Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

Letter from the Editor

Friday, April 10, 2009

And Then There Were Three: Richfield Springs Mercury Joins Hometown Oneonta, The Freeman’s Journal

Dear Readers,
This week, The Richfield Springs Mercury, founded in 1867 in Otsego County’s northernmost village, joins the family of newspapers that includes Hometown Oneonta and The Freeman’s Journal of Cooperstown.
The decision to continue the publication was made after Mercury publisher Jay Bernhardt, who returned to his hometown and revived the newspaper in 2003, announced he would allow the newspaper to lapse.
We were simply unwilling to let The Mercury, a locally owned institution that has served its community so well, go out of business.
From a business standpoint, The Mercury will add another 1,500 circulation to Hometown Oneonta’s 12,000 and The Freeman’s Journal’s 2,500.
Applying the industry standard of 2.5 readers per copy, that means 40,000 Otsego countians will be reading Iron String Press publications each week, in effect blanketing the Route 28 corridor from Franklin Mountain to the heights overlooking the Mohawk Valley.
This presents a powerful, cost-effective opportunity for advertisers from the City of the Hills to the Sulphur City – Richfield Springs’ nickname from its days as a popular spa visited from far and wide – to connect with prospective customers.
As we’ve noted here before, prosperity is simply money moving around. An economic slowdown is just that – money moving around more slowly. Hometown Oneonta and The Freeman’s Journal are already powerful accelerants; The Mercury simply adds vitality to an already powerful combination.
We should also mention that the three sister publications – Hometown Oneonta, The Freeman’s Journal and The Richfield Springs Mercury – are locally owned entities, run by local people, and are the only locally owned newspapers in the county. All but a fraction of salaries and profits generated by our operations are spent at Otsego County enterprises to the benefit of our neighbors.
We read a lot about the trouble newspapers find themselves in, but those are metropolitan newspapers, removed from their readers, and chain newspapers that are overburdened with debt. Advertising may be slow right now across all media, but with all the fragmentation – there are dozens of local TV and radio stations, and billions of Web sites – nothing compares to the effectiveness of newspapers’ reach or the drawing power of its advertising.
To maximize the economies and increase the reach of The Richfield Springs Mercury, it will be incorporated into The Freeman’s Journal, and will be available Friday, April 17, at Palace Cigar, Hannaford’s and Price Chopper in Oneonta, and at numerous outlets around Otsego County.
Pick a copy up and let us know what you think.
Meanwhile, many thanks for your encouragement and support.
BILL REEVES JIM KEVLIN
Publisher General Manager
HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Labels: 04-17-09, Hometown Views, Letter From The Editor

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Letters to the Editor

Common Sense v. NRA: Who’s Right On Issues?

To the Editor:
I haven’t seen as much comment since the mass murders in Binghamton, for or against gun control, as I expected.
I would, therefore, like to offer my own brief survey on the matter, complete with answers.
1. How old should boys (or girls) be before they are allowed to have their own AK-47?
NRA member: As soon as they have learned to fire a rifle or shotgun.
Common sense: Never.
2. a. Should there be a legal limit to the number of guns one person/family can own?
b. How many guns should one person/family be allowed to own?
NRA member: a. No.
b. As many as they can afford.
Common sense: a. Yes.
b. None.
Survey results (10 percent possible variation):
NRA: 80 percent
Common sense: 20 percent
WILLIAM F. ROBERTS
Otego

Don’t Forget 2 Great Seasons

To the Editor:
I am writing to comment on the article “Oneonta Sports Legacy’ Series Begins in Next Edition.”
There were two OHS teams not mentioned in the article that were NYSPHSAA teams.
The 1996-1997 and the 1997-1998 Girls Varsity Basketball teams both won state championships, and the 1997-1998 team also won the Federation Championship.
The only reason I am commenting on this, is that I was a member of both of these teams, and am very proud of what we accomplished.
Thank you for your time.
TIFFANY CARR
Oneonta

Labels: 04-17-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor

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Let’s Grab Chance To Take Three Steps Forward In Downtown Oneonta

Downtown revitalization is not a once-and-done thing.
It’s more like two steps forward, one step back.
But if you don’t take those two steps forward again, and again, it’s one step back, and another step back, and so on...
Even Ithaca’s celebrated Commons – two downtown streets were closed off in 1974 to create a then-novel pedestrian mall – is looking a little dog-eared these days.
•
Given the continuum, a renewed downtown Oneonta revitalization effort is long overdue.
Jeff House, who spent 10 years as downtown developer, resigned a year ago, and even his position was more of a grants-writer than a full-bore Main Street redevelopment czar.
So the emergence of Dick Miller, the retired Hartwick College president – in effect, he was the fundraising savior of that institution at a harrowing time – to open a new chapter on Oneonta’s center city revitalization is welcome news indeed.
You may know, if not you may be interested to know, that Richard P. Miller’s background is only accidentally in academe.
He was an independent businessman most of his career, running a printing concern in Rochester. When he sold his business in 1996, a friend, the president of the University of Rochester, asked him to join U of R, where he ran the marketing effort.
The SUNY system tapped him as COO from 2000 to 2003, when he was recruited for his rescue mission to Oneonta.
His vita quickly demonstrates he’s a guy who can get things done.
Since retiring last year, he and wife Andi decided to stay in Oneonta – they still have children in high school and, besides, “I love Oneonta,” he said. The couple is running 55 Maple St. LLC, a consulting firm, which has given him – at 65 – cover to pursue whatever he wants.
•
Happily, what he wants to do over the next year is help downtown Oneonta make two steps forward.
“If we could add 5-6 additional interesting shops,” he said the other day over a coffee at Capresso, an interesting shop in itself, “I think it could make a difference.”
He believes that because he likes much of what already is in the downtown, and is happy to tick off one interesting nook and cranny after another, and one intriguing product after another.
As someone who spent his career and life to date Upstate, he can also tick off a dozen Oneonta-like college towns from, yes, Ithaca to Canton (St. Lawrence, Canton A&T), Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson), Fredonia, Saratoga.
You have favorites of your own, Hamilton, Clinton, New Paltz, Alfred and on and on.
“I’m anxious to go there with a camera and a note pad and come back with 5-6 ideas,” he said.
Once what will work in Oneonta is identified, the man who got Tom Golisano interested in Hartwick College has also lined up local investors who would be interested in underwriting entrepreneurs – equity meets sweat equity.
Some of that investment might also be available to under-capitalized businesses already in existence.
Perfect.
•
This new initiative came out of conversations between Miller, Mayor John S. Nader and Carolyn Lewis, Otsego County’s economic developer, going back to last fall. Nader espouses the idea of “destination shopping.”
Wed that to “asset mapping,” an idea Miller likes, and a strategy begins to emerge.
Downtown Oneonta’s assets?
Again, he ticks them off: Muller Plaza, a downtown hotel (the Clarion), existing successful businesses (if some can flourish, so can others), nearby Clinton Plaza, where every storefront’s full, banks aplenty, city and county offices (ready buyers).
Main Street is “not too wide,” so there’s an intimate feeling that can be built on. The colleges guarantees thousands of students/shoppers are handy. The Southside Mall is a regional draw; its easier to lure people from there than 20-30 miles away. Proximity to Albany and Binghamton. And plenty of ready parking.
“Fill in the blanks,” Miller said. “That’s all we’ve got to do: Fill in the blanks.”
That Miller, with Main Street Oneonta’s president Nancy Scanlon aboard, Carolyn Lewis coordinating, and city, county and private support – this is an initiative with some legs, and a bargain too.
It’s time to take two steps forward again – maybe three? It’s hard to imagine more promising portents. Onward and upward!

Text Of Letter To Mayor

Editor’s Note: Here is the letter to Mayor John S. Nader and Common County outlining the proposed downtown redevelopment initiative.

Dear Mayor and
Common Council:
A vibrant and diverse Main Street is arguably the most critical aspect of all economic development efforts. By attracting visitors to our area, students to our colleges, and professionals for our industries, Main Street Oneonta plays a significant role in the quality of place we so highly tout.
The business district provides a variety of unique and quality goods and services with a small-town atmosphere that is a growing rarity in Upstate New York and around the country. It is for these reasons that Oneonta is faced with the urgent and significant opportunity to build a vision, plan for the future and support the growth and expansion of a business community that continually faces numerous obstacles and extreme competition.
In an effort to meet the multiple needs of the city, and capitalize on existing resources, a “Public/Private Partnership” was developed between the Otsego County Economic Development Department, 55 Maple St. LLC, and Main Street Oneonta, to offer a Downtown Development Team dedicated to attracting, retaining and expanding the business and cultural opportunities for residents, entrepreneurs, developers and tourists.
We are confidenct that the commitment and resources we can provide will have a measurable impact on the growth of Downtown Oneonta.
Sincerely,
CAROLYN LEWIS
Otsego County
Economic Developer
DICK MILLER
55 Maple St. LLC
NANCY SCANLON
MSO Chairman
Main Street business owner

Labels: 04-17-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

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An Act Of Mercy In Time Of War

BRUNO SCAVO

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD

Editor’s Note: Bruno Scavo of Oneonta was stationed at the U.S. Air Force Base at Burtonwood, England, in 1951-1953. When he received his copy of the Burtonwood Times, which goes to former airmen stationed there, he read the following story with amazement and passed it along to share with Hometown Oneonta readers.

Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England. His B-17 was called “Ye Old Pub” and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters.
The compass was damaged and they were flying deeper over enemy territory instead of heading home to Kimbolton.
After flying over an enemy airfield, a German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17.
When he got near the B-17, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he “had never seen a plane in such a bad state.” The tail and rear section was severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere.
Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charlie Brown, the pilot. Brown was scared and struggling to control his damaged and blood-stained plane.
Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved at Charlie to turn 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane to and slightly over the North Sea towards England.
He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to Europe.
When Franz landed he told the C/O that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew told all at their briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it.
More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew. After years of research, Franz was found.
He had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions. They met in the USA at a 379th. Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive now – all because Franz never fired his guns that day.
Research shows that Charlie Brown lived in Seattle and Franz Steigler had moved to Vancouver, B.C., after the war.
When they finally met, they discovered they had lived less than 200 miles apart for the past 50 years.

Labels: 04-17-09, Columns, Guest Column

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
The many friends in Oneonta of Dr. Meigs Case and family will be interested in knowing that they have removed from Washington to New York, where Dr. Case has effected arrangements whereby the well-known Pomeroy Truss Company of that city has taken sole control of the manufacture and sale of the doctor’s apparatus for the treatment of disease and curvature of the spine.
Dr. Case, as we are informed, aside from participating in the profits resulting from sales of the apparatus, is retained in the employ of the Pomeroy Company on a handsome salary, with an office at Chambers St. and Broadway.
April 1884

100 Years Ago
The Local News – At a meeting of Company G, held last evening at the armory, it was voted to purchase the collection of fire arms owned by the late James A. Whitney of Maryland. While the amount subscribed is liberal, it is not yet sufficient to purchase the collection, but it is believed that the full amount will be secured.
“The New City” is the name of the March and two-step written by Adin L. Cook and which was placed on sale Monday at all music stores in Oneonta. The March is a pleasing musical composition and is well-printed on good music paper with the title page in gold and black, with an excellent picture of the Municipal building in the center. The March sells for 20 cents per copy and is well worth the money.
April 1909

80 Years Ago
The old “Stone Mansion” which since 1839 has stood near the center of this city is soon to be razed to make way for the new building of the Wilber National Bank. The house is familiar to all Oneontans and visitors to the city, standing on an elevation opposite the Municipal building and naturally the subject of conjecture.
Because of its hospitality to traveling ministers the Stone House was often called “The Baptist Hotel.” It was a meeting place for that congregation during the winter when it was not frugal to heat the church for mid-week service; there the visitors to the church were entertained, the communion bread was baked and the converts robed for baptism in the mill ditch near the present location of the gas house.
The house was also one of the stations of the Underground Railroad which helped slaves to their freedom in Canada. The house was the home of Eliakim R. Ford who was an early settler of Oneonta, coming here in 1822 from Greene County and engaging as a merchant until he retired in 1873.
April 1929

60 Years Ago
Chickens and eggs accounted for $139,809,000 out of the total $946,521,000 gross sales of products from New York farms in 1948 according to a report issued by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. In addition, the farm home consumption of those products was valued at $14,811,000.
The 1948 sales exceeded 1947 by 14 percent due to larger volume and higher prices. The sales included 30,367,000 pounds of young chickens and 47,298,000 pounds of mature birds. In addition, the output of commercial broilers was 22,420,000 pounds, bringing the total home consumption and sales of chickens to 113,325,000 pounds, with a farm value of $41,566,000.
While nine states exceeded New York in the quantity of eggs produced, only five had a larger dollar value of egg sales. In chicken and commercial broiler production, 14 states exceeded New York in poundage, but only four states exceeded in the farm value of sales.
April 1949

40 Years Ago
Carol Portella, also known as Grace Collins of New York City, appeared in Otsego County Court Monday before Judge Frederick W. Loomis, charged in a sealed indictment accusing her of stealing property and money valued at $490.75 from Bresee’s Department Store in Oneonta on two occasions last December by issuing bad checks. She was represented by Attorney Leon Gardner of New York. She pleaded innocent and was released in the custody of her attorney.
April 1969

20 Years Ago
The National Soccer Hall of Fame (NSHOF) has entered into an agreement with Corner Kick Corp. (CKC), a sport and special events marketing firm located in New York City. CKC-president Frank E. Cuzzi is recognized in all areas of sports marketing and for soccer-related experience. CKC has worked with Toyota, General Mills and the U.S. canoe, kayak and volleyball teams.
CKC will be responsible for the design and production of a four-color, 50,000 copy NSHOF tourist brochure which will include a New York southern tier tourism insert. CKC will also prepare a 500,000-piece NSHOF membership brochure and will also publish the NSHOF newsletter.
CKC will also assist the NSHOF in identifying corporate markets, producing targeted mailing lists and revenue production for sponsorship of the NSHOF, its museum and activities. CKC will be paid $3,000 a month for a period of 12 months for its services.
April 1989

10 Years Ago
Soccer balls with the logo of the National Soccer Hall of Fame imprinted on them are to be sold in Hess gas stations pursuant to an agreement between the hall and the Amerada Hess Corporation. The deal calls for 100,000 soccer balls to be sold at 700 Hess gas retail outlets.
A portion of the proceeds will go to develop the hall’s soccer campus at a site along State Hwy. 205 in the Town of Oneonta. A Soccer Hall spokesperson said the project should generate an amount in six figures. Long-range plans for the hall’s development call for $32 million.
April 1999

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

Labels: 04-17-09, Columns, Hometown History

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Celebrating 30 Years As (More Than) Just A Bar

LAURA COX

THE PARTIAL OBSERVER

When I first moved to Otsego County, someone told me upon mention of the 6th Ward Athletic Club, that it was “just a bar.” But as I sat there the other morning with some of the men whose families have grown up as members of the club, it quickly became apparent that it was much more than that.
For a whole generation of Oneontans from Sixth Ward immigrant families, the Sixth Ward Athletic Club is a local institution which has provided not only a place to quench one’s thirst, but a camaraderie to attend local athletic competitions and a space for community gatherings.
The club was founded 50 years ago this August after fans attending an Oneonta Municipal softball game decided to form an association to promote fast-pitch softball in the community and build a lighted softball field to host leagues and tournament play.
According to club member Albert Colone, that dream came true in the summer of 1971 when the AC opened its new “state of the art” lighted field and formed a league that played nightly and weekends for over a five year time period.
Land for the new field was generously provided by the Sixth Ward Booster Club on property adjacent to the Oneonta Little League Field.
In late 1978, Joe and Mary’s Restaurant at 22 West Broadway became available and in that it was already a regular site for club meetings and a neighborhood destination for members, it was decided to purchase the property and business from the family of the late Joe and Mary DeFiore. The new operation opened to club members and the public April 14, 1979, 30 years ago this past Tuesday, April 14.
The club continues to support local athletics and the Oneonta community through donations of time and money to local athletic programs and youth programs, scholarships to Oneonta High School athletes and the annual Ani Colone Food Drive, which this year delivered $1,000 worth of food to the St. James Food Pantry as has occurred for 26 years.
The club boasts a membership of over 400 and it is steadily growing with new members each month. The banquet room behind the bar front is used for wedding receptions, birthday parties, anniversary parties, showers and Bob “Bear” Bryant’s famous Wednesday Pasta Lunches each week.
Sitting and talking about the “old days” with these men who have poured so much time into the betterment of the club and the advancement of Oneonta athletics, it was easy to see how someone who has spent any amount of time there would be able to tell that the Sixth Ward Athletic Club is not “just a bar,” but much, much more.

Labels: 04-17-09, Columns, Hometown People, Laura Cox, The Partial Observer

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Falling of the Grid

Electrician Moves To House In
Woods, Cuts (Electric) Cord

By JEANNINE BOHLER

PLEASANT BROOK

The sun rises every day. The wind keeps blowing.
Their energy is free. They need no fuel. They produce no waste. They renew themselves daily. They leave no carbon footprint.
And with the right systems in place to harness their power, they leave no monthly electricity bill to be paid.
In March, the U.S. Department of Energy announced plans to invest $3.2 billion in energy efficiency and conservation projects – in essence, providing grants for projects that reduce total energy use and fossil fuel emission and improve energy efficiency.
For two local electricians, the news came as no surprise. Renewable energy is an idea whose time has come.
After years of working together, Jim Doherty and Ethan Brush decided two years ago to combine their skills and their ideals to form Doherty & Brush Electric, LLC.
What sets their business apart from other electrical installation companies is a focus on renewable energy systems – harnessing wind and solar power to generate electricity at commercial and residential sites, outside the grid.
A concept that once seemed radical is now moving into the mainstream. Most solar and wind renewable energy systems tie into the electrical grid – offsetting costs and saving resources without completely replacing the existing infrastructure.
Using state-of-the-art electronics, these systems are designed to generate power at the source where it is used – say a grocery store or a private home – reducing reliance on the electrical grid and saving the owner significant money.
“The utilities know these systems,” Brush said. “Connecting them is now standard procedure, it is not something obscure or pieced together.”
The systems are monitored for the first two years, documenting the energy generated onsite. Their reliability is almost fail proof.
Brush’s knowledge of renewable energy goes well beyond the mechanics. In 2003 he started building a camp on his property. The power line was at least a half mile away, and so he installed solar panels and a windmill, creating a self-reliant spot, completely off the electrical grid.
“It started as a necessity. It was cheaper to install the systems then to connect to the grid. And it has given me independence. I enjoy not having a monthly utility bill. I enjoy being more aware of my energy use.”
While the setup generates an energy surplus which is stored in batteries, Brush now gears his electrical usage to the conditions.
Doherty has worked in the electrical field for most of his life, starting at an electrical supply house in his teens, working as an electrician in Dutchess County before moving to this area.
He grows organic vegetables and raises pigs on an old farm up in the hills to the northeast of Roseboom, beyond Pleasant Brook. And while he approaches life in an sustainable way, it is not just the “greenness” of renewable energy that drew him to this business.
“It all comes down to the bottomline. This stuff works. We can say, ‘This is what it is going to do for your electric bill’,” he said.
The average payoff is about 10 years, but commercial properties may see paybacks in less then five years – a great investment considering the lifespan of most systems is at a minimum, 25 years.
Renewable energy systems are a growing part of the electrical field. In fact, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has set a statewide goal that by 2013, 25 percent of all power used in New York will come from renewable resources, including wind, solar, biomass and some hydroelectricity.
To achieve that goal, NYSERDA offers grants and incentives to bring down the costs.
Solar and wind systems bring an almost immediate return on investment by offsetting energy bills and increasing property values, according to Doherty.
Renewable energy, although not widely used in Otsego County, is generating interest as consumers are educated and begin to understand both the savings to the planet and their pocketbook, Doherty said. The most common concern is that the area spends too much of the year under cloud cover, with too little sunlight, he said. But Germany, a country with as much annual sunlight as Anchorage, Alaska, has topped the European Union in its use of solar energy.
“Ultimately, we should transition to more locally generated power from smaller, grid-tied systems,” Brush said. “When more people produce all or part of the energy they use, when we increase our renewable capacity, we can begin to shut down some of the coal and nuclear plants – or at least not build new ones. Most people don’t have any idea what is involved in getting the electricity to a light bulb. The {current} process is very destructive to the environment.”
For more information about renewable energy sources, visit their website at www.dbrenewable.com, or check out www.nyserda.org.

Labels: 04-17-09, The City of the Hills

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Tennis Partners First To Claim State Laurels in ’52

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

BLASTS FROM THE PAST

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series on OHS athletes who won state championships. It was prepared with the help of OHS alumnus Joe Campbell, an electrical engineer at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.

To do justice to the long and illustrious history of OHS athletics would fill an entire newspaper front to back, and barely scratch the surface. However, covering the state champions, the icons forever etched into the OHS athletic shrine, is a bit more manageable.
Our first Blast From The Past features two who started off winning traditions in Oneonta, Warren Gray ‘52 and John Whitaker ‘53, 1952 NYSPHSAA Intersectional Tennis Doubles Champions.
In tennis, the intersectional champion is the winner of all classes (all school sizes) and all sections (all regions) of all schools in the NYSPHSAA.
Won at West Point in 1952, Whitaker and Gray had to best teams from Binghamton, Bethlehem and Flushing on route to the title. Perhaps the best tennis players Oneonta has ever harbored, the pair remain successful both in the world of tennis and their professional careers.
Warren Gray attended Utica Tech after leaving OHS. He soon volunteered for the Army during the Korean War, and served in Texas playing in Waco against some of the world’s best.
He returned to school after the war, attending SUNY Oneonta, where he created the tennis team under Athletic Director Hal Chase, a team that continues to be successful today.
Gray started the high school tennis team at Newark Valley, for boys and girls, and they were very successful. Retiring, he started to play tennis again, and he and partners have won gold, silver and bronze medals in the state Senior Olympics.
Today, Warren Gray lives in Newark Valley, and winters in Zephyrhills, Fla. He has been married 52 years and has six children and seven grandchildren.
One of his grandchildren is playing lacrosse at perennial powerhouse Syracuse University and was part of the 2008 national championship team. Warren could not be reached for comment, but the exclusive interview will be featured on www.hometownoneonta.biz later in the week.
John Whitaker doesn’t play as much anymore: “My knees are getting a little weak, but I try to play when I can.”
His wife is Royce (Bagg) Whitaker, who graduated from OHS in 1954, and she still plays.
After OHS, Whitaker went to Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor’s, then shifted halfway through a master’s to seek a Ph.D.
He is now the director of the Center for North American Bat Research and Conservation at Indiana State University. He has published several books, including his most recent, the second edition of “Mammals of Indiana,” which came out late last year. “Mammals of the United States” came out in the late 1990s. He has also written several research papers and journal entries.
Out of all the great tennis players under Coach George Reynolds, he had the closest relationship.
“I used to go up in grade school and play with the team,” said Whitaker. “He helped us out a great amount. I knew him the best though, because our families were friends from when I was younger. He had an ice skating rink out back, and we used to go skate over there. Yeah, he definitely knew me well.”
Whitaker downplays his accomplishment with Gray.
“We didn’t go out thinking we were the best – because we probably weren’t,” said Whitaker, laughing. “We just wanted to have some fun.”
When asked about how it feels to be one of OHS’ first two state champions and a nominee for the OHS Hall of Fame, he replied, “It is pretty neat.”

Labels: 04-17-09, Blasts From the Past, Chris McSwiggin, Hometown Sports

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Bring Children Into Your Garden

JANO NIGHTINGALE

AS YOUR GARDEN GROWS

Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, you can share your love of gardening with a young child, helping create young stewards of the earth by involving them in simple gardening projects.
I like to start children off with a very simple, no-fail container-gardening project called “Jack and the Beanstalk Salad Garden.”
If a child’s first attempt at gardening is successful, he or she will be encouraged to go on to something bigger and more challenging.
The most daunting task for young children would be to simply give them a small plot in your backyard family garden and say, “Go to it! This is your little vegetable patch.”
Before planting, take your children on a “seed hunt.”
Start in the kitchen, asking them if they can find any seeds in the refrigerator or fruit bowl. Most children, over three years of age, will quickly pop open a string bean or fresh pea and find the seed inside, or point to dried seeds or legumes in your pantry.
Those who are a little older will happily cut into an apple, orange, grapefruit, lemon or green pepper. Scrape out the wonderful inner fruit and seeds that lie within. This is the perfect opportunity for a “mini-science lesson,” with you as the teacher.
Children can begin to understand life cycles when they plant a seeds and watch the seedling grow. Gardening also inspires a sense of responsibility and awareness of the environment, since without the child’s daily care, his or her plant will die.
After your science lesson, you are ready to proceed to planting the “Jack and the Beanstalk Salad Garden.”
You will need one packet each of Kentucky pole beans, radishes and leaf lettuce. Be sure to purchase pole beans, not bush beans, so that they will climb up the three-foot-tall bamboo stakes that you will place in the container.
Use a large five-gallon plastic container that you have purchased or recycled. Be certain that the container has drainage holes, and fill the container with sterile, pre-moistened soil.
Now is when your child will make a “bean stalk” structure, by constructing a tepee out of the three bamboo poles. Push the poles deeply into the soil and have your child stabilize the tepee with twine.
Plant three pole beans at the base of each pole, one inch deep.
Now, draw two concentric circles in the center of the soil. Scatter half of the package of radishes and another half package of leaf lettuce in each circle. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil and water gently. Place in a warm indoor environment, and continue to water every three or four days.
The container can go outdoors when the daytime temperature reaches 60 degrees. The lettuce and the radishes will sprout within a week of planting. They will need to be thinned if overcrowded.
The pole beans will sprout within a few days, and your child can measure their progress each day. By the end of six weeks, the beans will have reached the top of the “bean stalk,” and you will have fresh beans and ingredients for a salad!
Salad will also be on the menu next year at the Cooperstown Central School thanks to Kristin Griger and her friends who are working on the Kid Garden.
We give kudos to this project and others like it that are sprouting up around Otsego County. The Kid Garden began last year when Dr. Antoinette Kuzminski and others formed a local committee to help promote sustainability by starting gardening projects at the Cooperstown Central School.
Farm-to-School programs all over New York State connect schools with local farms – to serve healthy meals in school cafeterias, improve school nutrition, and provide health and nutrition education opportunities through farm-fresh foods on their menus; incorporate a nutrition-based curriculum; and provide students learning opportunities through farm visits, gardening, and recycling program.
If your school would like to begin a gardening program information is available at www.farmtoschool.org.
So, until next week, keep gardening and don’t forget the kids!

Jano Nightingale is a community gardener and gardening consultant in the Cooperstown

Labels: 04-17-09, AS YOUR GARDEN GROWS, Columns, JANO NIGHTINGALE, The City of the Hills

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Walking On Earth

JEANNINE BOHLER

UNDER THE FLY CREEK SUN

I’ve switched to energy efficient light bulbs in my house. I carry reusable bags to the grocery store. I use them when I remember. I belong to a CSA and buy local goat cheese. I hope Subaru will have a hybrid out when it’s time to replace my car.
I am fully onboard with creating a sustainable planet – at least in my mind. While my practices don’t always reflect my intent, I try.
Lately, I have been thinking about adding a wind mill to our landscape – maybe a couple of solar panels to the roof. I’ve scarcely paid a bit of attention to my electric bill in the past 10 years. It comes. It gets paid. What else can I do? We need to turn on lights and run computers and do the laundry and cook dinner and charge our toothbrushes. I’ve seen the meter man come creeping around.
But suddenly, the idea of reading my own meter seems a bit of fun. The idea of a windy day generating more than fallen branches all about the yard sounds thrilling. The sunlight decreasing both my supplemental vitamin D intake and my electric bill? Outstanding. Significantly reducing my carbon footprint? Priceless.
I read somewhere that visiting the giant wind farms in Europe is almost a spiritual experience. High on a hill, the constant hum of the earth’s energy being harnessed, the wind mills turn and turn and turn. I imagine it is a grounding experience, a visceral connection to the earth, the sound, the sight, the feel of the wind blowing.
Sustain the planet, sustain oneself. I like the idea of that and if I manage to follow through with this dream and install a small wind mill on my hill in Fly Creek, I might just plant the kids’ pinwheels all around it and create a spiritual center of my own.
Last year, when we visited China, our guide told us the older people are highly distraught when they have to leave their homes and take up residence in high-rises.
The older generation is ill at ease living 10 stories up. They believe that, after each meal, one must walk slowly with one’s feet upon the earth. Strolling through the hallways is not enough. Contact with the earth is essential.
Taking care of the earth was second nature to our great grandparents. I hope it will be second nature to my children too. But it won’t be easy. Despite Earth Day, despite recycling and composting and visits to the Farmer’s Market, we live in a consumer world.
And so the windmill, so the dream of the sun lighting our way both inside and out.
At the moment, it is just an idea – something to talk about on a long road trip. Our property has not been evaluated. We haven’t looked into cost. We know very little about incentives and nothing about the electrical grid.
But I do know this. The earth is good for walking upon. With a little extra effort, my footprint can be small.

Labels: 04-17-09, Columns, Jeannine Bohler, The City of the Hills, Under The Fly Creek Sun

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Calling All Artists

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

There are infinite reasons for reading fiction, and every reader’s personal list would likely differ from every other equally infinitely.
One common feature, however, might be the engagement of the imagination in visualizing the setting of the narrative. This is one reason some people prefer to read a book before seeing the movie, for the movie fixes the imagery with near indelibility, and the imagination goes begging.
When Mark Twain, in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” says that Aunt Polly “went to the open door and stood in it, and looked out among the tomato vines and ‘jimpson’ weeds that constituted the garden,” your open door will be different from mine, as will the time of day, the sunlight, the view in the distance, the number of tomatoes, and the display of “jimpson.”
Another pleasure of reading fiction is the identification with the characters and/or events. Who wouldn’t want to attend one’s own funeral (alive, that is) the way Tom Sawyer does? Imagine the gratification of all those tears and hearing all those nice things being said! (One hopes, anyway.) A good book takes the reader right into the story as though he or she is part of it.
Well, if you (or anybody you know) want to give free rein to your imagination and come up with an “artist’s rendering” of a scene from “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” you’re in luck. Or if you want to be part of the story you’re equally in luck.
The NEA/Foothills BIG READ initiative getting under way this weekend has two contests you might like to enter, an illustration contest and an essay contest, $100 prize each. Plus a coloring contest, $25 prize.
All submissions must be delivered by hand or mail by 5 p.m. Friday, May 8. to Foothills Performing Arts Center, 24 Market St., Box 977, Oneonta NY 13820.

Labels: 04-17-09, Art Beat, Columns, Sam Goodyear, The City of the Hills

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Goal: A Fun Downtown – And A Prosperous One

City, County, Private Partnership
Plans Focused Recruitment Drive

By JIM KEVLIN

‘Focus. Finish.” Dick Miller, retired Hartwick College president, quotes Danny Wegman of the famously successful supermarket chain.
That will be his mantra when, as expected, Common Council and the Otsego County Board of Representatives give the go-ahead to “Downtown Development 2009,” the next stage in the process that came temporarily to a halt when Jeff House stepped down at City Hall’s downtown development officer in 2008.
Miller, who operates a consulting firm, 55 Maple St. LLC with his wife, Andi, is making common cause with Carolyn Lewis, Otsego County’s economic developer, and Nancy Scanlon of Main Street Oneonta, the downtown group, in a new chapter on downtown revitalization.
The short-term goal is focused. Miller’s plan is to visit a dozen or two Upstate New York college towns with downtowns similar to Oneonta, with pad in hand and a camera, to see what’s working elsewhere that might work here.
Then, with funding from the city, the county and private individuals who the Hartwick College fundraiser par excellence has identified, the idea is to partner with entrepreneurs to bring those businesses or similar businesses to the City of the Hills.
Going forward, the “public/private partnership,” as Lewis described the undertaking in a letter to Mayor John S. Nader, will focus on helping existing businesses flourish, increasing business volume downtown, and promoting downtown’s “image and identity.”
The idea would be to make shopping downtown “a fun experience,” said Miller in an interview at the newly opened Capresso’s, one of those places already contributing to that.
The troika that made the presentation to Common Council Tuesday, April 7, is seeking $45,000 to fund the effort, about the same as Jeff House’s $42,000 salary. Of that, $25,000 would go to 55 Maple.
The partnership would allow already designated funding to be applied to the new effort. For instance, the city already gives Main Street Oneonta $15,000 a year.
To attract the entrepreneurs and the backing, Miller plans to pursue a process called “asset mapping,” identifying the downtown’s particular strengths: plenty of parking, the college-student consumers, and so on.
The goal is sufficient economic-development fission to create “critical mass.”
And what might that be? Miller muses.
Four, five, six businesses, perhaps opening the same weekend as the prospectively renovated Bresee’s, which is in line for retail on the ground floor, apartments above and a couple of penthouses on top.
“Fill in the blanks, that’s all we have to do,” said Miller, “fill in the blanks.”

Labels: 04-17-09, Downtown Development, Front Page

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Yes, Mark Twain, Reports Of Your Death ARE Exaggerated

By LAURA COX

To quote Mark Twain himself, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
There’s no better proof, almost a century after Samuel Clemens’ death (Twain/Clemens died in 1910), than multiple events planned in Oneonta and Otsego County over the next month associated with the classic “Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”
Beginning Saturday, April 18. The BIG READ – Twain is the focus of this year’s National Endowment for the Arts crusade – gets under way at 2 p.m. at the Oneonta Teen Center, 4 Academy St., with a 1938 movie, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” following by a Claymation version of “The Adventures of Mark Twain.”
And that’s just the start of a month of celebrating Mark/Sam, culminating in a Marathon Read May 16 at the Foothills Performing Arts Center, which is the NEA’s implementer in these parts.
Last year’s BIG READ, the first celebrated locally, focused on Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
The BIG READ is not just for kids. Quite the opposite.
“Young readers … get BIG READ attention every day in school,” said Sam Goodyear, BIG READ coordinator and Foothills grants administrator. “We are more interested in stimulating an interest in reading.”
The NEA defines a reader as someone who has read one book in the last year, meaning fewer than 50 percent of American adults are considered readers, with the 18-35 demographic being the “most delinquent.”
This year’s BIG READ will feature a whole array of activities – movies, lectures, plays, even a spelling bee. A highlight of choosing this particular book is it was written in our own backyard, in Elmira, and so a one-day excursion is planned to Quarry Farm, his country house and octagonal studio overlooking the Chemung River and the mountains of Pennsylvania.
It was there, now the Center for Mark Twain Studies, that “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was written.
Another gem of this year’s BIG READ will be the stage play of Mark Twain’s own “Tom Sawyer.” Sam Goodyear will direct, and a cast of all local actors, led by 12-year-old Chase Thomas of Oneonta, will perform.
“Since the first rehearsal, Chase has really taken on the allure of Tom Sawyer, body movements and reactions,” said Goodyear.
The play will premiere on Friday, April 24, with repeat performance on Saturday and Sunday, April 25, April 26 and May 1, May 2 and May 3, all at the Foothills Performing Arts Center. Admission is free.
The marathon read will also be something for everyone to enjoy. Starting in the morning people will take turns reading aloud, usually in 15-20 minute increments. Come for 20 minutes or stay for the whole day, it starts at 10 a.m. on May 16 at the Bright Hill Center located at 94 Church St. in Treadwell.
“It’s about giving voice to the book, even if just a few are there to listen,” Goodyear said about the marathon read, he plans to bring a copy of the book in German and in French to read aloud from.

Labels: 04-17-09, Front Page, The Big Read

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UCCCA Takes Over Planning 7th City Of Hills Arts Festival

By JIM KEVLIN

Arc Otsego’s Lynn Sessions said the decision to give up the “fabulous” City of the Hills Arts Festival was truly gut-wrenching.
“Seeing Main Street so full, with so much art, with so many smiling people, in beautiful Oneonta, it was wonderful,” she said the other day.
The mood is quite the opposite at UCCCA, where Kathleen Frascatore, who as a consultant helped organize the original festival seven years ago, is delighted to have assumed the challenge.
“We need a celebration,” she said. “We need to raise our spirits. We need to dance with each other.”
As so we will, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 1, as has happened for the past six years.
Some 50 artists and artisans selected by a jury panel from around the country will be showing their wares.
Popular local bands – Reservoir Road and Blues Maneuver among them – will entertain.
And, if past is prelude, 2,500 people or more – plus artists and musicians – will fill the street, fanning out from Muller Plaza in front of the Clarion Hotel.
This year, given the education focus that is part of UCCCA’s mission, family-centered art workshops set up along the route will give young and old alike a chance to DO art as well as look at it, Frascatore said.
The festival was the brainchild of Joe Judd, Arc executive director, who saw it as a way to raise his organization’s profile and, eventually perhaps, turn into a significant fundraiser. Betsy Cunningham of Artware of Oneonta and Bobbi Goldman, the SUNY Oneonta art instructor, were also central to the festival’s launch.
While the festival’s profile did rise, the profits never materialized, Sessions said, and the challenging economy led to the decision to let the undertaking go.
Frascatore said not only Arc, but artists themselves, asked UCCCA to pick up the ball.
Artists looking to participate can get the $10 application by e-mailing director@uccca.com, or calling 432-2070

Labels: 04-17-09, Front Page, UCCCA

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IN THE CITY OF THE HILLS

TREE CITY: For the 23rd year in a row, Oneonta has been named a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation. Arbor Day is Monday, April 27.

HOSPICE HEAD: Lola Rathbone of Milford, the interim CEO/president of Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, has been placed in the position permanently. (Details, Page 2)

24-7 SERVICES: Fox Hospital Board is moving its FoxNow walk-in healthcare clinic from Hannaford Plaza to the FoxCare Center on the city’s East End. Beginning May 1, walk-in services may be accessed 8 a.m.-5 p.m., seven days a week, in Suite 302.

PLAY BALL: The playing fields in all city parks have been deemed playable and are open for public use. Casual users are reminded that they must yield to organized groups with city Department of Recreation permits. Call 432-2100 to check field conditions.

FIGARO, FIGARO! The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra will perform Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” and other works at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 19, in SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union Ballroom, sponsored by the Oneonta Concert Association. For tickets, call 432-0147 or check www.oneonta.edu/oca

SPREADING WORD: Oneonta’s Patrice Macaluso, president of the Friends of the Oneonta Theater, which is seeking to preserve the historic cinema, will take the campaign to the Fly Creek Historical Society, where she’ll speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at the Grange.

CELEBRATE! ... with ’80s Music Night at 7 :30 p.m. Friday the 17th at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt College Union. The night will feature a Madonna look-a-like contest.

Labels: 04-17-09, Front Page

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Hometown People

Ready For Next Year

Kyle Wood, second from left, points out the parts of a snowmobile to class participants from left, Nicholas Bush, Hunter Wood and Zachary Rabeler at the Snowmobile Safety Class sponsored by the O-T-GO SNOWGOERS and held at the American Legion in Otego on Feb. 28. Twenty-four people earned their Snowmobile Safety Certificates at the class.

Food Photos Selected For Exhibit

A series of images by Hartwick College studio art major Emily Gilbert ’09 has been chosen for inclusion in PICS, an invitational exhibition of collegiate photography opening April 11 at the Center for Photography at Woodstock.
Gilbert’s exhibit, FUNSIZE, captures larger-than-life images of the food that surrounds us. Using large-scale color photographs, her pictures show products “neatly packaged on shelves, and some lusciously piled on plates, ready to eat.” Others show the “devoured remains” of meals.

Lola Rathbone Named Catskill Hospice’s CEO

After a nationwide search, The Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care board of directors has found its ideal candidate for chief executive officer & president close to home.
Lola Rathbone of Milford, interim CEO/president, was appointed to the position permanently by a unanimous vote when the board met Tuesday, April 7. The nomination was made by Alan Donovan, the retired SUNY Oneonta president who chaired the search committee.
She had been in the interim role since Lesley Deleski retired last summer, and had previously served as vice president of clinical operations since 1998.
A retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Nurse Corps Reserves with 23 years of service, Rathbone brings extensive leadership experience to the job, according to the official release. She was also a staff nurse in hospice, home care, and acute care settings.
She received her bachelor’s degree from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing, and is also a certified hospice and palliative care nurse, and a certified advanced hospice administrator.
Even before being given the job permanently, Rathbone became interested in the “world class hospice” movement, attended workshops and began to apply what she learned to the local effort, said Dr. James Iandorio, Hospice board chairman.
Said Rathbone, “I am honored to have been selected for this position and to be entrusted with carrying out our mission of ‘making life easier’ for those we are privileged to serve.”
She is married to Tom Rathbone, SUNY Oneonta vice president of facilities. The couple has several grown children.

Photos Donated To Otsego Manor

INDEX

Photographer Andrew Baugnet, whose “Protect Places” exhibit was shown at the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts, has donated 10 large panoramic photographs of landscapes protected by the Otsego Land Trust for display at Otsego Manor.
Donated photographs from that show include views of Red Creek Farm and the Thayer Farm in Springfield, now owned by the Oneonta Foundation.
“I was going to the Manor on a regular basis to visit several friends and I noticed that there were very few pieces of artwork that reflected the surrounding countryside,” said Baugnet. “I thought the residents would enjoy looking at these familiar landscapes, many of which are protected by conservation easements.”
In addition to conservation easement-protected properties, Baugnet included photographs of some of his favorite views, including Leatherstocking Golf Course at dawn and the Pierstown Grange.
A native of Wisconsin, he later lived in Minneapolis where he began photographing historic buildings and structures. Hundreds of his images are in the Library of Congress as part of the Historic American Engineering Record.

Enrollment Expert New Hartwick VP

David Conway, who has led enrollment-management operations at three colleges, has joined Hartwick College as vice president for enrollment management, effective July 1.
Conway will serve as the chief strategist in shaping and implementing an enrollment management plan focused in recruitment and retention. He will oversee the offices of Admissions, Financial Aid and Affordability, and First Year Programs.
He is a senior recruitment consultant for the higher education consulting firm Teresa Farnum & Associates.
Previously, he was vice president for enrollment management at Saint Joseph’s University, and dean of admissions at Philadelphia University and Elizabethtown College.
At St. Joseph’s, he oversaw a 53 percent increase in full-time undergraduate enrollments, an increase in the average SAT score of more than 150 points, an acceptance rate that dropped from 83 percent to 47 percent, and substantially improved retention and graduation rates.

PHLEBOLOGIST: This year marks the eighth year Dr. Eric Dohner has been serving patients at Oneonta’s Skin and Vein Center on Dietz Street. Dr. Dohner trained at Strong Memorial Hospital and is a member of the American Board of Phlebology and the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery.

NEW BOOK: Richard Sierra, founder and executive director of Hawk Circle Wilderness Education in Cherry Valley, has written a free e-book, “Wolverine Survival: Ten Secrets of Wilderness Survival to Help You Survive the Economic Storm.” The book is available on www.hawkcircle.com.

MOTHER GOOSE AT GREEN TOAD

Nancy Murphy, as Mother Goose, read stories to about 20 local children at the Green Toad Book Store on April 10. The children also enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by The Murphy House Bed and Breakfast.

Labels: 04-17-09, Hometown People

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