Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

Soccer Stars Shine At Induction 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Oneonta Hosts Sport’s Stars This Weekend

Five-time MLS champ Jeff Agoos and two-time World Champion Joy Fawcett will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in a ceremony that begins at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 2, on Oneonta’s west side.
ABC/ESPN soccer announcer Rob Stone will emcee.
Other honorees include retired New York Times soccer writer Alex Yannis, who will receive the Colin Jose Media Award. A 36-year member of the Times staff, he covered the New York Cosmos from their first day of existence to their last, developing friendships with many stars, including Pele.
Highlights local soccer fans can take advantage of include:
• 7 p.m. Friday, July 31, a memorial service for recently deceased stars of the game, followed by a get-acquainted social with inductees. ($25, including light dinner.)
• 9 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 1, coaches’ clinic, led by Randy Waldrum, Notre Dame women’s coach. ($50)
• 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2, AYSO Future Famers Soccer Tournament, free and open to the public.
This year’s induction ceremony will be inside the museum. Admission is free and the public is welcome. An autograph sessiion follows.

Labels: 07-31-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:18 PM 0 comments

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City of the Hills

FOOD SOUGHT: Otsego County’s Hunger Task Force will be accepting donations of non-perishable food at the entrance to the county fair, which starts Tuesday, Aug. 4, at the Morris fairgrounds.

NBT TOPS: NBT Bancorp was ranked ninth on the list of best-performing banks in the nation in by the ABA Banking Journal. The ranking was based on return on average total equity.

GET A HORSE(LESS): The Horseless Carriage Club of America will be bringing steam-, electric- and gasoline-powered vehicles built before 1916 to Oneonta. You can see them 12:30-3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5, outside the GOHS History Center, and then at the Swart-Wilcox House.

HOW TO VOTE: Voters can examine Otsego County’s new voting machines 2-7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11 at the Worcester fire hall, and Wednesday, Aug. 12, at the Schenevus fire hall.

CLOSED, OPEN: Corfu Diner is open again after state tax agents closed the eatery and seized the property Friday, July 24, at Chestnut and Main for nonpayment of taxes.

ROCKIN’ SCHOOL: Elm Park Church is planning a Vacation Bible School on the theme, “Crocodile Rock,” beginning Sunday, Aug. 2. Call 432-6552 to pre-register.

NOT TO LATE TO RELAY: It’s not to late to sign up for this year’s Relay For Life at Fortin Park on Friday, August 7. Visit www.hometownoneonta.biz for more information.

Labels: 07-31-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:17 PM 0 comments

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County’s Own NPR Affiliate Will Power Up In September

By JIM KEVLIN

During the Great Flood of 2006, the gate on the East Sidney Lake Dam’ was closed to slow raging Ouleout Creek on its way to the already brimming Susquehanna.
The water backed up, rose and began pouring down the sluiceway, a sight a passing motorist had never seen before (because it had never happened before.)
Mistakenly, he thought the dam was collapsing. He called Delaware County emergency services. Lacking any other means to communicate, volunteer firefighters had to go door to door in threatened Unadilla, warning homeowners to vacate.
Back on SUNY Oneonta’s hill, headquarters of many emergency efforts, Carol Blazina heard the story and said to herself, this cannot stand.
A couple of years before, Robert Kafarski, engineer for WONY, the student radio station, had advised Blazina, vice president for communications, that a low-power radio license was available to the Oneonta campus.
The college applied and got the license, for a rainy day.
By November 2006, Blazina had a staff in place – General Manager Gary Wickham and Marketing Manager Brian Levis, who were soon joined by Broadcast Editor Rebecca Hoey.
On Jan. 7 2007, barely half a year after those rainest days in 100 years, WUOW – a National Public Radio/Pacifica affiliate – went on the air.
But heading north on Route 28 toward Cooperstown, you lose WUOW’s interesting mix of public-service programming at Goodyear Lake. On Route 205, it’s gone before Laurens.
So WUOW’s utility as both an emergency communicator and heavy-hitting content provider was limited.
Until now.
The Federal Communications Commission has approved a construction permit that will allow WUOW to become a full-power station.
Sometime in September, an antenna will be placed atop Crumhorn Mountain that will allow the signal – it will shift from 104.7 FM to 88.5 FM – to reach halfway up Otsego Lake, beyond Fly Creek, beyond the hamlet of Middlefield.
(WSKG, Binghamton, beams into Otsego County, but is mostly classical music.)
SUNY Oneonta President Nancy Kleniewski, with state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, by her side, announced the greater reach at a Wednesday, July 22, press conference.
In the WUOW broadcast booth a couple of days later, Wickham turned to his phone and, punching in a few numbers, smoothly executed a test of the emergency broadcasting system.
But for him and Levis, Oneonta natives who had worked on and off for years at WODS and WSRK, the new station is more than that.
“It’s a chance to make local radio again,” said Wickham, who in a multi-year hiatus between two radio stints owned Oneonta’s Depot restaurant. “Local radio isn’t here anymore.”
Still, he was new to public radio, and to get up to speed he studied Fordham’s WFUV, Philadelphia’s WXPN and Boston’s WUMB.
When WUOW first went on the air, Mark Drnek of Sweet Home Productions did the first “liner,” information about the station the FCC requires to be broadcast regularly, and for the first few weeks it aired an “adult album” format, from Frank Sinatra on.
Since then, however, Wickham has contracted with WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany for Alan Chartock’s “Capitol Connection” and other programs.
Because of the state of the economy, shows come and go. “The Infinite Mind,” for instance, an NPR favorite that was gaining a local following, just disappeared one day, although Wickham expects it will resume when new funding is identified.
For the complete schedule, go to www.wuow.org, maintained by Hoey, a 2003 SUNY Oneonta grad from Syracuse.
It’s local programming where Wickham – who’s doing a morning music show – sees the greatest possibilities.
The Sunday Review – 7-9 a.m. – locals news and commentary, is developing a following.
It features former SUNY President Alan Donovan’s “Kitchen Table Conversations,” interviews with venerable Otsego Countians; he’s in the midst of a three-part series with former SUNY Chancellor Clifton R. Wharton, Jr., who maintains a weekend home in Cooperstown.
For her part, Kleniewski is on the air regularly, interviewing leaders of local social service agencies.
And when new SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher was visiting a couple of weeks ago, she was interview by Chartock from the WUOW facility.
Wickham hopes to collaborate with the League of Women Voters’ local chapters in airing debates before this fall’s local elections.

Labels: 07-31-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:16 PM 0 comments

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You Tot You Taw A Puddy Tat? You Did! At Fox?

By LAURA COX

Almost exactly a year ago, pet-loving residents of A.O. Fox Nursing Home were in mourning.
On July 19, 2008, Rosebud, the nursing-home cat, had been put to sleep.
Who shows up but a grey and white stray with a smudge of gray above his left eye.
This new cat in the neighborhood started hanging around, playing in the flowers, chasing birds and sitting on the hoods of people’s cars.
This newcomer was clearly hungry. So residents put out a bowl of food out for him.
Each day, they moved the bowl closer, and closer, and closer. Finally, they put it inside the front door.
He came inside and hasn’t left since.
Carole Walde, who lives in the nursing home behind Fox Hospital, was asked if she had a name for the new pet.
“I don’t know, “ she replied, “but I call him ‘Smudge’.”
And the name stuck.
Rosebud had been at the nursing home longer than most of the staff, and no one could quite recall when he was acquired, maybe 15-20 years ago.
When he first arrived, residents were not sure if he was male or female; someone named him Rose and someone else said, that’s not a Rose, that’s a Bud. Therefore he became Rosebud.
He was well loved by many residents and when he started having kidney problems last July, they were distraught to make the decision to have him put down.
Carole and social worker Heather Fox took up a collection for a small headstone to put in a flower garden out front. The stone says “Rosebud,” with paw prints on each side of the name.
Carole planted a rosebush nearby.
The nursing home will be celebrating one year with Smudge the cat in coming weeks. Carole likes to think of him as a blessing sent to them in a time of loss.
“He was scared to death when we first met him, but he owns the place now,” she said. “It’s like he was sent to us after Rosebud died.”
Smudge has taken a fancy for birds and when one of the three resident birds went missing recently, Activities Director Robin Voorhis had to buy heavier cages to prevent this Sylvester from getting to Tweeties.
He is a very smart cat, and does not require much care. He lets himself outside by swatting at the sensor beam to open the electric doors. He doesn’t use a litter box, but instead prefers to go outside to do his business and he recognizes Robin when she arrives in the morning as the lady with the food in her office. He has also been known to take a ride or two on the elevator sneaking in when someone opens the door. They believe the cat to be about a year and a half now.
He pretty much has free reign of the place, but knows the recliner in Carole’s room is a nice place to nap, in addition to the chair in the front lounge and a few other residents’ rooms. Carole has a cat bed for him, but he has never slept in it she said, so it is used as a toy box for his toys.
The only place Smudge is not really allowed is the dining areas, staff keep an eye on him when he comes close and shoo him out for sanitation reasons, Robin said.
Carole, who lived in Bainbridge before coming to Oneonta in 2006 and in Richfield Springs before that, has always been a lover of cats, calling herself a cat-crazy lady, and is happy to have a cat around the nursing home.
“I think its soothing for people to have pets around, it relaxes them, and takes their mind off their problems,” said Carole, who had the cat riding with her on a gurney when she went down the elevator and under the street to the hospital one time. Smudge got to ride with to keep her company until they reached the point where he was no longer allowed.
“[Having a pet] is a little bit of the past we can still offer, people have to give up so much when they come to a nursing home. Pets, music and children make them smile,” Robin said.

Labels: 07-31-09, Front Page

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:15 PM 0 comments

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Hometown People

Oneonta Little League Raffle Winners Headed To New York

The Oneonta Little League raffle for tickets to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game took place on Sunday, July 19 at Doc Knapp field. Tournament MVP from Oneonta A team, Joe Sherrill, selected the winning tickets. Doc Knapp was present to certify the drawing.
First place went to Troy Rider from West Davenport, who won a limo ride for eight to Yankee Stadium on August 9th and eight tickets to the Yankee vs. Red Sox game.
Second place went to William Pirone of Oneonta, whowon four tickets to a Yankee vs. Texas game on August 25.
Third place went to Steve Schmidt of Oneonta. He won four tickets to a Mets vs. Phillies game on August 23rd.
Thanks to all who participated, the Oneonta Little League sold 1403 tickets and raised just over $12K in this fundraiser. The fundraiser raised funds for capital improvements to the Little League complex in Oneonta.

USC GRADS: The following local students recently graduated from the Oneonta campus of USC The Business College: Jennifer Miller and Stacy Robinson of Davenport; Mary Beth Hyde of Davenport Center; Jennifer Swatling of Fly Creek; Lisa Bullis of Franklin; Jamie Govern and Dustin Hendricks of Laurens; Victoria Leonardo of Maryland; Michaela Bliss and Valeria Furlan of Milford; Tammy Barry, Amanda Burritt, Anthony Carimando Michelle Dunn, Chad Ritchko, Keshia Robinson, Cory Tripp, Deborah Tyler, Mary Wendlin and Natasha Wilken of Oneonta; Christine Costanzam, Karen Johnson and Neil Obergefell of Otego; Nancy Martin and Pauline Sowersby of Sidney; Diane Brown and Rhonda Stanton of Sidney Center; Nicole Davis and Terri Reynolds of Unadilla; and Kayla Henderson of Walton.

DEANS LIST: First-year Hartwick student Sarah Saggese, of West Oneonta, daughter of Marcia Saggese was named to the Deans List this spring. She is a graduate of Laurens Central School.

NEW FACULTY: At the Oneonta campus, USC welcomes Jeffrey Held. A Unadilla resident, Held received his MA in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix and his BS in Management Studies from the University of Maryland. A retired Army officer, Jeff is a substitute teacher for several Otsego County schools and was recently Purchasing Manager for Astrocom Electronics. He will teach Marketing, Management, and English.

O’Connor, Armstrong Nuptials On Pond On The Fourth Of July

HARTWICK

Corrine O’Connor and Wayne Armstrong were married on the Fourth of July on a pier at the pond on their Curry Road property, surrounded be friends and family. The Rev. John C. Young officiated.
The bride is program coordinator at the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts, Oneonta. The groom is owner of Otsego Telephone Co.
Wendy Reich, a friend of the bride, was maid of honor. Dave Tabor, a friend of the groom, was best man. Tom Barrett walked the bride to the pier.
The groom’s mother, Velma Armstrong, was in attendance, as were the groom’s daughters, Kristie, who will be married in October, and Kimberly, who will enter Union College this fall.
The bride, who has degrees in fine arts from SUNY Oneonta and business from Empire State College, has two grown sons, Blake and Andrew, who reside in the New York City area.
The couple honeymooned in Maine, where the bride hoped to see a moose. “And I did,” she said.

For 2nd Year, ‘Dining With Champions’ Offers Unusual Way To Have Fun, Learn Too

Many sports fundraisers – golf tournaments, for instance – attract more men than women.
Tracey Ranieri, SUNY Oneonta athletic director, came back from a Harvard seminar last year with a new idea she calls “Dining With Champions: A Celebration of Our Community in Support of Student Athletes.”
The idea of a dinner, featuring community leaders and interesting residents as hosts, was attempted for the first time in the summer of 2008 and raised $10,000.
The money was put towards student-athlete travel and facility enhancement, and with all the positive feedback, Ranieri has been looking forward to Year II.
Some 900 invitations have been sent out for the dinner, planned at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Alumni Field House, but anyone who wants to participate is welcome.
This year, there will be a reception, where guests and hosts can mingle for a while so people get a chance to speak hosts of other tables – even if only briefly.
Hosts this year range from Wilber Bank President Doug Gulotty to Jonathan Ullman, new president of the National Soccer Hall of Fame; SUNY Vice President of Facilities Tom Rathbone, who will tell “Sea Stories” from his earlier Naval career, and Jim and Karen Elting, who lived in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The complete list is at www.oneonta.edu/academics/athletics/diningwithchampions/
The deadline is Aug. 1, and you can register on that site as well.
There are many returning hosts, and some new on Gulotty’s topic will be “Investment Banking: No Time Like The Present.” He said, “This is the time for people with money to risk to be profitable.”
Larry Guzy, SUNY Oneonta distinguished psychology professor, will speak on “NASA: Aeronautics & Space Research,” sharing studies he’s done on motion sickness and the impact of hyper-gravity.
Said Rathbone, “Like every sailor, I never let the truth get in the way of a good sea story.”

Labels: 07-31-09, Hometown People

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:09 PM 0 comments

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Editorials

Someday, Soccer Hall of Fame Will Be County’s Dominant One

It was a sound not heard as much as usual in Otsego County this summer.
No, it wasn’t the bell on the ice-cream truck. (The Cooperstown village trustees had banned Mr. Ding-A-Ling from using his Good Humor bell, saying it violated the sound ordinance.)
It was the cheerful sound of cash-registers ringing, and ringing, and ringing.
In our somewhat bleak economic climate right now, it was particularly welcome, as 21,000 people came to the county to see former Red Sox Jim Rice and Oakland A Rickey Henderson inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
To know how much the local economy benefitted, we’d have to wait until the sales-tax and bed-tax receipts are in and compare them to years past.
Suffice it to say that anecdotal evidence and the grins on merchants faces were all the data anyone needs.
The miracle of tourism was particularly in evidence Monday, July 27, the morning after the 21,000 fans had flocked to that field on the east side of the Clark Sports Center to witness the elevation of baseball’s immortals for the 71st time: Driving through the village, you wouldn’t know – except for a neon orange “no parking” sign or two – that anything, particularly anything huge, had happened just hours before.
That’s the beauty of these major events: The impact on the host community is minimal.
Oneonta will rediscover the same thing this weekend as, for the seventh year, the City of the Hills Arts Festival is celebrated from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, along Main Street. Thousands – an estimated 5,000 – visitors will be here, enjoying themselves and injecting dollars into the local economy. See you there.
At 11 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 2, several hundred fans will be at the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Oneonta’s west side to witness Jeff Agoos and Joyce Fawcett inducted into Otsego County’s other sports mecca. While attendance promises to be just a fraction of the Cooperstown attendance, it’s not beyond imagining that, some day in the not-too-distant future, the cletes will be on the other foot.
Whereas MLB attendance is slipping from competition from other sports, soccer in the United States has yet to fully flower. With tens of thousands of immigrants arriving annually from countries where soccer is a religion, it’s just a matter of time.
From a strictly parochial perspective, Oneonta and the county have a huge potential asset here, and we have to do what we can – we are not doing enough – to ensure the National Soccer Hall of Fame is fully solvent in its local venue until that happy and predictable day arrives.
The city and county’s political and economic-development leaders should make a point of being there – Mayor John C. Nader, county Rep. Jim Johnson, the Oneonta native who represents Cooperstown on the county board, Oneonta’s county legislators, state Sen. Jim Seward, prospective Oneonta Mayor Richard Miller, Oneonta Town Supervisor Bob Wood – to seek out Soccer Hall Chairman Douglas Willies and President Jonathan Ullman and reassure them we want the Hall to remain and flourish here.
We often don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it. Let’s not allow that to happen with Otsego County’s “other” hall of fame, which someday, sooner rather than later, promises to be the dominant one.

Otsego 2000’s Letter Means Rule Of Law Will Carry The Day

American history contains example after example of how powerful economic interests overwhelm the common good.
The coal magnates bought the Pennsylvania legislature lock, stock and barrel, and controlled it throughout the 19th century.
California was in the grasp of railroad interests, including Oneonta-born Huntingtons.
We’re all suffering because of too much power in – and too little control over – the banking and financial sectors.
And it certainly seemed possible Otsego County would be likewise railroaded by natural-gas drillers who have descended like locusts in the past two years.
As this year began, 638 leases had been signed by 300 county property owners on 43,000 acres.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has been preparing a GEIS – a generic environmental impact statement – that critics feared will rubber-stamp the gas drillers’ dearest aspirations.
And, in Cooperstown, the Otsego County Board of Representatives seems unwilling to be the least alarmed about the possible dangers to water supplies and damage – prospectively expensive – to local roads.
But Otsego 2000, under the tutelage of Henry S.F. Cooper, Jr. of Cooperstown, has a history of not being pushed around when it comes to maintaining the Otsego Lake neighborhood in as pristine a state as possible.
•
We may not be a nation of justice for all, but we are a nation of laws, of due process, particularly to those who can afford to press their cases.
Otsego 2000 understands that, and has used that understanding effectively.
For instance, when 69 wind turbines, 400-feet tall, were proposed within views from James Fenimore Cooper’s Glimmerglass, public hearings were filled with a lot of emotion – about aesthetics, noise, health concerns.
But after the Warren town board approved the project – was there ever any question that it wouldn’t? – and Otsego 2000 sued, the issue was decide on process.
State Supreme Court Judge Donald A. Greenwood ruled that, among other things, over two years of meeting after meeting, the town violated the Freedom of Information Law, yes, twice.
•
On July 15, Otsego 2000’s board of directors sent a two-page letter and four-page statement – relatively short, but every word carried weight – to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, making a number of sensible requests about what should be in the regulations now under consideration.
But the kicker was this: New York City has prevailed upon the state to create a one-mile buffer around all of its Catskills’ reservoirs and watersheds.
If New York City, why not the rest of us? Is Otsego County’s need for clean water any less than Soho’s? If New York City AND Otsego County, why not everybody? Why not indeed?
And that’s how the argument will eventually be decided.
New York isn’t New Mexico. Put a mile around every lake, stream and reservoir Upstate and that doesn’t leave much.
Problem solved.

Labels: 07-31-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:09 PM 0 comments

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Someday, Soccer Hall of Fame Will Be County’s Dominant One

It was a sound not heard as much as usual in Otsego County this summer.
No, it wasn’t the bell on the ice-cream truck. (The Cooperstown village trustees had banned Mr. Ding-A-Ling from using his Good Humor bell, saying it violated the sound ordinance.)
It was the cheerful sound of cash-registers ringing, and ringing, and ringing.
In our somewhat bleak economic climate right now, it was particularly welcome, as 21,000 people came to the county to see former Red Sox Jim Rice and Oakland A Rickey Henderson inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
To know how much the local economy benefitted, we’d have to wait until the sales-tax and bed-tax receipts are in and compare them to years past.
Suffice it to say that anecdotal evidence and the grins on merchants faces were all the data anyone needs.
The miracle of tourism was particularly in evidence Monday, July 27, the morning after the 21,000 fans had flocked to that field on the east side of the Clark Sports Center to witness the elevation of baseball’s immortals for the 71st time: Driving through the village, you wouldn’t know – except for a neon orange “no parking” sign or two – that anything, particularly anything huge, had happened just hours before.
That’s the beauty of these major events: The impact on the host community is minimal.
Oneonta will rediscover the same thing this weekend as, for the seventh year, the City of the Hills Arts Festival is celebrated from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, along Main Street. Thousands – an estimated 5,000 – visitors will be here, enjoying themselves and injecting dollars into the local economy. See you there.
At 11 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 2, several hundred fans will be at the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Oneonta’s west side to witness Jeff Agoos and Joyce Fawcett inducted into Otsego County’s other sports mecca. While attendance promises to be just a fraction of the Cooperstown attendance, it’s not beyond imagining that, some day in the not-too-distant future, the cletes will be on the other foot.
Whereas MLB attendance is slipping from competition from other sports, soccer in the United States has yet to fully flower. With tens of thousands of immigrants arriving annually from countries where soccer is a religion, it’s just a matter of time.
From a strictly parochial perspective, Oneonta and the county have a huge potential asset here, and we have to do what we can – we are not doing enough – to ensure the National Soccer Hall of Fame is fully solvent in its local venue until that happy and predictable day arrives.
The city and county’s political and economic-development leaders should make a point of being there – Mayor John C. Nader, county Rep. Jim Johnson, the Oneonta native who represents Cooperstown on the county board, Oneonta’s county legislators, state Sen. Jim Seward, prospective Oneonta Mayor Richard Miller, Oneonta Town Supervisor Bob Wood – to seek out Soccer Hall Chairman Douglas Willies and President Jonathan Ullman and reassure them we want the Hall to remain and flourish here.
We often don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it. Let’s not allow that to happen with Otsego County’s “other” hall of fame, which someday, sooner rather than later, promises to be the dominant one.

Labels: 07-31-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:08 PM 0 comments

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Letters to the Editor

Dick Miller Will Take Oneonta To Next Level

To the Editor,
Oneonta does indeed need Richard Miller! Contrary to Ms. Young’s opinion, Dick Miller is the perfect man for the job.
Not only is he visionary, but he understands the fundamental principals that all good executives live by. He knows how to motivate people, make difficult decisions and, above all, produce results.
He is not a person who lives in the past, although he acknowledges history, but rather an individual who analyzes the present and makes appropriate decisions, as difficult as they may be, to ensure a successful outcome.
In times like these, we need tested leaders who aren’t afraid to deal with the ugly realities that communities like ours will be facing.
I, for one, am not voting for a party or an ideology. I am voting for the best qualified individual who can elevate our city to the next level.
I have no doubt that Richard Miller can and will perform admirably as the next mayor of Oneonta judging from his past experience and his dedicated commitment to our city.
JOE STILLMAN
Oneonta

Health Care Isn’t About Politics, But About What The People Need

To the Editor:
With regards to health-care reform, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., told an attack group that if they’re “able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”
President Obama’s responded: “Think about that. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. This is about a health-care system that is breaking up American families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy.”
Right-wing writer Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard told Republicans they need to resist the temptation to work with Democrats to find a solution to our health care crisis. “This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill.”
Their plan is to oppose health-care reform as a political ploy to weaken the President and defeat his entire agenda of change.
If the American people buy into the strategy of the “Party of No” and do nothing, it will ensure more of the same. It will saddle our children and grandchildren with a burden of exploding costs and declining care that they may never overcome.
Obama has consistently argued that health-care reform must reduce costs, guarantee choice, including the choice of a strong public insurance option, and ensure quality, affordable health care for all Americans.
Those principles are the key to keeping our country healthy and protecting our families, businesses and economy from costs that are spiraling out of control. It’s the change the American people voted for and so desperately need.
Republican leaders are so concerned with scoring points that they consider health-care reform a political game, and they’re literally playing politics with our lives and livelihood.
They will not “break” Obama or the movement that supports him. We must work together to enact real health-care reform that Americans need and demand.
JIM O’LEARY
Delhi

Dereliction Of Duty; Now, Nutty Laws

To the Editor:
Is it any wonder that New York State’s legislature is ranked amongst the lowest, if not THE lowest, of the various states’ legislatures, giving Texas a run for its money?
We have not only witnessed senators ignoring the citizens’ business while making partisan power plays, but now passing laws that are comical, such as prohibiting texting while driving.
Law officers, from the vast number of people I see who are flouting the law regarding hand-held cell-phone use while driving (I have caught our very own local senator in that act) seem to be ignoring enforcement of the law.
Yet, they are adding another law that won’t be enforced. Why not another law against shaving while driving? Or applying cosmetics?
If our legislators want to give the appearance of serving the general public, why does the Senate turn a blind eye to one of its members, Hiram Monserrate, who was not only one of the principals in the recent Senate debacle, doing multiple about-faces regarding which party he was supporting, but is also facing felony charges?
It seems that a security video taken in the waning days of last year shows the senator dragging his bleeding girlfriend from his apartment. Prosecutors say that he slashed her face with a broken glass.
We the citizens, all New Yorkers tired of political privilege, should mount a campaign and speak out against legislative sleaze. Call Monserrate this week – (518) 455-2529 – and strongly urge him to resign.
If not, we are giving tacit approval of this kind of behavior.
IRWIN GOOEN
Oneonta

Labels: 07-31-09, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor, Opinion

posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 10:06 PM 4 comments

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Hometown History

125 Years Ago
Sherman Jennings was killed on the railroad track near the depot in Unadilla on Monday night about 11 o’clock by being run over by freight train No. 28, Thomas Vanaman, conductor. The body was torn and mutilated in a horrible manner, portions of flesh, bone, and parts of the body being scattered for several rods along the track. The remains were gathered up and carried into the freight house.
A verdict of accidental death while intoxicated was rendered by the coroner’s jury on Wednesday morning. Jennings was a man six feet, four inches tall, and about 40 years of age.
July 1884

100 Years Ago
A.E. Nye, Oneonta’s well known baker, has lately made some decided improvements in his shop on Cliff Street where most of the bread is now baked. Among the new improvements is a triumph bread mixer, which will mix three barrels of flour in ten minutes, and a dough divider which will cut off the exact amount of dough required for the various sized loaves sold. Mr. Nye uses about three thousand barrels of flour annually for bread making.
There has been of late considerable complaint of the work of sneak thieves in various parts of the city. Sunday night the refrigerators of C.C. Colburn, W.A. Lakin and Mrs. Woodin were cleared out. W.S. Risley of Loudon Avenue reports that his refrigerator was visited two nights in succession. It is quite generally believed to be the work of hoboes whom the summer season sends on tour through the country.
July 1909

80 Years Ago
Gilbert Lake State Park, about eight miles north of Oneonta near Laurens, is now open to the public. This park is the largest of the Central New York State group, containing about 1,900 acres.
A fine area of forest land stretches north of the lake part of which will be developed into a camping ground. The lake itself is about 40 acres in area. The shoreline is being provided with facilities for bathers and picnickers. Many fireplaces have been built around the lake with tables and benches set under a sheltering shade of the forest where visitors may spread their luncheons and enjoy the expanse of water that lies almost at their feet.
The park, located at the top of the uplands in Otsego County, was at one time covered with a virgin forest, principally hemlock and pine with a mixture of hardwoods. Lumbermen started taking the timber early in the 1800s, continuing until 1900 when the last mill disappeared from the lakeshore. In 1848 water was used from Gilbert Lake for power. The Otsego Cotton Mills Company acquired title to the lake and brought the “white coal” to power their mills near Laurens through wooden pipelines.
July 1929

60 Years Ago
Oneonta City Democrats last week nominated Mayor Alexander F. Carson for reelection to the office of Mayor for a fourth term. Dr. Carson entered the campaign unopposed and a short time later the Republican committee endorsed his candidacy, thereby not only revealing good judgment, but also a true regard for the welfare of the city.
It was good judgment, for the prospect of electing any Republican who is available against Mayor Carson is about as good as was the chance of a snowball surviving anywhere in Otsego County last week.
Mayor Carson has administered the affairs of the county’s metropolis in an admirable manner. It is to the interest of all – Republicans included – to keep him there.
July 1949

40 Years Ago
Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. and Michael Collins, the three Americans who walked on the surface of the moon, flashed safely home Thursday splashing into the Polynesian waters of the Pacific Ocean in their ship Columbia at 12:50 p.m. EDT.
President Nixon hailed their feat as he stood on a blue carpet outside the silver isolation van in which the astronauts were immediately shielded. Smiling broadly at the three fresh faces in the van’s window, the President said: “This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation.”
July 1969

20 Years Ago
Local Vietnam veteran John D. Higgins drove more than 125 miles between Grand Gorge and Sidney Friday to pick up nearly 100 donation cans from the counters of area stores and business establishments. With less than a Month remaining before Vietnam Awareness Week (August 18 to 24), dollars and cents are pouring in to bring the Moving Vietnam Wall to Oneonta. The can collection raised about $1,300 toward the $7,000 cost of bringing the wall to Oneonta.
The wall is a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The portable 252 panel wall has the names of more than 58,000 Americans killed in the Vietnam War.
July 1989

10 Years Ago
New York is one of 17 states to receive emergency federal funds through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help families cope with the summer’s record-breaking heat. New York will receive $28,484,847. The money will be released to the NYS Department of Family Assistance which will determine how best to utilize the funds.
States typically use the funds to help families pay cooling bills, purchase air conditioners and fans, or provide other means of heat relief. “Young children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to extreme heat such as we have experienced in the last two weeks,” according to U.S. Congressman Sherwood Boehlert. “Over 100 Americans have died due to the latest heat wave, dozens of whom lived right here in New York.”
July 1999

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

Labels: 07-31-09, Columns, Hometown History

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It’s Not Your Father’s Performing Arts Center

By JIM KEVLIN

ONEONTA

Get this.
The Neo-Futurists had 30 cards hanging on a line in from of them.
The audience shouted out a number, the and troupe burst into ... acting.
The idea of “Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind” is to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes, and the Neo-Futurists did just that during a performance in early July at the Foothills Performing Arts Center.
The Neo-Futurists have been doing this kind of thing for 20 years in Chicago and New York, but never in a place like Oneonta. (They’ll be back Aug. 14 and 28.)
“I enjoyed the inventiveness and the energy of the group even, if you say, wow, that’s a little wierd,” said Duncan Smith, the retired Hartwick College English professor who has done some acting himself.
The staging was minimalist. The audience participated with gusto. “Everybody had a great time,” said Smith.
The Neo-Futurists were among the dozen or so big-city troupes and acts that have broken their metropolitan routines to appear at Foothills this summer.
And it’s just the beginning, says Jennifer McDowall, who became Foothills executive director April 6.
“Cultural enrichment is why people live in urban communities,” said the one-time New York City resident. “The goal is to bring to Foothills the caliber of art enjoyed in urban communities.”
With the focus on the $8 million building – if you’ve driven down Oneonta’s Market Street lately, you know it’s close to complete – what’s really revolutionary about Foothills is being missed.
It’s the stuff that’s already going on inside.
You may have started noticing June 13, when the Ridgemont (N.J.) Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company came through town for an evening to performing “The Sorcerer.”
You may have noticed July 10 with “Sneak A Peak,” where the Margolis Brown Performance Company mixed improvisation with physical feats. A discussion followed.
Or Yo-yo Ma’s protege, pianist Joel Fan, who performed July 13; or The Colonists, puppeteers appeared July 24.
Or the “American Towns” film festival each Monday night in July, where audiences travelled from “Paris, Texas,” to “Scotland, PA.”
July 30 was the first “Cool Martinis, Cool Cabaret,” continuing at 8 p.m. every Thursday. $12 cover includes your first of whatever’s the featured martini.
Club 24, summer workshops for children in music, dance, theater, writing, are ongoing Tuesdays through Fridays until Aug. 28.
The Neo-Futurists were part of Foothills’ “New Vaudeville Series,” at 9 p.m. every Friday through August, which McDowall called “incredibly appealing” and “great entertainment.”
So far, it’s included Simon Lovell’s sleight of hand and The Great Throwdini, touted as “the nation’s greatest impalement artist” – ouch.
Admission: $10 plus the throw of a die.
As you might surmise, the idea is to make Foothills a place where people turn naturally, almost any day of the week, for a good time, said McDowall.
As Jennifer commutes daily from her New Berlin home, her mind must be spinning, judging from the story boards she’s put together for the Foothills board.
They are organized by month, by location (“upstairs” and “downstairs”), and by theme (“community”). Photos of prospective acts plaster the rest of the boards.
“This is where 20 years in the arts in New York City came in,” said McDowall; contacts she hasn’t thought of in years keep popping back into her consciousness.
“The artists love it,” she continued. “They love the facility. They love the town.”
Interviewing Duncan Smith, he wondered whether this level of activity is sustainable. Jennifer said the typical act draws 30 people, and she wants to double that.
But, she continued, places like Foothills typically can only depend on performance revenue for 40 percent of their budgets.
So far, the greatest corporate support has come from Northern Eagle Beverages.
“We need underwriters,” said McDowall, adding, “We have a lot of proposals out there.”
She’s confident the support will come in prospective underwriters “see the kind of impact we’re going to have on this community.”

Labels: 07-31-09, The City of the Hills

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WEEKEND’S BEST BETS

COME TO THE FAIR: The Otsego County Fair takes place Tuesday, Aug. 4, through Sunday, Aug. 9, in Morris. Enjoy livestock shows, food, carnival rides, exhibits and grandstand shows. See otsegocountyfair.org for a complete schedule or call 263-5289.

ARTS FESTIVAL: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, Main Street will be closed to vehicular traffic for the seventh annual City of the Hills Arts Festival. This juried show features 39 artisans, plus live music, food and activities for children. Info, 432-8595 or cityofthehills.org.

SEE THE SHOW: At 5 p.m. Friday, July 31, visit UCCCA’s Wilber Mansion for the opening of Voice! presented by The Arc Otsego, an exhibit of works by artists with developmental disabilities from all over New York. A dance follows at 7 p.m. at the Asa Allison Municipal Building at 4 Academy St. with music by Flame. Call 432-8595 or visit arcotsego.org for more information.

SOCCER INDUCTION: Jeff Agoos and Joy Fawcett will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame at 11 a.m. Sunday Aug. 2.
Admission is free and the public is welcome. Info, 432-3351, soccerhalloffame.org.

SONG, DANCE: Try “New Vaudeville” at 9 p.m. every Friday in August at the Foothills Performing Arts Center.

FINAL PREMIERE: Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” premieres at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 2, at Glimmerglass Opera. The season’s other three operas, “La Traviata,” “La Centenerola” and “The Consul” may also be viewed this weekend. Check glimmerglass.org

FIRST EVER: The First Annual Leatherstocking Region Card & Scrapbook Page Show & Sale is 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 1, in the Hartwick Community Center on County Route 11. All proceeds will benefit Chris Watson and family.

Labels: 07-31-09, The City of the Hills, weekend's best bets

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Empire Tales

SAM GOODYEAR

ART BEAT

Tom Morgan could well be called Mr. Otsego County if it weren’t for the fact that he lives in Delaware County. Details, details.
A resident of Gilbertsville in his youth, he is a towering figure in the Oneonta business community, vigorously energizes the arts scene, writes a regular newspaper column, and has a long-running radio program called Moneytalk. He is also a published author.
On Sunday, July 26, we had the pleasure of catching him in yet another guise, this time as the solo interlocutor in his own play, “Tales From the Empire: A Journey Back to the Old Empire Hotel,” produced at the remarkable Franklin Stage Company.
The Empire Hotel was a venerable institution in Gilbertsville, owned and operated for a time by his parents in the 1960s. Tom’s play brings to life family members and some of the “characters” who frequented the hotel’s taproom, where Tom in his younger days tended bar.
He has a sad story to tell, the happy ending of which is his own survival and success.
The program notes state that this is not only Tom’s first play, but only his second time on stage as well. You sure could have fooled us.
The ease and congeniality he displayed were remarkable and immediately engaging. He expertly depicted conversations with the various figures from the past, switching back and forth with the aid of a simple prop or two and a seamless transformation of character.
The stage was set up with simple furniture marking out the taproom, the kitchen, the piano lounge, and settings outside of the hotel.
The lighting was friendly and effective; music was provided by Tom himself at an old upright opening each of the two acts.
The Franklin Stage Company has been going strong since 1997, presenting sturdy classics as well as original scripts. They have never charged an admission fee and have been able to operate on donations from audience members exiting the hall.
They are to be congratulated for their spirit and their achievements.
One major production remains in the 2009 season, “American Fairy Tales,” based on the stories of L. Frank Baum, who firmly believed that fairy tales can happen in America, a belief borne out by his tale of a Kansas girl named Dorothy and her dog Toto.
The play runs Aug. 13-Sept. 6. Though you can’t purchase a ticket in advance, be sure to reserve a place by calling (607) 829-3700 or e-mailing your request at reserve@franklinstagecompany.org

Labels: 07-31-09, Art Beat, Columns, Sam Goodyear, The City of the Hills

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Chilling Tyranny

DAVID RUBIN

OPERA REVIEW

Gian Carlo Menotti’s chilling portrayal of the authoritarian state is as timely today as it was when it premiered on Broadway in 1950.
“The Consul” ran for an astounding 269 performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and won for him both a Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best musical play.
It’s an opera that works well at Glimmerglass, where it opened on Saturday, July 25. The 900-seat house puts the audience right in the ghastly waiting room of the unseen Consul, as desperate petitioners wait, and wait, and wait some more for a precious visa that will permit them to flee the country.
Set designer Andrew Lieberman and lighting director Jane Cox have created the atmosphere of the universal office steeped in bureaucracy, complete with tubular metal scaffolding, long narrow tables, and turquoise chairs that are surely hell on the lower back. Mock fluorescent lighting casts a sickly glow over the proceedings.
The stage is divided by the scaffolding into four playing areas. This works well for the scenes in the Consul’s waiting room, less well for the scenes at the home of John and Magda Sorel, the
sorely put-upon couple who come to grief at the hands of the state.
The plot is a simple one. John Sorel is a freedom fighter (we are told), battling the state. He flees to a neighboring country. His wife Magda and infant son try to obtain visas to join him in exile. The office of the Consul is unyielding, putting Magda through an endless exercise of supplying documents and more documents.
Finally, John is captured, the baby dies, Magda’s mother dies, and then Magda commits suicide. (This is the one bit of action poorly managed by director Sam Helfrich. If one didn’t know the plot, the conclusion would be unclear as Helfrich has staged it, with Magda sitting alone on stage right.)
The cast was ideal. As Magda, Melissa Citro brought her Wagnerian soprano to the role and stopped the performance in the second act with her aria, “I am a woman,” when she finally snaps in the face of the unseen Consul’s inhumanity to his fellow man. Ms. Citro is already singing such Wagnerian roles as a Norn and a Valkyrie in major houses. She has a great career ahead of her. See her now.
Representing the Consul is his Secretary, Leah Wool, also a singer with a bright future. She mastered saying “next” with just the right degree of boredom and derision. Every now and then she allowed her own humanity to peek through the gloom. But in the end, this was a party girl in a form-fitting dress just waiting for 5 p.m.
Robert Kerr was a suitably oily and terrifying agent of the secret police.
The Glimmerglass and City Opera veteran Joyce Castle was perfect as the Mother of Magda and John. Her attempts to make her dying grandson smile were heartbreaking. She is a real pro.
Act two, the most entertaining of the three acts, contains a set piece for a magician, another visa-seeker stuck in bureaucratic limbo. John Easterlin somehow mastered a long and complex series of tricks that delighted the audience and his fellow petitioners. (I think it was a real white rabbit he pulled out of his top hat.)
One of my companions at the performance, Roger Sharp, observed that the magician must represent the circuses that authoritarian governments sponsor to distract their citizens. It certainly explains why Menotti dropped him into the cast.
Menotti was his own librettist. This is often a mistake because there is no one to edit, and this opera desperately needs editing. It is repetitious and often obvious. It’s a two-act opera pumped up to three.
Back to Broadway. While authoritarian states have not changed, the Broadway audience surely has. It is inconceivable that this piece – grim and musically challenging, with nothing approaching “Some Enchanted Evening” in it – could open on Broadway today, let alone run for 269 performances. Broadway is now a place to escape the tyranny, or bungling, of the modern state, not to confront it for three hours.

David M. Rubin, a regular contributor to the CNY Café Momus blog, is the former dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. This is reprinted with the permission of http://blog.cnycafemomus.com

Labels: 07-31-09, The City of the Hills

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Oneonta, Meet The Rockett Man

CHRIS McSWIGGEN

IN THE TIGERS’ DEN

Michael Rockett, the Detroit Tigers ninth- round pick from the University of Texas San Antonio, has done more than impress in the #24 Oneonta Tigers uniform this season.
Batting in the second spot for the Tigers, Rockett leads the team in the RBI category as well as hits. He has legged out five doubles and four triples and currently has two home runs on the season. Rockett has 46 hits and has scored 21 runs in 138 at bats. His team leading 22 RBIs, mixed with his other stats, has him ranked at third overall in the New York-Penn League in batting.
Rockett hit his first homerun of the season on notoriously deep Damaschke Field back in June, during a 9-3 victory over NY-PL Stedler division rival the Lowell Spinners. As a part of an Oneonta Tigers team that is leading the NY-PL in batting, Rockett is an integral part of an offense that gives chills to pitchers all over the league. He currently posts an eye opening .367 on base percentage, a .471 slugging percentage and a .333 batting average. If these stats do not impress you, nothing about the game will.
Originally from Sugarland, Texas, Rockett played baseball at Austin High School before choosing UTSA. Many players have a hard time making the transition from the metal bat collegiate leagues to the wood bat pros, but for Michael Rockett this kind of plate success is nothing new. He batted over .325 in each of his first two seasons at UTSA and quickly became a fixture in the starting lineup.
While he did not have many offers to play ball right out of high school, he made the best of what he was given. Let me re-phrase that, he re-wrote the record books with the opportunity he was given. Rockett’s only offer out of high school was to walk on at Temple Junior College after trying out for the team.
Fortunately for Texas San Antonio, Associate Coach Marshall got a glimpse of Rockett’s ability and called him up. Anyone who knows, has played with, or has coached Rockett throughout the years, knows that this decision has certainly paid off.
A diverse player in the field, Rockett has played a starting role on defense in all of the outfield positions. He has played 21 games in right field, 15 in left field and 2 in center, although center field is taken up by solid Oklahoma University draft pick and lead off hitter Jaime Johnson.
In 48 chances Rockett, had 44 putouts (getting a batter/runner out), 2 assists and 2 errors in 21 games. Chances are the total number of putouts plus assists plus errors. He is, for the most part, a sure fire grab in outfield unless it is an unusually good hit and has the wheels to catch most high fly balls and line drives.
Oneonta has had some fantastic players grace their town with summer gems throughout the years, including major leaguers such as Andy Pettite, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Reuben Rivera, Russ Davis, J.T Snow, Jim Leyritz, Al Lieter and don’t forget current Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson.
If things keep going the way they are this season, you can soon add Michael Rockett to that list of notables.

Labels: 07-31-09, Hometown Sports, oneonta tigers

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