Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

More Than Just A Game

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

By: CHIRS McSWIGGIN

The stage was set. This was it, a day game vs. a local rival, a homecoming battle, for some players the final one, this was more than just a football game: this was a war. That is the way the Oneonta YellowJackets came into this game, and when they walked off the field they entered the locker room with a 41-9 victory.
This was the third straight game they scored at least 40 points. Geared up and ready to go, the boys in blue are ready to go against arch rival and enemy Norwich this weekend, at Norwich.
At 3-2, Oneonta is now 2-0 in the conference and on pace, if they can beat Norwich and Chenango Valley, to win this division. This is a motivated team, a talented team, a winning team.
It was more than just a game, it was homecoming, it was alumni weekend, it was Oneonta High School pride.
Losing this game would be disastrous, devastating, unacceptable.
Bryce Wooden, Oneonta’s sophomore running back, would make sure of this. He carried the ball 18 times for 67 yards and a staggering 3 touchdowns. This was arguably his best performance of the season.
Also making a splash, besides the entire defense who only allowed 9 points (their lowest of the season), was Zach Vaccaro, Doug DiMartin and Senior Quarterback Dan Broe.
Vacarro, a junior, carried the ball 6 times for 44 yards and a score. DiMartin, a senior, carried 5 times for 20 yards and a score on his final homecoming game. DiMartin also had 1 catch for 56 yards.
Broe did not throw a touchdown, but did go 6-10 for 134 yards. Besides his 56 yard completion to DiMartin, he also threw to Mike Gilmore 3 times for 60 yards and Kasey Hogan once for 20 yards.
Overall, it was a stellar performance all around for Oneonta.
This game was big time, measured on a different scale than all the rest. This was Homecoming, this was a day game, this was their preparation for Norwich.
Shadows of Pidgeon loomed over Lloyd F. Baker Field, as the players were doing this today as if he never left.
Oneonta is on a warpath, and Norwich is next.

Labels: 10-09-09, Hometown Sports, Sports Beat

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DSGEIS Settles Nothing; Help Plan Next Step

The breathlessly awaited draft supplementary GEIS has arrived.
The experts need to parse it.
Still, anyone hoping the DEC’s Draft Supplementary Generic Environmental Impact Statement – you gotta love the bureaucratese – would offer iron-clad protection to Otsego County’s environment (and the region’s) would be disappointed.
No one, however, really expected that from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
•
The GEIS process offers some restraints.
“Generic” means a set of rules that, if met by natural-gas drillers, would exempt them from preparing individual SEQRA – state Environmental Quality Review Act – applications on each well.
If a cookie-cutter application falls short of “consistency” with the GEIS, then the DEC’s Full Environmental Assessment Form will be required.
A 1992 GEIS covered vertical drilling; the new one is to cover horizonal hydrofracking, where pipes noodle out, octopus like, from the bottom of a vertical well.
Those pipes would carry undisclosed – but virulent – chemicals and millions of gallons of water needed to crack the Marcellus Shale that underpins the county, thus allowing trapped natural gas to come to the surface.
•
Catskill Mountainkeeper, the environmental group based in Sullivan County, was quick with its critique. Otsego 2000, Sustainable Otsego and similar local entities are no doubt developing their own responses.
Some key points of the critiques:
• New York City’s water supply gets special protections. Why are the rest of us second-class citizens?
• The draft GEIS fails to address “cumulative impact” – a well, relatively innocuous on its own, can become a menace when it is joined by 10, or 100 or thousands.
• Does the DEC have sufficient staff to monitor what promises to be a many-fronted onslaught?
•
These are among many valid concerns.
Locally, Catskill Mountainkeeper is planning a DSGEIS Summit noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Foothills Performing Arts Center, Oneonta.
The draft will be reviewed. Drilling opponents will confer on holding statewide hearings of their own, as well as devising legal, legislative and media strategies to halt hydrofracking.
RSVP so Catskill Mountainkeeper knows you’re coming – call (845) 482-5400 or wes@catskillmountainkeeper.org – but, by all means, GO!

Labels: 10-09-09, Editorial, Hometown Views

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Working Group Can Relaunch Downtown In 6 Months

Editor’s Note: This is an outline of the presentation Steve Raabe of OpinionWorks, Baltimore, delivered to downtown businesspeople on Tuesday, Oct. 6, in a gathering at Ruffino’s. Raabe had been hired by seven partners, major local institutions.

