Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

Soggy Summer ’09 Coaxes Deadly Beauties Into Open

Thursday, July 16, 2009

By LAURA COX

When Matt Ward and his family go fishing in the pond at their property on Oneonta’s Cemetery Hill, he lets he five dogs out to roam without a second thought.
“We were fishing and the dogs were running around,” said Ward.
But, it turns out, there was reason to be concerned one Friday evening last month, after weeks of soggy weather had caused an array of mushrooms to sprout across his grassy lawn.
At least one species was poisonous, fatally so to Ward’s English bulldog, Tyson.
“When we came back to the house two and a half hours later, Tyson was salivating a lot and in really rough shape,” said Ward. “He could hardly move, and his pupils were unresponsive to light.”
Home alone with daughter Lauren, 5, and 3-month-old Wyatt, he had no car. Besides, it was past 9; he knew most of the veterinary clinics were closed.
Tyson had thrown up in the driveway, and Ward saw indications the dog had been eating mushrooms. Turning to the Internet, he discovered there are a few types of mushrooms toxic to dogs and humans alike: the “Destroying Angel” (Amanita virosa) and “Death Cap” (Amanita phalloides).
His dog’s symptoms were strong. Ward discovered 99 percent of dogs who eat poisonous mushrooms died. Tyson had little hope of survival.
He called an emergency line at a Cooperstown vet and was referred to Cornell University, where there is more expertise in such matters.
“Cornell said by the time I got there it would not be good,” said Ward, “and I didn’t have a car anyhow.”
“By 3 a.m. he was gone.”
A lifelong dog owner, Ward said he was unaware of the dangers mushrooms posed to his pets.
“Nobody ever told me to be careful for mushrooms,” he said in an interview. “ I hope our story will help prevent someone else’s dog from dying, and will alert parents of young children of the danger.”
Ward had never noticed mushrooms growing in his yard before all the moisture we’ve had this year.
On examination, he found at least seven different species growing there in multicolors: White, purple, bright yellow, fire-engine red and green.
“It’s strange, they just shouldn’t be here,” Ward said.
The Destroying Angels and Death Caps are indeed poisonous to dogs and humans, according to Kathie Hodge, Cornell University associate professor of mycology, the scientific study of fungi.
“They have a toxin called amatoxin which prevents cells from making proteins,” said Hodge, who said a handful of dog poisonings have been brought to her attention this year. “It kills by shutting down your cells, most commonly causing liver failure because your liver is most actively metabolizing.”
Once the mushrooms have started to grow, there is not much anyone can do to permanently get rid of them, the professor said, adding: “It has been a great year for mushrooms.”
These mushrooms are most likely to grow on or near decaying tree stumps or roots.
In addition to the Angels and Caps, watch out for the Galerina, a little brown mushroom which also contains amatoxin, and the bright yellow Amanita muscaria, a hallucinogenic.
If you notice in time that your dog has eaten a poisonous mushroom, induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide – one tablespoon at the back of the throat for a large dog, advises Dr. Joan Puritz, the Oneonta vet. Then call a veterinarian.
If there has been more than an hour delay between when the dog ate the mushroom and your discovery, save the mushroom specimen for identification and then call the veterinarian or take the animal to the emergency veterinary hospital.
If symptoms are noticeable, immediately take the animal to a vet, who would feed it activated charcoal to absorb the poison, or flush its stomach.
To protect your pets, try to identify any mushrooms growing in your yards, Puritz said.
Ward and his fiancé Angela Elderkin now regularly search the yard for mushrooms, and mow them down before the kids or dogs go out to play.
One morning, they collected seven pounds’ worth. And they are sending samples to Hodge, seeking to discover which mushroom in particular poisoned their Tyson.

Labels: 07-17-09, Front Page

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IN THE CITY OF THE HILLS

Chancellor: SUNY Can Help State

SUNY’s first order of business under the new chancellor will be to put together a strategic plan that will harness the system’s mission for the benefit of New York State as a whole.
Nancy L. Zimpher outlined the visioning process during her first visit to SUNY Oneonta Monday, July 13.

$350,000 FOR ARTS: State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, has announced more than $350,000 in arts grants for Otsego County, including $10,000 for the Catskill Conservatory, $8,700 for the Catskill Symphony Orchestra, $6,000 for the Oneonta Concert Association, and $90,000 for UCCCA.

LET’S DANCE: Los Vega will perform Thursday night, Roundhouse Rockers Friday night, and Fritz’s Polka Band Saturday night during St. Mary’s Parish Festival, July 23-25. (Details, Page 18)

CURTAIN RISES: “La Traviata” opens the Glimmerglass Opera season at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 18.

YANNIS HONORED: Retired New York Times soccer writer Alex Yannis has been named to receive the Colin Jose Media Award at the Soccer Hall of Fame induction at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 2.

ATTENTION, SUBS: Anyone interested in being a substitute teacher in Otsego and Delaware counties are invited to a BOCES workshop 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 24, at the Sidney Public Library. To register, call 335-1360.

GREEN FAITH: The First United Presbyterian “Red Door” Church will host a “Green Church” symposium on energy efficiency Sept. 19.

Labels: 07-17-09, Front Page

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Painter, Sculptor, Etcher Jamieson Back For 7th Year

By LAURA COX

Painter, sculptor and etcher Doug Jamieson has voted for the City of the Hills Arts Festival six times now. With his feet. He keeps coming back.
And he’ll be voting a seventh time Saturday, Aug. 1, where visitors to the seventh annual City of the Hills Arts Festival – he won “Best of Show” in 2006 and “Best of Graphics” in 2008 – will find him among the 50 artists and artisans set up along Main Street.
“It is a good open air venue,” said Jamieson. “It is always pretty full and everyone is very social. One year it rained but every other year it has been good weather. It is well advertised and people come in from as far as Binghamton and Albany.”
Jamieson and his wife, Patricia, moved to Treadwell from New York City seven years ago, attracted to the area by ARC Otsego’s services for people with developmental disabilities – his son and daughter-in-law would benefit from them – and the public transportation; all four benefit from that.
In his previous life, he had received his BFA from the city’s School of Visual Arts and spent years teaching and doing illustrations. In the mid ‘80s, he did a stint as courtroom illustrator for CNN.He wrote two books, self-publishing one recently.
He showed at the first festival to help ARC, but was quickly charmed by the festival’s ability to attract so many talented local artists and captivated visitors into one spot. So the festival became an annual must.
Both casual viewer and regular gallery-goer enjoy the show, he said.
Award money ensures range and quality. Best of painting, sculpture, fine craft, graphics and photography wins $250. The Best of Show wins $1,000.
Jamieson teaches classes in etching and painting in both watercolor and oils at UCCCA, and spends time as an instructor at the ARC Otsego’s Center for Self Expression in the Main View Gallery.
He finds both positions to be a rewarding use of his time. “It is very interesting,” he said of the latter, where ARC clients learn to express themselves through art. “I teach traditional ideas of art, but there is a lot of room for personal interpretation of the basic ideas. Everyone’s final piece is unique and the shows are always charming.”
Since moving here, Jamieson has been active in the gallery circuit, exhibiting at The Word & Image Gallery in Treadwell, the DAA Gallery in Delhi, the Smithy Pioneer Gallery in Cooperstown, the Roxbury Art Association, the Cooperstown Art Association, and many a show at the Wilber Mansion.
Between now and Aug. 1, Jamieson has one show opening at B. Sharp Gallery; the reception – cartoonist Don Sherwood, famed creator of “Dan Flagg,” is also exhibiting – is 4-8 p.m. Saturday, July 18.
And he has a second opening at UCCCA Aug. 21, “And The Saga Continues,” featuring etchings that are a continuation of Jamieson’s “Nighttime Adventure of the Man in the Conical Hat” cycle, which will be available at the festival.

Labels: 07-17-09, Front Page

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Hometown People

Hartwick Professor’s Book Studies Ethics Surrounding Torture

‘The Ethics of Torture,” by Jeremy Wisnewski, Hartwick College assistant philosophy professor, and R.D. Emerick, is due to be published this month by Continuum.
It is being promoted as the first complete introduction to the philosophical debates surrounding the ethics of torture in light of Abu Ghraib and other instances of detainee abuse.

Ebert Elevated To Highest Rank: ‘Distinguished Teaching Professor’

James R. Ebert, chair of the SUNY Oneonta Earth Sciences Department, has been promoted to the rank of SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, the system’s highest faculty rank.
He is the 17th SUNY Oneonta faculty member achieve that honor.
On the faculty since 1985, Dr. Ebert was honored with the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1993.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from SUNY Fredonia and a Ph.D. in geology from Binghamton University.
At SUNY Oneonta, Dr. Ebert is extensively involved in Earth Science Education (K-12) and the preparation of teachers.
Dr. Ebert’s current research focuses on the stratigraphy, microfossil biostratigraphy, paleontology, sedimentology, and volcanic ashes of the Siluro-Devonian limestones in the Appalachian Basin.
He has conducted projects in New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Quebec, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Dr. Ebert has served twice as president of the state Geological Association.

3 Nominated To Hartwick’s Alumni Board

Three Otsego County residents are the local nominees for seven vacancies on the Hartwick College Alumni Association board of directors.
They are Sharon Davidson Dettenrieder and Jeffrey Gardner, both of Oneonta, and Jennifer Kurowski Panzarella, Cooperstown,
Dettenrieder, ’65, former chair of the college’s nursing department, is professor emerita and serves as an adjunct professor of nursing at Hartwick.
After receiving a Hartwick nursing degree, she continued her studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Nebraska.
Dettenrieder is a member of the Alumni Nursing Committee and Alumni Association Council, and was named 2003 Distinguished Alumna.
Gardner, ’92, is seeking election to a second term. He graduated with a degree in management. He is business manager of First United Methodist Church.
At Hartwick, he has served on the Alumni Networking and Oneonta/CooperstownLink committees, and was recipient of the 2003 Alumni Association Outstanding Volunteer, 2002-03 Paul Spaziani Memorial, and 2009 Special Coaches awards.
He is a member of the Wick Athletic Association, and volunteers his time in the athletics department and as a class reunion and class gift volunteer.
A nursing graduate, Panzarella, ’97, is a registered nurse/clinical adjunct in education at Bassett Hospital.
Her Hartwick activities include the President’s Inner Circle, the Alumni Nursing Committee and MetroLink.

Amy Lynn Adams, James C. Leech Married In Double-Ring Ceremony

Amy Lynn Adams and James Curtis Leech were married Saturday, June 13, at Beardslee Castle in Little Falls.
The bride is the daughter of June and Al Adams of Oneonta. The groom is the son of Carol and George Leech of Otego.
Justice of the Peace Ronald Decker performed the outdoor double-ring ceremony.
The matron of honor was Cori Tucker, sister of the bride. The bridesmaids were Nicolette Werner, sister of the bride; Katie Leech, sister of the groom, and Lauren O’Connell, friend of the bride. The flower girl was Madison Werner, niece of the bride.
The best man was Jeff Lundin, friend of the groom. Groomsmen were Nick Pitel, friend of the groom; John Leech, brother of the groom, and Matt Leech, brother of the groom.
The reception was held in the upstairs banquet room at Beardslee Castle.
The bride is a 2003 graduate of New Milford (N.J.) High School, and a 2009 graduate of SUNY Oneonta. She is employed by Opportunities for Otsego as an Early Head Start Family partner.
The groom is a 2003 graduate of Unatego Junior/Senior High and is currently a student at SUNY Oneonta. He will be graduating in December 2009 with a degree in elementary education.
The couple will be honeymooning at Walt Disney World in August. They live in Oneonta.

St. Mary’s Parish Festival Promises Music, Food, Games – Much More

St. Mary’s will be the scene of rockin’, and polka-in’ and listenin’ to Dixieland Jazz Thursday-Saturday, July 23-25, when the annual Parish Festival, a high-point of summer for many Oneontans, will be in full swing.
Thursday, Los Vega – Peter Figuccio, lead vocals; Tony Putrino, keyboards; Nick Putrino, guitar and Brad Nemcek, drums – return for a sixth appearance with a blend that ranges from classic rock to Italian ethnic.
Friday, the Roundhouse Rockers will take you on a musical whirl from The Beatles hits of the 1960s to today’s favorites.
Saturday, Fritz’s Polka Band, formed in 1978 by lead accordionist, Fred Scherz Sr., and his 8-year old son, Fritz, the band’s namesake, will get your toes tapping.
Walnut Street will be closed to vehicles during festival hours: 4-10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday.
Throughout the day, enjoy local talent in the form of Fromage A Trois, OV Dixieland Band featuring Bob Arnell, The Oneonta Dance Center, Deahsa Beatha’s Irish Step Dancers, Polish Moses and Bubblemania.
Food vendors include Brooks House of Bar-B-Q, Bella Michaels Restaurant, The Depot, Elena’s Italian Bistro, Italian Kitchen, Fiesta Restaurant and Sal’s Pizzeria, serving lunch and dinner.
Desserts will be available via Golden Guernsey Ice Cream, and there will be a parish bake sale.
Soda, water, beer and wine will be available.
Adult games and activities include a car raffle on a 2009 KIA Sportage, (drawing at 9:45 p.m. Saturday), casino games, 50-50 raffles, Christmas in July, a dime toss, basketball shoot and hole-in-one competition.
Children can enjoy two bounce houses, face painting and a variety of game.

Youngsters Learn Fire-Safety Skills – And Have A Ball

This year’s Junior Firefighter Camp ran from June 29-July 1. Over 50 children enjoyed this three day sold-out program, organized by the Oneonta Family YMCA in collaboration with the Oneonta Fire Department, Local 2408, and members of the Firefighters Challenge Team. The Junior Firefighters learned fire-safety skills, participated in firefighter drills, washed the fire trucks and completed a miniature firefighter combat challenge course. The highlight for most of the children was getting a ride on the Miniature Hook & Ladder truck and getting wet during the bucket brigade. The program was completed with a graduation ceremony held at the Oneonta Family YMCA where each firefighter was presented with a badge, certificate and refreshment from the Golden Guernsey.

Labels: 07-17-09, Hometown People

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A Game To Remember

CHRIS McSWIGGIN

It was the craziest game of the season.
The Oneonta Tigers won 13-5 against the Tri City Valleycats in Troy, Friday, July 10, in a game that featured a seven-run second inning where the Tigers only recorded three hits and a homerun.
The rest of the scoring came from walks, wild pitches and stolen bases.
The hits: Jaime Johnson singled to right field, Michael Rockett tripled and Wade Gaynor doubled.
The inning began with catcher John Murrian being hit by a pitch.
After three wild pitches by Tri City’s Brandt Walker, and a walk for Palacios and Gulliver, Rawley Bishop homered to left field for his fourth of the season.
I had seen seven runs on three hits before, but never in the crazy walk, wild pitch, hit, walk, wild pitch sequence of that evening.
The madness would continue the next time the Tigers took to the plate.
The top of the third inning saw third baseman Luis Palacios hit in the head with a Brandt Walker wild pitch. Palacios was down for a lengthy period, then had to leave the game.
Carmelo Jaime would come in as his replacement. The next batter, Jimmy Gulliver, would then double, moving Jaime to 3rd base. Both would score two batters later when Jaime Johnson tripled, making the score 9-0 Oneonta.
This kind of offensive productivity felt good after the Tigers were swept by Vermont at home the series before, and it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time.
I had been at the most exciting baseball game I have ever attended, and it was only the third inning.
Oneonta played stellar defense as well, holding Tri City scoreless through four. The big sticks would continue as Rockett singled in the top of the fifth.
It was a beautiful night for baseball, which felt good after the deluge of Mother Nature’s bad attitude pretty much all season.
Oneonta, playing its first game on Tri City’s field after a rainout the first time around, certainly made its presence felt in the Capital District.
The Tigers, who would go up 10-0 on a John Murrian HR in the 6th, and would eventually make it 11-0.
Previews of the Indians/Yankees 22-4 rout came flashing into my head as this game was getting way beyond the point of being “out of control.”
Tri City would provide a little excitement for those who, like me, keep a close watch on statistics and player personel, as their worst hitter (batting 0.9-) hit two opposite field home runs late in the game.
His average is now .171. He would be the spark for Tri City, but his flame would simmer as Oneonta would tack on a few more runs and finish with their highest scoring outing of the season with 13 runs batted in.
Oneonta would go on to sweep the series with two 3-0 victories to follow.
I am glad that I traveled to Tri City for the game because I proved my opening addage true; you see something you have never seen before at every new game you watch.
Oneonta will take on Auburn for three games on the road then travel to Mahoning Valley before returning home on July 20th for a three game set vs. Batavia. Oneonta currently sits in first place in the NYPL Stedler Division at 13-8 with a two game lead over Lowell (12-11).
Oneonta has provided excitement this season to say the least, and with their new-look ownership and numerous improvement and renovations, the Tigers have become the team to beat this season both on and off the field.

Labels: 07-17-09, Hometown Sports, oneonta tigers

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Art Dealer/Detective Traces Painting To Otsego County

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

You might not think it, but an art dealer is a lot like a detective.
Or can be, if you get to know Robert T. McLean, a Sherlock Holmes in his field.
It’s taken him a year of gumshoeing, but Bob McLean of McLean Gallery in Albany has located the scene in a woodland painting by George Wellington Waters, a member of the prestigious 19th-century Hudson River School.
It is Brookwood, the 100-acre Glimmerglass-side estate just up West Lake Road from Cooperstown.
The trees have grown, for sure; some have fallen. The fancy barn was razed a couple of years ago.
But the terrain, the brook as it bubbles toward Otsego Lake, the heights on the lake’s east side, are unmistakable.
When you return to the scene, you can find the remains of the former driveway that approached the house along the north end of the property. (Today, you approach along the south side.)
And that man depicted standing on that path: Could that be James Barclay (J.B.) Jermain himself, the lawyer, financier and Albany heavy-hitter who bought the estate in 1880?
McLean makes it seem easy, but think of the number of hill-lined lakes and tree-lined shores in Upstate New York.
But to back up a little bit.
McLean first acquired the painting in question in 1995 from John Garry, the retired Albany County district attorney.
It’s a large painting, 4 by 5, with a 10-inch ornate gold-leaf frame around it. The couple he sold it to first enjoyed it for more than a decade but, on downsizing, discovered they no longer had room to hang it.
And so they approached McLean a year ago to sell it again and, as he frequently does, he hung it in a reception room at the Schuyler Meadows Club, his golf club in Loudonville.
Waters taught at Elmira for 30 years, and so Bob’s initial forays – six in all – were to the Finger Lakes, poring through wills and deeds in six county clerks’ offices.
A one point he thought he had it: a scene on Keuka Lake, near Keuka College. Two more trips. But no. It was back to square one.
“This was a big time frustration,” McLean said.
Garry, he knew, had bought the painting from B. Jermain Chapman, an attorney with Cooper, Irving & Savage, the Albany firm (with its own links to Cooperstown).
Chapman had received the painting on the death of his half-sister, Katherine Jermain Savage Townsend, (all surnames with Cooperstown ties).
She, in turn, had inherited the painting from her maiden aunt, Maria, J.B. Jermain’s daughter.
(An aside: On his death, J.B. had bequeathed Brookwood to Katherine, his granddaughter, and she and husband F.D. Townsend, an architect and proponent of the Roycroft School, raised seven children there, and also built the notable Arts & Crafts garden house.)
Pulling that string instead of the Waters one, he cracked the code, and found a reference to Brookwood in one of the many, many Jermain family wills.
He sought out the site last January.
Eureka.
“The scene looks nearly identical today,” he concluded. (And he’s since obtained a historic photo from the NYSHA archives that depict the scene even more precisely.)
Subsequent research discovered J.B. Jermain – he the fortune in stocks and real estate inherited from his father Sylvanus for numerous Albany philanthropies – had the painting hanging in Hedge Lawn, his Greek revival mansion in Menands, until his death in 1897.
J.B., McLean further learned, had commissioned Waters in 1888, eight years after buying Brookwood.
The painting is back on the market with a hefty price tag made possible, in part, by McLean’s success in identifying the locale.
That raises any painting’s price, he said. But, additionally, Cooperstown has cache.

Labels: 07-17-09, The City of the Hills

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WEEKEND’S BEST BETS

A-BLOOMING: Art-in-Bloom exhibit blossoms at a 6-8 p.m. opening reception Friday, July 17, at the Wilber Mansion, 11 Ford Ave., Oneonta. Floral designs will be on display in all three galleries. Also July 18, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Information, 432-2070.

CLASSICAL FARE with international flavor – Don’t miss Saturday’s 8 p.m. single performance as Joel Fan (of Yo Yo Ma’ Silk Road Ensemble) and David Temple combine on piano and guitar. Foothills Performing Arts Center, Oneonta. Tickets $25. Information, 431-2080, foothillspac.org.

SIDEWALK SALE: Don’t miss the all-day bargains at Oneonta’s downtown sidewalk sale. Enjoy live music, entertainment and children’s activities and special clearance deals along Main Street. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Main Street, Oneonta.

BOOKS ALIVE: Enjoy a day of books and fun on Saturday as Oneonta World of Learning and Bugbee Children’s Center present Books Alive! for kids 1-9. Singer/songwriter Lee Knight helps kids perform a musical number and make a costume. 11 a.m., Bugbee Theater, Bugbee Hall, State Street, Oneonta. Tickets $3, reservations recommended. 432-3528.

HE’S BACK: Don Sherwood, the Otego native who gained national fame as creator of “Dan Flagg,” a comic strip that was in every newspaper in the nation in the 1960s, will be at B Sharp Gallery on Franklin Mountain, 4-8 p.m. Saturday, July 18, for autographs and the opening of an exhibit of his work.

LECTURE SERIES: Put groceries on your list for Sunday afternoon when Landin Van Buren, Joe Rizzo and Judy Johnson MacLachlan present “Oneonta’s Little Grocery Stores” at the Swart-Wilcox House. Wilcox Ave., Oneonta. 1-3 p.m. Information, 432-0665.

Labels: 07-17-09, In The City of the Hills, Week's Best Bets

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It’s Music To The Ears Of Hundreds Of Budding Musicians

By LAURA COX

This summer, as for the past four, the hills of SUNY Oneonta‘s campus are alive with the sounds of nearly 400 music students and the counselors, faculty, directors and visiting artists.
In short, the New York Summer Music Festival.
It is successor to the New York State Music Camp, founded in 1947 in Otter Creek and moved to Hartwick College 10 years later.
When it began to shrink, SUNY Oneonta stepped in in 2005.
This music festival takes place over the course of three two-week sessions, each with nearly 200 students, ages 9 to 28, representing 35 states and 13 nations participating in over 50 ensembles and classes.
With the huge diversity of age and background, how well do students get along? Does it work to have a 10-year-old playing next to someone a decade and a half older?
“It’s all about the music,” responds Keisuke Hoashi, festival co-founder and director of communications, “In music age really makes no difference, some students start at age 3; others at 22.”
The festival in its present incarnation has seen 20-30 percent growth each year. This is the biggest year yet, with most students high-school age.
A typical day starts with an academic class at 8:20 a.m. – students can chose between sight reading, music theory, ear training, music history, or film making (the latter taught by Hoashi, who is an actor in Los Angeles).
At 9:30 a.m., all students and counselors gather in Chase gym for the All-NYSMF – they pronounce it NIZZ-miff – Choir.
Rehearsals in symphony orchestra, jazz band, jazz choir, jazz combos and piano ensemble follow until lunch.
At 1 p.m., technique classes. Then workshops, more rehearsals, classes and opportunities to practice.
While the mission is musical growth through opportunities, more than just music is happening at the camp.
Hoashi looks back at his own experience at the NYSMC – NIZZ-mick – in the early ‘80s and remembers really growing up in those three summers.
“At camp, students live together in dorms, play music together and experience conflicts and romances. There is a big social aspect which is as important as the musical aspects,” said Hoashi. “All feel like they belong, there is a lot of love happening here.”
One of the major highlights for students and the Oneonta public is the more than 30 free concerts and recitals put on by students, NYSMF faculty and visiting professional artists.
Some of the big names this summer include bass player John Patitucci, a multi-Grammy winner who played at the end of June.
Upcoming are Marty Erickson, former U.S. Navy Band principal tuba, at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21, in the Hunt Union Ballroom, and Steven Reineke, the New York Pops Orchestra conductor, who will direct the NYSMF Pops Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 5 in the Ballroom.
Student Concerts happen at the end of each two-week session, with the next series occurring on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 23-25. Check the NYSMF website for details: www.nysmf.org.
Among the 200 students in the first session – Sunday, June 28, to Sunday, July 12 – were Brandon Linhard, 17, a piano player, Xandry Langdon, 15, a singer, and Tricia Dyer, trumpeter, all from Oneonta; Virginia Ofer, the singer from Cooperstown; Natasha Crespi, 14, a clarinetist from Laurens; Kathryn Rudolph, 22, a trumpet player from Unadilla who is assisting NYSMF Executive Director Jungeun Kim this summer.
“It’s great, as a music person, to be around other people who appreciate music,” said Langdon, who’s attended the festival for three years, “and it’s a good opportunity to meet different kinds of people who like the same things.”
The camp offers the opportunity to play in an orchestra, to play chamber music, to perform next to professional musicians, something most local high schools are simply too small to provide.
The camp is about much more than just music, said Rudolph.
Langdon, Rudolph, Crespi and Linhard all said they would definitely recommend the camp to other local musicians.

Labels: 07-17-09, Front Page

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Walker Evans’ Prints Made Even Better, Digitally

At Fenimore, Details You Never Saw Before

By JIM KEVLIN

COOPERSTOWN

Photo aficionados, you haven’t see it all.
When you go to “Walker Evans: Carbon and Silver,” which opens Saturday, July 18, at The Fenimore Art Museum, you’re going to see something very few people have seen before.
Take the 1936 portrait of Allie Mae Burroughs of Hale County, Ala.
Walker Evans, whose haunting portraits of Depression-era rural Americans are national icons, used the gelatin silver contact method to make the original Allie Mae photos.
This exhibit, under the direction of John Hill, who worked with Evans at Yale and knows what the master was trying to achieve, transformed the original prints into digital files and recreated them as larger, ink-jet prints.
The result is dramatic.
You can see an original Allie Mae portrait on a far wall of the exhibit – ethereal, like an Andrew Wyeth painting.
But in the poster-size recreation to the left of the entrance, you can see every hair on Allie Mae’s head. You can see her pores.
“You’ll find detail never apparent in the original darkroom print,” said Michelle Murdock, The Fenimore’s curator of exhibits, as she screwed in a final bulb and adjusted a final spotlight the other day.
A few images down from Allie Mae’s portrait, which was originally known as “Wife of Cotton Sharecropper, Hale County, Ala.,” is “Sharecropper’s Family, Hale County, Ala.” – mom, dad, grandma and three kids, including a baby in his mother’s arms.
The black cloth at the mother’s feet, you discover, is actually a black cat, albeit a skinny one. You can see the sores and scars on her swollen legs. Quite exceptional.
Walker Evans was an established, although not prosperous, photographer when he was hired by the U.S. Farm Security Administration in the mid-1930s to record the ravages caused by the Depression. For 18 months, he ranged West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee.
During a leave of absence in 1936, he teamed up with poet James Agee on assignment from Fortune magazine and made the trip to Hale County. The result was published as “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men,” an American masterpiece.
The images – 70-some of them – are one part of the exhibit, which also includes Walker Evans’ books, showing how the play of the photos was an integral part of the book design, for “Praise Famous Men” as the rest.
The third element is Walker Evans’ equipment, including a camera with a sideways viewfinder that allowed him to photograph subway riders unawares.
According to Murdock, it was Milo V. Stewart Sr., the retired NYSHA director of education and formidable photographer in his own right, who first saw a version of the exhibit in Buffalo a couple of years ago and alerted The Fenimore.
The Fenimore was just coming off that successful 2007 Ansel Adams exhibit, so was interested in pursuing it.
“We’re always doing photography,” Murdock said.
Americans, she said, have always been interested in recording history, today, as it happens, and photography has been a perfect vehicle to do so.

Labels: 07-17-09, The City of the Hills

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Varied Pleasures

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

If not by the weather, you can tell it’s summer here by the multitude of events to choose from for an evening or afternoon’s pleasure.
Of particular elegance and enjoyment is what is doing at the Cooperstown Theatre Festival just south of Glimmerglass Opera on Route 80.
It is once again featuring a series of Sunday Afternoon Teas, this month and next, providing light entertainment in the Barrymore Café along with leisurely and fine munching and nibbling, not to mention the excellent coffee lovingly brewed by Madame Bella Malinova, who presides over the culinary pleasures. (There is also tea, of course, and wine for those who like to sip lightly and politely.)
A literary afternoon kicked off the season on July 12, and we hope we will have occasion to hear more from the author in question.
Future events will spotlight the talents of the Grigorievs, a classical guitar and flute duo in our midst via Russia, Chile and Canada (July 19); the ShamRocks, who promise to raise your spirits with Irish pub tunes like you’ve never heard before (Aug. 9), and on Aug. 16, the Catskill Poetry Theatre (now there’s an original concept). Starting time: 2 p.m.
In addition to the Sunday series, Austin Sears (actor-manager of the Cooperstown Theatre Festival) and Susan Melchior (who has appeared numerous times on Otsego County stages) will perform A.R. Gurney’s epistolary favorite, “Love Letters,” at 8 p.m. July 30, 31 and Aug. 1.
For tickets and information, call 547-2335. Margarita Sears, the producer of these varied events, will be happy to help you with extreme cordiality.
In another vein, it’s too late now, but if you didn’t get to the Kelly Miller Circus in Richfield Springs last weekend, you missed out on some jaw-dropping excitement, plus many laughs.
No, they are not Ringling Brothers, or Big Apple, or Cirque du Soleil, but they dazzle and entertain and make your palms sweat with many of their more daring acts.
Hugely satisfying, and gratifyingly effective at proving that we still remain children at heart. First rate. Don’t let it pass you by the next time the circus comes to town.
And please avoid the necessity for saying, “Gee, I didn’t hear about it!” Make these pages your entertainment bible!

Labels: 07-17-09, Art Beat, Columns, Sam Goodyear, The City of the Hills

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In Memoriam

Lucille A. Weisenburger, 63, Delhi; Longtime SUNY Oneonta Librarian

Lucille A. Weisenburger, 63, of Delhi, a librarian at SUNY Oneonta for many years until her recent retirement, passed away suddenly on Sunday, July 12, 2009, at Fox Hospital.
Lucille was born on Oct. 23, 1945, in New York City, the daughter of the late Harry A. and Georgia A. Luger. She was married to the late Stephen Weisenberger, who died on May 20, 2007.
Lucille was raised in the New York City area, living in Lower Manhattan and Staten Island before moving to Delhi in 1975.
She had a keen interest in astrology and a love for animals and birds.
Lucille is survived by her son, Edward Strasser, his wife, Michelle and their two daughters.
Lucille’s wishes were to be cremated and have no services or calling hours.
Condolences to the family may be made online by visiting www.grummonsfuneralhome.com
Arrangements are by the Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, Oneonta.

Joseph Wakin, 84; Employed For 40 Years at Oneonta Tire

Joseph Wakin, 84, a shipping clerk for more than 40 years at Oneonta Tire & Auto, passed away on Monday, July 6, 2009, at Fox Hospital.
A lifelong resident of Oneonta, he graduated from OHS in 1942 and joined the Army, serving in the 80th Airborne Division during World War II.
He attended photography school in New York City, enjoyed taking photos and worked in his darkroom well into his 70s. He was an avid golfer.
Joe is survived by his three daughters, Linda (Bob) Maguire of Canajoharie, JoAnn (Dave) Simonds of Canaan, Conn., and Donna (Lynn) Taylor of Presque Isle, Maine.
A Memorial Mass was Saturday, July 11, in St. Mary’s Church, with the Very Rev. John Burns officiating.

Donald Robert Tripp, 86; Trained In Nuclear-Waste Transportation

Donald Robert Tripp, 86, a Worcester native raised in Oneonta who was a specialized truck driver, transporting nuclear waste around the country, died June 14, 200, at his home in Barnwell, S.C.
He was born in Worcester on Dec. 27, 1922, son of the late Ellery C. and Aline Zeh Tripp.
After graduating from OHS and a stint at Bendix in Sidney, he joined the Army in 1943.
Discharged in 1946, he attended Delhi Ag & Tech, farmed, worked for the D&H as a oiler, and became a tool and die maker.
He worked for the Chesbro Ponds Co., in Sherburne and Oriskany Falls, where he met and married his wife, Grace Maude Jackson.
He joined Gladding-Keystone Co., Oneonta, then bought a tractor-trailer and joined McCormack Transportation in Schenectady, hauling GE motors and transformers and later radioactive waste.
He transferred to Barnwell, working for Chem-Nuclear hauling radioactive waste all over the U.S. and Canada, retiring in 1989.
He spent his retirement updating his home. He visited Israel, raised chickens, ducks, geese, guinea hens, gardened, played the market, and enjoyed his two pet dogs.
He joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1996, living as a vegan in later years.
In addition to wife of 42 years, Gracie, he is survived by several nieces and nephews, David McCoy of Otego, John McCoy and Vance and Chris Vredenburg of Franklin Mountain, and Sue Vredenburg Ochse of Porters Corners.
Half sisters Marion Trip McCoy and Margaret “Peggy” Tripp Vredenburg and a baby boy predeceased him.

Labels: 07-17-09, In Memoriam

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‘Single Payer’ The Way To Go

DOUGLAS M. DeLONG

OTHER VOICES

I was among a couple of dozen local people who had the opportunity to speak directly with Scott Murphy, our newly elected congressman in the 20th District, during a stopover the Roseboom Café.
Many concerns were raised, but my personal agenda was largely focused on health-care issues. I would like to share some thoughts of that meeting.
Primary Care medicine is truly in crisis in our country. In recent surveys of medical students only 2% are considering a career in Primary Care. General Internists and Family Practitioners are retiring in greater percentages than peers in other specialties. We know from many studies that the more Primary Care physicians for a given population the better the health outcomes and the lower the costs.
To his credit, Congressman Murphy, at least partly because of physicians in his family, seemed well informed on these issues. He clearly noted the urgency to “incentivize” physicians in training and to decrease the disparity in reimbursement between Primary Care physicians and subspecialty doctors.
I specifically urged him to support a “single payer” health care reform package and to sign on as a co-sponsor of HR676. As one might expect from a narrowly elected freshman representative, he hewed pretty much to the party line that a single payer plan is “not politically feasible.”
I very much disagree with that attitude.
The status quo is clearly not sustainable, with 47 million Americans without health insurance (including several at the Roseboom meeting), an equal number with inadequate insurance coverage, the majority of personal bankruptcies due to catastrophic health bills, and an ever-increasing portion of the country’s economy going to fund health care.
Fundamentally, I do not think that there is any role for investor-owned, for-profit insurance companies in our health-care system. Their primary responsibility is to maximize profits, and that means, in effect, denying health care to beneficiaries.
We can no longer afford to waste the 30 cents of every health dollar going to shareholder profits and obscene CEO salaries. There is no doubt that both the insurance and pharmaceutical industries will resist mightily any effort to curb their excesses, but that just means we will need major leadership from our elected officials.
The current proposals that are being batted around do little more than tinker around the edges. Even the best of the plans would leave millions of Americans without health coverage.
Funding for health-information technologies, curbing “fraud and abuse,” addressing tort reform are all worthy goals, but even in aggregate they will not give us universal access, improved outcomes and lower costs. We currently spend more than twice per person on health care than other industrialized countries and our health outcomes are almost universally worse.
It seems inevitable to me that there will eventually be a national health program, a Medicare-for-all with everybody in and nobody out, but the longer we put that off the greater the fiscal debt we will be leaving to our children and grandchildren.
I would ask all of you to write your representative, senators and President Obama to provide the political leadership we want and to stand up to the industry lobbyists. We need fundamental reform in health care. Today is not soon enough.
Douglas M DeLong, M.D., is Bassett Healthcare division chief/general internal medicine. He has been active in lobbying for health-care reform as a member of the American
College of Physicians.

Labels: 07-17-09, Guest Column, Hometown Views, Opinion

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
Home & Vicinity – Nowhere is the rapid growth of Oneonta more noticeable than in the development of Elm Street. There are now but two lots on the entire street in first hands. Among the pretty cottages recently built there, J.W. Packer’s takes first rank. Persons contemplating building will do well to visit it and see what $3,000 will do in the hands of a first-rate builder.
Communication by telephone between Oneonta and Albany via Fort Plain was opened on Monday. The cost for a five minute conversation with Albany is thirty cents which brings it, all things considered, below telegraphy.
July 1884

100 Years Ago
The opening game of baseball for the season of 1909 in Oneonta was played at Elm Park last Friday afternoon, the contest being between the Oneonta nine and the excellent team which Cooperstown this year has put in the field. While the game was in many respects an interesting one neither team was up to the expected standard, and neither did as well as may be looked for later in the season.
Clark, as pitcher for Oneonta, made a good record, striking out nine men and being particularly effective with men on bases. For Cooperstown, Horton was in the box, his work also being of a fair order of merit. The score of 12 to 7 in favor of Oneonta indicates what is a fact – namely that the game was both brilliant and ragged. The men on both sides doing so well, it was a pity they didn’t do better.
July 1909

80 Years Ago
Looking back to the 1929 record of the Oneonta High school in baseball is gratifying to those who are interested in the athletic standing of the school. This season, the baseball team was undefeated. It romped through a schedule including strong teams such as Schenectady, Norwich and others with a clean slate, outplaying its opponents in every case. The Yellow and White scored 123 runs while holding 12 opponents to 38 tallies. There is no question that its record may not be duplicated for years to come.
Harold Hunt, varsity catcher for Colgate in 1926 directed the brilliant Oneonta nine. It was Mr. Hunt’s fifth season with the Oneonta lads and he will return to manage again in 1930. Captain Bunnell, Hull and Pondolfino, Oneonta men lost through graduation, leave places that it will be almost impossible to fill. Each batted over .400, with Hull batting a team-leading .454. Other 1929 team members are Kreger, Mahon, Simmons, Conte, Long, Holowach, Snyder, Carr and Rutan.
July 1929

60 Years Ago
A recent study of costs made by the Otsego County Child Welfare Department for the six months period from January 1, 1949 to June 30, 1949, shows that each child under care costs the county an average of $38.54 per month for that period. This average cost includes board, room, clothing, incidentals, and medical care. In this period, one child required radical surgery.
The total child welfare program cost $33,511.98. The county was reimbursed by parents and for state charges $4,609.14, so the net cost of child welfare for six months was $28,902.84. Board for the children is approximately 81 percent of the cost; clothing 7.6 percent; medical care 9.7 percent; and incidentals 1.7 percent. A foster mother receives $36.40 per month for the care of children less than two years of age; for a child over two years she receives $33.80.
July 1949

40 Years Ago
Over 90 members, State officials and guests from neighboring chapters attended a luncheon in Cooperstown at the Tunnicliff Inn on July 16 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of Otsego Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution. The history of the chapter, given by Historian, Mrs. Henry H. Willsey, reviewed the membership activities and accomplishments of the past 75 years.
It was July 6, 1894 that the chapter was organized with 12 members as follows: Mrs. Abbie Cory Turner, Miss Grace Scott Bowen, Mrs. Clara Matteson Murdock, Miss Emma Cory, Mrs. Genevieve Cory Johnston, Mrs. Ellswood Cady, Mrs. Jennie Campbell Randolph, Mrs. Rexa Wood Clark, Miss Augusta Prescott Welch, Mrs. Evileen Tunnicliff Edick, Mrs. Fannie Grant White, and Miss Maud Louise Merchant. Mrs. Abbie Cory Turner was chosen as regent. The meetings were held at her home and debates were the form of entertainment.
July 1969

20 Years Ago
American teenagers are working in droves but much of their cash goes for cars, beer and sometimes drugs. They may be learning a work ethic, but they are also learning conspicuous consumption while compromising their education.
Mary Bicouvaris, last year’s national teacher-of-the-year, said, “What I find deplorable many times is they work school into the business schedule rather than fit business into the school schedule.”
July 1989

10 Years Ago
Once a summer refuge for vaudevillians, Hartwick College’s Pine Lake Environmental Campus still offers summer entertainment for visitors and year-round residents alike.
Dan Sherman and his wife, Mabel DeForest, were well-known vaudevillians when they purchased what is now known as Pine Lake during the early part of the century and created a resort for vacationing stage people from the Boston, New York and Chicago circuits. “Sherman Lake,” as it became known, quickly became a popular place for entertainment in the area. The vaudevillians set up shows in the theater Sherman built and local residents paid a minimum fee to see comedy acts, trapeze artists and famous entertainers. The resort also featured a carousel, hotdog vendors and motorboat rides around the lake.
Hartwick College acquired the property in 1971.
July 1999

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

Labels: 07-17-09, Columns, Hometown History

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Letters to the Editor

So ‘In God We Trust’? More Like Greed, Oil

To the Editor:
A recent brief news item reported that the House of Representatives had approved spending $100,000 to have “In God We Trust” engraved in the Capitol Visitors Center.
That amount is trivial compared to the billions the U.S. government wastes every month.
It’s still too much money to foster an erroneous belief that the U.S. is a “Christian Nation” by putting an apparently official stamp of approval on that fallacy.
Considering much of the recent past in this country, a more apt engraving would state, “In Greed We Trust” – or perhaps, “In Oil We Trust.”
WILLIAM F. ROBERTS
Otego

We Do Not Need Richard Miller

To the Editor:
It upsets me that the Democrats allowed Republican Richard Miller to run on their party line even though the Republicans and The Working Families didn’t want him.
While Miller is responsible for bringing millions of dollars to Hartwick College, he did this the same way any president of a private institution would, by asking alumni with money.
This is not an incredible feat or stretch for a president and shouldn’t be acclaimed as high as it is.
In addition, it was under his personal recommendation that the men’s Division I Soccer team be dropped to Division III.
It was this program that was responsible for bringing in The Soccer Hall of Fame and for Miller to try and destroy that demonstrates his lack of foresight as well as his ignorance of Oneonta’s culture.
...We need someone who will work with us, not above us. We need mayor who will have enough foresight to strengthen our economy for the future, not for a few years.
We do not need Richard Miller.
MARGARET YOUNG
Oneonta

Labels: 07-17-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

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The Zimpher Initiative Could Harness SUNY To Upstate Revival

Who can “save” Upstate New York?
Precious few individuals, that’s for sure.
Governor Paterson is too downstate-focused.
Downstate Democrats now control both the General Assembly and state Senate; besides, the legislative process, at best, is fragmented.
The Empire State’s captains of industry are all in well-watered environs of Manhattan, making only occasional forays to summer homes Upstate.
That leaves – who else but? – the SUNY chancellor, who oversees a $2.4 billion budget expended through 64 facilities – universities, colleges, hospitals – from Stonybrook to Fredonia.
Only SUNY has the brainpower, the money and the clout to transform our lovely but forlorn rural counties into international models of sustainabililty, and our hollowed-out industrial cities into forward-thinking beacons of prosperity.
As it is, SUNY’s Upstate payroll is a huge economic benefit to communities surrounding the university colleges, but it’s not enough.
So Nancy L. Zimpher’s call for a strategic plan for the SUNY systerm, to be built from the bottom up, and to be in place by next spring, is exciting indeed.
“You have to have a plan; it’s trite but true,” the new chancellor said Monday, July 13, during her first visit to SUNY Oneonta (and 25th on her 100-day tour of all 64 institutions). Then she added, “Once you have a plan, you have accountability.”
We said “a strategic plan for the SUNY system,” but it’s much more than that.
As chancellor of the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, Dr. Zimpher was involved in The Milwaukee Idea, a strategic-planning effort based on the land-grant university’s original “Wisconsin Idea” – that the university would not be an ivory tower.
Rather, “the boundaries of the university would be the boundaries of the state,” the chancellor said.
As president of the University of Cincinnati, she helped create a vision there entitled, “UC/21: Defining the New Urban Research University.”
What a strategic-planning effort does is set consensus goals and create a process to reach those goals. It sounds warm and fuzzy, but when asked about “deliverables,” her response was peppered with the tough-minded verb “to track.”
The Milwaukee Idea focused on Technology Transfer – sharing skills, knowledge, technologies, methods of manufacturing. Success was measured by the increase in research dollars and by counting newly created jobs; the most beneficial outcomes won’t be known for years, when the research bears fruit.
UC/21, growing out of a different social milieu, focused on urban challenges, measuring the decrease in the poverty rate, increases in home ownership, increases in the high-school graduates and college enrollees.
What measurements would reflect progress in Upstate New York?
Maybe decrease in outmigration of college graduates. Maybe dollars invested in SUNY-spawned economic sectors.
For instance, why shouldn’t the 600 music-industry grads SUNY Oneonta sends forth annually develop a music industry right here? Why shouldn’t the fashion majors spawn an Eighth Avenue north? Why shouldn’t the college’s new STEM initiative – for science, technology, engineering and mathematics – attract high-growth, high-tech startups: Silicon Valley east?
The Zimpher Initiative will get started right after Labor Day, with “town hall meetings” planned in campus communities around the state. A 200-person council representing the range of people who have a stake in the outcome – all of us, that is – will help hammer out the details.
New York was The Empire State, foremost in every way – finance, manufacturing, agriculture, railroads and then highways, institutions of higher learning, you name it – but today our poor Upstate is in sad decline.
Yes, the New York Metropolitan area prospered mightily by comparison, but overreaching has brought proud Wall Street low.
Upstate has it all, all but the will. Can The Zimpher Initiative summon it forth? – and the visionary plan – can The Zimpher Initiative create a worthy one? – and farsightedness to achieve it?
The new chancellor is determined to accomplish the first two steps – Godspeed. The third step will depend on the rest of us.

Labels: 07-17-09, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion

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