Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

The Spirit Of Elderhostel Keeps Oneonta Couple Fully Engaged

Thursday, April 23, 2009

By LAURA COX

Hostels.
You imagine youthful peregrinations to romantic locales – Germany, Spain or Greece – new places filled with history and romance, learning about yourself and sharing your experiences with similarly minded young people you meet in youth hostels along the way.
Elderhostel. The dream doesn’t die.
For English professor George Richards, 71, and school psychologist Jane Ford Richards, 61, who retired to Oneonta in 2000, Elderhostel is a way to carry that youthful drive into the retirement years.
The Richardses first started taking Elderhostel-like trips before actually joining Elderhostel for the real deal. Looking through trip catalogs in the Library and online they learned about the different Elderhostel-trip destinations and then would plan their own trips using the catalog itineraries as guides.
For more than 30 years now, Elderhostel has been planning exotic and less-exotics trips for people 55 and up who are dissatisfied with a sedentary retirement.
More than 8,000 programs are offered annually, from classical music in the Catskills Mountains or at Glimmerglass Opera to experiencing the culture of Italy while touring its lake district.
While contemplating Elderhostel, the Richardses took a personal Elderhostel to the Vesterheim Norwegian American Heritage Museum in Decorah, Iowa, to experience Jane’s Norwegian heritage.
Like “rosemaling,” Norweigan rose painting, and “lefse,” potato tortillas, and experiencing church services in the Norwegian tongue.
Their first real Elderhostel trip quickly followed, birding on the Rio Grande in January 2005, where they observed the elegant trogon, roadrunners, chachalaca and green jay rarely seen north of Texas. (They visited their grandchild in Huntsville, Ala., on the way down.)
“We learn so much from the guides and other participants,” Jane recalled.
“And it’s so exciting to be around others who love to learn,” George added.
And they’ve made friends they continue to correspond with.
People use these trips for family gatherings, sisters and brothers go on them together, friends use them as a get-away and old college roommates meet up to spend time together, according to the Richardses.
Jane and George often drive to destinations, instead of flying, to make the whole trip part of the experience. En route to the Grand Targhee Resort, they researched the Oregon Trail and followed it out, stopping at historic markers and examining ruts in the ground and rocks left by innumerable wagon wheels.
Many of the participants have special activities they do in correlation with their trips. George said they once met a man whose goal was to photograph all the state flowers; his wife wanted to see all state capitol buildings.
So far, the Oneontans have taken nine trips, including exploring the Gilded Age along the Hudson River, the witch trials in Salem, and Glacier National Park in Montana. They have their 10th Elderhostel trip planned next month, visiting Winterthur and many other museums.
They’ve met people who have taken 50 trips, meeting one man who said he only continued working so he could afford to take the trips. Fellow travelers have ranged from 55 into the 80s and even 90s.
“What is great about these trips is you show up and everything is taken care of, housing, transportation, tickets and all your meals unless specified,” said Jane.
“These trips are for people who like to learn. If you like to just watch TV and shop, then it’s not for you,” said George.
Right now, the Richardses are taking trips that require walking and hiking, planning to save the most sedentary outings until later.
“Many people are so specialized in their jobs and they have always wanted to know more about X and here’s the chance to learn more about crafts, golf, weaving, card games and more,” said George.

Free-Spirited Professor Founded Elderhostel In 1970s

Elderhostel was founded in the 1975 by Marty Knowlton, a world traveler who was also free spirited and a former educator, and David Bianco, a University of New Hampshire administrator, according to elderhostel.org.
After backpacking through Europe and staying in youth hostels, Knowlton was impressed with the concept: “safe, inexpensive lodgings and opportunities to meet fellow travelers.”
He was also impressed with the “folk schools” of Scandinavia, where older generations handed down the age-old traditions of folk art, music, lore and dance to younger generations. American did not have anything like this; Knowlton thought that should change.
Knowlton returned home and shared his conclusions with Bianco, then director of residential life at the University, who was equally enthusiastic and decided the school “ought not to have youth hostel; it ought to be having an elder hostel.”
And the name was born.
The next summer University of New Hampshire and four other schools offered the first Elderhostel programs to 220 participants who were lodged at the schools and able to take not-for credit classes on a variety of subjects.
It took off.
By 1980, 20,000 participants took classes in all 50 states and Canada, the program promoted almost solely by word-of-mouth.
Not always run through a University, Elderhostels are always led by an instructor with a lot of knowledge to offer about a topic.
Almost all the programs include a series of lectures to learn more about the subject of the trip as well as hands on experiences and interactions with the subject matter.
– LC

Labels: 04-24-09, The City of the Hills

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Settlers Came To Wild West, Then Murder

OLD TIME OTSEGO

HUGH MacDOUGALL

In Eighteen Hundred Twenty Seven
Poor Kelley broke the law of Heaven
He murdered his poor tenant there
Who took his farm to work on share.

At 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 3, 1827, Levi Kelley, a nephew of Cooperstown’s founder William Cooper, brutally murdered Abraham Spafard. Most accounts have focused on Kelley’s public hanging some four months later. But there is more to the story.
Abraham Spafard was born in Lebanon, Connecticut. In 1806, he married Sally Williams (c.1795-1854), and they had eight children. They were poor, and in 1823 the family moved west to Otsego County.
There, in April 1827, they rented a farm in Pierstown owned by Levi Kelley, sharing the crops with him as rent. They also shared his double farmhouse, occupying the newer part while Levi and his wife lived in the older part.
In the words of a contemporary account, Spafard was “of a remarkably mild, conciliatory, and forbearing temper.”
Levi Kelley was a son of Ann Cooper (1759-1818), a sister of William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown. Her first husband, Daniel Kelley (1757-1787) had been a Revolutionary veteran, but when he died his widow (and her three sons) were left penniless in Philadelphia.
Ann’s brother William Cooper took pity on them (as he did on a number of poor relations) and brought them to Cooperstown about 1796, where she married Jabez Hubbell (1758-1836) of Fly Creek.
Levi prospered.
In 1805 he opened a store on Cooperstown’s main street where he offered “A neat and General Assortment of Dry Goods, Groceries of a Superior Quality, Ironmongery, Crockery, and Glass Ware.”
He became a millwright, building many of the water-powered mills along Oaks Creek, and was noted for his skill. In June 1812, now living in Pierstown, he advertised in the Cooperstown Federalist a full set of saw-mill Irons, plus a 6 1/2 foot saw blade, on credit.
He was, however, “a perfect torpedo, exploding with the least and most delicate touch,” and his fits of uncontrolled anger were legendary.
On May 22, 1817, Levi Kelley married Lucy Carr (1778-1855), in the Cooperstown Presbyterian Church where his wife was a member. She contributed half the cost of a new farm in Pierstown, but Levi had the papers drawn up in his name only, and when she complained he shook his fist in her face, shouting “That is your deed.” He slept with a loaded shotgun at the head of his bed.
From the moment Abraham Spafard and his family moved into the Kelley farmhouse in April 1827, their relations went badly.
In June, Kelley snarled to a bystander about the way Spafard was mowing a field, saying: “Look at that damned Spafard; he is going to eat up all my meadow... If he don’t behave better than he has done, I’ll put a ball through him before summer is over. There’s no mistake in that!”
On Aug. 24, 1827, Kelley drove his fine matched team of horses to Albany to attend the public hanging of convicted murderer Jesse Strang, a popular event that brought over 15,000 people into the city.
Little more than a week later, on the afternoon of Sept. 3, Levi Kelley found Spafard harvesting oats, and repeatedly accused him of wrongfully unloading them.
A little later, Kelley – apparently still furious – called into his room John Clark, a young farm laborer (some say he was lame) who was working for Spafard. There followed a prolonged and angry scene.
Kelley grabbed Clark by the throat and tried to choke him. Spafard, alerted by one of his daughters, intervened. Kelley then turned on Spafard, and there was a further struggle before Spafard freed himself and, with Clark, returned to his side of the house.
Levi Kelley then ran to his bedroom, grabbed his loaded shotgun, rushed into Spafard’s room and immediately shot him in the chest in front of his family, not to mention his own wife Lucy Kelley.
Abraham Spafard exclaimed, “O Lord! I am dead,” and expired in the arms of his wife Sally. A coroner’s jury indicted Kelley for murder, and he was arrested and charged.

NEXT WEEK:
The Trial of Levi Kelley

Labels: 04-24-09, Hugh MacDougall, Old Time Otsego, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 7:11 AM 0 comments

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Blues & BBQ

EVAN JAGELS

NIGHT LIFE

In front of the right lungs and under the right fingers, the tenor saxophone can have the fattest sound – dark and deep as the baritone yet agile as the alto.
Take it out of the context of jazz, strip it down and turn it up, and you’re left with a sound both lyrical and guttural – warm yet with a slight bite of bourbon growling through the brass bell. 
You’re left with the sound of an icon like Eddie Shaw.
In a long overdue act of spontaneous support of live professional music, the Redneck BBQ on Route 28, Hartwick Seminary, welcomed the Chicago bluesman and his Wolf Gang Friday, April 17, to a sold out house of fans, jumping and dancing into the night.
“The blues is the foundation,” Shaw said.
There could be a great old mansion on a hill, but holding up that mansion is a foundation that isn’t easily seen or necessarily appreciated, he said.
The blues is this foundation, and ought to be kept alive in its true form.
Shaw, whose main instrument is the tenor (though he also plays alto saxophone, harmonica, and sings) was a prominent member of the urban blues movement of the 1960s and ’70s. 
As the blues moved out of rural regions and into urban centers, of which Chicago is most notable, it became more of an electric art form. 
Shaw (b. 1937), who grew up in the heart of the Mississippi Delta before moving to Chicago, has had a career which was very much an important part of the development of the blues after the late 1950s.  
Though the Wolf Gang is best known as the back up band for legendary bluesman Howlin’ Wolf until his death in 1975, Shaw began playing with Muddy Waters’ band in 1957. 
After two years, though, he left Muddy for Howlin’ Wolf.  He also played with Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Hound Dog Taylor, and many others. 
Furthermore, his music has been recorded by John Hammond, Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon, to name a While the list of legends with which Eddie Shaw is associated goes on, his music and playing stand alone and are perhaps best exemplified by a quote in 1992 in the Chicago Tribune.
“I think playing the horn like I do is something like the old Baptist preacher,” he said.  “When a Baptist preacher preaches in church, everybody listens.  He shouts out what he wants you to hear, and he brings it to you in such a way that you’re gonna listen.”
He certainly had the command of an eager and responsive congregation at the Redneck, where he was also joined by his son, Eddie “Vaan” Shaw Jr. – a breath-taking musician with near waist-length dred locks and a virtuosic command of the blues guitar. 
Raised around blues masters, “Vaan” pretty much grew up with a guitar in his hand and learned the basics from Magic Sam and Hubert Sumlin – some impressive early mentors.
After such a large explosion of blues music in decades past, such an intimate yet hard-hitting performance from some authentic members of the blues community showed what “house rocking” is all about. 
This was no concert at some hall of preservation tribute to important American music.  Ironically, the music was very much in its original context here in Otsego County – a loud, foot-stomping, yet intimate community gathering and celebration. 
Maybe not at a bar in the south side of Chicago or a slow grind in the Mississippi Delta of a half century past, but there was much of the same feeling. 
A special thanks to Josh Cassell and Jimmy Dangl of the Redneck BBQ for hosting a great event.  It was the first of what they hope to turn into a local tradition.

The Night Life column appears weekly. Contact Evan at evanjagels@yahoo.com

Labels: 04-24-09, Evan Jagels, Night Life, The City of the Hills

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Young Abby Puritz, Chase Thomas Full Of Talent

Cartoonist Competes With Top 25 In U.S.

By LAURA COX

When Abby Puritz was in fourth grade, her older sister Becky’s friend from China brought over a Japanese comic – called manga – she was instantly enthralled.
Now, eight years later, Abby’s an OHS senior and her manga has qualified her as one of the top 25 finalists in the Frame My Future Scholarship Contest hosted by Church Hill Classics, the diploma-frame manufacturer.
Daughter of Andy and Joan Puritz, Abby had already grown fond of the Japanese anime shows she saw on television, such as “Dragonball Z” and “Sailor Moon,” and so manga was natural for her. In fifth grade she bought her own first manga, a copy of “Dragonball Z,” and – at a school fair – a book on how to draw the genre.
She started to draw, mostly just pictures first, not stories. She would draw in her notebook during math class – not sticking just to the margins. Her first multipage comic was six pages long and she wrote it while she had writer’s block.
As Abby put it, “It basically just said, ‘OK, go draw now.’”
Learning new things all the time, like which paper and pens draw the cleanest lines, Abby got her hands on everything she could about manga, including books about theory and style.
Manga is different from American comics, she explains. Manga is more exaggerated and stories focus on any topic imaginable, not just the hero stories that many American comic books rely on.
“If there are more than 20 people who like something, there is probably a manga about it,” said Abby.
While most manga is produced in Japan, Abby hopes to change this. Her dream job is to have her own manga series.
This fall, she will attend SUNY Purchase and study art. She chose Purchase because the art department seemed open to her love of manga as art, where other schools were closed minded. She said she would love to study abroad in Japan for some time to learn from the masters.
Aware that the market for comics is in trouble due to online publication, she said she would settle for a job in illustration if she needed to while she develops her own series.
To enter the scholarship contest, Abby had to use an 8 ½-by-11 sheet of paper to communicate: “This is how I ‘Frame My Future.’”
She drew a comic panel of a picture of herself sitting at her drawing desk pondering her future and coming to the conclusion that she knew exactly what she was going to do, draw comics.
To see Abby’s entry visit http://www.diplomaframe.com/entries/13_puritz.cfm and vote. The top five finalists by popular vote will receive a $1,000 scholarship. The top winner will also receive a matching scholarship for their college.

Actor, 12, Earns Laurels In ‘Tom Sawyer’ Lead

By LAURA COX

Chase Thomas’ mom, Celeste, told the 12-year-old in January about auditions for “Tom Sawyer,” a centerpiece of this year’s BIG READ celebration.
The next day, Chase – he’s acted in Orpheus Theater productions in summers past – found out he would be reading “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in school at Valleyview Elementary.
If the coincidence seemed like a portent, he acted on it, auditioning for the lead for performances planned at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday April 24 -25 and May 1-2. Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. April 26 and May 2, all at the Foothills Performing Arts Center. Admission is free.
“Our first rehearsal we sat in the conference room and read the entire script out loud from start to end,” said Chase, “The cast jokes around and it’s lots of fun.”
Chase said he has enjoyed experimenting with being someone he is not, “As soon as the lights go out, I become Tom and feel like Tom.”
He indicated his character has started to move into his real life too, like using his hands when he tells a story has started to become really natural.
“Me and Tom are alike: We are both mischievous, but good at heart,” said Chase.
The graveyard scene is his favorite, because it explains Tom and Huck’s friendship and is full of suspense. He has learned his lines by practicing them out loud, leaving space where the other actors would respond. It’s a technique he thinks has worked well.
Meanwhile, reading “Tom Sawyer” in class, Chase has noticed how Twain adapted the book, combining sections into long speeches in the play, instead of the multiple speeches presented in the book.
“It was genius of Twain,” he said.
Chase didn’t participate in any of the BIG READ activities last year, except for attending the play of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but he is very excited to be a part of it all this year.
He went to the movies shown at the Oneonta Teen Center last weekend and hopes everyone will come to the play.
Chase thinks the story is great for adults and children, “It is a remarkable story of a young boy experiencing childhood, and the play is free so there is no reason not to come.”
Besides acting, Chase enjoys playing tennis with friends. At school, he likes science, hands-on experiments in particular.

Labels: 04-24-09, Front Page

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The City of the Hills

‘OH Fest IV’ Will Feature Crafts, Music

‘OH Fest IV,” organized by SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick student leaders for the enjoyment of the community, is Saturday, April 25.
Carnival-type entertainment – live music, crafts and food – will be available 1-5 p.m. on Main Street.
At 6 p.m. in Neahwa Park, a free triple-bill outdoor concert featuring Eve 6, The Ataris and Separate Ways (the nation’s top Journey tribute band) will perform.

READING ‘TOM’: The Bright Hill Literary Center, Treadwell, is looking for readers for its marathon reading of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday, May 16, part of The BIG READ. Call 829-5055 or e-mail wordthur@stny.rr.com for a 15-minute stint.

ANTI-CRIME: Opportunities for Otsego’s Violence Intervention Program invites all community members to the annual Candlelight Vigil beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, in Muller Plaza, part of National Crime Victims Week.

SPRING CLEANUP: The city’s annual cleanup is the week of April 27 in Wards 1-4, and the week of May 4 in Wards 5-8. Put leaves at the curb in biodegradable bags. Put limbs and brush at the curb. No old lumber or household items will be picked up. Green waste may be dropped 7 a.m.-3:15 p.m. weekdays at Silas Lane.

Labels: 04-24-09, Front Page

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Something’s Happening, And It May Be Very Big

Ioxus Trailblazing Here, As Did Fairchild Aviation, IBM

By JIM KEVLIN

In 1889, Oneonta’s Harlow E. Bundy patented the “International Time Recorder.” It grew into IBM.
At the end of World War I, Oneonta’s young Sherman Fairchild figured out the mystery of aerial surveillance and grew that idea and others into huge Fairchild Aviation.
On May 1, 2009, Michael Pentaris’ staff at 118 Whinney Hill Road is due to begin manufacturing something that must have been as obscure as an “International Time Recorder” was 120 years ago: “electric double-layer capacitors (EDLC) and modules using EDLCs.”
You may know this company as of offshoot of Custom Electronics Inc., founded in 1963 by Peter Dokuchitz, who at 81 is still chairman of the board.
You may know it as REDI (Renewable Energy Development Inc.), which has been heralded as possibly creating 185 jobs over the next five years, in a recession yet.
As of the other day, however, the operation in low-slung, unassuming buildings across the road from the former Ames Plaza on the west end is known as Ioxus, an ancient Greek word associated with “power,” coined by Chad Hall, the company’s chief operating officer.
A capacitor is what takes a power source and applies it: For instance, power is stored in a camera flash; you push the shutter button, the capacitor turns that power into the flash, explained NYSERDA spokesman Ray Hull.
By doing so, however, the capacitor draws down the power source. Ioxus’ product – marketed under the brand Redicaps – will use the power without degrading the source, according to Pentaris.
Eureka.
Redicaps – they look like regular batteries with plugs sticking out the top – will be used to extend the life of things like flashlights.
But think down the road: Adapted and enlarged, Ioxus’ double-capacitors, theoretically, could allow electric cars to run, not quite forever, but for an extended time, Pentaris said.
Think about the National Power Grid. Demand and supply spike and plummet over a typical 24-hour cycle. Ioxus’ double-capacitors, huge ones, could conceivably even out those peaks and valleys.
NYSERDA – the New York State Energy Research & Development Agency – is particularly interested in what the Redicaps concept means for evening out wind and solar power, where production fluctuates in the breeze, said Hull.
That’s why NYSERDA gave Ioxus $1.6 million last week, and has funded it with other incentives over the past few years.
“The technology shows great promise,” according to the press release announcing the latest loan, “because it stores much more electrical energy than traditional capacitors, therefore making it attractive for use in combination with batteries, solar cells and other power sources.”
Pentaris said Ioxus expects to have 30-35 employes by the end of this year. “If things go well, we could create a lot of jobs,” he added the other day during an interview at Ioxus’ headquarters.
A building is under construction in back of the current one for Phase 2 – it’s hush-hush, and Pentaris can’t talk about it with any specificity. A third building is rising behind that, for Phase 3.
In addition to Pentaris, who is president & CEO of both Ioxus and Custom Electronics – it is located on 87 Browne St. , but has distributorships all over the world – and COO Hall, the third key player is Thor Eilertsen, chief technical officer. (Thor, coincidentally, is the Norse god of thunder.)
The president & CEO pours praise on both of the key players, both Oneontans and engineers.
Eilertsen, who had worked for Bendix in Sidney and Astrocom in the Town of Oneonta, is “brilliant” in his ability to “think out of the box,” Pentaris said.
His boss acknowledges, “I hired him on instinct. I liked his brain. I liked the way he thought. We were proven right.”
The other was Hall, who “showed a lot of ambition and drive”
Touring the plant is a bit like walking through the Death Star (or, for the benefit of an earlier generation, the Starship Enterprise) – everything is pristine, glass, glowing ivory paint, stainless steel knobs.
Chad Hall explains that activated carbon is used to form an unspecified slurry, which is then treated and injected into the battery casing, but the details are proprietary. There’s a dry room, where humidity is .08 percent, where the treatment extends the product’s longevity.
During the tour, the manufacturing staff was testing the final product to make sure standards were met.
As soon as the testing is complete – any day now – Ioxus’ Redicaps will go forth to meet a brave new world.

HOMETOWN PROFILE: ‘Horatio Alger’ Pentaris

By JIM KEVLIN

When Mikhail Pentaris was a boy on Cyprus, his family was so poor he didn’t know that some families actually sat down to dinner.
“My mother would make me a slice of toast, put butter on it and say, ‘Here you go’,” said Pentaris, who was raised in the port city of Larnaca in a tiny house with his parents, two sisters, a brother and an uncle.
His mother’s kitchen was in a shipping crate in the back yard.
That’s a long time ago, 40-plus years, and a long way from where Michael Pentaris, 50, is today, as president & CEO of Custom Electronics Inc., and its subsidiary, Ioxus.
In recent days, Ioxus received a $1.6 million NYSERDA loan that will finance production of the company’s futuristic electric double-layer capacitors which, if they live up to their promise, could revolutionize power generation and transmission as we know it.
Poor, yes, but young Mikhail and his siblings were bright kids and their mother, Joanna, recognized it, and was able to obtain scholarships to Larnaca’s American Academy through high school. (“I found it fascinating that I could speak a foreign language,” he said.)
After a stint in the Cyrus national guard – he was astonished that he, “a poor kid,” was chosen to attend officers’ training, Mike, afraid of heights, nonetheless was washing windows on multi-story buildings for a living when he received word he had been accepted at Brescia College in Owensboro, Kent.
Things just accelerated from there.
He fell in love with his future wife, Therese, a student from Elmira, and when she moved back to SUNY Binghamton a couple of years in, Mike followed.
When he was awarded his bachelor’s in accounting, she went back to school for her master’s. When she was done, Mikhail Pentaris, raised in poverty on a faraway island, received a SUNY Binghamtom MBA.
Horatio Alger lives.
Things continued to break his way, even when they didn’t seem to. For instance, he didn’t pass his CPA.
“That was the best thing that DIDN’T happen to me,” he says today. “I’m just not a behind-the-scenes kind of guy.”
He went to Boston looking for an accounting job, where he met “a lot of declines and disappointments,” when he was offered a job back in central New York and found himself at D.M. Graham Laboratories in Hobart.
Graham happend to be going through a trouble spot, and Pentaris discovered he thrives in challenging times.
The young man was assigned to lay off 25 percent of the workforce and position the company for the next stage of growth. That eventually led to Graham’s sale to Mallinckrodt Inc. of Chicago: Graham made capsules; Mallinckrodt made the Acetaminophen that went into the capsule.
The combined company was eventually sold to Tyco International, and Pentaris stayed on a couple of years. But it was too big for the hands-on manager, who was recruited away six years ago by Custom Electronics Inc. President, CEO and founder, Peter Duchovitz.
“The first thing he told me: ‘There’s no money to cover payroll’,” recalled Pentaris. He was back in his element. He succeeded – he credits Wilber Bank Senior VP Jeff Lord with getting the company over the hurdle.
And, a year later, Duchovitz, who remained and remains chairman of the board, elevated his protege to president & CEO.
Meanwhile, he and Therese – she is a teacher at Oneonta Middle School – were raising five children, Joanna (after her dad’s mother), now 26 and working for Fidelity in Boston; Alexia, 23, in pharmacy school; Mikhail, 21, who’s at Hartwick College, and Dimitros, 14, and Antonio, 11, both in Oneonta schools.
The fortunate son maintained his ties to his homeland, where his brother and sisters have retired from banking and retail. He bought a penthouse apartment in Larnaca, where he can see his boyhood haunts from a different perspective, and visits a couple of times a year.
Things had clicked.
“What I like about Pete,” said Pentaris of his mentor at Custom, “is that he trusted me a lot. That means a lot to me.”
That trust turned out to be well-placed.
“I tried to move expenses out without hurting the ‘infrastructure,’ the knowledge and skills we would need to grow,” said Pentaris. “We replaced 2-3 people, setting up for the future ... We tried to accommodate everything we did to prepare for the future.”
And so, with Ioxus planning to start up its manufacturing line May 1, the future has arrived.
“I was poor. I didn’t have anything. It was a dream,” said Mike Pentaris. “I was a dreamer.”
And so the dream came true.

Labels: 04-24-09, Front Page, Ioxus

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Hometown People

Centenarians Abound As Otesaga Turns 100

Guests who have been coming back to The Otesaga, year after year, were honored at a reception Friday, April 17, as the resort hotel continued its 100th anniversary celebration.
Marion Moot, 100, cut the birthday cake. She was accompanied by two daughters, a son and a granddaughter and her husband. In a tour of the restaurant, Mrs. Moot remembered the table where, as a waitress, she served Eleanor Roosevelt in 1929.
The next day, Edith Bulson of Worcester celebrated her 102nd birthday, with celebrants including neice Cindy Seward, wife of State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford.
At Friday’s reception, Rita and Patrick Calvey of Clarks Summit, Pa., were the guests of longest tenure, having visited every year for 49 years.
If guests could present receipts from years past, The Otesaga was honoring the former rates.
And emcee John D. Irvin, Otesaga general manager, noted that Bill and Kathy Straub from Orchard Park, near Buffalo – visitors for 45 years – had presented the receipt from their first visit – their honeymoon – $32 a night. Mr. Straub had paid $5 for a round of golf.

Cheri Albrecht Cited For Role At Opportunities For Otsego

Cheri Albrecht received the 2009 Trailblazer Award from the city Commission on Community Relations & Human Right, presented for the past three years during Women’s History Month.
Mayor John S. Nader read a proclamation in her honor prior to the Common Council meeting Tuesday, April 21, citing her for opening Opportunities For Otesgo’s homeless shelter, women’s shelter and for being the first woman to serve on Wilber Bank’s board.
The award recognizes women who have broken through barriers locally. SUNY Oneonta athletic director Traci Raineri received the first award. Hartwick professor Kate O’Donnell and Molly Swain won last year.
At left, Mrs. Albrecht, back row, second from left, poses with her family. Front row, from left, are grandchildren Jacob, 8, Cheyanne, 6, and Ciara Albrecht, 9. Back row, from left, are husband Fred, son John and his wife Cathleen, Norwich.

Babcock Joins Opportunities As Counselor

Opportunities for Otsego has appointed of Marilyn Babcock as counselor in its Violence Intervention Program.
She has been in private practice for 13 years as a psychotherapist, focusing on women’s health, and has been a SUNY Oneonta adjunct professor.
Ms Babcock received her BA with honors in speech communication from SUNY Oneonta, and a master of social work from SUNY Albany.
At Opportunities, she will supervise counselors, provide longterm therapies and oversee the development of group curriculums.

Barstow, SUNY Choir To Perform At Final CSO Concert

Robert Barstow, chair of SUNY Oneonta’s Music Industry Department, will conduct the college’s Concert Choir when the Catskill Symphony Orchestra concludes its 2008-09 season at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2, in the Hunt Union.
The Concert Choir will sing “Four Sacred Songs” of Verdi, written as four separate pieces during the 1880s, and scored for chorus and orchestra. Concert highlights also include two works by Giuseppe Verdi and a Violin Concerto by Karl Goldmark.
As in the past several years, any one or two adults may bring any number of children or older students to the performance without charge.
For tickets or more information, call 436-2670.

Retired Verizon Director, Wife Join Realty USA

Barb and Rod Sluyter of Canadarago Lake have joined Realty USA based in Cooperstown.
Rod concluded his corporate career as chairman of the Verizon Energy Board of Directors and was named Global Manager of the Year by the Financial Times.
For many years Barb owned and operated a restaurant promotion business and later marketing director for the Staten Island Botanical Garden.

Cortland Honors 2 Local Students

SUNY Cortland honored the following local students during its annual Honors Convocation last month:
• Robert Hornung, a junior from Sidney, received the W. Graham Heaslip Award, for outstanding academic achievement by a junior geology major.
• Matthew Martindale, a senior from Worcester, received the Past Presidents Scholarship.

AT CONFERENCE: Century 21 Chesser Realty realtors Carol Olsen, Brad Vohs and Carol Chesser have returned from the Century 21 International Convention in San Antonio, Texas, attended by thousands of brokers, managers and sales associates from around the world.

READING: Ginnah Howard of Gilbertsville will read from “Night Navigation,” her first novel, at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 30, at the Green Toad Bookstore, 198 Main St.

Labels: 04-24-09, Hometown People

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Letters to the Editor

Even At 81, Confrontation For The Sake Of Planet Can’t Always Be Avoided

To the Editor:
While I should be out on this spring day putting in more of my veggie garden, I feel disturbed enough to be inside writing this letter, perhaps with the hope that doing so will erase the disturbance from my mind.
Saturday, April 18, I went to the Earth Festival in Milford (again, maybe I should have stayed home to attend to my garden) because I’ve been meaning to for years and never could make it.
When I got there, I pulled out a handful of daffodils of the 50 I had in a bucket and brought them into the school venue. On the way in, I barely noticed the big truck sitting there, backed up to a set open doors with its engine running; I, as others, entered via another set of doors.
When I came out again after having given out that handful of flowers to some of the many children there, as well as adults, to bring in an even larger set, I was curious about the truck and why its engine was running.
There was a sign nearby that said something positive about the value of shredding, and I asked the man in the passenger seat why they were running the truck, to which he responded that they needed it to supply the shredder power. I didn’t see any shredding going on and I mentioned that it was fouling the air as well as wasting fuel. He just shrugged his shoulders. I walked away kinda muttering to myself.
At 81 years of age, I had some years ago taken a vow not to be such a confrontational activist any more, insisting, say, that the municipal buses as well as the buses that brought sports teams to SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick turn off their engines, and they did after strong confrontation.
I would even like to take part credit now that the school buses cannot any more sit outside the schools with their engines running. It was a health problem for the school board, rather than an environmental one.
The law allows only a five-minute idling time for diesel-powered vehicles, but an exemption if your vehicle needs to keep running to allow for a power assist; emergency vehicles, such as fire-fighting, most especially.
Well, after my second handful of daffodils was brought in, I queried a number of people about why, especially in view of all the presenters at Earth Fest touting cleaner air and less global warming, via wind solar power, and more efficient cars, etc., they were allowing what was going on outside. If ever “cognitive dissonance” was an appropriate term, it was right there. The answer I got was that it had been debated in the past and that they had allowed it.
It made no sense to me, especially in view that there was NO shredding going on, and I couldn’t even fathom how shredding helped our global condition.
I made more of a fuss, with more people, and when I went out to get the last of the flowers to distribute (no, I hadn’t stolen them from a neighbor’s lawn), I saw that the truck’s engine was no longer running. I thanked the man I had berated earlier and gave him a flower.
If I can take a moment to sermonize: I need to say that talking the talk is OK, but walking the talk is more effective. And we need to be persistent. And, yes, confrontational.
Helping our globe is not an abstract notion, but an activity: something for the future, for our many hopeful children.
IRWIN GOOEN
Oneonta

Editor’s Note: This is the text of Mayor John S. Nader’s letter to Governor Paterson endorsing the governor’s same-sex marriage initiative.

April 17, 2009

Gov. David A. Paterson
Executive Chamber
Albany NY 12224

Dear Governor Paterson:
I write to commend you for your strong support and leadership on the issue of same sex marriage. Your willingness to take a stand for basic civil rights is most encouraging.
Like you, many people in my community have long favored marriage equality for all New Yorkers. It is truly encouraging to see an elected official of your stature stand up for what it right. The time to extend full civil rights and legal recognition to same sex couples is now. Your leadership in placing this key civil rights issue squarely before our legislature will long be remembered.
Please feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance in working with you and the Assembly and Senate to secure passage of this landmark bill.

Sincerely,
John S. Nader
Mayor

Labels: 04-24-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

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Yes, Oneonta’s Colleges Can Do More, But They Sure Do A Lot

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Interesting panel the other day: “SUNY As A Partner For Community Development: College and Community,” held over the lunch hour in the Morris Conference Center, one of a series organized by the United University Professions.
Mayor John S. Nader; Otsego County Chamber chairman Peter Livshin, who is also Milford superintendent of schools; Andrew Weber, Oneonta Tigers’ new general manager, and Hometown Oneonta general manager Jim Kevlin all agreed that the contribution is profound.
It would be hard to conceive what the area would be like without SUNY Oneonta, and Hartwick College as well.
If nothing else, the number of graduates of the local colleges who have decided they like it here and are going to stay is beyond calculation, (if not for computers, that is. With computers, the alumni offices could undoubtedly figure it out and have a powerful piece of data.) We know they populate the professions – teachers, lawyers, medical people – and businesses.
SUNY Oneonta’s budget – that’s money spent to keep it operating – is $100 million, $77 for every man, woman and child within the city limits.
That said, and appreciated, there’s more the colleges could do to have a positive economic impact on the region, as SUNY Oneonta’s new president Nancy Kleniewski, has vowed to do. (A good first step came a month ago with the announcement of the STEM Leadership Council, a SUNY/community initiative to promote interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics among youngsters in these parts.)
For the importance of the brainpower-education combination in increasing properity look no further than Whinney Hill Road, where Mike Pentaris, president & CEO of Custom Electronics and its exciting spinoff, Ioxus, rose from dire poverty on Cyprus to an MBA from SUNY Binghamton and a successful business career. The best is yet to come. (See story, Page 1)
•
It is no criticism of what the colleges are doing to say they could do more. For instance:
• Before considering construction, might the colleges consider renovating existing buildings that would serve educational purposes while helping revitalize the community at large? SUNY Oneonta’s Music Industry Department and efforts to save the Oneonta Theater, that vintage cinema, comes to mind. Or perhaps the colleges could lease or buy one of the penthouses proposed on the top floor of renovated Bresee’s, to lodge visiting VIPs.
• Could the student engineers and community planners begin identifying prospective “pods of prosperity” in generally impoverished Otsego County? (The Otsego County median income is $42,572, some 20 percent below the national $50,233.) Look at Schenevus, for instance: Great housing stock, proximity to an I-88 intersection where there’s plenty of open land for development.)
• Could the Political Science Deparment do a clean-sheet review of county government, or provide expertise in the City of Oneonta’s efforts to revise its charter, or seek ways to starting implementation of municipal-merger recommendations of the state Commission on Local Government
Efficiency and Competitiveness. What a learning experience for the students? What a benefit to the community at large.
•
Again, to throw out an idea or two is not to minimize all the good that the colleges bring to the host City of the Hills.
One example was the International Student Organization’s Fair – the first – that happened Saturday, April 18, at SUNY Oneonta’s Lee Hall. Fun, varied, educational.
Among the celebrants was Carol Mandzik, finishing her first year at director of the Office of International Education.
“International students contribute intelligence, creativity, community service – talent!” she exclaimed emphatically.
There are 70 international srtudents from 17 countries on campus now, and she plans to make that more than 100 students from 23 countries when the college reopens this fall. This is a two-way street: U.S. .students have been participating in exchanges with Japanese, Russian and Swedish colleges, and Korea and Finland are being added this fall.
Why does this matter?
Mandzik, while doing similar work at Husson College in Maine, was on an exchange visit to Siewon Women’s College in South Korea on receiving word that her brother Don, 44, had died suddenly from a heart attack. As is standard in Korea, everyone stopped what they were doing and Carol was tended and comforted 24 hours a day by her new friends, who have remained dear friends until today.
“The same professor who comforted me in my time of desperate need” died in a car crash a few years ago, and Mandzik was able to return some of that caring and attention to her survivors.
In this just-ending era – we can hope – of international emnity, priceless.

Labels: 04-24-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
It now being a settled fact that Oneonta is to have a new armory for the Third separate company – Governor Cleveland having affixed his signature to the bill appropriating $9,000 for this purpose – the question of a suitable location arises. By the terms of the bill no provision is made for ground on which to erect the armory, and it is understood that so much Oneonta and Otsego County are to contribute. Assuredly a reasonable sum can easily be raised for the purchase of a site – the most favorable being what is known as “barn hill,” the rise of ground below and to the left of the Main Street crossing. This location would be central, conspicuous, and not so very expensive. The building will probably be of brick and an ornament to the village.
April 1884

100 Years Ago
The Oneonta City common council met Tuesday evening and, after considering a communication from the board of public works, voted to pave Main street from the end of the present pavement on Third street east to the old village corporation line, and on Chestnut street from the end of the present pavement to the western line of the former village corporation at Kearney street. A sewer will be laid on the Chestnut street portion at least a year prior to the pavement. The cost for the Chestnut Street sewer is estimated at $2,600 and for Chestnut Street paving $14,880, and for Main street paving $4,848.
April 1909

80 Years Ago
Peering a few thousand years into the future, Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, noted anthropologist, forecasts mankind’s future appearance. “Man will have a longer life, and an easier one. He will be taller. The face will be handsomer. It is slowly proceeding toward refinement and character. Eyes will be deeper set, the nose prominent and narrow, the mouth smaller, and the chin prominent. Teeth will be smaller and diminished in number as food is refined. There will be a weakening of hair on the head, but not of the beard. Heads will be slightly broader and larger and there will be a greater brain capacity. The skull will grown thinner as will the facial bones. The face will be more lively and expressive. The hands and feet will be more refined, the fingers and toes longer but the fifth toe may gradually disappear. There is no promise of eventual equality of races and the gulf between the front and back ranks probably will increase rather than decrease.”
April 1929

60 Years Ago
The first of this year’s two total eclipses of the moon occurred Tuesday night of last week and as the sky was clear for the most part, many local residents got a good glimpse of it. The full moon was wholly immersed in the earth’s shadow for an hour and 26 minutes from 10:28 p.m. to 11:54 p.m. It rose with an unsullied disk a few minutes before sundown; but at 8:32 it began to move through penumbra, or partial shadow. This cast a scarcely noticeable veil over its face. At 9:28 came the first contact with the umbra, or full shadow. A small dark smudge appeared on the moon’s eastern rim. The spot expanded as the moon went deeper into the umbra until, at the beginning of totality, the whole disk was covered. Even then, not all illumination was cut off, for some sunlight reached the moon by refraction through the terrestrial atmosphere.. The lunar surface took on a dull red or coppery hue. As the total phase of the eclipse ended, a small bright area appeared near the place where the first smudge was seen.
April 1949

40 Years Ago
In too many of our cities and towns substandard housing exists, and has existed, and owners collect their rent regularly without any thought of having to meet realistic minimum health or building standards, or official inspection which would often mean condemnation. Owners have, in many cases, so long profited undisturbed on this substandard housing they sometimes are conditioned to the view that efforts to require them to improve their buildings is unwarranted interference.. Respected studies have shown that nothing so scars the young, and entire families, as living in substandard housing over a long period of time, amid conditions of overcrowding, substandard hygiene, lack of privacy, lack of proper shelter in severe weather, etc.
April 1969

20 Years Ago
The new Oneonta-Cooperstown bus route has performed “better than expected” said marketing representative Pam Stewart for the City of Oneonta Public Transit.. “It’s growing every single day. One of the busiest days was April 18 when 90 passengers rode the bus. The new service currently leaves Oneonta at 6 a.m. and every two hours after that until 4 p.m. The bus leaves at 7 a.m. from Cooperstown and every two hours after that until 5 p.m. Forty people on average have taken the bus each day.
April 1989

10 Years Ago
Jose Betancourt, a professor at the State University College of Oneonta, has been named coordinator of the New York Geographic Alliance (NYGA) The NYGA is part of a nationwide network of geographic alliances sponsored by the National Geographic Society’s Geography Education Program. The NYGA seeks to promote and improve geography education from Kindergarten through college. Betancourt will coordinate NYGA’s summer teacher-training institutes and workshops. About 300 k-12 teachers in New York State have already completed the training. The organization also coordinates New York’s Geography Bee, in which students in grades four through eight compete for the opportunity to compete at the national level.
April 1999

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

Labels: 04-24-09, Columns, Hometown History

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Bill Campbell, 30-1

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

BLASTS FROM THE PAST

Oneonta, by no means one of the largest schools in the state, has an uncanny ability to knock off the big guys, a trend that dates back to the 1950s.
Oneonta tennis players William Campbell and John Whitaker had to go through Newburgh, New Rochelle, Garden City, and Hudson High, among the largest high schools in the state, to win the title at Syracuse University in 1953. They were even mentioned in the New York Times, a rare feat for OHS athletics.
This tennis title had been held by older men in the past, and at the tender age of 18 they were the youngest to hold the title.
Campbell and Whitaker earned varsity letters in tennis as freshman, became members of the Varsity “O” as sophomores, and were three-sport athletes as well as stellar students.
Campbell was the vice president of the Student Council and also of the Varsity “O.” Whitaker was the vice president of his class and treasurer of the Student Council.
Campbell earned varsity letters in football, basketball and tennis. Missing a full season his junior year after an incorrect medical diagnosis, he was told by the school doctor he had hypertension and any athletic activity at all would ruin his heart.
The dynamic duo of Campbell and Whitaker was coached by George Reynolds.
“Coach Reynolds was a blessing to Oneonta,” said Campbell during an interview. “He was natural winner at anything he did.
“He had a very competitive personality with a lot of sophistication. A very powerful coach. Tennis may not have developed the way it did here if it wasn’t for him.”
After high school, Campbell stayed local to further his educational and athletic careers, receiving the Dewar Scholarship from Hartwick College where he pursued a physics degree with a minor in mathematics. While at Hartwick, Campbell played the #1 and #2 positions on the tennis court, and served up a brilliant career going 30-1.
“The one I lost, I shouldn’t have,” said Campbell, “I guess I just got over confident.”
After college, he became a research engineer for the Bendix and Westinghouse, and a project engineer (applied physics) for the General Signal.
Throughout his career, Campbell coached tennis at two prestigious NYC area schools: Kew Forest School, Forest Hills, and the Wardlaw School, Plainfield, N.J. He now lives in Binghamton, where teaches tennis and is active in the area politics.
P.S. Last week’s “Blast” on John Whitaker brought a call that he has has discovered 150 species of parasitic mites of mammals new to science.

Labels: 04-24-09, Blasts From the Past, Chris McSwiggin, Hometown Sports

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