This May, OpinionWorks conducted a national telephone survey to explore the reputation and potential of Oneonta as a destination to visit and support the local economy. Our objective was to understand how Oneonta is currently perceived, the type of experience visitors are having when they come, and how Oneonta should best position itself as it attempts to attract more visitors in the future.
On Aug. 31, we presented our findings to-the survey’s stakeholders and engaged in a discussion. After a brief recap of the most relevant findings from the survey, this memorandum recommends what I believe to be the most important next steps coming out of that discussion.
•
OpinionWorks interviewed 803 people May 11-26, in two categories: Residents who live within an easy day trip of Oneonta and people who live across the country and who have a connection to Oneonta.
Here is a summary of the most actionable findings from the survey:
• What visitors want: ... Oneonta visitors most want to be out in nature, take advantage of free or low-cost activities, and see historic homes and architecture – three things readily found in the Oneonta area.
• How Oneonta is seen today: The top two attributes associated with Oneonta are “college town” and its scenic, natural setting...
• Weak impressions: But impressions of Oneonta are actually very weak and unformed among residents of Central New York, with one-quarter of them unable to offer any impression at all of Oneonta. Residents of urban Albany, Syracuse, and Binghamton really had almost no distinct impression of Oneonta at all.
• Where Oneonta does well: Oneonta receives good grades ... for cleanliness, availability of parking, and the availability and quality of accommodations. It receives middling grades for the quality and variety of its restaurants.
• They want more information: But significantly, Oneonta receives its lowest marks from visitors for “the availability of information about Oneonta” and for its shopping.
• Would visit again: Happily, three-quarters of national visitors and two-thirds of in region residents who have visited Oneonta would come again in the next year.
• The surprise factor: 18 percent of in-region residents and one-third of national visitors are surprised by the long list of attractions in and around Oneonta. As a result of knowing about those attractions, 40 percent say they are more likely to want to visit the Oneonta area – more than half of those saying “much more likely.”
• In-community specifiers: Many visitors are learning about individual attractions after they come to Oneonta. Nonetheless, a better job can be done as large numbers leave Oneonta never having heard of major attractions like the Oneonta Tigers or the Foothills Performing Arts Center. The same can be said of local businesses.
• Combined travel: About half of Oneonta’s national visitors combined their visit with a stop in Cooperstown or Delaware County, suggesting that some joint marketing would be fruitful.
• Marketing Oneonta: When asked what they would do to market Oneonta, most people we interviewed focused on the community’s small-town appeal and its natural setting. A second group would focus on the variety and appeal of a college town...
•
Recommendations:
To be successful, a new community brand must meet several important criteria:
1. A brand must be distinctive. Oneonta must state what sets it apart from other communities in Central New York and beyond.
2. A community must build on its existing strengths so its brand rings true. Oneonta’s core characteristic of being a college town and its beautiful natural setting must be factors.
3. A community should then bring to the table its lesser-known attributes that fit, such as a vibrant arts scene, historic architecture, outdoor sports and interesting family activities.
4. In Oneonta’s case, knowing the power for visitors of finding out just how much there is to do there makes one want to bring that surprise factor – or sense of serendipitv – into the brand as well.
•
Once established, this brand should permeate all communications about the community, whether broadcast advertisements, printed materials like rack cards or brochures, Websites, public-relations copy designed to attract feature articles, or even talking points for community leaders and tourism professionals.
In concrete terms, this is the direction Oneonta’s leaders should go to put the survey to work:
1. Commit to a budget for the tasks of defining and promoting Oneonta. The city, county and neighboring towns should contribute financially, and major community institutions and other stakeholders should too.
2. Define the audiences you are trying to reach ... This will determine the outreach tools you will use. Possibilities include in-region residents, second-home owners, national visitors to Cooperstown and other nearby destinations, alumni and parents connected to the two colleges, soccer and arts patrons from outside the region.
3. Hire professional experts. The county’s Tourism Office and the major institutions ... are already running successful outreach campaigns and know how to hire professional advertising and public relations firms. A request for proposals needs to be written and circulated to find the right experts to help with these tasks.
4. Develop promotional materials. Guided by the community’s leaders, your experts will finalize the community’s brand, logo, tagline and core messages. Depending on the budget, they can apply these to the electronic, print and online tools you plan to use.
5. Use public relations. As mentioned, look for opportunities to get travel writers and others to do features on Oneonta in well-known regional publications.
6. Provide a go-to source for Oneonta information. The lack of a centralized source of information about Oneonta is a clear weakness today. This must be addressed through an online portal that is easy to find, and provides the full range of information about the community. in a user-friendly way.
6. Cultivate your local specifiers. Whether shopkeepers, innkeepers or docents, local people need to be well-versed on how to recommend local services and attractions ... Considering the huge volume of visitors to Cooperstown, Oneonta must actively cultivate specifiers from Cooperstown.
•
All-told, an effort like this should be accomplished in a period no longer than six months. By next spring, your planning should be done and you should be launching your public campaign.

