Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

There Were Many Slopes To Hit In Otsego County’s Winters Past

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Mount Otsego Lured 400 Ski Buffs On ‘Snow Train’ From Schenectady

‘We had more fun than people should be allowed to have,” said Richfield Springs’ George Ehrmann of the many weekends spent at Mount Otsego.
With an opening like that, great stories are sure to follow.
One time, friends bet him $5 he couldn’t ski down the main hill playing “The Lady of Spain” on his accordion.
Another friend tied the accordion to his back. George walked away $5 richer.
Recently recognized as a Lifetime Member of the Alumni Association of the National Ski Patrol, Ehrmann spent over 30 years on the ski patrol at Mount Otsego.
Here’s his story:
“The time frame of 1935 to 1936, Les Clark, Ted “Tiger” Fuery, Abe and Les Lippitt, Ernie Whitaker and Ray Burr had discussions about ideas for winter sports activities. Some of them knew about rope tows that were in use in northern New York and Vermont. The Cooperstown Winter Sports Association was then started by a group of people.
“There was a property in Bowerstown that apparently belonged to Robert S. Clark. In 1935 or 1936, the rope tow was set up. At this point in time, an old friend of mine, Les Hanson was interested in skiing and Les thought that Pierstown was a much better hill. Les was joined in this quest for a better ski hill by John Sill and Bob Rowley and several other locals.

“A group of ski enthusiasts decided to take a trip up to North Creek, NY and check out one of the earliest rope tows in New York State. Carter Burnett came up with a design for a rope tow that was produced by the well-known Utica firm: Utica Steam and Boiler Works.
“The Ovid Drake farm in Pierstown was where the new rope tow would go. This is one farm up from where it is today. In December of 1938 the new tow was opened. There appeared to be many complications, financial concerns, quite a bit of ice and not great skiing. So in 1939, the whole operation moved back one farm, owned by the Lamb family, to what is now the present site.
“Les Hanson was a mainstay at the Pierstown ski area. Years later Les and I became very good friends, when he was running Mount Otsego. He could fix just about anything, and make things run under sometimes very trying, cold weather. The winter of 1939-1940 saw snow trains coming to Cooperstown. I have heard of at least two, possibly more than that. The snow train came in from Schenectady with almost 400 skiers.”

Many Mourn Lost Ski Areas That Once Abounded Locally

By JEANNINE BOHLER

Back in the day, it was easy to hit the slopes.
Bundle up and gather the skis and within minutes you could be headed up the mountain for a day of fun.
Mount Otsego, Scotch Valley, Gunset, Mount Siberia, Snowy Acres, Bear Springs, Mount Miles are just a few of the estimated 350 small ski areas that once operated in New York York State that have now been lost to the pages of history and the local lore.
It wasn’t hard to make a rope tow. All that was needed was a farm tractor, some tires and old telephone poles, and you had yourself a cheap lift, according to Harry Peplinski, owner of Mount Otsego Ski Shop in Cooperstown. And just about every community boasted their own.
Gunset Ski Area in Richfield Springs opened in the early 1960s, with four intermediate trails, a novice trail and one beginner slope. A poma lift – essentially a pole with a seat attached to suspended springs that connect to a moving cable – and a rope tow got skiers up the hills.
Adults could ski all day for $3; juniors for $2. It operated on Wednesday and Thursdays, weekends and holidays, and offered two days of night skiing under the lights, according to Lost Ski Areas of New York (www.nelsap.org/ny/ny.html).
“It was a place for families and children,” said Zaida Welden, who ran Gunset with her first husband, Lewis Whipple, and her in-laws, Janet and Lewis Whipple. “We enjoyed them. I was sorry to see it go. There just isn’t any place around here like it for the kids any more.”
The Whipples operated Gunset until 1978, when it was sold. It then closed permanently after just one season.
“There were plenty of times when we were stymied without enough snow. But it was a natural snow bowl. We got quite a bit of snow. Sometimes it was hard just to get into the place.”
The slopes are still clearly visible from Route 20, just west of Richfield Springs. The lodge is still intact. The tow looks like all that’s needed is to throw a switch. But the skiers are gone. A hillside teaming with adults and kids is the ghost of a memory.
“It was a magical place,” said Joan Marseski, who grew up in Richfield Springs. “We just waited for Saturday morning. It didn’t matter how cold it was, we knew we were going skiing.”

Mount Siberia operated in Milford. It offered three slopes, all day skiing for $2 and a heated and lighted shelter, according to Oneonta City Historian Mark Simonson.
Oneonta saw the rise and fall of a few ski slopes over the years. One area operated on the northern edge of Wilbur Park near the Oneonta Middle School and was free to the public. It closed after a few years of operation.
Another opened in 1957 and another after that in1972, but both closed after only a few years of operation.
In 1970, perhaps the most successful of the Oneonta ski areas opened at College Camp, four miles north of the SUNY Oneonta Campus. Owned and operated by the university, it was first known as Cocaska – the winner of a name contest – and was later renamed Dragon East Ski Area. It offered downhill skiing, ski rental and lessons until 1984.
Scotch Valley in Stamford was frequented by local skiers and offered a nearby destination at a mountain bigger then the local operations, but more intimate and less expensive then the larger mountains in the Catskills and Adirondacks.

Labels: 01-23-09, Skiing, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:13 PM 0 comments

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More Greats Join Oneonta Greats

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

SPORTS BEAT

Oneonta, a small town in Upstate New York that harbors two well respected colleges, just became home to two well respected professional athletes. Five-time MLS Champion Jeff Agoos and two-time World Champion Joy Fawcett will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
The Induction 2009 ceremony will be held on Sunday, Aug. 2, at the Hall of Fame & Museum. The weekend will include the Big 3 Enshrinement Ceremony that Saturday and numerous other fan-oriented activities.
Both of these players have many accolades to their names, and their induction gives Soccer Town USA something more to boast about.
The talks that Oneonta’s claim to fame can’t match up to those in Canton, Ohio, Springfield Mass. and Cooperstown have since worn dry.
Agoos is the director of the New York Red Bulls, an elite soccer team from the MLS. If that isn’t a big enough accomplishment, he won three titles as a member of the highly touted DC United and two more with the San Jose Earthquakes, giving him 5 rings in total.
How many professional athletes can say they have been a part of 5 national title teams?
Michael Jordan, but that’s about all that comes to mind. He was also part of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. He has accomplished more in his career as soccer player than most of the athletes have who play “mainstream” sports. Who said soccer isn’t?
Joy Fawcett, a two time Olympic Gold Medalist and a Women’s World Cup winner, also has some chips on the table to play with. Fawcett, who received 106 votes, ranks fourth in women’s soccer history with 239 caps. She also was a member of the Gold Medal teams in Atlanta and Athens.
These two are among the best to ever play the game and with their rightful induction to the hall of fame they can finally rest easy. So next time you are in Cooperstown ogling Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, swing over to Oneonta to see a Hall of Fame filled with athletes who truly can share the title of America’s Pastime.
A total of 159 ballots were cast. Agoos was named on 108 ballots (67.9 percent) and Fawcett was selected on 106 ballots (66.7 percent). A player must be selected on 66.7 percent of the ballots cast to be elected.

Labels: 01-23-09, Hometown Sports, Jeff Agoos, Joy Fawcett, Soccer Hall of Fame

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:10 PM 0 comments

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Magic Man

EVAN JAGELS

NIGHT LIFE

‘Every kid had the magic phase,” Brian Miller said following his fast-paced combination of illusion, sleight of hand and stand-up comedy as SUNY Oneonta’s entertainment at Spring semester orientation Monday, Jan. 12.
It’s true – search hard enough at any house where children once lived and you’re bound to find a dusty box, stained by time yet opened only once or twice, containing a small plastic wand, some pieces of rope, a few balls, Dixie cups, and four to six playing cards.
I remember the sheer disappointment I experienced on opening such a box. I found that it did not contain steaming potions, things that could explode or even a live rabbit. It looked as though my parents had just cleaned up from my birthday party and arranged all the trash neatly in a box labeled “Magic Kit.”
Brian Miller, now a SUNY Oneonta junior pursuing a dual major in math and philosophy – he plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in philosophy – is still in his magic phase, however, and it has brought him a long way.
From age 4, he apparently knew what hard work it would take to turn such innocuous objects into instruments of wonder.
Since age16, Brian has been entertaining professionally, opening for national touring comedians and performing in venues from western New York (he is a Buffalo native) to the Oneonta area, and down to New York City.
The orientation performance to a packed Waterfront Café was a captivating display of Brian’s quick hands, Conan O’Brian wit and mastery of the working magician’s arsenal.
And he didn’t forget to touch upon key issues of sex, religion and Scrabble.
Adding to the comedic effect, mind-boggling magic was paired nicely with routines which were conscious parodies of themselves.
It is impressive to think how Brian balances school and performance. Most students have outside interests, some of them professional, but Brian spends almost every weekend of the semester on the road.
He admits that his work is “as full time a living as you can make while a student.” Another impressive feat, considering he is already booked into this summer and does not even work through an agent.
In addition to his busy performance schedule, Brian has authored a popular e-book series for magicians entitled “Cards, Coins, Thoughts & Theories” – four volumes – and has landed a DVD deal with a production company.
More can be learned, including booking and show information, at Brian’s website www.brianmillermagic.com.

Labels: 01-23-09, Evan Jagels, Night Life, The City of the Hills

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Welding 101

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

If, as someone once famously said, movement is the breath of art, then there is one whole lot of oxygen hovering over Sculpture Space in Utica. But I digress.
Although Europe has a long tradition of arts patronage (Lorenzo de’ Medici, Count Esterhazy, Marie von Thurn und Taxis come immediately to mind), Europeans are amazed at the vigorous support of the arts in America by the private citizen. Donors to orchestras, theaters, museums, opera companies and the like are a rarity; something like public supported radio is unheard of; where in Europe are the retreats to promote and facilitate creativity like Yaddo, Breadloaf and the MacDowell Colony?
Sculpture Space, although its name may seem to connote a museum, is an enterprise, like the colonies listed above, devoted to the creative process, providing twenty artists a year with the means and materials to work in a concentrated environment on projects of their choosing. It is the only such residency committed specifically to the nurturing of sculpture in the United States.
Its executive director, since 2003, is Cooperstown’s very own, very able, very exuberant, very positive, very indefatigable Sydney Waller. A Smith College alumna majoring in antique and medieval art history, she has tirelessly spent her adult life focusing on showcasing the art of emerging painters and sculptors. In Cooperstown, she was director of the Smithy-Pioneer Gallery for a number of years and opened Gallery 53 on Main Street, in the process catapulting a country woodworker, Lavern Kelley, to international prominence.
Located at 12 Gates St. near downtown Utica, Sculpture Space occupies 5,000 square feet of what used to be a cradle for steam engines and boiler works. Its bold lettering crowning an otherwise purely industrially functional edifice announces energy and excitement and cultural progress.
There is something invigorating about absorbing the contrasts and optimistic implications of its location.
If it’s not a museum, what possible connection to the larger public does it have?
Plenty. There are several Works in Progress Receptions a year where one can interact with the artists directly and observe the evolution of their creations.
The next such one is 5-7 p.m. March 31. There is also a wildly popular annual fund-raising Mardi Gras bash on Saturday, Feb. 21, at the nearby Radisson Hotel.
But, before that, you may want to try your hand at welding. Pre-register for the Winter Workshop: Introduction to Welding (Jan. 31 and Feb. 1).
(Call 315-724-8381 or go to info@sculpture space.org)

Labels: 01-23-09, Art Beat, Sam Goodyear, The City of the Hills

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State Must Live Within Its Means

ROBERT E. ROBINSON & KENNETH ADAMS

GUEST COMMENTARY

Let’s admit it: New York State is grappling with a fiscal crisis largely of its own making. The national recession/Wall Street melt down magnify the problem, but the state has a $15 billion budget deficit, not because we don’t collect enough taxes, but because we spend too much.
To avoid being in this terrible situation again, we must leverage this current crisis to achieve long-term reforms in government spending and fiscal policy.
Our No. 1 priority should be capping state spending – an annual limit on the increase in state spending that would, in turn, drive other badly needed reforms. State and local spending in New York is now the second highest in the nation – 47 percent above the national average. A spending cap would help bring this excess under control.
It’s clear where much of this overspending is centered – and that it doesn’t actually buy us better services:
• As a state, we have the highest per-pupil education spending in this country – nearly $19,000 per student, 63 percent above the national average. Yet we’re 33rd in the nation in eighth-grade math scores and not much better on other pupil-performance measures.
• The state’s per-capita Medicaid spending is more than double the national average, according to Kaiser State Health Facts. Yet, despite this off the charts spending, our key health-care indicators are worse than the national averages.
On the revenue side, our personal-income and real estate taxes are the highest in the country. Business taxes are the second highest. The result is the worst tax climate in America, and an economy that was already tanking before the downturn.
In terms of personal-income growth from 1995 to 2005, New York ranked 42nd among the 50 states. Even with what seemed to be a booming New York City economy, our state was among the nine worst-performing economies in the entire country.
All this has been driving people away. Since 2000, New York has led the nation in the number of residents moving to other states, according to the Census. Each year we suffer a net loss of more than 200,000 New Yorkers – we basically lose another Syracuse every 12 months.
In recent years, Wall Street pumped out 20 percent of state revenues – masking the fundamental problems in our fiscal policy. Now that narcotic is gone – and the “halo effect” of New York City’s prosperity hiding the decline of the rest of the state is over. The ATM just rejected our card and told us we’re $15 billion overdrawn.
Our leaders must make significant cuts in government programs and services.
The state must relieve local governments and school districts of antiquated regulations and mandates so they can cut their costs. Simply shifting the burden from state taxes to local property tax does no good.
Which brings us back to the spending cap. Since the ‘70s, 30 other states have adopted such caps – some constitutional, some statutory. Such measures can limit the rise in outlays to the growth of population and personal incomes in the state, and/or to inflation. The key is to peg the growth of state spending to a level that the state’s economy and its taxpayers can sustain.
A spending cap for New York’s state government would lead to other essential reforms, including the modernization of public-employee pensions, consolidation of local governments and services and reform of public authorities.
Families across New York are making prudent choices to live within their means. Our state and local governments must now do the same.

Rob Robinson is Otsego County Chamber president & CEO. Ken Adams is president
& CEO, The Business Council of
New York State.

Labels: 01-23-09, Columns, Guest Column, Hometown Views

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:56 PM 0 comments

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
Home & Vicinity – Lewis Hunt and Seymour Camp returned from Kansas last week where they went to purchase horses. They brought with them 20 odd Indian ponies, which are being rapidly disposed of. Among the number was a pony sent by Wesley Edwards of Silver Lake, Kansas as a present to Miss Susie Morris of this village. The sidewalks of Oneonta are in a wretched condition and have been so all winter. A notable social event was the dance gotten up by Wm. Schermerhorn and given at the hotel at Emmons last Friday night. It is said that a livelier time was never known at Dingmanville. A couple of females present exercised their leap year privilege by indulging in a fight and the eyes cast into mourning during the evening were too numerous to mention.
January 1884

100 Years Ago
Local News – There will be three anti-saloon meetings in Oneonta on Sunday, one at the Y.M.C.A. building in the afternoon, one at the Free Baptist and one at the Methodist church in the evening. The speakers at all three meetings will be Rev. M. Tower of Poughkeepsie and Rev. D.E. Eaton of Albany. Saturday evening there will be a game of basket ball at the state armory between Company G and the high school team. Hearings in the cases of Nora Durham and Elmer Wasson of 31 Broad Street, charged with adultery, have been adjourned until January 25.
January 1909

80 Years Ago
The moral obligation resting on big business to do the right thing was expounded from the pulpit of the Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City Sunday night by Owen D. Young, chair of the board of directors of the General Electric Company. The right thing to do in big business is to avoid mistakes in adjusting the interests of stockholders, employees, customers, and the public law, so that all are justly satisfied. “It is not the crook in modern business that we fear,” he said, “but the honest man who doesn’t know what he is doing.” Young seemed to make a theology out of what he called “the moral problem of fixing the bank rate.” “The bank rate affects credit; increases or diminishes the value of money; gives every aged person dependent upon his savings more or less of good things to eat. That is why it is a high more responsibility to fix the bank rate.”
January 1929

60 Years Ago
The Cooperstown Central School varsity basketball team was just outclassed when it was pitted against Oneonta high school at Cooperstown on Friday of last week. Hurley McLean’s boys scored 7 points before Red Bursey’s boys even got started and the first quarter ended 12 to 7 in favor of the Yellow Jackets. The breach widened at the end of the half with Oneonta up 29 to 21. After three periods the score stood 40 to 23 and the Yellow Jackets rolled to a 56 to 38 victory. Olive scored 14 points for Oneonta and Brown had 13.
January 1949

40 Years Ago
An exhibition of ceramics and contemporary weaving is currently on display at State University College at Oneonta Art Gallery in the Fine Arts building on the college campus. Ceramics are by Charles Ahrens and Barbara Stevens. Weavings are from the Weaving Studio at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Both Miss Stevens and Ahrens are local artists and teachers, and the major body of their work was completed in conjunction with their graduate study in ceramics at the college. A wide range of ceramic forms are presented – utilitarian pottery as well as pure sculptural forms. The exhibition technically exploits the medium in every way. Ahrens teaches art in the Richfield Springs Central School. Miss Stevens has taught art in Davenport for the past three years and resides in Oneonta.
January 1969

20 Years Ago
An encore appearance by dancer and choreographer Mark Dendy will highlight the January Thematic Term at Hartwick College. The Hartwick program is co-sponsored as part of the Season of Dance by the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts. Dendy and his dance company appeared at Hartwick College one year ago. His programs are full of zany humor and choreographic magic. His work is often gender blind, placing chunks of rhythmic, or abrupt movement side-by-side with episodes that are collapsed or offhand. Dendy has danced with the companies of Pearl Lang, Pooh Kaye, Ruby Shang, and with the Martha Graham ensemble.
January 1989

10 Years Ago
Things to do in Oneonta – January 22 – Video History Films “People’s Century: Total War” and “People’s Century: Brave New World,” will be shown from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Anderson Center for the Arts at Hartwick College. Discussion will follow. Screenings are free and open to the general public. Hartwick College will welcome 1999 with a belated New Year’s Eve dance starting at 8:30 p.m. in the Agora, Dewar Hall. (The dance originally planned was canceled in the midst of a severe snow storm). January 23 – A parenting skills and support group for parents raising twins, triplets or more will meet at Bassett Healthcare in Oneonta, 125 Main Street, 10:30 a.m. to noon. January 24 – Linda Leverock will teach a swing dance class from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Agora, Dewar Hall, at Hartwick College. “Long Shadows: Art and Music at the Turn of the Century,” a lecture by Sugwon Kang, professor of political science, will be presented at 3 p.m. in the Anderson Center for the Arts, Hartwick College.
January 1999

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

Labels: 01-23-09, Columns, Hometown History

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:54 PM 0 comments

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Hartwick College President: Realities Required Layoffs

Editor’s Note: Here are excerpts from the letter Hartwick College President Margaret L. Drugovich sent to the college community Thursday, Jan. 15, reporting nine full-time and five part-time positions were being eliminated.

Recently, 330 independent college presidents from across the U.S. met to discuss independent higher education. The discussion was rich and varied – we talked about the future of science and math education, the best practices in governance and, of course, the impact of our economy across higher education.
There was a universal understanding that rising unemployment, constraints on the availability of credit, and dramatic decreases in the value of investments threaten to constrain college going choice...
Many families who have enjoyed both wealth and ready access to credit now have less of both, and middle income families, who have often struggled to afford a school of the caliber of Hartwick, will find it all the more difficult to do so.
Students with great need will find fewer overall resources, especially easy to access loans, at their disposal. Endowments have less market value, and a growing number of donors are projected to give less during an extended period of economic recovery.
... In the face of significant national and international economic challenge, we will assure that the quality and accessibility of our academic program remains our top priority.
We will continue our partnership with our students and their families, and support our valued faculty and staff, while simultaneously taking aggressive action to preserve our capital.
Because we consider dramatic increases in tuition pricing to be out of the question, we will continue our focus on an aggressive reduction in our spending. These spending cuts include reductions in selected operational expenses as well as reductions in personnel-related expenses.
To achieve a reduction in personnel expenses we are, regrettably, eliminating nine full-time and five part-time positions, effective today. We have also reduced the total number of hours of work assigned to seven additional positions.
Barring any significant, unforeseen economic downturn, we do not expect to eliminate any additional positions among administrative and support staff. The total number of positions effected by these reductions is equal to approximately 3.3 percent of our full- and part-time, non-contract employees.
It is difficult to eliminate positions on our campus. Reductions of this nature are also impossible to avoid, given the stress of the economy, our institutional goals, and the overall cost structure associated with our work. Nevertheless, the individuals affected by these eliminations are valued colleagues, friends and members of our community, who are deserving of our support. I hope that you will join me in doing all you can to ease their transition.

Labels: 01-23-09, Hometown Views, SUCO

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:52 PM 0 comments

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As Went Henry Clay, So Goes Mike Manno: Buy American!

When Henry Clay, The Great Compromiser, died in 1852, a national campaign got underway to build monuments in his honor across the country.
No, it wasn’t because his political and oratorical skills delayed the Civil War by perhaps 40 years.
It was because he supported a strong tariff, and the tariff allowed American coal and iron enterprises to grow and flourish in the face of the cheap coal and iron being produced in England.
Nowadays, of course, that seems quaint in the face of the global economy and the cry for free trade.
There’s a point to free trade. Given modern transportation and communication, it allows manufacturing to happen in places where it’s cheapest, and therefore American consumers have more money to buy more things.
But ideas generally aren’t right or wrong. They are right or wrong in a given context.
If Henry Clay’s American System – as it was called – would have been wrong in a 1990s context, he was right in a 19th century one.
That’s why 23 communities across the U.S. are named Ashland – after Henry Clay’s Kentucky estate. There are 15 Clay counties nationwide.
•
The same goes for Mike Manno’s Buy American campaign. (Manno, who lives in Cooperstown, owns Apple Converting, an Oneonta printing firm.)
Ten years ago, when the economy was close to full employment, there would have been no point in tilting toward American products, according to Karl Seeley, Hartwick College economics professor.
Doing so would have produced more jobs in the U.S., but there was no need for more jobs.
Today, it’s a different story, as unemployment heads toward double digits for the first time in decades.
According to Seeley, Manno’s call for Americans to spend 10 percent more on U.S. products this year would be a significant shot in the arm of functioning manufacturing plants stateside.
The government applies a multiplier in computing the impact of things like President Barack Obama’s prospective stimulus program. It predicts the beneficial economic impact of a dollar doubles and triples and quadruples as it passes from hand to hand to hand.
When a dollar is spent on foreign goods, said Seeley, that’s termed “leakage,” since the dollar leaks out of the economy.
If Manno’s campaign catches on, “it wouldn’t be trivial,” the professor said.
Rob Robinson, Otsego County Chamber president & CEO, put it this way: “Local is always good; it keeps the money locally.”
•
Longterm, Seeley said, the picture is more complicated.
Manufacturers probably wouldn’t build more plants in the U.S. unless they could be assured the Buy American impetus was permanent.
And since one hour’s pay earned in the service sector is worth about an hour of a U.S. factory worker’s – the same hour’s pay pays for many hours in China – buying power in the U.S. would drop, Seeley said.
On the whole though, if more people were employed in the U.S., there would be more money being spent, which would be good for the economy overall.
Longterm, he said, benefits to the U.S. from the global economic system are based on cheap energy everywhere and cheap wages elsewhere, and that may not be sustainable. So the whole global system must be rethought.
The point is that, this year anyhow, Buy American makes sense.
Let’s do it, and hope the campaign catches on nationally.
•
Apple Converting makes flexible packaging, and Mike Manno has offered to provide labels of any size at no cost to manufacturers who want to participate.
If you’re reading this and you make something in the United States of America, call Peggy Marshall at 432-6500 and place your order.

Labels: 01-23-09, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion

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Hometown People

City MLK Celebration Will Feature Oneonta Middle School Drama Club

The City of Oneonta’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union.
The theme is “Empowerment: Realizing the Dream of Martin Luther King,” and the afternoon will feature original monologues by the Oneonta Middle School Drama Club.
The celebration, co-sponsored by the City of Oneonta Commission on Community Relations and Human Rights, SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College, will be keynoted by SUNY President Nancy Kleniewski, and features a proclamation by Mayor John S. Nader, a reading by Thelma Apicealla of excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “The Drum Major Instinct,” and a variety of musical, theatrical and dance performances celebrating the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The mission for the celebration is to raise awareness of everything that Martin Luther King Jr. stood for, according to Joyce Miller. a member of the planning committee.
“King himself was an advocate for the poor and for people without a voice, so we like to try to involve all the different populations in Oneonta, including women and other religious groups,” said Miller.
The newly formed Oneonta Middle School Drama Club, under the direction of Jeanne Langdon, will feature monologues written by each of the seven students in the group.
Addressing real-life situations about individuality and acceptance, the kids display a degree of maturity beyond their years while revealing a little about their lives, said Miller.
Students in the group include Brianna Elwood, Kevin Hait, Andrew Kendall, Win Maben, Hunter Reed, Taylor Rodenbaugh and Nicole Smith.
“The thing that excites me most about the celebration is the fact that history is being made right before our eyes! MLK had a dream. Barack Obama is making part of that dream come true,” said Miller.
“We are living in exciting times and the whole world is watching,” said Miller
Free shuttle service from the Municipal Parking Garage (Market Street level) to the Hunt Union will also be provided by Oneonta Public Transit, beginning at 1:30 p.m. The last run back downtown will be at 4:15 p.m.

PUBLISHER: Michael Rifanburg, formerly of Oneonta, is the newest publisher of the The Citizen, the newspaper in Auburn. Rifanburg has been with The Citizen for five years. Previously he worked as the company’s advertising director. He is a graduate of Hartwick College and he and his wife, Nance have two children Greg and Emily.

SUNY ATHLETE: Senior basketball player Shannon Weir, Milford, was named SUNY Oneonta Athlete of the Week for the week ending Jan. 18. Weir is the fifth woman in SUNY Oneonta women¹s basketball history to reach the 1,000 point mark. She now has 1,001 career points with 11 games remaining in the 2008-09 regular season.

Wii Sweeps Residence

From young to old, Nintendo’s Wii has caught on at Oneonta’s Hampshire House. “The games are so realistic, the players go through the motion of bowling which helps them physically as well as mentally,” said Betty Aikens, Hampshire House recreation director.

Labels: 01-23-09, Hometown People

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Oneontans Describe Obama Inaugural: Momentous, Exhilarating, Triumphant

By LAURA COX

Momentous. Nothing like it. Moving. Exhilarating. Triumphant.
Those are just a few of the words Oneontans used Tuesday, Jan. 20 from Washington, D.C., after witnessing firsthand the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States of America.
They were among an estimated two million from across the nation in attendance. Many millions more watched and listended via TV, Internet and radio across the nation and around the world as the first African-American president was sworn in.
Take the Puritzes.
Joan Puritz had entered her name in U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri’s lottery and won coveted tickets to the inauguration.
She and husband Andy drove down to D.C. on Sunday, Jan. 18, and stayed the night at a hotel 50 miles to the north. On Monday they took the Metro into the city, staying at a niece’s apartment six metro stops from the National Mall.
The Puritzes received two tickets for the standing room in front of the capital, and so Joan and one of the kids used the tickets and Andy and their other child found a place to stand behind the Washington Memorial.
“We tried to get ahead facing the Capitol so we could see it, but it was so packed that it was almost a dangerous situation. People were getting upset and panicky so we walked back and joined the crowd by a JumboTron,” said Puritz.
Take Sam Goodyear.

Goodyear, an administrator and grantsman at the Foothills Performing Arts Center, stayed with a friend in McLean, Va., and took the train into the Capital for the day.
Dressed in his John Adams regalia – he portrays Adams in the play, “Jefferson and Adams,” and at venues nationwide – and looking to be merely on the Mall during the inaugural ceremony, Goodyear found a spot on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
He estimates more than 100 people asked to have their photos taken with him.
“A teacher asked if I would have my picture taken with her class,” said Goodyear. “I met people from Hungary, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Botswana, France, lots of Canadians. People from Michigan, Oregon, Washington State, California, Montana, Missouri, Massachusetts, Vermont, Florida, Louisiana. Everybody was there, all mixed in.”
Take Jennifer Pindar.
The Cooperstown Central School history teacher and her group of 77 students and 10 adults got up at 4 a.m. and left their hotel at 5:30. Their bus parked near the Nationals baseball stadium and they walked to the Mall, between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, near a JumboTron.
“It was very moving, a tremendous speech, there was a lot of cheering and clapping and a lot energy,” the teacher said that evening. “The students took in the moment and enjoyed it.”
Take former Oneonta mayor Kim Muller.
She and friend Matt Marvel went down to D.C. on Sunday and caught the end of the “We Are One” concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
On Monday, they went early to American History Museum, where there is an exhibit on Abraham Lincoln and presentations for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“There were a lot of people there; it was a very touching tribute to MLK,” she said.
Gov. David Paterson hosted a reception for New Yorkers that evening at the Smithsonian castle, and Hillary Clinton, the prospective Secretary of State, gave what might be her last public speech as New York’s junior senator.
“It was a great evening,” said Muller.
After braving the crowds for two days, Muller and Marvel had enough and opted to watch the inauguration from a friend’s house in Virginia.
“Obama’s speech was very strong and forward looking,” said the Democrat. “It sent a message to the nation and to the world. It was very hopeful about our future.”
Andy Puritz reflected similarly, “Before the event the crowd was exhilarated. There was a tremendous community of spirit – white, black and Asian people all laughing and helping each other. It was very moving.”
He continued, “During the inauguration the crowd was very quiet and you could hear the loud speakers all around, you could hear them from different places from different JumboTrons. You could hear the crowd reacting in different places, you would hear it in one place and then a moment later from back further in the mall.
“Everyone’s attention was focused completely on what was going on.”
Goodyear said the weather certainly added to the moment, “It was a beautiful day; sunlight all day long. The memorials were gleaming in the light and very beautiful. It was a thrill from the beginning to the end. It was more than inauguration of a president. It felt like a momentous occasion – and we all knew it… I was praying I would see a day like this, to be here and be a part of it and see the people and be with everyone is a real joy and a real privilege.”
“It was a tremendous experience, and it is still sinking in. I don’t think we have fully realized what we witnessed today,” said Pindar.

Labels: 01-23-09, Barack Obama, Front Page, Inauguration

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:38 PM 0 comments

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Mayor OKs Moratorium On Rentals

Only three people spoke at Mayor John S. Nader’s public hearing Tuesday, Jan. 20, on the nine-month moratorium on turning homes into apartments.
The mayor planned to sign the moratorium that evening or the next morning. It would go into effect once it was on file with the New York secretary of state.
The next step is for Common Council’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee to issue a Request for Proposal for consultants who can advise in updating the zoning law.
Nader also plans to create a citizens committee on zoning.
Kay Stuligross and Pat Crowe spoke in favor of the moratorium; Michael Koch spoke against it.

Labels: 01-23-09, Front Page, Housing, Rentals

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:36 PM 0 comments

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‘Buy American’ Urged

Manno Puts Flag on Every Pallet,
Asks All To Do Same

By JIM KEVLIN

Mike Manno has been putting American-flag labels marked, “Made In U.S.A.,” on every pallet that leaves his dock at Apple Converting Inc. in Oneonta’s Pony Farm Industrial Park.
Instead of depending on a huge government-backed stimulus package, simply buying products made in the U.S. would prime the pump sufficiently to get the economy going again, Manno believes.
“If everybody buys 10 percent more this year of American products, it would make a heck of a difference,” said Manno, whose printing presses make specialty labels for Lindt Chocolates’ New Hampshire plant and medical packaging for Becton Dickinson, which controls 90 percent of the syringe market.
Since Apple Converting makes labels, the president of the company said he would provide custom-size labels to any manufacturer interested in following his company’s lead.
Manno is also considering erecting billboards on I-88 near his plant. One might say, “Buy American And Get The Lead Out,” a reference to recent instances of lead-laced goods from China. Or, “America Works When America Makes.”
Both the Otsego County Chamber and Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce presidents said their organizations would support Manno’s concept. (Manno and his wife, Carol, the company’s vice president, live in Cooperstown.)
“Local is always good; it keeps the money local,” said the Otsego chamber’s Rob Robinson, adding – if it catches on – the drive could benefit Otsego County first, then upstate, then New York State and, finally, the nation.
While he noted that, in a global economy, it’s sometimes hard to figure out what’s made in the U.S.A. and what isn’t, Cooperstown chamber president Marc Kingsley said, “Yes, buying American, there’s nothing wrong with that ... We should all try to support our local businesses.”
State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, called Manno’s initiative “a great idea. I’m a great believer in keeping dollars at home and circulating in the local economy.”
If the push gains momentum, the senator said he would seek to connect the local effort with Empire State Development, the state’s economic development corporation.
He pointed out that there is precedent for this sort of thing in the “Pride of New York” promotion of New York agricultural products.
“The concept makes good sense,” added Geoff Smith, president of Medical Coaches, Oneonta, one of the county’s foremost manufacturers.
The concept does make good economic sense, particularly shortterm, Karl Seeley, Hartwick College economics professor, underscored when asked about Manno’s push.
Shortterm, said Seeley, a 10 percent increase in sales of American goods would cause an infusion of cash into existing factories, which would be inclined to extend hours and hire more people to produce more.
Also, he said, economists refer to a concept called “leakage.” The government uses the multiplier effect to determine the economic benefits of a dollar spent as it passes from hand to hand; once that dollar leaves the U.S., it no longer benefits the U.S. economy.
Investors might make decisions to build plants in the U.S. rather than overseas, he said, but only if they could be assured a Buy American program wouldn’t peter out.
Big Picture, said Seeley, free trade allows manufacturing to flow to where it can be done most inexpensively.
The hourly wage of a service job in the U.S. is many times that of a manufacturing job in say, China, giving American consumers a lot more purchasing power, he said.
If a U.S. service wage equals that of a U.S. factory wage, the consumer can buy much less; but, if buying American results in more manufacturing in the U.S., that will benefit the economy overall regardless of diminished buying power.
Longterm, said Seeley, who said he’s been working through the numbers on these concepts in the past few weeks, the global economy is based on cheap energy and cheap wages.
As soon as the economy rebounds, energy prices will leap, so trouble’s on the horizon regardless; for now, however, a 10 percent increased in spending on American goods would help the U.S. economy, he said.
As for Manno, he said that, because the state of the economy has people paying attention, now is the time to attempt a Buy American drive, which allows everybody to make a contribution to the economy recovery.
“The solution is fairly simple if we get everybody moving in the same direction,” he said.

Labels: 01-23-09, Apple Converting Inc, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:29 PM 0 comments

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City of the Hills

Catholic Diocese Shuts 5 Churches

The Most Rev. Howard J. Hubbard, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, announced Saturday, Jan. 17, that 33 churches in the diocese will be closed this year.
They include Our Lady of Good Counsel, Roxbury; St. Mary’s, Schenevus; Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Edmeston, Blessed Sacrament, Springfield, and St. Mary’s, Sharon Springs.
St. Thomas, Cherry Valley, will be come a mission church to St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake,” Cooperstown.

HARTWICK LAYOFFS: Hartwick College has announced it is laying off nine fulltime employees and five parttimers. For President
Margaret L. Drugovich’s message to the campus community, see Page 4.

HoF HONOREES: The
National Soccer Hall of Fame has announced Jeff Agoos and Joy Fawcett will be inducted during this summer’s ceremonies. Details, Page 11

TOP TIGERS: The Otsego County Chamber is hosting a luncheon for the Oneonta Tigers’ new owners at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the Clarion Hotel. To reserve a plan, contact Pam at 432-4500, extension 201, or at pam@otsegocountychamber.com by Monday, Jan. 26. $10 per ticket.

IN THE MINORITY: So far since Democrats have taken over the state Senate, Jim Seward, R-Milford, has lost his chairmanship of the Insurance Committee, although he remains ranking minority member. Sixth-ranking Republican, he has asked to retain seats on finance, education, higher education and transportation committees.

Labels: 01-23-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:24 PM 0 comments

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