Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

SUNY ONEONTA TO GRADUATE 1,577

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Thousands of parents, family members, alumni and friends will populate the City of the Hills this weekend to honor 1,577 graduates at SUNY Oneonta’s 120th commencement Saturday, May 16, in Dewar Field House.
Ceremonies are planned at 10 a.m. and noon, followed by divisional ceremonies, where grads will receive diplomas and awards.
Honorary doctorates will be presented to Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler. Both will deliver commencement addresses.
Dr. Nancy Kleniewski will preside at her first commencement as SUNY Oneonta president, along with Patrick Brown, College Council chair.
SUNY Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching will be presented to Renee Walker, Anthropology, Brian Beitzel, Education Psychology, and Betty Winchester, secretary in Communication Arts.
Speakers will include senior class President Sarah Cascone and Student Association President Dean McGowan.
The Catskill Brass will premier “Recessional, Oneonta, 2009,” by its director,Carleton Clay, dedicated to Alexandra Kraus and her fellow graduates of the Class of 2009.

Labels: 05-15-09, Front Page

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WEEKEND’S BEST BETS

BIKING BENEFIT: Bicycle anywhere in the Western Catskills, from 14 to 104 miles, to benefit Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, beginning at 8 a.m. in Margaretville. Registration $25. Blue Maneuvers will perform and Mary’s Cookin’ Again will serve chicken barbecue 2-5 p.m. Check centralcatskills.org/bike

BELLY DANCING: “Badra Bahiya” and “Main Street Caravan” will perform at 8:15 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at My Father’s Place, 5690 Route 7, Emmons. $5 cover charge.

ANIMAL ART: David Kiehm’s animal paintings and Jonathan Dowdall’s decoys are on display at the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts, 11 Ford Ave., Oneonta.

DANCIN’, DANCIN’: Dance to tunes from the’70s and’80s at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at the Foothills Performing Arts Center. DJ.

BOOK TALK: Author Deborah Blake will read excerpts from her new book, “The Goddess is in the Details: Wisdom for the Everyday Witch,” at 7 p.m. Friday, May 22, at the Green Toad Book Store, 198 Main St., Oneonta.

AERIAL PHOTOS: Oneonta native Sherman Fairchild pioneered aerial photography. Find out about him in a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian at the Greater Oneonta Historical Society, 183 Main St.

MORE DANCIN’: The Blue Ribbon Cloggers perform at 8 p.m. Friday, May 15, at St. James Manor, Route 47, Town of Oneonta. Free. All welcome.

Labels: 05-15-09, In The City of the Hills, weekend's best bets

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Extending The Harvesting Of Greens

JANO NIGHTINGALE

AS YOUR GARDEN GROWS

Antoinette Kuzminski of Fly Creek has more greens each spring than she and husband Adrian can eat, so they give them away to friends.
“At this time of year, we are harvesting bags of spinach and mache (corn salad) that were planted in March and have been growing for over a month,” said Dr. Kuzminski, a Bassett Healthcare physician. “Seeds of ‘Tango’ and ‘Rouge D’Iver’ Lettuce, in another part of our home greenhouse, were sown in September, and now are producing beautiful red-green leaves.”
Many components of their four-season greenhouse are recycled materials, and water is brought in by an ingenious frost-free hydrant which uses no electricity. As Antoinette operates the hand pump that leads to the greenhouse hose, it is obvious that this is a serious undertaking.
She and her husband, a visiting philosopher at Hartwick College, consider energy conservation as part of their everyday life, and there is no electricity or heat used in the greenhouse. They are founding members of Sustainable Otsego, formed in 2008 to encourage stewardship of natural resources.
The basic structure of the greenhouse was a kit that the Kuzminskis ordered from Rimol Greenhouse Systems in New Hampshire. Advisers from the company provided assistance on their site, which was especially helpful to first-time greenhouse growers.
“I love the ambience of the structure,” said Antoinette, “especially on a sunny day in winter.
“The whole experience has been a learning curve. Some things we did right and others just didn’t work. A serious problem during our first season was an invasion of moles that burrowed their way under the edges of the wooden beams supporting the structure.
“Although I did not want to, I ended up using poison to kill them, since they ate their way through each raised bed and destroyed almost all of the seedlings.”
According to Eliot Coleman’s “The Four-Season Harvest” (Mothers Bookshelf, Maine): “In October, if gardeners sow lettuce and spinach, you could be eating the greens in March or April. The seeds will sit in the soil over the winter and germinate in the spring months. We began to pay attention to the fact that once past the middle of November most of the crops were not growing much anymore.
“They were just sort of hibernating and waiting for us to come and harvest them. In other words, we were not actually extending the growing season as you would with a heated greenhouse, we were extending the harvest season.”
As Dr. Kuzminski remarked, “Once the greens start to grow in March, they have a sweeter taste, more so than any other greens I have ever tasted. And we are able to eat them much earlier than the usual spring outdoor sowing.
“Although the spinach and mache might freeze overnight, during the warmth of the day they will defrost and be completely edible.”
Spinach and mache are popular “chilling resistant” crops. Other winter crops include arugula, tatsoi and minzuna. Many of these can survive winter’s freezes as long as they have some protection.
Many growers use remay, a covering that goes over the crop on the coldest nights, and removed during as the temperature rises during the daytime in the greenhouse.
More information about extending the harvest can be found at Eliot Coleman’s website www.fourseasonfarm.com

Jano Nightingale is a community gardener and works with adults and children on their gardens in Otsego County.

Labels: 05-15-09, AS YOUR GARDEN GROWS, The City of the Hills

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’09 Is Miller Time In Oneonta, As Dick, Erik Run For Mayor

Democrats Pick Hartwick Ex-President; GOP Chooses Alderman

By JIM KEVLIN

Jones, Smith, jump back.
Miller is the most common surname in the U.S.
Still, it’s unusual to have two people with the same surname running for the same office.
But when it happens, as – absent primary challenges – is likely in the City of Oneonta this November, odds are it will be Millers.
Richard P. Miller, the retired Hartwick College president, has won the backing of city Democratic leaders. (There is no formal city Democratic committee.) He still has a few hurdles to cross, but is likely to be selected at the county convention June 8.
Erik Miller, Common Council member and Otsego County Conservation Association executive director, has been endorsed by the city Republican committee.
Jason Corrigan, a SUNY Oneonta student from Clifton Park, had sought the Democratic line, but will run regardless on the Unifying Oneonta ticket.
Dick Miller wanted the endorsement of both parties, and is also establishing a Collaborate for Oneonta party to appeal to independents.
Because “I intend to run a non-partisan government” – he said he intends to regardless – “this appeared to be the best way to do it,” he said.
Said Erik Miller, “I don’t believe any person deserves any easy walk into office. No one deserves a free ride.”
Dick Miller, whose 55 Maple Street LLC consulting firm has a contract with the city and Otsego County to revitalize downtown Oneonta, mentioned that issue first.
Second, “the aesthetic quality of our neighborhoods,” which he described as “generally very well-kept properties and an occasional poperty that isn’t well kept.”
Third, a new mayoral structure. And, fourth, how to forestall the cost of local government from rising in the face of declining sales tax revenues and state support.
Erik Miller cited economic concerns first, with the likely decline of revenue sources “a huge issue that no one’s really talking about yet.”
His goal, he said, would be to provide incentives to encourage the growth of the tax base.
The state of downtown, he said, creates “a smile with a missing tooth,” and needs to be looked at. But, he continued, the city is more than the downtown: There is considerable commercial development outside the downtown as well.
Dick Miller was born in Norfolk, Va., and raised in Pittsford, the Rochester suburb. After graduating from Middlebury College with a B.A. in sociology, he lived in 11 different communities while in the military, the graphics arts industry and, for a short time, the skiing industry.
Some of them, he said, were outstanding places, like Boulder, Colo., and Portland. Others, like Laughton, Okla., were less so, so he experienced the gamut.
Returning to Rochester, he joined the Case Hoyt Corp., a graphics art concern, as a sales trainee and rose to president as the company’s gross rose from $20 million to $120 million. He remained there for 17 years, continuing for a few years after it was sold to Bell Canada Enterprises.
He had served on boards with University of Rochester president Dennis O’Brien, who convinced Miller to joined the college as vice president for external affairs and special assistant to the president in 1987, where he rose to senior VP and chief operating officer over 13 years.
In 2000, Bob King, the former Monroe County executive who Governor Pataki had made SUNY chancellor, recruited Miller as budget director. By the time he was brought to Hartwick College as president in February 2002, he was SUNY vice chair and COO.
Because he lacked an advanced degree, he never expected to be a college president, he said, “but Hartwick’s challenges were more business challenges than academic challenges.”
His goal? Building revenues, and he was credited with putting Hartwick College on a much stronger financial footing before retiring last year, (although the Oneonta college’s endowment has taken a hit in the ongoing recession.)
Dick Miller has two sons by a first marriage, ages 40 and 37, and two grandchildren. His wife and partner in 55 Maple, Andi, has three children, twin 17-year-old sons and a daughter, 14, at OHS. The family has two dogs, Brussels Griffons.
“I really feel terrific,” he said the day after his nomination was reported. “It’s the first day I’ve multi-tasked since I left Hartwick.”
Erik Miller is a native of Perth Amboy, N.J., who came north to SUNY Delhi, where he received a two-year nursing degree. After college, he and wife Kelly “travelled around,” but – with his father having bought a home in Delaware County, and her family living in the Finger Lakes – it made sense to settle in Oneonta, which they did in 1998.
Working as a nurse at A.O. Fox Hospital, he obtained his four-year degree, in geography and urban planning, at SUNY Oneonta, and joined the county Planning Department as an associate planner.
After three years, he joined the state Department of State, providing land-use and planning services in localities from Long Island to Buffalo. The daily commute from Oneonta to Albany caused him to look closer to home, and he joined the OCCA in 2005; nine months later, he was elevated to executive director.
During his tenure, OCCA’s emphasis has shifted from grass-roots campaigns on environmental causes to working within the system; in particular, he said, using SEQR to ensure environmentally objectionable projects don’t happen. OCCA has also been a consultant on downtown renewal efforts (Milford) and in Oneonta’s updating of its comprehensive plan.
Also notable during his tenure has been a fundraising effort – OCCA’s first – that brought in $300,000.
While he and Kelly are now separated, he said they maintain amicable relations and “I have her vote.” The couple has three daughters, Mary, 10, Lily, 8, and Frances, 6, pupils at Center Street School.
“There’s been a lot of talk about economic development,” he said. “But you have to be able to work with downtown businesses. The best way to get businesses to thrive is to have businesses help themselves, not a top-down approach. Incentives, not dictating.”

Labels: 05-15-09, Front Page

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City of the Hills

CHANCELLOR DUE: Dr. Nancy Simpher, new SUNY chancellor, will be making her first visit to the Oneonta campus 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday, June 8. The former University of Cincinnati president begins the $490,000 job June 1.

HELP ON WAY: The United Way is alerting food banks that additional allocations have been received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, $15,271 for Delaware County and $19,680 for Otsego. Applications are due by Tuesday, May 19. To get one, call 432-8006.

GOP SPEAKER: Stamford native Brett Joshpe, co-author of “Why You’re Wrong About the Right: The Surprising Truth About Conservatives,” will keynote the Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday, May 16, at the Holiday Inn Southside. Call your local Republican town chair for tickets.

LONG READ: A “marathon read” of Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 16, at the Bright Hill Center in Treadwell, as part of the BIG READ. Volunteers will read the book until it’s finished. Admission is free.

ARCURI HONORED: National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association has named U.S. Rep. Mike Arcuri, D-24, its “Legislator of the Year” for “his commitment to improving fire safety and crime prevention for senior citizens.”

FLUSHED HYDRANTS: The city Water Department is continuing to flush hydrants. If you have any questions, call 432-2100.

SHINING AT U.N.: SUNY Oneonta’s delegation to the Model United Nations in New York City recently, led by Dr. Robert W. Compton, was the only delegation to win four awards at the highest level.

Labels: 05-15-09, Front Page

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Locals

OHS Seniors Win State Scholarships

The Oneonta High School winners of the New York State Scholarships for Academic Excellence are from left, back, Keith Toombs, Joseph Sastic and Zane Relethford, middle, Jessie Matus and Emily Shea, front, Salutatorian Rachel Fox and Valedictorian Hannah Lawson.
Each of the scholarship winners received $500 except for Hannah, who received $1,500. Hannah plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study aeronautical and astronautical engineering. Rachel will attend the Franklin W. Olin School of Engineering in Needham, Mass. to study engineering.

2009 Regional Envirothon Champions

The Oneonta High School Envirothon team ranked first when schools from the region met for the hands-on science competition in Glimmerglass State Park on Wednesday, May 6. The winning team is made up of students, from left, Audrey Bitzer, Rachel Fox, Eunice Ko, Jessie Matus and Gwyneth Hyland.

WAITING FOR THE MUSIC

John Jurgensen, left, First United Methodist Church music director, Bruce Von Holtz, and Allison Jay Bookhout socialize waiting for the Sunday, May 10, concert of the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton to begin. More than 100 people attended, helping raise funds for the belltower repairs.

Labels: 05-15-09, Hometown People

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Good Stories, True Or Not

GLENN LINSENBARDT

THE PARTIAL OBSERVER

This year’s selection of “Tom Sawyer” for the BIG READ brought back some special memories of a visit
to Hannibal, Mo.
In the summer of 1973, my family took an annual trip to central Missouri to visit relatives from my father’s side. On the way home, we did a side trip to Hannibal and visited many historic sites mentioned in Mark Twain’s stories.
Tom Sawyer’s house and the white-washed fence were a favorite. Becky Thatcher’s house was nearby.
Each house was furnished as it would have been when the stories took place, complete with mannequins for each character. A Tom and Huck statue was in a prominent place on the main street. One display showed photos from Tom Sawyer movies that had been made in the past.
About that time, a movie was in theaters starring Johnny Whitaker as Tom Sawyer. Jodie Foster played Becky Thatcher.
Just to walk along the Mississippi River itself and imagine traveling many miles on a raft or navigating a steamboat around the sand bars and other obstacles was an exciting experience for a 9-year-old.
Of course, the character Tom Sawyer is said to be a combination of boys who lived in Hannibal at the time and were known by Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens).
How many of the stories, if any, are true we will never know, but like the flamingos returning to Leroy every spring, it makes a good story that everyone can enjoy.

Labels: 05-15-09, Columns

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
“Professor” Bogart, as the primal discoverer of the Oneonta mines is denominated, has been unearthing some bonanza ore at Carpenter’s Eddy, Delaware County, where no little excitement is created over the matter.
Mr. Bogart tells the people of the Eddy that “it is the richest outcroppings he ever saw; that it will pay $200 to the ton and that the hills are full of precious metals.”
Yes, and the woods are full of gullible people who are ready to take stock in all that he says.
May 1884

100 Years Ago
Reading, Writing & Arithmetic – My little boy is eight years old and goes to school each day; he doesn’t mind the tasks they set, they seem to him but play. He heads his class at raffia work, and also takes the lead at making dinky paper boats – but I wish that he could read. They teach him physiology, and oh, it chills our hearts, to hear our prattling innocent, mix up his inward parts. He also learns astronomy and names the stars by night; Of course, he’s very up to date – but I wish that he could write. They teach him things botanical; they teach him how to draw. He babbles of mythology and gravitation’s law. The discoveries of science to him are quite a fad. They tell me he’s a clever boy – but I wish that he could add.
May 1909

80 Years Ago
Motherhood – Whatever may have been the attitude of mankind in earlier ages of humanity, there is no question as to that of Christian peoples for the past 1,800 years as regards womanhood. Acknowledging always that Jesus is the Son of God, they have more and more come to realize his kindred to our race, and this through Mary, who was the type of true womanhood.
In earlier eras woman may have been ignored, neglected and oppressed, but there has been for this long, later period a strengthened impulse which in these days has come to acknowledge the finer spirit of womankind and how much of what is best has come to the race through what she has been, and is, and what she has done, and is doing.
This realization has in recent times manifested itself in the annual observance of Mother’s Day, and in a fashion in every way commendable. For living mothers it has been the bestowal of some worthy gift, not unusually of flowers, or of fruits or sweets.
May 1929

60 Years Ago
At the May meeting of the Otsego County Board of Supervisors, the board voted to appropriate an additional sum of $14,000 for the building fund of the Otsego County Home. This will make it possible to continue the outside redecoration of the buildings. The inside redecoration has nearly been completed.
Just before the close of the meeting, Mr. Schraft of Oneonta made a number of statements about laxity at the County Home. He commented on the meals at the home and charged that there were not a sufficient number of eggs for all the patients. A general discussion followed. The charges were precipitated by the recent suicide of Howard Callahan and the plunge from a window of Mrs. Stewart Utter.
May 1949

40 Years Ago
Mrs. Elizabeth M. (Gloria) Black, aged 50, of Oneonta, who was convicted last Wednesday of two charges of second degree abortion, was sentenced to a total of eight years in the Bedford Hills Prison for Women Monday in County Court by Judge Frederick W. Loomis.
During the trial seven prosecution witnesses were called by Otsego County District Attorney Joseph A. Mogavero of Unadilla. The sole defense witness called by Attorney Chester J. Winslow of Hartwick was Edgar N. Black, a used car dealer in Oneonta and husband of the defendant.
Mrs. Black was convicted of second degree abortion based on two incidents occurring on January 27 and February 1 of this year involving the same person.
May 1969

20 Years Ago
New York State Social Services Commissioner Cesar Perales estimates that more than 100,000 parents in New York State, the vast majority being men, owe at least $1,000 in child support payments. In Otsego, Delaware and Chenango counties there are close to 3,000 child support cases coming to court according to Colleen Murphy, administrative assistant for the Sixth Judicial District.
About 12 years ago, New York State centralized records for a new Support Collection Unit which receives and disperses child support payments. A Child Support Enforcement Collection Unit enforces support payments. In addition to taking money out of the delinquent parent’s paycheck, the Child Support Enforcement Unit can bring the person in front of a hearing examiner.
May 1989

10 Years Ago
Diane M. Georgeson, M.D., a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, joined the staff of Bassett Healthcare on May 1. She attended high school in Oneonta, where her parents still reside. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where she graduated magna cum laude. She is the niece of Dr. Joseph Lunn, who was Physician-in-Chief at Bassett from 1972 to 1979.
After receiving her medical degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington she completed her residency at Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital in Portland. She is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her areas of special interest include postpartum depression, high risk obstetrics, menopause mid-life transition, and family planning.
May 1999

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

Labels: 05-15-09, Hometown History

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‘Ideals Of The Gettysburg Address’

Editor’s Note: John Erwood, Oneonta eighth grader, won the DAR American History Essay Contest, awarded Saturday, May 9, at a luncheon at the Oneonta Masonic Lodge. This is his essay.

The Gettysburg Address was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863, in Pennsylvania during the American Civil War after the Union armies fought those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.
President Abraham Lincoln was in the White House when he wrote this speech, but made many changes and corrections to it on his train ride to Gettysburg. Although his speech took only a few minutes, it was heartfelt and touched many individuals.
Lincoln felt that Edward Everett’s long speech, which was before his, would be unforgettable. But his would be.
The Gettysburg Address, communicated to our war-torn nation, was a blessing to those who died in the American Civil War.
“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain,’’ said Abe Lincoln in his famous speech. What Lincoln meant was that no person who died fighting in the Civil War died for nothing. They didn’t die for a bad cause. Because of their devotion to their country they died for a good cause, American freedom.
President Lincoln didn’t realize his speech would touch the lives of many for years to come. The Gettysburg Address was a very important speech that was given by President Lincoln the day after one of the bloodiest single-day battles in American history.
Lincoln tried using this speech to bring down the rebellion in hopes that the South would rejoin the union. Lincoln told the people that if they failed to stop the rebellion, their self-government would vanish and could be replaced by a government ruled by nobility.
These ideas are still relevant today because those who serve in the military still risk their lives every day to protect our freedom, rights and well being. These people who serve should be honored and respected for their hard work, dedication and bravery. Those people will not die in vain because of their devotion to their country and the people in it.
In his speech Lincoln made the statement, “This nation shall have a new birth of freedom.” What he meant was that after the war was over, black individuals all around the country would have their own rights. There would no longer be slavery amongst the blacks. Lincoln’s speech was dedicated to living individuals and those who lost their lives fighting for their country. I, personally, have many family members who serve in the U.S. military. Some of these members are overseas at this moment fighting for our country and our safety. Through seeing and hearing different experiences I have learned to appreciate our freedom and safety, not only as an individual, but as a country. Not only do I have family in the military, but so do millions of others throughout the world.
These people will continue to fight for the safety and freedom and well being of ourselves and our family members. There are people dying every day fighting in the Iraqi war for our country. Being an American and having the freedom that I have really makes me stop and think about all the history that has happened to get me to this place in time.
There are innocent people dying all over the world each day which is why it is so important for us all to respect and care for each other in this day and age and throughout the future.

Labels: 05-15-09, Hometown Views

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Letters to the Editor

Global Warming Hurts Women, Girls Most

To the Editor:
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is debating comprehensive climate change legislation drafted by Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey.
Too few people realize how disproportionately women and girls are affected by social, economic and environmental pressures.
In sub-Saharan Africa, droughts are becoming more severe. As a consequence, girls spend more timelooking for water and less time in school. Women farmers who rely on rain for growing subsistence crops are finding it even more difficult to feed their families.
Climate change is aggravating the number and severity of natural disasters and women and children are far more likely to die in these disasters than men.
In the 2004 Asian tsunami, male survivors outnumbered females by three or four to one. In the U.S., low-income elderly women are a high-risk group for fatalities during heat waves – which are expected to increase in coming years.
The poorest one billion persons on the planet (many of whom are women and children) contributed the least to climate change. They should not be expected to shoulder the greatest burden adjusting to it.
The Waxman-Markey bill needs improving in two ways:
1) It must offer specific and substantial adaptation funding. At least 7 percent of the money earned from selling carbon allowances should be set aside for this purpose.
2) Adaptation funding must be directed to those communities and people who are most at risk and vulnerable to the economic and environmental consequences of climate change.
By adopting strong adaptation measures, Congress will ensure the funds are spent wisely and effectively – addressing long-standing social concerns in the U.S. and abroad while also helping communities adapt to economic and environmental challenges they had little hand in creating.
DOROTHY SCOTT FIELDER
Member
United Methodist Women’s
National Green Team

One (NYRI) Down, One (Natural-Gas Drilling) To Go

To the Editor,
Kudos to opponents of the NYRI corridor for their success in forestalling this threat to our rural region.
We were also encouraged by Senator Seward’s words in a recent radio broadcast that he would never permit an industry to exercise eminent domain, and surprised to learn that he had been instrumental in securing funds from the State to oppose NYRI.
On the other hand, we were disheartened to hear of the industry’s intent to pursue this energy corridor at the federal level.
In December 2008, Otsego County’s Board of Representatives adopted Resolution 344-20081203 stating its opposition to the erection of an electric transmission line.
What we fail to understand is how these same elected officials can hide under the cloak of “home rule” when presented with our concerns about gas drilling.
With perhaps only one exception, the issues addressed in the NYRI Resolution are almost identical to those we have repeatedly voiced about the potential destruction of our region from natural gas drilling.
However, the impact of the NYRI transmission line pales in comparison to the overall devastation that may result from natural gas drilling.
Hydrofracking presents a clear and present danger – a cultural and economic threat – a threat not only to our health and wellbeing, but also to the natural beauty for which our region is prized.
To put this looming threat in proper perspective, soon more than 20 percent of all available land in Otsego County will have been leased for drilling.
As for eminent domain, we fail to understand how this differs in any way from the DEC’s “compulsory integration” orders.
We who are working tirelessly to protect our region’s pristine environment, beauty and clean water sources from natural gas drilling invite the members of the NYRI opposition forces to join with us in our efforts to preserve and protect our region.
MAUREEN DILL
Morris

Labels: 05-15-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor

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Otsego, Cooperstown Chambers Should Protect Baseball, If Hall Won’t

Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, A-Roid.
“That’s five of the top 12,” Buffalo News columnist Mike Harrington wrote the other day.
Now, add Manny Ramirez.
“This was not just Manny being Manny,” Harrington penned. “This was cheating. This was masking steroid use with, of all things, female fertility drugs. This was yet another way to get a one-way ticket to a closed door when the time comes for Cooperstown.
“This is yet another strike against the all-time home run list, what was once one of the sacred stat grounds of sports. Now it reads like a perp walk.”
From a business perspective, there goes another gold-plated Induction Weekend down the drain for Cooperstown and Otsego County businesspeople and the people they have on their payrolls.
The cost in lost business around here from these six alone has to be in the millions.
When baseball is in good odor, summers are sterling around here. When it’s in bad odor, the impact is immediate.
(Vinny Russo, owner of Mickey’s Place and dean of this generation of Main Street baseball merchandisers, recalls the very weekend in 1994 when the impending baseball strike caused the bottom to fall out of his business. The Hall of Fame has never recovered, as the gate peaked at just over 400,000 that year, then dropped to 300,000 today.)
•
April 25 was another sad day for the Hall of Fame.
One of the game’s enduring and foremost legends, Hank Aaron, was in town to cut the ribbon on a permanent exhibition commemorating his career, one of only a handful of heroes so honored.
In the speeches, it was noted that, 33 years after his retirement, he is still the all-time leader in runs batted in, total bases and extra-base hits, and that he still ranks second in home runs.
Second in home runs? Bill Bartholomay, owner of the Braves who brought the team – and Aaron – from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966, was having none of it.
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s the all-time home-run leader,” said Bartholomay, who cut the ribbon on the exhibit along with Aaron and his wife Billie, and HoF President Jeff Idelson. “He did it without any cloud or deception. It speaks for itself.”
Aaron hit his record 755th home run on July 20, 1976, and that record went unchallenged until Aug 7, 2007, when Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run. However, Bonds was dogged for years by allegations – still unresolved ˜ that he used steroids to artificially enhance his skills.
Steroids and other illegal substances have Major League Baseball in a trap. MLB can’t say: Go ahead, fellas, use what you will. The crash in attendance at L.A. Dodger games since the Manny revelations shows how ruinous it would be.
But it’s been unable to implement a vigorous, consistent and effective program to drive steroids and HGH out of the game. Manny’s 50-game suspension, which is costing him $15 million, is a step in the right direction, but the MLB, under Bud Selig, hasn’t communicated to the public that it means business.
•
The National Baseball Hall of Fame (& Museum) has put itself in the same trap with the MLB, but it doesn’t have to be there and oughtn’t be.
Freeman’s Journal style drops the “& Museum,” because the Hall’s been using the moniker consistently to try wash its hands of both scandal and standard-setting: We only record what’s happened, is the party line.
But scholarship doesn’t give anyone a pass on values.
Frankly, hearing Hank Aaron praised, but not for his foremost accomplishment, at the April 25 ribbon-cutting must have made many a listeners’ skin crawl.
It was a disgrace.
If Barry Bonds cheated, did he indeed break Aaron’s record? Clearly not. If the Hall won’t call him on it, then it is condoning cheating and illegal drug use in our National Pastime.
It’s a value judgment, a pretty clear one. By promoting bad odor, the Hall is hurting itself. But it’s not hurting only itself: Otsego County’s fortunes rise or fall, to a degree, with baseball. It’s hurting all of us.
If the Hall of Fame can’t stand up and be counted, then someone else should. Because of the critical importance of a clean game to our region, why shouldn’t the Otesgo County and Cooperstown chambers of commerce take on cleaning up baseball as an issue – better, a crusade?
Whether or not baseball is pure, the Hall of Fame – “Cooperstown,” the concept, not the place – needs to be a beacon of the ideal of baseball’s purity.
If the Hall of Fame won’t live up to its responsibility, who will pick up the torch?

Labels: 05-15-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

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

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Whitaker, Putnam Extend Legacy

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

BLASTS FROM THE PAST

The NYSPHSAA Intersectional Tennis Doubles Champions for 1955 and 1956 were Oneonta’s William Whitaker and Pete Putnam. Bill, the brother of previously featured John Whitaker, and Pete defeated the top-seeded team from Garden City, L.I.
Uniquely, they won the Intersectional twice. Both were coached by George Waddington, who succeeded coach George Reynolds.
Oneonta, which had provoked Long Island teams with victories past, had to win in the most hostile of environments – the Garden City Country Club. The team they defeated to win the second title was also from Garden City. However, this tournament was held at the West Point. These two outstanding athletes helped to forever change the face of Oneonta athletics, and set the tone for the greats to come.
Bill was also on the 1955 undefeated (7-0-1) football team that defeated Elmira Free Academy with the legendary Ernie Davis. The year they won the second tennis title, Bill was also the co-captain and quarterback of the 1956 OHS football team.
He earned an astonishing eight varsity letters (three in football, two in basketball, and three in tennis). Leaving OHS, he went on to the Naval Academy, graduating in 1961. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1967.
He retired from the Navy 1981 with the rank of commander, joining FSC Securities in Oneonta as a stockbroker.
Bill is married to Hartwick College Spanish Professor Esperanza Roncero, and the couple has two children, Carmen Maria, 4, and Lucas, 2. Esperanza directs Hartwick’s J-Term trip to Spain, and Bill accompanies her.
Pete Putnam graduated from the University of Rochester in 1961. At OHS, he played tennis and basketball and earned seven varsity letters. He went to Boys State in 1956 and made first team in All Iroquois League basketball in 1957.
One of his biggest accolades, came from winning the 1957 Oneonta City Tennis Tournament’s Singles Championship in an epic five-hour, five-set final match.
“That match was against Nick Lambros,” said Putnam. “He... could return anything. I was bleeding through my sneakers, my feet were so blistered. That match still hangs with me like it was yesterday.”

While at U of R, he played #1 position for the men’s singles team for three years, losing only three times. He also played a year of varsity basketball.
In 1965, Pete attended the University of Buffalo Dental School on Regents Scholarship. He got married the same year. Soon after, Pete completed a 1 year dental internship for the U.S. Public Health Service at the U.S.P.H. Hospital on Staten Island, NY.
Pete joined Coast Guard in 1968 with the equivalent rank of lieutenant, running a dental clinic in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He currently practices dentistry in New Hartford, where he continues to play tennis as much as possible and also golf.
Pete recently celebrated his 43rd wedding anniversary with his wife, Jo Ann. They have two children and two grandchildren.
“I love watching sports in general-be it tennis, baseball basketball-I always have a sporting event on” said Putnam, who recently had surgery on his shoulder, “but I want to play some golf this summer.”

Labels: 05-15-09, Blasts From the Past, Hometown Sports

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 8:32 PM 0 comments

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AN OX IS SIMPLY......Whatever, But Dan Conklin Keeps Settlers’ Skill Alive

By JIM KEVLIN

HARTWICK

An ox is simply a castrated bull.
There it is.
The operation, as you might expect, shifts the bull’s hormonal balance and characteristics more typical in a cow – placidity, pliancy – come to the fore.
Imagine harnessing a bull to a plow. With an ox, you’re harnessing the strength without the aggression.
Dan Conklin will tell you this matter-of-factly, and much more.
“I didn’t start in cold,” said Conklin, who was raised on a farm in Woodstock, Vt., and knew his way around animals. “I wasn’t an expert. I’m not an expert now.”
The other day, though, he soon had effortlessly yoked Nip and Tuck, his two young oxen, and with a “huish!” and a “gee!” and a “haw!” was directing them across Pleasant Valley Road to visit the elder – and massive – Pollux, sitting placidly in the gently rising meadow.
Conklin’s renewed acquaintance with oxen began eight years ago when he stopped by Billy Balcom’s in Mount Vision shortly after a pair of twin Holsteins had arrived.
“They’re cute,” said Dan.
“Take them home,” said Balcom.
And so it began.
“You get a plow and head out,” Conklin said of his training method. “The more you do, the more you learn.”
He used the team to plow a sizeable vegetable garden.
Many of Otsego County’s original settlers were hauled over rough roads from New England by ox-drawn carts. (One of the originals, it is said, is still owned by the original family in the Town of Burlington.)
Today, not many, but some other farmers have oxen, and Dan, Castor and Pollux would make a point of attending Danny Decker’s plowing day each spring and the corn harvest in the fall.
“The big ones ran away with me a couple of times,” said Conklin when asked about trouble spots in his relationship with his animals. “I didn’t make a big deal out of it.”
He calmly turned them around and guided them back to the furrow.
Other than that, oxen occasionally flip and the yokes end up reversed.
Incidentally, Dan makes the yokes as well. The larger one was crafted from the remains of an old elm behind the house that had died. The smaller yoke is cherry.
Trained as a blacksmith at The Farmers’ Museum, he forged the iron fixings.
All was well on Pleasant Valley Road until last fall, when Castor ate wilted cherry leaves, and quickly died. The leaves contain cyanide, the vet told Conklin.
A short time later, Conklin was visiting Cliff and Patty Brunner, who run that organic dairy near Hartwick Seminary, and there were two more cute newborns.
Nip and Tuck were soon in harness back at the Conklin place.
Dan Conklin must be doing something right.
The year-old team won him the grand champion ox teamster title at the Billings Farm & Museum annual Plowing Competition, held for the 23rd time Sunday, May 3, in Conklin’s Woodstock hometown.
Assisted by plowman Wayne Coursen of Edmeston, Nip and Tuck placed third in the walking-plow competition and first in the sulky-plow class.
After his Vermont boyhood, Dan Conklin spent two years at Harvard, then finished up at UMass’s ag school. “Nothing else really interested me very much,” he said of his chosen vocation. (He has two brothers; one is a farmer in New Hampshire, the other is retired from the federal government in Washington, D.C.)
A dozen years followed in Wyoming, raising beef cows, mostly Herefords. Then, 25 years ago, he bought a farm in the Town of Richfield, which reminded him of his home area. He moved to a farm in Otego before finally finding the acreage in the Town of Hartwick.
Along the way, he met his wife, Andree, who is active on town commissions and in cultural groups around the county.
By now, Conklin has driven the team up to Pollux, who, lying down, looks deceptively small. He breaks out laughing at the visitor’s surprise when the huge ox rises, 2,800 towering pounds of beef.
“A lot of people have horses,” said Conklin,” and they’re no more work than horses.”
“Patience,” he advises. “That’s the biggest thing.”

Labels: 05-15-09, The City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:46 PM 0 comments

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THEY’RE THE TOPS: Chancellor’s Award Winners Loved 4 Years Spent In Oneonta

By LAURA COX

A happy place. A friendly place. A beautiful place.
That’s why the four top students in the Class of 2009 – winners of the coveted SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence – chose to spend the past four years at SUNY Oneonta.

“I could see people were happy here, there is a charm to this place,” said Dennis Dorf of Brooklyn, who plans to be a doctor.
The three others – Carleigh Bettiol of Oneonta, Amanda Carmichael of Stafford and Sarah Cascone, also from Brooklyn – said similar things when interviewed in the days leading up to SUNY Oneonta’s 120th Commencement, Saturday, May 16.
Amanda was sold by the way people smiled and said hello when she was in the city for her campus tour.
Sarah cited friendly tour guides and the scenic beauty of the City of the Hills.
Carleigh knew her hometown better than anyone and, after a couple of semester away, was drawn home. (A dancer, she also praised the opportunity offered by the Terpsichorean Dance Company. )
The four are members of a class made up of 229 music industry majors, 115 childhood education majors, 108 psychology majors, 104 communication studies majors and 100 business economics majors, to name the top five most popular fields of study. Following closely behind are human ecology, mass communications and biology.
To receive the Chancellor’s Award, each demonstrated academic excellence, plus qualities of leadership, athletics, community service, creative and performing arts, entrepreneurship and career achievement.
A December graduate, Carleigh Bettiol majored in business economics, following in the footsteps of her father, the late Eugene Bettiol Jr., and grandfather Eugene Bettiol Sr. She danced with the Terpsichorean for all five semesters at SUNY Oneonta, serving as treasurer, secretary and vice president. She was named as one of the colleges “Best and Brightest.” Since graduation, she’s pursuing a career in the theater out of New York City, landing a role in “Guys and Dolls” at the Armory Theater in Janesville, Wisc. Next she will head to Indiana for two months of summer stock theater.
Amanda Carmichael has a double major, in adolescent education and Spanish. She just finished a semester student teaching at Milford Central School. She was a residence adviser for three semesters and participated as secretary in the National Residence Hall Honorary. She was building manager at the Morris Conference Center. She organized two Box World events on campus to raise awareness about homelessness. After graduation, she’s off to Columbus, Ohio, with her fiancé, a veterinary student, where she wants to teach secondary school Spanish.
Sarah Cascone double-majored in communication studies and psychology. She is the president of the Senior Class as well as the president of the College Union Activities Council, where she was instrumental in helping to plan OH Fest. She was named one of the college’s “Best and Brightest” and worked as Hunt Union building manager. Sarah plans to move back to Brooklyn and live at home for a few months as she pursues a career in event planning for large corporations. She has an interview scheduled for the week after graduation.
Dennis Dorf will graduate with a major in English, two minors, in chemistry and biology, and a pre-med concentration. He is a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity where he served at community service chair his junior year and president his senior. Named one of SUNY Oneonta’s “Best and Brightest”, Dennis worked a work study job in the fitness center and was a resident advisor. After graduation Dennis will attend Stony Brook Medical Center for Public Health where he will work towards his Masters in Public Health and concentrate on children’s infectious diseases. A first-generation American from a Russian family, he is the first in his family to go to college.
When asked about the SUNY experience the students were all quick to say they think the state school experience, especially SUNY Oneonta, is down played and high school students should know it’s true value – word must have gotten out as the school recorded a record number of applicants this year.

Labels: 05-15-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:42 PM 0 comments

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