Labels: 10-09-09, Hometown Views, Opinion

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Pastor Farmer Marks 10 Years, Plus 44, On Oneonta’s Airwaves

By LAURA COX

A local TV and radio show will be celebrating 44 years on air and 10 years on television this Sunday, Oct. 11, with a special show.
Rev. Mel Farmer, host of “Inspiration Time” and “Gospel Hymn Request Time,” and pastor of the River Street Baptist Church, has been collecting cards and emails over the past few weeks from people reflecting on the show’s past, in preparation for the celebratory show.
“We’ll be giving things away and having a big celebration,” said Rev. Farmer. “People have been writing in letters and we’ll be giving away chicken dinners, value meals and oil changes from Dave’s Auto.”
Pastor Farmer’s radio show began in the mid ’60s when he noticed that none of the local radio stations carried Gospel music. He approached WDOS, and they gave him a 15-minute slot. He used it to play a few songs and give a few inspirational words.
After a while it was expanded to 30 minutes, then two days a week, then on to television on Channels 27 and 23. His two shows can now be seen or heard 10 times over the course of the week; see the website Gospelhymns.net, for show times.
“It’s been a very interesting 44 years, a real challenge,” said Rev. Farmer, whose program is the oldest running program still running on WDOS, “Every week, we reach over 3,000 people and we have the mail to substantiate it. We get over 100 letters during the week.”
A lot of those letters, he said, express people’s thankfulness for the inspiring program and tradition Gospel hymns.
“There are a lot of people who say they can’t make it to church, but they can listen to our program,” Rev. Farmer said, adding that the average age of his listeners and viewers is in the 50-70-year-old range.
A most memorable moment was a trip to the National Religious Broadcasters Conference, where Rev. Farmer had the chance to talk with Billy Graham.

Labels: 10-09-09, Hometown People

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Brooks, SUNY City Strengths

Consultant: Use Those ‘Brands’ To Re-Launch Oneonta Revival
By JIM KEVLIN

Oneonta has such a low profile in Central New York that it can reinvent itself anyway it wants.
Smoketown USA, for instance.
That was one of the conclusions OpinionWorks principal Steve Raabe of Baltimore suggested in outlining a just-completed survey of national and regional attitudes and perceptions about the City of the Hills to downtown businesspeople in a breakfast gathering at Ruffino’s Tuesday, Oct. 6.
The survey – 813 people, either in the region around Oneonta or people who had visited here from around the country, answered a 12-minute questionnaire last May – found Oneonta “is almost totally undefined.”
“I would describe that as an OPPORTUNITY to you,” said Raabe, who moved his consulting business back to Baltimore three or four years ago from Cooperstown, where he and his wife had operated a B&B for a period.
The comment prompted Mark Joseph Kelly to jump in. He is a marketing consultant with Brooks BBQ, that Oneonta mainstay on Route 7 east where the big parking lot begins to fill up at 11 a.m. daily.
Kelly, who said he’s been consulting with Brooks for about six months on how to go national, said part of the strategy is “to stress and brand Oneonta, N.Y., as part of our marketing.”
He mentioned the “Smoketown, USA” bumper sticker and the “Bring Home Legendary Brooks BBQ Flavor Today” campaign: All that publicity tags to Oneonta.
“This is a national phenomenon you have here just down the street,” said Kelly. “Barbecue is one of the interesting food categories that is religious.”
Brooks, Raabe said in his presentation, actually defines Oneonta for a significant portion of the people surveyed, although by far the dominant image was of the city as a “college town,” a view held by 78 percent of visitors.
He also reported that people are drawn to Oneonta by its beautiful natural setting, its small-town atmosphere and its heritage architecture. All of this needs to be distilled into a “brand,” a brand powerful enough to define the city in a powerful, alluring and, thus, profitable way.
The arts – the UCCCA was one of seven partners who brought Raabe to town – is also an important part of Oneonta’s story, he said.
At the meeting’s end, county Tourism Director Deb Taylor – her agency was a partner, too – embraced his suggestion of a small working group that, in his view, could determine the brand and develop a promotional campaign in time to launch next spring.
Several participants mentioned the lack of printed material and a “go-to place” to find out what’s going on locally, and filling that gap will be part of the working group’s mandate.

