exclusively rentals for students, sure, but mostly.
After all, this began in the late ‘60s, when colleges and universities generally loosened their residency policies so more students – often many more students – could live off-campus.
You can imagine the debates at the City Hall. Entrepreneurial landlords vs. neighborhood groups. You know the arguments. In the end, the landlords won in Ithaca.
•
Not so in Oneonta, at least not yet.
The 40 conversions of single-family homes into apartments in a single year – 2008 – constituted a wake-up call.
At first, it wasn’t clear that the Common Council had heard it, declining Mayor John Nader’s request on Dec. 23 for an eight-month moratorium on rental conversions while the city’s zoning code is revised.
By Jan. 6, however, the aldermen had gotten the message, passing the moratorium by a 6-1 vote.
A public hearing is planned Jan. 20, but the expectation is the mayor will sign the moratorium. Then the hard work begins.
•
The mayor has been conferring with his counterparts in Cortland, Cohoes, Geneseo and the state Conference of Mayors.
The first step, he said, would be to convene a work session of Common Council and the Planning Commission, probably in early February, to get all the issues on the table.
The next step would be to identify a planning consultant with experience in best practices and similar-sized cities. No doubt community input will be an important part of the picture.
While rental conversions are the front-burner issue, that’s just one issue of many. Because it’s been decades since the city’s zoning regulations have been revised.
Two years ago, the Comprehensive Master Plan was updated, so now is the time to bring the law into line with citizens’ hopes and expectations.
•
A few paragraphs ago, we talked about the landlords winning. But this doesn’t have to be a win-lose dynamic.
As Nader views it, there’s room in the city for everyone – for single-family homes, for rentals, for more extensive multi-family developments. The idea is to sort things out to maximize the quality of life, create new opportunities and strengthen the tax base.
This will be a particularly good time to consider such steps as a historical commission as well.
Lose-lose is where we are now. Win-lose doesn’t have to be. Win-win is where the city can be by proceeding along the path now being blazed.

Labels: 01-16-09, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Play Reexplores Eva Coo Crime 75 Years Later

Production Planned In Milford
On Hooker With Heart Of Flint

By JIM KEVLIN

Eva Coo lives, and not only in the picture of her victim, Harry Wright, on the label of Cooperstown Brewing Co.’s Back Yard India Pale Ale. (He’s the one with an X above his head.)
“I fell one of her victims,” Niles Eggleston, 92, author of “Eva Coo, Murderess,” said the other day in explaining his fascination. “But at least I’m still alive.”
If so, then Eva Coo’s latest “victim” is Isaac Rathbone, a New York City playwright raised in Milford (Harry Wright’s hometown), who will be staging a play at the Upper Susquehanna Cultural Center this June.
It will mark the 75th anniversary of a crime that, thanks to New York City’s then-flourishing tabloid press, electrified Otsego County, the state and nation.
After a three-ring trial in Cooperstown, Eva Coo, on June 27, 1935, at Sing Sing, became the last woman executed by electric chair in New York State. A WGY announcer broke in and the news was signaled around the world via a relatively new medium, radio.
“Eva’s a wonderful character. She’s deviant. She’s funny. She’s great to watch,” said Rathbone the other day from his Brooklyn apartment.
“The bulk of story takes place during the Great Depression,” he said. “The play explores the desperation and survival that people went through during that time. Eva was so desperate and willing to commit a heinous crime for economic survival.
“It rings true a little bit today, to see how low people can go.”
Here’s the story. Eva Coo, a prostitute (originally from Canada), is driven out of Oneonta. She opens a roadhouse near Cooperstown Junction and when the mother of the slow-witted, heavy-drinking Harry Wright dies, she is entrusted with his care.
She embezzles his inheritance, burns down his house for the insurance money, and takes out several life-insurance policies on him.
On June 14, 1934, she and a friend, Martha Clift, drive Harry up to Crumhorn Mountain – near the spot of today’s Boy Scout camp – in a Willys-Knight. Eva hits him with a mallet. Then Martha runs him over to make it look like a hit and run.
Pretty cold hearted.
In any event, Martha confesses under rigorous interrogation by the state police.
It must have been a slow season in Gotham, for the tabloid press flocked north – the famed Dorothy Kilgallen, literally: She landed on Otsego Lake in a seaplane – to sensationalize the trial.
And what a trial. At one point, Harry Wright is disinterred. His body is taken back to the scene, and the crime is reenacted for a gawking jury.
By the time she is found guilty, Eva Coo has grown larger than life. Sing Sing warden Robert Elliot calls her the most popular inmate in his memory. When she is taken to The Chair, weeping matrons accompany her.

Jim Havener, director of the Greater Milford Historical Association, which runs the cultural center and is sponsoring Rathbone’s production – although the playwright is doing all the fundraising himself – said the story has everything.
It has a woman of ill-repute – and a bootlegger to boot – cast into the outer darkness by powerful interests, some of which wouldn’t have wanted her to tell all. Press coverage, due process, the death penalty – all those issues live on today.
“This is a great story for a movie,” Havener used to tell Isaac’s father Tom Rathbone, SUNY Oneonta vice president for facilities. (His mother, Lola, is acting executive director of Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care.) “This is a great story for a play.”
During his local boyhood, Isaac Rathbone – he has three sisters – was active in Oneonta’s Orpheus Theater and Cooperstown’s Leatherstocking Theater. At Milford Central – he graduated in 1996 – he played Nathan Detroit in “Guys and Dolls.”
At Hofstra (where he met his future wife, Jennifer, working on “The Pirates of Penzance”), “I jumped right in and got involved.” His original plan was to be an actor, maybe eventually a movie actor. But he also stayed involved in the production end of college plays, and wrote screenplays.
“The Audition,” about an actress going to an audition – “It was modeled after the tea party scene from ‘Alice in Wonderland’” – was produced by the Brooklyn Lyceum.
Isaac recruited acting buddies from college and directed it himself. “It’s usually the way it goes at this level. When you first start out, you are writing and directing and sometimes acting in it, and running the light board and soundboard for your own shows.”
While he waits to hit the big time, his source of income has been building scenery for off-Broadway shows, commercials and TV.
As it happens, Isaac had read Niles Eggleston’s book in the 1990s. During a visit home, he talked to his father about make it into a play. He visited Eggleston – a family friend – several times. He drove up on Crumhorn Mountain.
“It opened my eyes,” he said. “I got a real sense of the journey she took. Yes, it was very eye-opening. I feel lucky I was able to do that, to see what they saw.”
And so it’s happened. The play is pretty much complete. Jennifer will be directing it. Isaac is recruiting acting friends from New York City, and expects to find local talent as well.
“Personally, I’d love to keep playwriting,” said Rathbone, when asked to look to the future. “I’d love to make it my living … I’d love to see this play premier in Milford and come down to the city.
“The sky’s the limit.”

Labels: 01-16-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Hometown People

GRANT TO WEST ONEONTA FIREMEN

U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-Utica) presented the West Oneonta Fire District with $34,414 through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant to Firefighters Grant program. Fire Chief Walter Schmitt Jr., center, accepted the grant on behalf of the fire district, with him is Bob Wood the Town Supervisor, left, and Arcuri, right. The grant will be used to purchase new turn out gear, including fire jackets, pants, gloves, and other protective equiptment, to replace the ones currently in use from the early 1990s.

SAFETY PATROL AUCTION FRIDAY, JAN. 16

Willy Harrison, 12, right, shows off the hockey stick Signed by Wayne Gretzky. With him are Madison Beckemeyer, 11, left, Dylan Davison, 11, second from left, and Amy Lee, 11. Theirs are among the offerings the Valleyview Elementary School Sixth Grade Safety Patrol will auction off at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16, in the school cafeteria to raise money for the group’s annual trip to Washington, D.C.

Baby Madeline Born To The Dotys In December

Ben and Holly (Ganio) Doty of McGraw announce the birth of a daughter, Madeline Rosabel Doty born at 6:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, at the Cortland Regional Medical Center, Cortland, NY.
She weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. Maddy was welcomed home by her 2 ½ year old brother Kyle.
Maternal grandparents are Dave and Kathy Yager of Oneonta and Gino and Joan Ganio of Franklin, TN. Paternal grandparents are Ray and Janet Doty of Blodgett Mills, NY. Great-grandfather is Howard Cornish of Milford.

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA: Assistant Professor William Ashbaugh, chair of the History Department at SUNY Oneonta, is the author of the extensive section on East Asia in the three-volume “Greenwood Encyclopedia of Global and Medieval Life and Culture,” which was released recently by Greenwood Press. A recipient of the 2008 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, William Ashbaugh joined the SUNY Oneonta faculty in 2001.

GRADUATE: William Schaaf of Oneonta graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric and Communication from the University at Albany on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008.

DEAN’S LIST: Meghan Brunswick, a sophomore from Oneonta, Christopher Luettger, a junior from Oneonta, Linnea Mattson, a senior from Oneonta, Ronald Pleban, a sophomore from Oneonta and Caitlin Smith, a sophomore from Oneonta all were named to the deans list at SUNY Cortland for the fall semester.

DEAN’S LIST: Michelle Ranieri, a freshman from Oneonta was named to the dean’s list at SUNY New Paltz for the fall semester.

Labels: 01-16-09, Hometown People

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

As U.S. Democratized, So Did Wedding Ideals

By JEANNINE BOHLER

Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue.
The adage seems as ageless as marriage itself.
But how timeless are these traditions we have come to mark in the rite of passage that is a wedding? How many generations of brides and grooms have celebrated with the rituals we embrace?
Not many, reveals Dr. Vicki Howard, Assistant Professor of History at Hartwick College in Oneonta. In her book, “Brides Inc.: American Weddings and the Business of Tradition,” Howard reveals the role commercial industry has played in shaping the rituals we consider eternal wedding traditions.
“People are surprised by the relatively recent origins of the lavish white wedding,” Howard said. “Some customs have specific origins, but many are the product of sophisticated advertising campaigns.”
Her interest in the origin of wedding customs began as a newly engaged graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. With specialties in U.S. women’s history, American consumer society and business history, Howard found herself a dissertation topic as she planned her own white wedding.
Extensive research uncovered a wedding industry that began its rise in the 1920s, thanks largely to female entrepreneurs whose fields of expertise – from fashion design to catering – lent themselves perfectly to creating a new American ideal. Department stores and jewelers followed suit, and the rest is history.
Lavish weddings belonged primarily to the elite throughout the 19th century, she said.
Queen Victoria, in her 1841 wedding, was the first prominent bride to wear a white satin gown, complete with orange blossoms. But by 1950, this formerly elite ideal had become something attainable to most Americans.
In part, it had to do with changes in manufacturing. Traditionally, women wore their best dress on their wedding day. A white dress created for one time use would have been considered far too elaborate and impracticable an expenditure for most women. Dresses were handmade, if not at home, then by a dressmaker.
But by World War I, ready-to-wear clothing purchased in department stores was becoming increasingly accessible, making clothing easier to obtain and more affordable. The tradition of the white, once worn wedding dress was on the rise.
At the same time, jewelers were doing their best to market engagement rings for men and women along with the idea of a double-ring ceremony – one in which both the bride and groom would exchange rings, symbolic of their love, an idea we take entirely for granted today.
The diamond engagement ring and wedding bands struck a chord. The male engagement ring did not. “Marriage was seen as a boost for a woman’s image,” Howard said. “For a man, it might have meant less freedom, less availability, less sexual freedom.”
It simply wasn’t possible to conquer every social mores.
Other modern traditions, like the removal and tossing of the bride’s garter, evolved from traditions related to the public celebration of the wedding night, itself a rite of passage. However, the garter itself is a modern invention. Women’s wear once required garters, but companies began producing lacey blue satin garters specifically for wedding ceremonies and the custom persists despite the fact that garters are not necessary today.
The wedding industry continued its rise throughout the 20th century, in many ways empowering business women, Howard said.
Today, women’s roles in society have changed greatly from when the industry first began. And while women’s status has changed, and with it, views of marriage and family life, the lavish white wedding remains a prominent fixture in society.
“There is a lot about the modern wedding that doesn’t speak to women’s current roles in society. Weddings tend to be traditional and backward looking, yet we still love them, maybe because they link us to the past,” she said.
Even if that past is more recent then we think.

Labels: 01-16-09, The City of the Hills, Weddings

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

SUNY Local Future ‘Green’

New President Looks Beyond Budget Crisis

By JIM KEVLIN

A trillion dollars is suddenly part of the national dialogue, and it’s a hard number to comprehend.
A million is a thousand thousand. A billion is a thousand million. A trillion is a thousand billion.
A trillion dollars is a billion $1,000 bills, or 3,300 for each American.
More imaginable is the SUNY budget, about $10 billion a year, including its hospitals, a big piece of it.
Now we’re down to reality: SUNY Oneonta’s budget is $100 million a year.
Tuition is $24 million.
Room rent and fees, $30 million.
Only $19 million is a direct allocation from Albany, and Gov. David Paterson is proposing to cut that by $2 million, about 10 percent of the state share and about 2 percent of the total.
$2 million is not peanuts – it’s 50 jobs that pay $40,000.
But there’s no doubt SUNY Oneonta will survive the current budget crisis.
So it was easy to get the local campus’ new president, Nancy Kleniewski, talking about the future in an interview the other day as her six-month mark in the corner office at the Netzer Administration Building approached.
Formerly provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bridgewater (Mass.) State College, she arrived in Oneonta July 1.
Foremost, Kleniewski foresees a “green campus” in the not-too-distant future, “not only in what we do but in how we think and how we teach.”
Already, construction and maintenance projects are being guided by green principles, she said, and the SUNY Oneonta facilities managers are looking to include geothermal-, wind- and solar-powered components in future projects.
The green impetus will also be evident in the expansion of the local campus’ Environmental Studies Program, including a master’s in lake management that would be offered in connection with the Biological Field Station in Cooperstown and Thayer’s farm. (Approval is awaited from SUNY headquarters.)
This, in turn, will result in a greater focus on core sciences – biology, chemistry and earth sciences.
“This” – science education – “will be a critical for New York State and the nation in the future,” Kleniewski said. “If we’re going to stay relevant, we have to be looking for new areas of instruction.”
For now, however, Issue One is the state’s fiscal crisis. SUNY is describing its budget request as “four pillars.”
• Pillar One, rational tuition policy.
Kleniewski pointed out that there has been only one tuition increase is the past dozen years – a 27.9 percent hike in 2003-04. Another hike goes into effect this spring – $310 a semester, 14 percent, to $2,485 per semester for a full-time, in-state undergrad.
SUNY wants to link tuition increases to HEPI – the national Higher Education Price Index, which has risen annually by single percentage points – to avoid huges hikes and allow students and parents to plan.
• Pillar Two, building public-private partnerships.
SUNY is seeking more flexibility to partner with communities and businesses in entrepreneurial and revenue-generating ways. It seeks flexibility – City University of New York (CUNY) already has it – to sell, lease and rent its buildings with this goal in mind.
Kleniewski, an urban sociologist by training – her most recent book is “Cities, Change and Conflict” (2005)87 – intends that SUNY Oneonta will use its resources to help solve community problems.
• Pillar Three, management and operational reforms and efficiencies.
This speaks to the state diverting tuition revenues into the general fund, but also to removing some of the controls Albany exercises over local expenditures.
For instance, now, Kleniewski said, expenditures are subject to a “pre-audit” and a “post-audit,” to assess how the money is to be spent, then to ensure it was spent that way.
The idea is to require a post-audit only, the norm in private enterprise, Kleniewski said.
• Pillar Four, “essential state support.”
In addition to ensuring “base-level costs” – contractual raises and energy costs, for instance – the idea would be to devote $10 million to recruitment of faculty and researchers.
SUNY Chancellor Carl Hayden was to present the system’s arguments at a state budget hearing Thursday, Jan. 15. The General Assembly’s goal for completion of the budget is April 1.

Labels: 01-16-09, Front Page, SUCO

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Letters to the Editor

We, The People, Must Make Ourselves Heard

To the Editor:
Are you still unsure, confused? If you are then you have no pulse. Recent financial crimes should have been a slap in the face, or if there are still men out there, a kick to the you know what.
These elected traitors do not care what they do now, nor what they will do.
They act as though they are immune from punishment and, at least for the present, they may be.
They have robbed and indebted your children’s future – roll that fact around your mind – and they act as though they are doing something proactive about it.
Call it the fox in the henhouse x 10, but there is no reason to be on the defensive: We outnumber them.
I would like to file a federal lawsuit against Congress, et al, for their failure to uphold their oath of office to defend the Constitution.
I have spoken to many others who are struggling to maintain their financial balance and I think it’s about time that the ethically inept have cause to wiggle like a worm on a hook or scurry like rats caught in the light.
Of course, this is really up to the people. We are the people. I need your assistance, join me.
MICHAEL McCAFFERTY
West Oneonta

Generosity Made Help Possible

To The Editor:
The senior citizen‘s Food vs. Fuel Project conducted by SUNY Oneonta’s Psychology of Adulthood and Aging class would not have been possible without the efforts of several individuals and businesses. I personally would like to publicly thank those who helped to make the project a tremendous success.
A special thanks goes out to Certified Auto Outlet, Corning, Inc., Damascene Book Cellar, Go Wireless, Law Offices of Richard Rothermel, L.Grummons Funeral Home, M. Serbay Plumbing & Heating, Northrup’s Supply (R. Webster), Oneonta Marketing Club, Personal Computer Services, Psi Chi Honorary Society, Rentals for Everyone, Sodexo Foods and United Student Rentals.
Their generosity allowed us to purchase many essential items in addition to the food collected.
The Oneonta branch of the state Office of the Aging was our link to identifying and delivering food to the seniors. Mandy Rogers, site supervisor, maintained the privacy required for seniors while personally delivering boxes with her staff. Her assistance was invaluable
The psychology student committee included Dominique Canton, Megan Dorak, Elyise Hallenbeck, Sinead Lynch, Amanda Maiorano, Amanda Richards, and Ashlie Van Duzer as well as Rebecca Harrington, president of the honor society.
My sincere thanks goes out to all of you.
SHEILA A. SERBAY
Lecturer & Coordinator of Interns
Psychology Department
SUNY Oneonta

Labels: 01-16-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Everyone Wants To Make Million

Lucky Outlet’s Lotto Ticket Sales Up 50%

By LAURA FOX

Stewart’s Shop on Main Street has seen a large increase in foot traffic since the news broke in mid- December that it had sold that $4 million-winning Lotto ticket.
The store, which averages 8,000 ticket sales a week, has since been selling 12,000 and even 13,000 tickets a week, according to store manager Matt Sivacek.
The store does not directly benefit from the sale of a winning ticket, but the chatter helps business.
“People come in a saying things like ‘Are you going to sell me a winning ticket?’ or ‘When do I get my shot at a million dollars?’” said Sivacek, adding, “It’s pretty cool to know I held $4 million in my hand for just a second.”
Sivacek was on the scene at 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 12, when the state Lottery’s Yolanda Vega was there recognizing 46-year-old John Wells, of Wappingers Falls, who bought the ticket Dec. 8 while stopping in town en route to visit his stepfather in Unadilla.
At the Wednesday, Dec. 10, lottery drawing, Wells was the only person to match all six winning numbers – 16-20-25-36-46-54 – making him the sole winner of the $4 million jackpot.
“Once I got home,” said Wells, “I decided to do something about my collection of Quick Pick tickets. I brought a few to a store near my home, and the one I bought in Oneonta displayed a different message than all the rest.
“I went home, called the Lottery and they told me it was worth $4 million. That was the first time I knew what I had. Even now, I only half believe it.”
Wells, who said he is a regular lotto player, spends $15-$20 in tickets each week. He has been playing for 30 years, so at this rate he has spent anywhere between $23,400 and $31,200 on Lottery tickets over his lifetime, finally this win turned out to be a pretty good return on his investment.
Wells, a bachelor, opted to receive the winnings in one lump sum and so he will receive a one-time payment of $2,516,714 before taxes. His net check, which he will receive in a few days, will total $1,715,140.
As for his job, Wells said he plans to continue on as a control room supervisor for Entergy’s Indian Point Energy Center in Buchanan, at least until he has time to figure out how he will invest his winnings. He also plans to continue playing the lotto, stating that he likes that the money goes towards education.
Well is an antique car collector and loves to travel and so he plans to devote more time to these pastimes saying, “My garages are full, so I will have to build another one if I get any more cars.”
He also said he would like to make a trip to Italy and France.
For his part, Sivacek congratulated the lucky winner.
When asked what he had to say to the rest of Oneonta, the store manager said, “I’d tell them to come on down to Stewart’s and try their luck, we are willing to give out another million-dollar ticket – and don’t forget the cheap gas.”
This is the second million-dollar ticket to be sold at this Stewart’s branch, but the first to have the Lottery presentation happen in the store. When Tim O’Connor won $5 million in 2005 on a ticket purchased at the Stewart’s, he was one of two jackpot winners and so NYS Lotto presented the check in another town.

Labels: 01-16-09, Front Page, Lotto

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Henderson, Rice In Baseball Hall

COOPERSTOWN

Former Oakland A Rickey Henderson was the headliner when the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced its 2009 inductees on Monday, Jan. 12.
But former Red Sox Jim Rice got the phones ringing that afternoon at local B&Bs, and was heralded as more likely to draw a crowd to Otsego County this summer.
The induction will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 26, at the Clark Sports Center.

Labels: 01-16-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

City of the Hills

PUBLIC HEARING: A public hearing on the eight-month moratorium on rental housing is planned at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 20, at City Hall.

SOCCER FAMERS: The National Soccer Hall of Fame planned to announce its 2009 inductees Thursday, Jan. 15, at the National Soccer Coaches of America annual convention in St. Louis, Mo. Check www.hometownoneonta.biz for results.

AT INAUGURAL: Sam Goodyear, the Foothills Performing Arts Center grants administrator who has portrayed John Adams widely in plays and reenactments around the country, said he plans to be in Washington D.C. in full regalia for the inauguration of Barack Obama on Jan. 20. He is staying with a friend in Virginia and plans to take the train in.

BARACK THE NIGHT: The county Democratic Party is planning a “Barack the Night Away” party Saturday, Jan. 17, at the Sixth Ward Club.

KING CELEBRATION: An NAACP Community Celebration to mark the Martin Luther King National Holiday and Barack Obama’s inauguration is planned 3-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, at First United Methodist Church, 66 Chestnut St.

CHORAL AUDITIONS: The Catskill Choral Society is holding auditions at 9 p.m. on two Thursdays, Jan. 15 and 22 for “Cavalleri Rusticana” and John Rutter’s “Requiem.” People waiting to audition are welcome to join the 7-9 p.m. rehearsals.

ROAMING COYOTE: A coyote captured, tagged and released near Oneonta in April 2008 has been caught 150 miles away near Stroudsburg, Pa.

Labels: 01-16-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Hometown History

125 Years Ago

Home & Vicinity – About 1,500 tons of ice has been stored by H.E. Conant, in his two ice houses. It is thought the new First Baptist Church will be completed, ready for dedication, by March 1. C.F. Thurnau has sold his cigar and stationery stand in the post-office and contemplates moving to Washington. Dr. Entler’s dog “Colonel,” an animal displaying remarkable intelligence, and highly valued, died on Tuesday, having evidently been poisoned by someone. There has been very good skating for some time on the Mill Race and a great many are taking advantage of it. A party of 25 or 30 young people from this village went sleigh riding to Laurens Tuesday night, where they suppered and danced and made merry at Richmond’s Hotel.
January 1884

100 Years Ago

At the annual meeting of the stockholders of the Wilber National Bank, George I. Wilber, S.R. Barnes, Albert Morris, A.B. Tobey, I.H. Rowe, E.A. Scramling, John R. Skinner and O.C. McCrum were elected directors. At a subsequent meeting the following officers were elected: president, G.I. Wilber; vice-president and cashier, E.A. Scramling; assistant cashier, S.H. Potter. Since the bank moved into its new building there has been a large increase of deposits, making the year the most successful in its history.
January 1909

80 Years Ago

For an average of $17.30 a year, the American farmer is getting his daily entertainment, stock and market reports, weather reports, news items, setting-up exercises, sermons, lectures, politics, music – and jazz – by the radio. This is the finding of the large agricultural papers which recently conducted a survey on the subject. It was discovered that the use of the radio ran from 10 minutes daily to 10 hours and that the average was 2.8 hours. Thirty-one percent of those surveyed reported the use of the radio was increasing in their homes. Eleven percent said it was decreasing and 58 percent believed it was about the same as in the past. Ninety-four percent, however, were sure that their families would not be satisfied today without a radio.
January 1929

60 Years Ago

The New York State Electric & Gas Corporation reported new high levels in sales of electricity and gas during 1948 according to A.R. Ewing, manager, Oneonta District. Average residential use of electricity in the territory served by the company increased almost 150 kilowatt hours per customer in 1948 – about the same as the rate of increase in 1946 and 1947. This rise brought the average annual residential consumption of electricity to a new high of 1,660 kilowatt hours per customer as compared with the nationwide average of 1,550 kilowatt hours. Major factors in the increase were the renewed availability of electric appliances, following shortages during the war, and an increase of use on farms.
January 1949

40 Years Ago

Progress is visible on the nation’s railroads. More “piggy-back” vans are riding on flatcars and more containers are being carried by rail. Now, in January, comes the beginning of a New York to Washington, D.C. high-speed passenger service that could, just possibly, mean the return of railroad trains as important passenger transportation. The six-car Penn-Central train will make the New York-Washington connection an hour faster than the average time. The U.S. Department of Transportation says the project is a two-year demonstration. The railroads flourish in Japan with exactly this sort of high-speed travel. They could do the same in America. Experts agree that rapid rail travel is the most poorly developed part of the national transportation system.
January 1969

20 Years Ago

Presidential topics and Facts: In our 212 years of existence, 39 individuals have served as President of the U.S. and George H.W. Bush becomes the 40th individual president. Both the aristocracy and the back woods have furnished America with capable leaders. John F. Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected to the presidency, and unfortunately, was also the youngest to die in office. James Buchanan was our only bachelor president – he never married. John Adams and Herbert Hoover lived past the age of 90. Ronald Reagan is the oldest to be elected.
January 1989

10 Years Ago

Judge Jean Scarzafava returned to her duties on the Otsego County Court bench on Monday refreshed from a two-week winter break. “I didn’t realize how badly I needed a break until I was about three days into it. But the beginning of the New Year has really energized me.” The judge, who was sworn in on January 1, 1998, to a 10-year term as the first woman and the first Democrat in 50 years to hold the position, recalls her first year as a period of adjustment, innovation, and plain hard work. “In the beginning, it was so much, so fast. It was so many new things like forming new relationships with people, working with many different entities – the Department of Social Services, probation, the criminal justice system, the law enforcement,” she said.
January 1999

Resources for Hometown History have been provided courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library.

Labels: 01-16-09, Hometown History

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 1:00 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with: