Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

CYRUS MEHRI: Keynote Address

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from attorney Cyrus Mehri’s commencement speech.

Class of 2009, ... your pursuit of truths at Hartwick will serve you well in this new era of responsibility. You will have many turning points in your pursuit of truths.
Let me tell you about my turning points. Twenty-six years ago this month, as my Hartwick graduation approached, I felt the excitement and uncertainty most of you are feeling right now. I spent a whole day at Hartwick’s Environmental Campus, Pine Lake, grappling with what future path to take.
...As I hiked around Pine Lake on path after path – anxiously pondering the upcoming commencement and what might follow, I reflected on my four years at Hartwick. I thought back on my turning point, a semester in Washington, D.C., interning for an environmental group.
During my freshman and sophomore years, I was a B student. I had flawed study habits and took few notes in the classroom – in order, so I thought, to absorb more in the classroom by not taking notes. Obviously, “no notes” was “no help” when it came time to study for exams. During the internship in Washington, where I worked on stopping wasteful dam projects that threatened the environment, I became energized and focused. I discovered a public interest community dedicated to working “within the system” to change public policy, an idea that deeply resonated with me.
I returned with a keen sense of purpose, with much better study habits, and earned straight A’s the rest of my college career...
That day at Pine Lake, I also thought about the many subjects I took at Hartwick. I remember feeling humbled, very humbled, pondering the classes that touched on infinity. Geology classes by Dr. Titus, ... examined rocks going back millions and millions of years. Astronomy programs by Dr. Gan covered the countless stars above. Other classes touched on big ideas, like Dr. Konecky’s philosophy class on existentialism, or Dr. Wandersee’s American history classes. Dr. Kang’s political philosophy classes studied the likes of Locke, Rousseau, and Jefferson. Pondering these big-picture classes profoundly humbled me.
Against this backdrop, it came to me that each person’s life is just a tiny grain of sand among millions. Each of us, just a small grain of sand. That is a truly humbling thought. But then, suddenly, I had a revelation – another turning point. I realized that each of us actually has the profound power to choose what we do with our small grain of sand. Making the most of our grain of sand is extraordinarily empowering.

Labels: 05-22-09, Hartwick College

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:23 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Hometown History

Thursday, May 21, 2009

125 Years Ago
Stocks & Panics – In the world of trade there is no more curious phenomenon than what is termed a “panic.” The flurry in Wall Street last week hardly deserves so grave a term, perhaps, when compared with the disasters of 1857 and 1873. Still, a panic it was, among stock jobbers, in general causes and incidents the same with the greater events named.

May 1884

100 Years Ago
Summer Fashion Fads Soon Vanish – Summer, you might suppose, is a brief “in-between” season, a season for relaxation in the world of dress, as in everything else. Unimportant novelties may be introduced, fads of the hour, which will be taken up quickly and completely forgotten again before the summer is well over. About things of that sort, “Everybody is wearing it” comes to have, with all superior, well-thinking people a very opposite meaning. It becomes exactly the reason why they should give it up. And, before long, nobody is wearing it!

May 1909

80 Years Ago
A new, streamlined iron horse of the wheels stood on a track in front of the Hudson River Day Line docks today on exhibition as the last word in modern locomotives, capable of drawing a train of seven heavy cars ninety miles an hour in the run from New York to Montreal.
This modern steel and iron engine is the property of the Delaware & Hudson railway, Engine No. 652. It is a Pacific type passenger locomotive, especially designed to haul the crack “Laurentian” from New York to Montreal at very high speed.
May 1929

60 Years Ago
Advertisement – The Academy Award Winner! Best Picture of the Year! Best Actor of the Year! Lawrence Olivier presents Hamlet by William Shakespeare – A Universal International Release – A.J. Arthur Rank Enterprise – Two Shows daily – Matinees Every Day at 2:30 pm; Evenings at 8:30 pm. Prices (all taxes included) Matinees $1.20 and $1.50; Evenings $1.20 and $1.80 – Reserved Seats Only – Two Days Only – Tuesday and Wednesday May 31 and June 1 – Mail Orders Now Accepted – Send Checks Made Out To Palace Theatre, Oneonta, Tel. 1072.
May 1949

40 Years Ago
With 90 percent of the world’s population now using the metric system of weights and measures, there can be little question that its universal adoption is only a matter of time. The United Kingdom is one of the last of the big European holdouts and it is to start “going metric” in 1970, with the changeover to be 80 percent complete by 1975. Another dozen nations have the plan under serious consideration.

May 1969

20 Years Ago
A new booklet designed to guide small business managers through the complexities of finding and hiring quality workers is being distributed by the Hartwick College Small Business Resource Center.

May 1989

10 Years Ago
U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell will hold a news conference in Shineman Chapel on the campus of Hartwick College on Friday, May 28th and will deliver the commencement address at the college exercises on Saturday. At her press conference Bushnell will discuss the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya on August 7th, 1998.
May 1999

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

Labels: 05-22-09, Hometown History

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 11:40 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

SUNY Graduation Brims With Affection, Deserved All Around

Many of you know Carol Blazina, SUNY Oneonta spokesperson. But you may not know that her many responsibilities include organizing graduation ceremonies, like the 120th Commencement last Saturday, May 16, at the Alumni Field House.
It was briskly orchestrated, perfectly paced. Since there are two ceremonies, at 10:30 a.m. and noon, to accommodate all 1,577 graduates and their families, they had to be, but that’s no mean accomplishment.
Carol had the whole event scripted. Everyone knew their role. And it was flawless.
Carlton Clay and The Catskill Brass, as always, played with authority. The bagpiping of the Mohawk Valley Frasers brought novelty to the processional. Graduating senior Joshua Rothberg’s rendering of The National Anthem – and Alma Mater at the end – was everything you might expect.
The honorees – novelist Robert Olen Butler and Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber (as it happens, president of the Class of 1979) – were asked to keep their speeches to five minutes, which – as you know if you’ve tried it – is a lot tougher than rambling on. (Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who confessed, “This letter would have been half the length if I had twice the time.”)
The Chancellor’s Awards – to Brian Beitzel (Educational Psychology), Renee Walker (Anthropology) and Betty Winchester (Communications Arts secretary) – and the many recognitions of individual students – Carleigh Bettiol of Oneonta among them – made it a particularly celebratory day.
One thing SUNY Oneonta does that other colleges would do well to duplicate: After the main ceremonies, divisional ceremonies are held where diplomas are distributed and the graduates individually recognized. This streamlines the main event, but takes nothing from the graduates’ special day.
What was most evident was the affection the graduates and their families and friends felt for the institution. Applause was full-bodied. The crowd was attentive. And smiles were much in evidence.
Also evident in the remarks – Don Garber got into particular detail, recalling his school days, three decades ago, when he bartended at The Black Oak on Water Street – was the affection expressed for the host city, Oneonta.
Clearly, a lot of people had a very good four years in the City of the Hills.
And it should be said Oneontans put effort into making it so. There are few university cities where the town-gown tensions are so subdued.
The Oneonta community likes having the colleges here, and it was nice to see – in the high spirits and good will of the 120th Commencement – that the affection is returned.

Labels: 05-22-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 11:37 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Burnsworth, All-Around Oneonta Athlete

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

BLASTS FROM THE PAST

This week’s legacy athlete sits high among the ranks in Oneonta’s great athletic history, as he accomplished an NYSPHSAA Intersectional Golf medal in 1982 and earned nine letters overall at OHS. His name is Kevin Burnsworth.
Kevin, who racked up six Varsity Golf letters and three Varsity Soccer letters, also played two years of varsity basketball; an all-around athlete to say the least. He also played baseball, but due to the one-sport rule, he was ruled out of playing baseball for OHS and had to play on the American Legion team, where he pitched a no-hitter against Morris.
In his senior year, Kevin was named co-winner of the Oneonta High School Athlete of the Year award and winner of the Oneonta Jaycee’s Service Award.
Kevin won the individual New York State Intersectional Golf Championship in June of 1982, playing under then head coach Tony Drago.
He finished second out of five qualifiers taken at the Cornell University Golf Course in Ithaca, New York. The amazing thing about Cornell run came a mere week later when he defeated soon to be professional John Hulbert in a sudden death playoff. This underdog victory marked OHS golf for some time, and provided the school’s lone state golf champion. “My grandfather on my mom’s side taught my dad” said Kevin, “and he taught me. I started when I was about 5.
“I was a country club rat”, said Kevin, “I was always hanging out around there and all the guys knew me. It was a passion of mine.”
After graduation, Kevin won the Otsego County Championship and holds the record score of 29 at Oneonta Country Club.
He attended Old Dominion University where he was given a full athletic scholarship and was promoted to co-captain of the golf team.
As a senior he again played against top competition facing, among others Davis Love, Jack Nicklaus Jr., Billy Andrade, Brad Faxon, and David Duval. Like them, Kevin also would soon turn pro.
As a PGA professional golfer, Kevin earned a spot in the B.C. Open PGA tournament, where he played along side Fred Couples, John Daly, and other greats.
Kevin has now been a PGA Golf Professional for 22 years, and has spent the last 10 as a Head Professional. He is the Head PGA Class “A” Golf Professional at Heritage Pines in Hudson, FL. He lives in New Port Richey, Florida, with his family and wife of 16 years.
He stills plays golf whenever he can and will be the first of our Blasts From the Past athletes to be inducted into the OHS Hall of Fame this fall.
“It is a huge honor to be recognized,” said Kevin. “Oneonta is a great place to grow up. I tell everyone to this day that it is my hometown and it always will be my hometown.”
Hometown Oneonta.
Burnsworth was recently called and told that he had been inducted into the hall of fame for OHS.
He was the first of the state champions to garner this honor. “It is a huge accomplishment. It is a huge honor to be recognized. I was the first to get in, so we have our foot in the door. Joe Campbell has been pushing hard.”
“I am going to try really hard to get the rest of my fellow state champs in there...it should be automatic if you win a state title. Oneonta is a great place to grow up and I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I tell everyone to this day that it is my hometown and it always will be my hometown.”
Hometown Oneonta.

Labels: 05-22-09, Blasts From the Past, Hometown Sports

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 11:22 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Trip To Butterfly Conservatory Whet Otsego Manor’s Appetite For Travel

By LAURA COX

INDEX

A couple of weeks ago, a Birnie Bus-load of Otsego Manor residents headed south on Route 28 to the Joseph L. Popp Jr. Butterfly Conservatory in Emmons.
“It was beautiful, I never saw so many butterflies before,” said May Archer, who said it’s the first time residents of the Manor’s Sleeping Lion household had gone on an excursion together since she moved there four years ago.
That revelation, the fun everybody had, and the realization that some folks haven’t left the Manor since they arrived, spurred staffers Sue Pylyoski, Amber Schilling and Marzena Gabron into action.
The result: A first-time benefit Chinese auction 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Thursday, June 4, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Friday, June 5, to raise money to underwrite regular field trips for the residents of the county-run facility. Drawings will take place at the conclusion of the second day.
It was the women of Sleeping Lion who, through bake sales, a raffle, and selling breakfast sandwiches raised enough for the trip to the Butterfly Conservatory on May 13 for half of their household. On May 27, the other half will go.
Trips are now planned to Glimmerglass State Park for a picnic, to the Fly Creek Cider Mill and on a boat tour of Otsego Lake.
The organizers hope the auction will raise enough money to do all this.

Laura Cox - The ladies of the Otsego Manor Sleeping Lion household gather to share excitement about the upcoming auction. In front, from left, are May Archer, Caroline Tuinkaus, Arlene Palmer, Beverley Thomas and Rosalie “Dolly” Angellotii; in back, Trudy Williams, Marzena Gabron, Ruth Youket, Erin Yaw, Merri Lynn Fish, Cindy Babcock and Amber Schilling. Missing are resident Elizabeth Peterson and organizer Sue Pylyoski.

Labels: 05-22-09, City of the Hills

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:53 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

WEEKEND’S BEST BETS

CLINTON REGATTA: The 47th annual canoe race takes off from Cooperstown’s Lake Front Park at 6 p.m. Memorial Day then proceeds through Oneonta to Bainbridge, where a weekend of carnival fun and entertainment is planned. Details at www.canoeregatta.org/

PARADES APLENTY: In addition to Oneonta’s Memorial Day parade at 10 a.m. in Neahwa Park, parades are planned at 9 a.m. in Sidney and Schuyler Lake, and 11 a.m. in Cooperstown.

HARTWICK CEREMONY: The Hartwick College class of 2009 will graduate at the 11:30 a.m. commencement ceremony held on Saturday, May 23 at Elmore Field.

NYSHA EXHIBITS: “America’s Rome” opens at The Fenimore Art Museum Saturday of Memorial Day, and “Wild Times, a New York Animal Road Trip,” at The Farmers’ Museum, both in Cooperstown.

JUNIOR IDOL: At 7 p.m. Friday, May 22, head over the to Moose Lodge to see the finalists in the Junior Oneonta Idol contest compete in the competition run by Central New York Radio Group. Winner in both the 13-16 and 17-19 age groups will be chosen.

UNDER THE STARS: 8:30 p.m. Friday, May 22, Glimmerglass State Park will offer a free outdoor movie of “Operation Dumbo Drop” in the West Shelter. Refreshments will be available, bring a blanket or folding chairs. Donations appreciated. Information, 547-8662.

BOOK TALK: 7 p.m. Friday, May 22, Green Toad Bookstore, 198 Main St., Oneonta. Author Deborah Blake will read excerpts from her New book, “The Goddess is in the Details.” Information, 433-8898, www.greentoadbookstore.com.

17TH ANNIVERSARY: The Saturday’s Bread Soup Kitchen celebrates their 17th anniversary at 11:30 a.m. this Saturday, May 23. Four volunteers will be honored before the roast beef lunch is served.

Labels: 05-22-09, The City of the Hills, weekend's best bets

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:59 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Hometown People

Mark Your Calendar: Tour Historic Oneonta Cinema

The Friends of the Oneonta Theater are planning tours of the historic cinema on lower Chestnut Street on the hour from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, May 30.
The Friends, a non-profit entity, is seeking to raise $40,000 for a downpayment on the property, which otherwise may be sold for another use.
The theater, originally a vaudeville venue, dates back to the 19th century. It was converted to a movie house in the 1920s.

Bevy Of Singers Vie For Title
Of Local Teen Idol

‘Three hundred people showed up to watch the first round,” said CNY Radio Group‘s Carla Balnus about the first annual Junior Idol contest.
Semi Finals for the 1st Annual Junior Idol competition were held at the Moose Lodge on West Broadway in Oneonta on Friday, May 15.
Six winners were picked from the 13-16 age group. They include: Ashley Roseboom of Schenevus, Khalil Carney of Morris, Maria Ruffino of Oneonta, Amelia Spaziani of Oneonta, Pamela Powell of Sherburne and Deven Brook Champen of Oneonta.
In the 17-20 age group, the finalists are: Rebecca Stosser of Jefferson, Jaclyn Kelly of Oneonta, Jaclyn Poss of Walton, Mikaela Ost of Schenevus and Natalie Yambor of Franklin.
The finalists will compete in the final round at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 22 at the Moose Lodge in Oneonta.
Sponsors for the event are the Oneonta Tiger’s Association, Dave’s Automotive of Oneonta, Impact Music Studio of Afton and the Central New York Radio Group.

SUNY Oneonta Graduates 157 From Otsego, Delaware

Davenport

Michael Thomas Brandon
Elizabeth I. Gundlach
Angela Patricia Cobb
Delancey
Bryan Michael Hoyt
Tracy Marie Stoop

Delhi

Lauren Dean Raba
Marcus Warner DeFreece
Jessica Lynn Gardner
Daniel Wilson Green
Michael James Guichard
Mark L. Madeo
Bryttni Lee Mager
Kyle Daniel O’Connell
Samantha Lynn Oliver
Robert W. Whitney
Mark A. Adamczyk

Deposit

Lindsay Jean Rogers
Stephanie Jane Mapes
Emily Jane Kellogg
East Worcester
Cori Elizabeth Indelicato

Edmeston

Cassandra Ann Stanton
Jessica Ann Hurtt

Fly Creek

Jason Vale Coe
Maria E. Vann

Franklin

Linda F. Astuto
Shawna Marie Mula
Johanne L. Mazepa

Hartwick

Elizabeth May Fury
Corrine Frances O’Connor

Laurens

Steven Don Jacobsen
Lacey Angel Spoor

Mount Upton

Beth-Anne Wiswell

Mount Vision

Michael A. Sclafani

New Berlin

Amanda Sue Curtis
Amy LaFollette Pondolfino
Richard Michael Fornito, Jr.

Oneonta

William Porter
Sean Patrick Blaney
Ashantae Minor
Timothy P. O’Mara
Candice Pine
Scott-Allan Taylor
Priscilla Marie Heath
Karen M. Lehtonen
Athena Marie Leverock
Amy Lynn Adams
Serina Elisa Bangilan
Carleigh Marie Bettiol
Edward W. Brower
Latoya Lalani Carter
Jessica L. Connell
Luis Angel Cruz
Amber Joy Feaster
Jennifer Marie Flynn
Brian J. Fronckowiak
Jacob Andrew Halter
Amy Sue Hotaling
Kevin Austin Huebner
Sarah Beth Johnson
Thomas S. Lansing
Daniel James Lathan
Britney Lynne Liddell
Alyssa Lynn Lord
Melissa Nicole Michna
Loren Elizabeth Moran
Mark T. Pluta
Shawn Michael Reardon
Jonathan Daniel Romero
Kari Lee Ruff
Kacey Louise Scheiner
Laura Michelle Schulte
John R. Schwartz
Kate E. Simeon
Peter Thomas Stratigos
Daniel John Sullivan
Mohammed Faraaz Thaver Kimberly Lori Yarborough
Alexander Emerson Grout
Tonya Marie Martin
Virginia Ann Ingham
Micah Rafael Ilowit
Kyle David Beckley
Mark E. English
Jacqueline Lynn Smith
Oxana A. Darmogray
Kristin Y. Donovan
Christine Anna Goodrich
Kaitlyn Marcia Hutzel
Kathryn Louise Lane
George Edward Marshall
Jeremy Lawrence Redlien
Susan Sylvia Szczepanski
Sabrinna Ann Brown

Otego

Heather Beth Bailey
Michael Christopher Angellotti
Elizabeth Nicole Braun
Kyle Gabriel Burch
Anthony Robert Grimes
Emmon P. Johnson
Vicki Sue Salisbury-Hoyle
Joshua Adam Hewlett
Dusti Rae Strub

Richfield Springs

Suzanne Jean Coletti

Roseboom

Anne Elizabeth Buffett
William Stephen Tracz

Schevenus

Jennifer Marie Westcott
Pamela Christine Kelman
Lisa Marie Phillips
Sharon Springs
Alison Dawn Lacy

Sidney

Jamie Lynne Beers
Erin Jessica Andrews
Amy Marie Debiew
Abbie Pauline Engel
Paul F. Funaro
Vincent Romano Hills
Matthew Raymond Miner
Somer Nicole Morton
Tionna Marie Ogborn
Tyler James Rutenber

Sidney Center

Richard Vincent Gerace
Roy John Kruger
Josie Marie Pesout
Reneé Christine Roof

Stamford

Crystal Kosier
Kristin Dee Stammel
Kevin Leonard Callagy
Amber Nicole Chapman
Michelle A. Craft
Christianna N. Shaffer
Jeremiah Shane Griswold

Treadwell

Charles William Piper

Unadilla

Chelsie Leigh Steinbacher Paige Kaitlyn Harris

Walton

Tina Backus
James Anthony Boggi
Samantha Holley Geer
Daniel Patrick Malia
Michael Brian Velten

West Burlington

Samuel Curtis Ackerman

West Edmeston

Tracy Ann Owens

West Oneonta

Margaret Antonlena Liberti

Worcester

Shana Lynn Ritton
Tanya Marie Hammond
Lawrence Karl Hammond, Jr.
Amanda Lynn Suydam
Steven William Bayne
Olivia Alexis Kenyon

16 Master’s Degrees Awarded Locally

Masters in Education

COOPERSTOWN – Kristie Ann Armstrong, Laura Elizabeth Gunther
DELHI – Lauren Dean Raba
ONEONTA – Jennifer Marie Flynn, Brian J. Fronckowiak, Priscilla Marie Heath, Karen M. Lehtonen, Athena Marie Leverock
OTEGO – Heather Beth Bailey
RICHFIELD SPRINGS – Suzanne Jean Coletti
SIDNEY – Jamie Lynne Beers
STAMFORD – Kristin Dee Stammel
TREADWELL – Charles William Piper
WORCESTER – Shana Lynn Ritton
Master of Science

SCHENEVUS – Jennifer Marie Westcott
Master of Arts

SIDNEY – Erin Jessica Andrews

Labels: 05-22-09, Hometown People

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 9:30 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Hartwick Student Speakers Found Intellectual Freedom

322 Seniors From 25 States Will Graduate This Weekend

By LAURA COX

Pine Lake. J-term. Study abroad. Stairs. Unique experience. My professor, my friend.
These are terms that came up time and time again when speaking to Hartwick College’s four graduating seniors, Sandra Armakovitch, Benjamin Crosby, Nick Forst and Samuel Roods, who have earned the honor of speaking at baccalaureate on Friday, May 22, before graduating at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 23.
Cyrus Mehri, Class of ’83, a founding partner of Mehri & Skalet, Washington, D.C., which has pioneered class-action lawsuits on matters of race and gender, will deliver the commencement address on Elmore Field.
Selected by their peers, the four students are among 322 graduating from Hartwick this weekend. Their classmates come from 25 states and eight counties, predominately from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. Ninety-nine of them have completed 158 internships and 45 will graduate with honors.
They each chose Hartwick because it spoke to their need for a small school with individualized attention and opportunities for a broad range of study – a forte of liberal arts schools like Hartwick.
Sandra could have attended any Massachusetts state school tuition free, but learned about Hartwick at a college fair, visited and found it the “perfect fit.” She didn’t apply anywhere else.
Ben transferred to Hartwick after a year at a school in Vermont; the opportunity to live at the Pine Lake Campus and take advantage of the J-term courses were bigger sellers.
Nick’s younger sister will be following in her brother’s footsteps and attending next fall, choosing Hartwick over Sarah Lawrence after seeing her brother’s experience there.
Here are some highlights of their Hartwick careers:
Sandra Armakovitch, a biology major and chemistry minor from Colrain, Mass., was an R.A. for three years. She worked on campus as a Blue Key tour guide, an admission student interviewer, a supplemental instructor, a tutor and a gallery guard. She aspires to study public health and epidemiology after taking a year or two off to get some work experience. After graduation, she is looking for jobs as a biology field assistant or in the residential life or college admissions fields.
Ben Crosby, a history major and religious studies minor from Randolph, Vt., worked at the theater as a set builder, a work-study job that led directly to his post-graduation position doing carpentry for a summer theatre in New Hampshire. He is on the waitlist for AmeriCorps and the CCC, where he would like to spend some time volunteering after graduation. Trips to Ghana and Egypt for J-Term as well as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina inspired his want to do service.
Nick Forst, a philosophy and political science double major from Schenectady, is the president of the Hartwick Student Senate. He was a blue key tour guide and was on the Student Union programming board. As head of the student senate he helped to increase the student activities fee to provide more activities for students and to increase the pine lake fee to provide funds for a sustainability project fund. He will be attending law school at Albany Law School in the fall.
Sam Roods, a political science and religious studies double major from Greenwich, is a member of the Hartwick Cross-Country team, secretary for the Student Senate and president of Grassroots Environmental Club. He worked as a Blue Key Tour Guide. After graduation he is going to work his usual summer job, take the GRE and start filling out graduate school applications, saying he liked academia. He is also interested in a program to teach English in China.
When asked what he will take with him from Hartwick, Ben said, “The ability to create things on my own, Hartwick is such a fertile ground in a lot of ways. And the experience I have doing that and that knowledge will serve me very well,”
Nick said it was, “Experiential learning and time in the field.”

You you’re your own projects of any kind that you want. And so the experience I have doing that and that knowledge will serve me very well,” said Ben.

Labels: 05-22-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:58 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

The City of the Hills

REMEMBER! Oneonta’s Memorial Day parade begins at 10 a.m. Monday, May 25, in Neahwa Park. An open house follows in the American Legion at noon.

CHANGE AT HALL: Jonathan D. Ullman has been named President & COO of the National Soccer Hall of Fame when the board of directors met Saturday, May 16, . He replaces Steve Baumann, who resigned after 21 months.

THEY’RE OFF: 47th Annual General Clinton Canoe Regatta embarks from Cooperstown’s Lake Front Park at 6 a.m. Racers should be passing through Oneonta on the Susquehanna by mid-morning toward the finish line in Bainbridge.

‘BLAST’ AMONG BEST: Kevin Burnsworth, this week’s “Blasts from the Past” honoree, will be included in the OHS Sports Hall of Fame, it was learned. See Page 16

SCHOOL ADDITION: Worcester Central School Board president Michelle Empie and other officials broke ground Thursday, May 14, on a $2 million bus garage behind Stewart’s at I-88’s Exit 19. Once the garage is moved from behind the school, construction on a classroom addition will begin next spring.

PRIZE-WORTHY: Jim Seward, R-Milford, is seeking nominees for the state Senate’s “Woman of Distinction” award. Nomination forms, due by Monday, May 25, may be obtained at 432-5524 or at www.senatorjimseward.com.

Labels: 05-22-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:57 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Imagine: Revived Bresee’s As Magnet For Downtown

Action Likely By Year’s End, City Hall Says

By JIM KEVLIN

Some news stories – doesn’t it seem? – go on forever.
Will they ever end?
In the case of Bresee’s, yes.
The beginning of the story’s end may happen as soon as the end of this year.
“A vibrant Bresee’s is going to spur a lot of development,” Mayor John S. Nader said in an interview the other day.
By his departure from office when 2010 begins, he plans to have the building, the centerpiece of a prospective downtown renewal, firmly on its way to restoration.
At the very least, he said, the 1959 aluminum front will have been removed, revealing the ornate brick facade that graced the department store when it opened in 1899.
At least, he continued, demolition will be ready to go – and perhaps started – on the 1940s and 1950s additions that expanded the building all the way to Wall Street. Now 75,000 square feet, the building will be reduced to about 25,000 square feet.
The demolition will allow a 1909 addition, with its glass-plated rear entry, to be restored to match a period photo. Smaller stores, entered from Wall Street, are planned there.
The demolition will also make way for spacious tree-sheltered walkways and parking space along Wall Street, a convenience for shoppers, diners and theatergoers, and a spur to Main Street’s vitality.
“People are going to be very impressed,” said Nader, as he told an adventure story of downtown redevelopment, a Perils-Of-Pauline saga. Like those silent movies that date to Bresee’s early years, a happy ending is anticipated.
The department store’s founder was Frank H. Bresee, a farmboy born in 1864 on Hartwick’s Christian Hill who decided he could make a better living peddling door-to-door. In a few years, he had general stores in South Hartwick and Hartwick, New Lisbon, Fly Creek, Laurens, Schenevus and Sidney.
In 1899, he and brother-in-law Fred Cooper opened Bresee’s just west of where the deserted three-story hulk is today, moving next door in 1905.
Department stores were the rage, with Wanamaker’s barely 20 years old and Woolworth’s 5 & Dimes – F.W. Woolworth was also a farmboy, from Rodman, near Watertown – burgeoning.
If Bresee’s rose on one trend, it declined on another, closing its doors in 1999, surviving only a bit longer than many similar downtown anchors across the country.
During 2006, his first year in City Hall’s front-corner office, Nader had been working with then-owner Maurice Ramos, trying to find a tenant for the building, with no success.
In early 2007, “we drastically changed strategies,” the mayor said.
The new approach was two-fold. The city would ensure the building was safe. And, if Ramos couldn’t make it so, it would help him find a new owner.
Ramos began getting letters seeking access to the building. By summer 2007, a court had admitted city inspectors.
“It’s scary how bad it is,” said Carolyn Lewis, Otsego County’s economic developer who partnered with Nader on this undertaking.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t get in sooner,” added Joe Bernier, the city’s community development director, another key player.
“The Main Street part was very sound,” said Nader, but the back...
An unsafe building declaration was issued.
The building was listed with Pyramid Properties, the national developer. Two potential buyers were lined up. At one point, the mayor thought he’d engineered a sale.
But, while he was at the New York State Conference of Mayor’s conference in Saratoga Springs, the phone rang: The deal was falling through.
By this point – mid-2007 – City Hall had realized it would have trouble getting grants if it didn’t control the property.
Working with Peters & Co., the Saratoga Springs realty consultant, City Attorney David Merzig devised a plan.
Ramos would donate the property to a non-profit – the Emergency Medical Services Foundation in Baltimore, it turned out.
The foundation would pass the building to the Otesgo County Development Corp., taking a $150,000 writeoff.
The development corporation would lease the building to the city for $1.
By happy coincidence, the OCDC, which had been largely quiescent for years, was looking for a new mission under its new president, Wilber Bank President & CEO Doug Gulotty.
And so it was done. And so the search for money began in earnest.
City Hall was turned down in the first round of Restore New York grants in the fall of 2007, but then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer took a personal interest in the project, and the city was awarded an initial $1 million in October.
Last year, the Empire State Development Corp. freed up a second $1 million. A Small Cities Grant of $300,000 brought the tally to date to $2.3 million.
A new round of Restore New York grants were submitted by a May 9 deadline, and another $2 million is hoped for in the next few weeks.
The restoration, as envisioned, will cost $7 million, but the 17 units in the plan will only generate sufficient revenues to pay off a $2-3 million mortgage. The public money is needed to make private development viable.
“All that stuff takes a lot of work,” said Nader, pausing. “It doesn’t just happen.”
In his handwritten notes put together prior to the interview, you get a sense of all the pieces that need to come together: engineering, architectural design, abatement, financing, parking, the facade.
Said Bernier, “It took chunks of time, every day, from all of us.”
Local development corporations like the OCDC, Nader said, are administratively streamlined to assist in economic development.
Where municipalities are required to go out to bid and select the lowest bid for project, the arrangement with OCDC allowed the city to issue an RFP – request for proposals – on the project, and Nader, Lewis and Bernier were excited by the response.
In particular, the response from Bloomfield•Schon of Cincinnati, a firm that, since it formed in 2003, has made projects happen that, in the words of its mission statement, “not only prove successful for the users and investors, but are positive additions to the community.”
The mayor and Carolyn Lewis drove over to Ithaca to see Cayuga Place, a combination of apartments, condos, offices, stores and a movie house that has transformed that downtown since it opened in August 2008.
Bloomfield•Schon has applied the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED principles – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – to all its projects, another plus.
That applies to all aspects – insulation, windows, HVAC, even that location pedestrian-friendly downtown, according to Ken Schon, the partner in charge here.
A tour of the building is eye-opening – disheartening, if you didn’t know help is on the way.
Inside the front portion, it’s simply dank. Move past the old escalator, however, and you enter a world of dripping water, with 50-gallon buckets scattered here and there. A healthy mushroom crop is growing through the old carpet.
That’s the part the engineers have determined must go, said Schon.
As the building rises the full three stories, it narrows. The idea is to put shops and offices on the first floor, and apartments of various sizes on the second. Two of those units will be loft apartments with penthouse-like upper floors. This also works because an elevator only needs to rise to the second floor, a cost savings.
“There are some very neat spaces there,” said Carolyn Lewis.
Outside the back and around to the west is an alley, between the old Bresee’s and NBT Bank’s Wall Street office. Down there you can see the remains of the original carriage house, and plans are to restore that to some sort of mixed use – stores, offices, apartments.
Another piece recently put in place is the city-county partnership, where consultant Dick Miller, (former Hartwick College president and, in recent days, a mayoral candidate), is scouting college-town downtowns statewide, looking to recruit successful retailers there for spaces in the new Bresee’s and elsewhere downtown.
Governor Spitzer, Nader said, took a personal interest in the building when he visited the city in the fall of 2007, and again when he reenacted Gov. Charles Evan Hughes’ original signing of the city charter in a January 2009 ceremony kicking off Centennial events. Soon after the visit, however, the governor resigned.
Governor Paterson is beginning to show similar interest, Nader said. Paterson aides have asked the mayor to flag them when the facade is removed, the suggestion being that, if the governor can make it, he’d like to be there.
The news story may finally be coming to a conclusion.

Labels: 05-22-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 6:50 AM 0 comments

Bookmark this post with:

Tony Mongillo Born By The RR Tracks, Worked On Tracks, Inspired By Tracks

By JIM KEVLIN

Tony Mongillo was born by the railroad tracks.
After a stint in the Navy, he worked for the railroads for almost four decades.
Ever since he was a boy, Tony, now 85, has been drawing and painting.
Naturally, his topic – the one he’s most known for – is railroads, including precise, detailed depictions of the steam horses that wheezed and puffed through town early in his career.
If Oneonta is railroads, then Tony – apologies to Sam Nader, Sid Lavine, Diz Lamonica, Tony Drago, Dave Brenner, Bill Davis – is Mister Oneonta, or at least one of several Misters Oneonta, defined by the love of their city and affection that’s widely returned.
Tony, born in 1924 in the family home at 2 West Broadway, was raised at the other end of that track-4-lined street from the Vagliardos – Joe, his contemporary, is another of the ever fewer Oneontans who can bridge the railroad and post-railroad era – but this was hardly an Italian-American enclave: His boyhood pals were Lebanese, Polish, Russian, Syrian and Hungarian, as well as Colones, Mastros, Pizzas.
“Most of us were born here,” he said in an interview, along with wife, Annie, at their immaculate Primrose Lane home the other day. “Our parents came from different countries.”
His father, Pasquale, used to recall the sun-cracked fields in his native Alvignano, and refused to go back – even when his wife, Rose, went back for a visit in 1954, sailing on The Rex from Pier 92 in New York City more than three decades after she’d arrived in the States.
Tony’s dad arrived in 1909, having been recruited from the Old Country. A contractor was waiting at Ellis Island, whisked him up to Schenectady, and the next morning he was working on a D&H section gang. Over the first six months, the contractor took pretty much all of the young man’s hard-earned wages, so he hopped a train to Binghamton, where he continued working on the railroad.
He eventually settled in Oneonta, where the famous yards contained the second-largest roundhouse in the world. (The biggest was in Germany, until it was destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II.)
As it happens, his future bride was from Alvignano as well, although they never knew each other there; she lived in town, he in the countryside. They were introduced through the owners of a Broadway boarding house where he was staying, and married in 1921.
Philomena (Washburn) arrived in 1923, followed by Tony, Virginia (Naples) in 1925, Mike in 1926, and Hope (Davidson) – originally Speranza – in 1928. All the siblings remained in their natal place.
Everybody made wine in the Mongillos’ neighborhood – how much was a secret closely guarded from neighbors. The grapes – big, juicy ones – were ordered from California through Ranella’s on Market Street – the building is still there, next to the new Foothills Performing Arts Center – and delivered down the back steps out of sight of prying eyes.
The juice of the squeezed grapes would sit for a year in a big barrel in the basement, then drawn off to a smaller barrel. The remains were squeezed again, and the result was mixed with sugar for a kind of muscatel; it could be drunk immediately, but was pretty rough stuff.
By then, the remaining pulp had been so squeezed that all that remained was what Annie described as “the first hula hoop.” Boys could be seen running the hoops through the neighborhood until, a few weeks on, they fell apart.
Another neighborhood novelty was a Mr. Sabatini, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, all pretty well formed, too.
Pasquale Mongillo was small – 5-foot-2 – but so strong his nickname was “Jumbo.” He would pick up a rail tie with one arm, swing his body underneath it and carry it away on a shoulder.
Tony wasn’t aware he was living through The Depression. His father always worked – from 1909 to 1956 – on the section gang, although sometimes only 2-3 days a week. The family also tended a huge vegetable garden out back.
Tony and Philomena went to the Mitchell Street School (Nader Towers is there now), then River Street (where Oakdale Apartments is now), but shifted to St. Mary’s in fifth grade, finishing up at Oneonta High School. His mother put a lot of stock in a high school diploma, and all the kids graduated, except Philomena, whose sweetheart was drafted at the start of World War II; she left school to marry him.
When Tony got out, Class of 1942, he expected to be drafted.
He joined Bendix in Sidney, where sparkplugs were being made for aircraft – later, on the USS Nassau, “a baby flattop” that shot planes into the air by catapult – he would see “Bendix, Sidney, N.Y.” marked on many an engine part.
During a break after a few weeks at Bendix, he sketched a sparkplug with such precision that he was soon called before Mr. Eggley, the general manager, who reassigned him to updating blueprints.
Soon the letter came, “Greetings!” And Tony found himself waiting in line for physical at an induction center in Utica. To his surprise, it was discovered he was fighting Scarlett Fever, and he was sent home. Recovering, he joined the D&H, but soon the letter came again, “Greetings!” Most draftees ended up in the Army, but a Navy recruiter, noting his size – ideal for the smaller proportions shipboard – talked him into the Navy instead.
Exciting years followed, from training as a radioman – “Da-Di-Di-Di” is “A,” etc. – at Sampson Naval Base in the Finger Lakes to the bowels of the Nassau, where 40 radiomen fluently translated thousands of cables 24 hours a day.
The fleet island-hopped through the South Pacific toward the Philippines. He remembers Pearl Harbor, with the bones of the Arizona sticking up from the harbor bottom, with nearby Honolulu as the favored destination after months at sea.
Sent across the world to the European Theatre, he was in New York when V-E Day happened, and recounts a long return trek to the Pacific. At Treasure Island in San Franciso, he ran across fellow Oneontan Fran Bagnardi. Later, as radioman for the USS Grasp, involved in submarine salvage, he ran across Jackie Raineiri.
It was in the Philippines, waiting to invade Japan, that he and his comrades learned “The Bomb” had been dropped and the war was over. “What is The Bomb?” they all wondered.
Back in Oneonta, he rejoined the D&H, and it was just like he’d never left. The railroad honored his military service as time served on the railroad, and it counted toward his benefits and pension.
At a recent gathering at the Greater Oneonta Historical Society’s History Center, Tony Mongillo remembered the hubbub of tending farm – and, in one case – circus animals that came through the busy railroad center at the end of Broadway – in the vicinity of today’s Stella Luna.
Once, as he was trying to slip an escaped pig back in car, all the pigs escaped; it took all the neighbors working together to retrieve them.
Another time, the circus came and went, emptying the contents of the elephant car before departing. Tony was sent out to remove what turned out to be a ceiling-high pile of elephant manure. Where have you been? he boss asked him when he returned hours later.
He became a clerk, then chief clerk, then yardmaster, observing the shift from steam to deisel, the first layoffs and the continuing decline of the industry from the days when four trains could depart from Oneonta at the same time. He retired in 1985.
Before he returned to the railroad in earnest, Tony spent a couple of semesters at the Newark (N.J.) School of Fine & Industrial Arts. Throughout the war, he’d been cartooning aboard ship to pass the time, and thought he’d like to make a career in the graphic arts.
It didn’t work out, but his production has been constant. On the side, he used to do menus for local restaurants. For a while, he did all the illustrations for newspaper ads placed by Brackett’s Book Store, across main from Bresee’s. Mr. Brackett preferred them to photos.
With one detour into depictions of Biblical scenes, almost his entire output has been railroad-related. In his home office, beyond the drafting table, painting after painting is stacked against the wall. In the bedroom, more stacks. “I never have to worry about changing pictures,” said Annie; the couple met in 1970 at The Coffee Pot, a popular hangout of the time, and soon married. Both have grown children.
At 85, he’s spryer than many people half his age, although he says he’s dropped from his wartime trim of 5-foot-6, 128, to about his father’s 5-foot-2 today.
His friends say Tony and Ann Mongillo have a reputation for helping people, and not telling anyone about it.
That’s evident in one hobby Tony’s developed in recent years. If he reads or hears about someone’s accomplishment, he send them a hand-drawn card of congratulations, no matter where they may be living, whether he knows them or not. He has a box full of thank you notes from people far and wide.
“He loves life,” says Annie. And you believe her.

Labels: 05-22-09, City of the Hills

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

Bookmark this post with: