Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

Fox, Bassett Look Into Tying Corporate Knot

Thursday, March 5, 2009

‘Affiliation’ May Happen This Summer

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

Never, Never Land is beginning to look like Maybe Maybe Land for Bassett Healthcare and A.O. Fox Hospital.
At a joint press briefing in Bassett President & CEO William Streck’s Cooperstown office Tuesday, March 3, he and his Fox counterpart, John Remillard, announced that talks over possible shared services had turned into something more serious, and predicted the two hospitals may achieve a formal corporate affiliation by mid-summer.
In the course of the initial talks, the men said, “larger and longer-term questions naturally entered the dialogue.”
Friday, Feb. 27, the Fox board of trustees voted to move toward affiliation. “It was not a big debate,” said Remillard. “It’s been an ongoing process.”
Under the affiliation, Fox would maintain its board of directors.
“It’s a good thing,” Streck emphasized at the end of a half-hour press briefing he and Remillard, held in Streck’s Cooperstown office. “It’s a very good thing.”
“It’s clearly not a done deal,” Remillard said earlier, but the question being asked, he said, is, “How can we do this?”
Several revelations surfaced:
• Fox’s failure to attract an orthopedist, and other physician-recruitment challenges, made it realize it could benefit from plugging in to Bassett’s more successful model.
• Bassett’s expertise in developing an EMR, electronic medical record – computerizing all patients records, accessible from any laptop – was attractive to Fox, since the tool will be necessary in determining success rates and reimbursement rates going forward. Both hospitals, it turns out, had independently bought McKesson Corp.’s systems.
• If the affiliation with Bassett goes through, Fox will end its affiliation with Albany Medical Center.
The original impetus for the talks was sharing specialties, with one hospital focusing on cardiology and the other on oncology. Those discussions will continue, Remillard and Streck said.
The cornerstone for the original 22-bed A.O. Fox Hospital was laid on Oct. 5, 1900, through a $10,000 gift from Col. Reuben Fox, a prominent local politician and businessman, as a memorial to his wife.
By contrast, Bassett is “79 years young,” as Streck put it, built by Edward Severin Clark for Mary Imogene Bassett, a physician whose work he admired. Dr. Bassett died soon after the hospital opened, and the institution struggled financially and then closed in 1925. Soon after, Dr. Henry S.F. Cooper, a young resident in New York City, convinced Edward Clark’s brother, Stephen C. Clark Sr., to reopen it.
The drive that may lead to the Bassett-Fox affiliation began in the 1990s, when the Cooperstown-based hospital began to expand regionally. Today, is has affiliations with O’Connor Hospital in Delhi, Cobleskill Regional Hospital and Little Falls Hospital in Herkimer County. If the new affiliation happens, Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich will be the remaining independent in the surrounding counties.
“The world has changed on several fronts regarding health care” since Fox and Bassett last negotiatied, Remillard said during the briefing.
“We have to be open to the models of the future,” said Streck.

Labels: 03-06-09, A.O. Fox, Bassett, Front Page

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Lady Yellowjackets Can Have It All

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

SPORTS BEAT

Oneonta’s Lady Yellowjackets have themselves in position to make a historic run.
As this edition went to press, the only team in their way to a Section IV Class B title was the winner of the Chenango Valley v. Lansing game, and the OHS girls are due to meet them at 6 p.m. Friday at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton.
A victory there will send them to the state tournament, to play the Section III, Class B winner March 14 in Liverpool. The final four round will be March 21 in Troy, with the state championship round at 4 p.m. that day.
Oneonta, the number one seed, is 18-0 on the season and had a bye for the first round of sectionals. Due to a loss by third-seeded Seton Catholic, Oneonta has a chance now to run the tables on the sectional tournament.
And judging from their last two games, they’re on a roll. The Yellowjackets trounced Watkins Glen, 52-31, Friday, Feb. 27, and swept Elmira Notre Dame 54-30 Tuesday, March 3.
If Oneonta can roll into the arena and win the Section IV title , it will be the icing on the cake to a season that will go down in OHS athletics history.
If they win this tournament they will move from sectionals to regionals then onto states.
Going 18-0 is no easy feat. Oneonta was rewarded for their hard work this season, as they were crowned STAC Champions at the season’s end.
A magical run to the states and a possible state championship is far from a fairy tale, as this team has everything it needs to pull it off.
It has leadership, immense talent, heart and a coach who exemplifies success. Oneonta has all the pieces in place to be the next great story, the next big thing.
In the Quarterfinal sectional game versus Watkins Glen, Madie Harlem had 20 points, a run that included the Hamilton-bound senior scoring 14 of the teams’ first 18 points and 20 of the teams’ first 42.
Meredith Ridgeway, the co-captain and fellow senior, was dominant as ever on the boards as she used her physical presence and aggressive style to snatch rebounds left and right.
“I played offense against her and she’s brutal,” said Val Ridgeway, sister and fellow teammate to Meredith. “She uses her hip and tries to push you out of her zone.”
“She is huge on the inside.” The 6’0” center is currently looking at Suffolk University in Boston, an inner city private school that is home to ironically named “Ridgeway Gymnasium.”
Tuesday night, sophomore Sienna Wisse exploded out of the gates, hitting a few big three’s to start the game off, and Leslie Harlem outshined her sister as she played a dominate game on both sides of the ball. Madie, however, finished with 17 points.
Emotions also ran rampant Tuesday night, as the seniors on this Yellowjackets team completed their final home game with a dominant victory. For the seniors, never stepping on the home court again may be a tough thing to handle, but with the leaders on this squad, they will pick themselves up and rally around it. Oneonta’s defense is what keeps them in games.
“Every day when we step on the court I preach defense and rebounding” said Head Coach Bob Zeh on Tuesday, “If we play tough defense and rebound, we can hang in there with anybody.”
Oneonta will have a chance to test that very soon, as they have a date with destiny and it’s paying for the bill.

Chris McSwiggin can be reached at chrism@hometownoneonta.biz

Labels: 03-06-09, Hometown Sports, OHS Girl's Basketball

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A Feast Awaits

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

10th Epicurean Festival Includes Alex’s
Shrimp, Elena’s Sweet Desserts

By LAURA COX

Who to dine with. How far to drive. Italian, Mexican, French? Fancy or casual. Price.
A number of variables go into dining out.
On Sunday, March 22, there will be just two variables: Do you like good food? Do you want to help a good cause, an organization that has been supporting community members through their hardest of times for 25 years?
For that day the 10th annual Epicurean Festival, Food Testing & Auction to benefit Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. at The Otesaga.
Cocktails and hors d’ oeuvres in the lobby of The Otesaga will launch the festivities, and festgoers can listen to Big Fish Combo while perusing silent-auction items. The buffet will follow, with offerings prepared by more than 31 local restaurants, including Stella Luna Ristorante, O’Hanlan’s Steakhouse, and The Quarter Moon Café, plus newcomers Gemini Café, Bulls Head Inn and Our Town Café & Pub.
For restaurateur Alex Webster of Alex & Ika’s in Cooperstown, the decision to participate in the Epicurean Festival was a simple one.
“We really like it,” said Webster, himself a cancer survivor. “It’s a chance to meet other restaurateurs in the area and it’s nice to actually do something to help out, other than just hand out money for charity.”
Alex & Ika’s has participated in the festival since its inception in 1999.
For Elena Doyle of Elena’s, a pastry shop and cafe in Oneonta, the motivation was more emotional.
A year ago, she leaned on Catskill Area Hospice as her husband, Edward, suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease, passed away.
“We want to support the organization that is constantly there for us as a community,” said Doyle. “it’s the least we can do. Even closer to my heart, they were there for me and there is no price you can pay to thank them.”
While interviewing Elena, customer Donna Leben of Goodyear Lake overheard the conversation and added her praise for Catskill Area Hospice, a mainstay while Donna cared for her daughter Stacey Beisler, who passed away from Huntington’s disease.
“I couldn’t have done without them,” said Leben. “They were a great support, and provided the very best care.”
The Epicurean Festival co-chairs Linda Evanczyk and Ann Wallace, both of Oneonta, shared that the festival began 10 years ago after two auxiliary members attended a similar event sponsored by Herkimer County Hospice.
The local event really took off, and last year raised a record $65,000 through sponsorships, silent auction, raffle tickets, dinner tickets and advertising.
The Epicurean Festival is Hospice’s second largest annual fundraiser and proceeds go to cover a number of the services the hospice provides to patients and their families, especially pro bono work, for hospice turns no one away.
“We could not provide the quality programs we do without the support and funding of people like this,” said Huemac Garcia, Catskill Hospice’s director of development.
Alex and Ika’s will be bringing a sake-seared shrimp dish Webster hopes to add to the restaurant’s menu if it is well received at the festival.
Elena’s will be collaborating with The Italian Kitchen and Oneonta’s new Mexican restaurant, Fiesta, to offer a whole meal from start to finish, with Elena’s serving up pastries and desserts.

Labels: 03-06-09, Epicurean Festival, The City of the Hills

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
The new uniforms of the George I. Wilber hose company have arrived. The outfit consists of a red coat and blue pants, both neatly trimmed. The workmanship is creditable to Mr. Morse of Unadilla who made them. A better uniformed fire department than that of Oneonta cannot now, we think, be found in any town of its size in the state of New York.
The new carriage of the George I. Wilber hose company reached Oneonta on Tuesday morning. It was drawn by the company to the front of the Wilber Bank, where it remained until nightfall, as an object of admiration to the crowds who gazed at it. Among the pretty adornments with which the carriage abounds is an oil painting on each side of a miniature log cabin, under which are the words “Crumhorn 1845.”
March 1884

100 Years Ago
The difficulties in the Oneonta fire department came to a head last week when the volunteer department held its annual election and designated a fire chief and two assistants other than those appointed by the fire commissioners under the provisions of the charter and of the civil service rules. This step on the part of the companies was promptly met by the commissioners who disbanded the entire department on Thursday evening.
Immediately after, Chief Burke and his two assistants were reappointed and the fire apparatus was placed in their charge, where it still is. The commissioners announce that their plan is to organize a paid department with a few men permanently employed. In addition there will be 40 names on the call list of men who will respond to an alarm of fire and be paid by the hour for the time employed.
March 1909

80 Years Ago
Willard E. Yager, a native of Oneonta, a life-long resident, and widely known as a historian of the Red Man, died about 4 o’clock Monday morning at his home in this city. He had been in failing health for some time but the immediate cause of his death was static pneumonia. Mr. Yager, who was a son of David J. and Emogene (Shepherd) Yager, both of whom were descendants of the early settlers in this portion of the Susquehanna valley, was born Dec. 19, 1855. He studied in the Phillips-Exeter academy, Cornell University and the Harvard Law School.
He later left a position with the New York State attorney-general’s office in Albany to become editor of The Oneonta Herald newspaper. In 1889, however, he disposed of his interest in the newspaper to George W. Fairchild, his associate, and thereafter devoted himself to American archaeology. Throughout this section he made extensive collections of Indian relics which he subsequently housed in the fireproof structure erected by him adjoining his home at 19 Ford Avenue, which is called “The Long House.”
March 1929

60 Years Ago
On Friday night the Oneonta Yellow Jackets bested the Cooperstown Redskins 42-34 before a crowd of 600 at the Hartwick College Gymnasium. The Redskins played on equal terms with Oneonta during the first half. However, it was a question of reserve strength that won the game for Oneonta. The Yellow Jackets’ second team played on par with the first team; while Cooperstown relied entirely on its first team – which was exhausted in the third period.
Captain John Olive led the scoring for Oneonta with 10 points before being disqualified for roughness in the fourth period. During halftime the majorettes of Oneonta and a chorus of 12 girls performed the Yellow Jackets’ theme song and received a tremendous ovation from the crowd.
March 1949

40 Years Ago
Otsego County wound up spending $235,718.10 less on government operations in 1968 than it had budgeted for the year, according to the annual report of county treasurer Bernice C. Jones. Actual expenditures, including inter-fun items, totaled $7,215,275.37 from a budget of $7,450,993.47.
In her report, Mrs. Jones points out that after budget notes issued last year amounting to $180,300 are paid, “we will show a surplus of $649,887.89.” A large portion of the surplus – $402,146.47 – resulted from a far greater yield from the county’s new 2 percent sales tax which went into effect March 1, 1968. The 1968 budget carried a $700,000 estimated yield. The actual amount raised by the tax was $1,102,146.47.
March 1969

20 Years Ago
On Thursday, Dr. Neville Choonoo, an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Oneonta will speak to the Friends of the Library in Cooperstown on the contemporary state of South Africa. Dr. Choonoo is a native of South Africa and has concluded most of his academic research in the area of South African literature.
Given the nature of Apartheid politics, Dr. Choonoo was raised in an Asian slum, separated from other racial groups in his country. He graduated from a racially segregated college and left the country to pursue graduate studies in African-American literature at Columbia University in New York.
March 1989

10 Years Ago
The 1999-2000 budget for the Oneonta School District has been trimmed slightly and officials expect the budget and the tax levy to decrease once numbers for health insurance and state aid are finalized.
Thomas Austin, business manager for the district, said Oneonta now has a budget of $22,628,071, or a 4.77 percent increase over last year’s budget of $21,598,446. The tax levy in the current budget is $11,965,886, or a 4.6 percent increase over last year’s levy of $11,439,176. Decreases in the latest budget proposal come from areas such as attorney’s fees, counseling services and game referees.
March 1999

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

Labels: 03-06-09, Columns, Hometown History

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IN THE CITY OF THE HILLS

FARMERS’ MARKET: The 2009 Oneonta Farmers’ Market is accepting applications for new vendors selling farm products, hand-made crafts or other local specialty items. Interested vendors should contact Baltazar Management at 607-437-0158 or baltazar_am@hotmail.com for an application form. For more information visit www.OneontaFarmersMarket.org.

TIP A FIREFIGHTER: Oneonta firefighters will be trailing behind wait staff at the Applebee’s at Southside Mall from 6 to 9 p.m. on Monday, March 9 to raise awareness and funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Stop by for a bite to eat and tip a firefighter.

OLE! The city’s new Mexican restaurant, Fiesta, is due to open in Clinton Plaza in the next few days. Capresso opened Wednesday, March 4.

MAKING MONEY: A seminar, “Where the Smart Marketing Dollar Goes in a Difficult Economy,” is planned at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 18, at the Holiday Inn, featuring Peter Cronk of Riger Advertising. For reservation, call the Otsego County Chamber at 432-4500, extension 201.

LITTLE LEAGUE: Oneonta Little League Player Registration will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on March 10-11 at the Oneonta Boys and Girls Club.

REGISTER YOUR KIDS: Oneonta City School District kindergarten registration dates are as follows: Riverside: March 19, Center Street: March 25, Greater Plains: March 26, Valleyview: March 26. Families should call Mrs. Stupple at 433-8283.

Labels: 03-06-09, Front Page

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Hunger Concert Plans To Benefit All Food Banks

By LAURA COX

‘We can do that.”
That’s how the Peace & Justice Committee of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church reacted to the concerts Phil Zenir & The Cherrypickers performed in Cherry Valley last spring to benefit the local food back.
And the Oneonta Hunger Benefit Concert was born.
Redeeming Love will sing spirituals. Reservoir Road, blues and jazz. The Sweet Adelines and The Singing Waiters will do their takes on barbershop and harmony. Just Throw Money is country and folk music, plus ‘70s hits. And the Catskill Chamber Singers will sing classical music. All volunteer.
That mixture of music will be performed 7-9 p.m. Friday, March 13, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, to l benefit all of the food pantries and meal programs in Oneonta: The Lord’s Table, St. James’ Food Pantry, Saturday’s Bread, St. Mary’s Food Pantry, Sunday Meal at the Salvation Army and the Salvation Army Food Pantry.
A representative from each of these organizations has helped in the planning of the event.
In addition to their goal to raise money for the feeding programs, another goal of the concert is to raise awareness about hunger in Oneonta.
“People think ‘not here’ but that’s not the reality. In reality, Otsego County has a higher poverty rate than Delaware County,” said Janice Hinkley, one of the organizers.
After the first two groups perform there will be a brief information break to talk about the hunger programs in Oneonta and time for a freewill donation, then the rest of the groups will play.
This is one of the first times all the feeding programs have come together to plan something like this, says Hinkley.
At times like this, when funding is down and demand is up, agencies need to cooperate and work together to share resources.
“The gas prices went down, but the cost of groceries has not. People who a year ago wouldn’t have ever thought they would depend on a food pantry now do. You never know, it may be the person at the desk next to you, the people who your kids go to school with,” said Hinkley.
St. Mary’s food pantry recorded a 23 percent increase in demand in 2008 from 2007.
Hinkley reports they have already had a great response from the community raising over $1,000 in sponsorships and donations have already started coming in from the posters posted around town.
“People are talking about it,” said Hinkley, “most people are willing to help they just need to be made aware of the need.”

Labels: 03-06-09, Front Page

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Beating The Balinese Drum

EVAN JAGELS

NIGHT LIFE

The word “gamelan” comes from the Javanese word “gamel,” meaning to strike or hammer, and in Java and Bali it refers to the large percussion orchestras which are more or less the center of all sacred and secular music. 
Gamelan, referring to the particular set of instruments rather than the players, is built to stay together and necessary for ritual Hindu events in Indonesia as well as to mark any large social occasion.
This Saturday, March 7, Gamelan Galak Tiki will be the grand finale the 39th Cooperstown Concert Series at Sterling Auditorium at Cooperstown High School.
 Although Gamelan is a rich part of Indonesian history and its Hindu-Buddhist culture, Gamelan Galak Tiki began, in all places, as a set of instruments in a basement choral library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. 
Evan Ziporyn, MIT professor of music, founder and artistic director of Gamelan Galak Tiki, together with two students, began to try and make sense of the hand-carved instruments that MIT had recently purchased. 
Whether by fate or fortune, the musicians soon came in contact with I Nyoman Catra and Desak Made Suarti Laksmi, master Balinese musicians and dancers who had just taken up residency in Boston.  Since then, group has grown to approximately 30 members.
 Their CD, “Dangerous Things,” offers a purely aural taste of what their performance will bring to town – no doubt there will be the certain aspect of visual performance. 
Although predominantly percussive, the music has melodic and even chordal sonorities – usually pentatonic and almost airy in its spatial quality yet with regular crescendos of collective intensity. 
 According to Evan Ziporyn, traditional Balinese music is “ancient and modern…composed but unwritten, intricate but intuitive, formal yet always lyrical and carchy…both part of Balinese Hindu ritual and regarded as popular entertainment.”
I must admit that it has moments or themes of accidental beauty – a quality likely to be described by the Western listener.  Of course, further research into the music, its culture, and history licensed a different understanding. 
Regardless of the listener’s intent or knowledge of Indonesian music, it demands a certain level of patience and cultural curiosity.
Gamelan has had influence on classical European and Western music – most famously on Claude Debussy, who heard a Javanese gamelan play at the Paris Exposition of 1889 (World’s Fair). 
Direct references can be found in the compositions of Béla Bartók, John Cage, Andrew Schultz, Philip Glass, and others.
Tickets are available at Ellsworth & Sill and The Sage Center, Cooperstown, and The Fly Creek General Store.  Though often available at the door, concerts often sell out in advance.  For more information, visit www.cooperstownconcertseries.org  or call 547-1812.    

Labels: 03-06-09, Evan Jagels, Night Life, The City of the Hills

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African Buffet In Oneonta Aids School In Mali

By: LAURA COX

For four years the Unitarian Universalist Society’s Mali Task Force has been supporting 50 children in the town of Kalabancoro that West African country’s capital city of Bamako.
Members of the society and others have donated $250 apiece to support a child for one year of education at Youchaou’s Elementary School, named after its director and community leader Youchaou Traore.
This weekend there’s the chance for other members of the Oneonta community to reach out to the children of Kalabancoro by simply eating a meal prepared by members of the Mali task force – many of whom visited Mali a couple years ago.
Money raised at the dinner – at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 7, at the Universalists’ Chapin Chapel at 12 Ford Ave. – will go towards extra general funds for the school, to buy items such as books and supplies.
“In Kalabancoro, they are poor in natural resources, but they are rich in relationships. They really care about each other and have an extended sense of community. Youchaou has done a fabulous job with very limited resources,” said Mali Task Force member Anne Marie Hasmedl.
The average income of a family in Kalabancoro is just $2 a day. Funds from Oneonta go a long way to bring education to the community where otherwise the children would go without, she said.
Oneonta now has another tie to Youchaou’s school as Odou Sanogo, a 2008 graduate of Hartwick College and a native of Mali who helped the Unitarian Universalist Society better understand his native land, returned home this year this year to teach English there.
He told Hasmedl things have been going very well at the school and that he has been doing many things, including tutoring Youchaou’s daughter, who would like to attend college in the United States.
Saturday’s meal will include a variety of African recipes. Tckets are $15 for adults and $5 for children. It will be followed by a showing of two African films, “Moolaadé” for adults and “Duma” for children. For reservations, call 432-9198.

Labels: 03-06-09, The City of the Hills

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Letters to the Editor

Where Tedisco Resides Enters
20th Congressional District Bid

To the Editor:
I just read a Letter to the Editor which erroneously claims Jim Tedisco is a “lifelong” resident of this Congressional district.
That’s not true. He has lived in this district for only a few months, if that.
He was born and raised in the city of Schenectady, and his true heart resides in that cesspool we call the New York State Legislature – you know the place where nothing seems to get done except old-school politics and tax increases.
Scott Murphy has lived in this district for more than a decade. His heart has been working with small business, creating opportunity and hundreds of
jobs.
He is not old-school politics and, for me, that is a very, very good thing.
Scott Murphy is decisive, as a businessman and politician needs to be. He says that while President Obama’s recovery bill isn’t perfect, it’s still something that he would have voted for because it’s so desperately
needed.
Tedisco, in true state legislature form, refuses to say whether he would have voted for it. Maybe that’s why over the decades Tedisco’s been in the legislature, the state budget has been late more times than not. Our district deserves better than that in Congress.
I am supporting Scott Murphy for Congress. He’s intelligent. He understands the needs of small business and families. He can make a decision without months of prodding. He’s not old-school politics. It’s obvious we need Scott Murphy to be our
next representative in Congress.
TRACIE OLSSON ENGLISH
Saratoga Springs

Editor’s Note: In the Associated Press report on this letter, Tedisco said his official address is outside the district, but he spends part of the time in his wife’s Saratoga home, which is in the district. He noted it’s not necessary to live in a district to run for a Congressional seat, and noted that, before redistricting that following the 2000 Census, he did live in the 20th. Murphy moved into the district in 2006.

Labels: 03-06-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

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In Any Affiliation, Fox Must Maintain Institutional Muscle

Bigness isn’t the inevitable end to every progression. Take the dinosaurs. And, of course, the toppling of the Wall Street Godzillas in recent months.
Small business, it turns out, is the engine of job creation, not the Fortune 500 companies that are cutting tens of thousands of jobs.
For the moment, big is beautiful only in health care.
And so, A.O. Fox Hospital, after 109 years of independence, is planning a formal corporate affiliation with “a relatively young 79” Bassett Healthcare, which in recent years has swept all competition from its path.
If the affiliation happens – by mid-summer, it’s reckoned – Chenango Memorial Hospital, Norwich, will be the only health-care facility in the region not under the sway of Bassett’s medical legions.
It’s pointless to rail against the inevitable. Marcus Welby, M.D., has faded into quaintness, the stethoscope hanging from his pocket replaced by arsenals of CAT Scans, computer screens and MRIs.
The initial conversations between the two entities began in October, and the original idea was to see if medical specialities could be parceled out. Perhaps Bassett could put its resources into cardiology; Fox, perhaps oncology. Orthopedics was also in play.
The impetus for the expanded talks, it turns out, is EMR, the electronic medical record, where all patients records are stored in a single database, accessible from laptops.
Bassett CEO Bill Streck emphasized at several points in a Tuesday, March 3, joint briefing with Fox CEO John Remillard that EMR is essential for measuring outcomes and determining what insurers or the government will pay. “It’s not us,” said Streck, “it’s society saying we need to.”
Both hospitals, it turned out, bought systems from McKesson Corp. in recent months, so merging the records would be relatively simple.
•
There are other upsides.
Sharing specialities would reduce duplication in the purchase of expensive equipment and, by allowing physicians in each institution to do more of the same kind of procedure, elevating expertise.
From the perspective of individual patients and their families, convenience can’t be overemphasized. Families will be able to travel 22 miles from Oneonta to Cooperstown for cases now referred to Albany Medical Center, 70 miles away.
Still, some things will be lost.
For one, the existence of both entities has kept medical brainpower in the region that would have been lost otherwise. Who doesn’t know a surgeon here or a specialist there who, disillusioned with one hospital or the other, simply crossed the street? Without the two hospitals, that expertise would have been lost to the region. (Bassett’s more successful physician-recruitment model, cited by Streck, may overcome that.)
Second, because of competition, Oneonta is superbly served as Bassett, over some years now, has sought to draw patients there away from Fox by good ol’ customer service. Breaching the Bassett wall in Cooperstown through the main switchboard is nigh impossible at certain times of day; by contrast, the phones at its Oneonta facilities are picked up on the second ring.
Bassett, so excellent in so many ways, is not unusual in this regard in an increasingly monopolistic U.S. health care system. But the rare competition that exists in Otsego County works for the patient/customer and needs to be fully appreciated.
Finally, some of the facilities that pepper Oneonta – Bassett’s 125 Main, for instance – are likely to go.
•
One troubling aspect to whatever’s being worked out is the paucity of public input.
If, in fact, the hospitals were merging, or one was buying the other, or services were to be increased or decreased substantially, or construction was called for, a Certificate of Need would be required, and that would give a chance for the public’s case to be presented at hearings before the state Public Health Council or SHRPC, the state Hospital Review and Planning Council.
Since none of that is happening, there’s no formal public-input process. You can see how affiliation would help each institution, simplify things for regulators, reassure insurance companies – even the doctors want it – but what about the patient? That should be in the forefront of deliberations going forward.
Bigness is the order of the day. But, logically, shouldn’t computerization and the Internet at some point assist decentralization and expanded options?
Affiliation is fine. But beware. Fox – and Bassett’s other affiliates – should not become so impotent as to be unable to react to changing conditions when they inevitably change.

Labels: 03-06-09, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion

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Hometown People

Friday, February 20, 2009

Jack, Patsie Approach Bee With Different Training Styles

By LAURA COX

What do the Oneonta and Cooperstown Spelling Bee Champions have in common?
They both have a love for reading, playing music, and cooking.
C-O-I-N-C-I-D-E-N-C-E? Maybe, but this reporter thinks not.
Where else do you get exposed to hundreds of new words including ones in different languages such as Italian, French and German -– exactly what you need to win a spelling bee?
Patsie Earle-Richardson, 13, daughter of Giulia and Andrew Earle-Richardson, will be representing the Oneonta Middle School in Saturday’s regional spelling bee, while Jack Siegel, 13, son of Mo Micek and Tim Siegel, will be representing Cooperstown.
A bright young lady, Patsie says she is one of the busiest people in school participating in karate classes two to three times weekly, a ballet and tap class each week at Oneonta Dance Center, flute lessons, the school newspaper and student council. Her favorite school subjects are art and social studies.
Patsie participated in her school’s spelling bee in 6th grade but said she was eliminated in the second round. When her 5th period English teacher Mrs. Susan Batill announced this year’s spelling bee, she thought she would give it another try.
The spelling bee took place after school in early February.
“I was this close to losing,” said Patsie holding her fingers together, “my word was manslaughter and halfway through it I forgot what I had just spelled. Mr. Johnson let me start again and I got it right and quickly sat down. My heart was pounding.”
The hardest word she said she was asked to spell was antipasto, but because she does a lot of cooking, she remembered seeing a recipe and was able to spell it out.
“My mom says studying is good, but doing a lot of crosswords and reading adult books certainly helps too,” said Patsie, who loves to do the New York Times crossword puzzles with her mom.
Patsie has been doing a lot of studying in the weeks since her school’s bee, using the Scripps National Spelling Bee Booklet her English teacher gave her to prepare. Looking through the whole booklet she has chosen to focus on the German and Slovak languages section as she thinks those have the most difficult language rules.
“My friend Michael Lee has been in the spelling bee twice, so I have been studying with him in the car on the way to our karate lessons in Binghamton,” said Patsie, “his advice was to always ask for the meaning of the word because sometimes you may think they are saying one word and really they are saying another that sounds just like it.”
Jack Siegel is taking a different approach, not getting too worked up about it.
A piano player and swim team member, Jack also enjoys cooking, eating, sailing, creative writing and reading. His favorite subjects in school are math and history closely followed by science and Spanish.
To qualify for the regional spelling bee, Jack explained he had to take a test along with all the rest of the Cooperstown Middle School students. Then after passing the first test, he took a second and then finally qualified for the school bee where he won over 15 other students.
“None of the words were incredibly hard; I got easy ones that sound how they are spelled,” said Jack.
His winning word was hydraulic.
Jack is a seasoned spelling bee participant; he placed in the top five at Cooperstown Central School in seventh grade and seventh place in sixth grade.
“When I have to spell a word I try to think about the way it would look right and carefully spell it so I don’t mess up.”
As for studying, Jack said, “I am not really nervous, I am just going to do it and spell [the words] how I think they are spelled. It’d be cool if I got to go to D.C., but I’m not super competitive.”
The regional winner will go to the national bee May 26-28 in Washington, D.C.

Honored, SUNY Volunteers Back At It

By LAURA COX

‘Volunteer: to do charitable or helpful work without receiving pay for it”
While the definition of volunteer implies doing something and receiving nothing in return, SUNY Oneonta students have been receiving recognition for hours of service they have been performing locally.
For the third year in a row, SUNY Oneonta was honored in February with The Corporation for National and Community Service’s President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. The volunteers were recognized for 57,243 hours of community service in the 2007-08 academic year in Otsego County, valued at an estimate of $1,116,810.
Community service is a big part of the SUNY Oneonta mission, and as such, the school requires all of its campus organizations to complete community service hours.
“The Philosophy behind requiring some service is to teach students to give back to our community, teach them to be good citizens and set the stage for them to volunteer on their own later,” said Linda Drake, director for SUNY Oneonta’s Center for Social Responsibility and Community (CSRC).
The CSRC coordinates service opportunities for SUNY students by keeping a list of organizations looking for volunteers and the times they are in need.
“The purpose of the center is that students go through us so we are organized within community. They fill out a time sheet, with their hours and the agency and type of service performed. Any student on campus can volunteer, and many are volunteering largely on their own,” Drake said.
In addition to individual service, many SUNY students take classes called “service learning courses.” As part of these classes students are required to perform anywhere from five to 25 hours of service, which are meant to enrich the class discussion and add to the learning experience. Some such courses include: Philosophy of Life and Death and Urban Geography.
SUNY Oneonta’s service record continues to grow each year. Since The Corporation for National and Community Service started the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll in 2006, SUNY Oneonta has been named to it three times with 35,772 hours of service during the 2005-06 academic year, 47,097 hours in the 2006-07 academic year, and then 57,243 for last year’s academic year.
Some of the big projects that add to the service hours each year include, the planning of and participation in Relay For Life and the annual Into the Streets project in which an average of 500 students help out 40 different nonprofit agencies in Otsego County for a day, many cleaning up the streets and sidewalks after the snow has melted.
Another program which many students volunteered through in the past was the AmeriCorps program which lost its funding for the 2008-2009 academic year. Through AmeriCorps 70 SUNY students helped out in 16 different school districts as mentors, assistants, and helping with the CROP program. This made up 22,308 hours of service in the 2007-2008 academic year.
This year’s Relay For Life is quickly approaching, from 7 p.m. Friday, March 13, until 7 a.m. the following morning. Last year’s Relay For Life had over 900 students and community members attend and the campus raised over $67,000.

Milford’s Weir On All-Conference

Four SUNY Oneonta athletes have been named to the All-Conference men’s and women’s basketball teams:
• Senior Shannon Weir, Milford, for the second time. Weir’s 1,130 points put her in fourth place on the SUNY Oneonta record books; she is seven in rebounding with 521.
• Junior Sara Chrystie, Oxford, who started 25 of 26 games this year and led the team in assists (119) and steals (51). She is currently third in assists overall (313) and 11th in steals (140).
Senior Ryan Morin, Altamont, and junior Michael Grimes, Albany, were both second team selections.

Joann Lamonica St. Mary’s ‘Distinguished Partner’

Joann Lamonica believed in Father Paul A. Roman’s dream: To build a new school away from downtown Oneonta’s busy streets.
A parish council member, she served on the building committee and, when the new St. Mary’s School rose on Route 7, she and husband Diz paid for the chapel.
She continues to be involved in the school. For instance, she makes sure seasonal plantings and decorations are done near the school entrance.
St. Mary’s is saying thanks: It has named Joann Lamonica as its first “Distinguished Partner In Education” and the sign on Route 7 has been announcing that fact in recent days.
At its annual fundraising dinner, “Enchanted Evening,” on April 25, she will further be recognized for her contribution.
For her part, Mrs. Lamonica said “God has given me many, many things, and not just material things: The love of my husband all these years.”
“I feel in my heart I have to give something back.”

NEW SALAMANDER: Hartwick College Professor of Biology Stanley K. Sessions and his research assistant, Ryan Quarles ‘08, recently led an international team of investigators in the first cytogenetic study of a newly discovered species of salamander from Korea. Cytogenetics is the study of the structure and function of chromosomes. Sessions detailed the findings in the scholarship journal Chromosome Research.

CASE IN POINT: The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) will present Paul J. Adamo, SUNY Oneonta vice president for college advancement, with its Quarter Century Award, and SUNY President Emeritus Alan B. Donovan with its Retirement Recognition Award at an awards gala March 23 in Baltimore.

DIVAS APLENTY: Mary-Jo Merk, Janet Lampo and Michelle Gardner, and Dan Chien on the piano, will be performing “Too Many Divas” April 26 at the Red Hat Society’s conference in Syracuse. Oneonta fans can see the performance April 5 at the Universalist Church.

FRYE HONORED: Dr. Joshua Frye, SUNY Oneonta associate professor of communication arts, will receive the college’s 2009 Academic Excellence Award for the Use of Instructional Technology at a dessert reception at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 19, at the Morris Conference Center.

Labels: 03-06-09, Hometown People

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