Labels: 10-09-09, Front Page

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Innovative Oneontans Toasted By Businesses

Otsego Chamber To Honor Pathfinding Ioxus
By JIM KEVLIN

When Chad Hall, a farmboy from Walton, was studying electrical mechanical design at SUNY Delhi, he figured he get a job as a draftsman, maybe in a some local firm.
And he did, at Oneonta’s Custom Electronics.
But instead of a job, Hall had found himself a launching pad.
Today, a mere 34, he’s COO of Custom Electronics’ spinoff Ioxus, jetting all over the country, to Korea, to Europe, pressing the cutting edge of ultracapacitors, a technology that, quite simply, could change the energy world as we know it.
The possibility is being recognized Thursday, Oct. 10, at the Otsego County Chamber’s 10th annual Small Business Banquet at The Otesaga, where Hall – and Chief Technical Officer Thor Eilertsen – will be accepting the chamber’s Breakthrough Award on their company’s behalf.
Chad Hall’s world began to accelerate in 2003, when Michael Pentaris – the native-born Cypriot arrived in Oneonta by way of Bingham- ton University, D.M. Graham Laboratories in Hobart and Tyco International – joined the company as president and CEO.
Custom Electronics is what its name suggests: A company that makes custom parts, some of them big, mostly for military uses.
That line, it was clear to people familiar with the industry, was declining as miniaturization took hold. Pentaris wanted to find new products for Custom Electronics’ expertise.
In 2006, from reading the literature and attending technical conferences, the COO and CTO – and Pentaris – began to see the future in ultracapacitators.
A capacitor is the device that connects a power source with its final use – a battery in a flashlight with the bulb, for instance.
The standard capacitor will deliver 100 to 2,000 charges, drawing down the power source with each charge.
An ultracapacitor can deliver 500,000 “charge, discharge cycles,” said Hall, allowing flashlight batteries, and car batteries to be drawn down much more slowly, a huge breakthrough for, say, hybrid cars.
If these ultracapacitors can eventually be applied to the National Grid, electricity could travel much, much farther than it does now without losing its force. Perhaps, indeed, power created by windmills churning in the desolate Dakotas could reach Davenport or Cherry Valley.
The idea was one thing. Getting the money to develop it was another. By now, it was 2007.
For Chad Hall, this meant immersion in the specialized world of venture capital, which led him to Braemar Energy Ventures in New York City.
After the initial contact with Braemar, seven months of “due diligence” followed, not just into whether the technology had possibilities, but whether Hall and Eilertsen and Pentaris were the men to make it happen.
The money came in mid-2008, and several sizeable NYSERDA grants followed.
Testing was ongoing. Manufacturing was supposed to get underway this past May, but that didn’t happen until mid-July, when the first sale went to “a light rail manufacturer” – for competitive reasons, Hall avoids getting too specific. This first client for the ultracapacitors “bought quite a few. They’re testing them. They’ll need a lot more.”

Labels: 10-09-09, Front Page

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Labels: 10-09-09, Classifieds

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2 Of Our Own

Chenango Officer With Otsego Ties Finds Himself Stricken With Cancer
By LAURA COX

NORWICH

‘On Sept. 15, my whole life changed in an instant,” said Sgt. Michael Friot, an officer at the Chenango County Correctional Facility who lives outside of Norwich.
That was the day he and his wife went to the doctor to find out why he had been having difficulty swallowing for a few weeks. Even his co-workers were noticing; they encouraged him to check it out.
“I am not usually one to go to the doctor,” said Friot, “but I figured they would just stretch my throat and it would be fine.”
Instead, tests discovered a mass that did not look good. He was immediately referred to Broome Oncology for a biopsy and CT scan.
This sudden change in Friot’s life caused Sgt. Mike Reckeweg of the Otsego County Correctional Facility to make his fellow sergeant one of two beneficiaries of this year’s “One of Our Own” benefit walk/run, planned Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Clark Sports Center.
This is the run’s second year. Last year, Correctional Officer Jesse Torruella, then 23, came down with cancer, inspiring Reckeweg – his supervisor – to launch the effort for the former CCS standout football player.
“I thought, worse case, it would be cancerous and I could fight it,” Friot said. “But they told me it was in my lungs, liver and esophagus, too.”
It was stage IV throat cancer; he had a 4-inch tumor in his throat.
Coming up to his 40th birthday last summer, Friot had decided last December to get in better shape. He had been hitting the gym and lost 45 pounds. He now believes his mind was preparing his body for a battle. He needed to get healthy to fight what was to come.
With the cancer already metastasized to multiple organs, Friot’s doctor said surgery and radiation are not options. But because he is young and healthy, he will receive the strongest chemo treatment available, then perhaps can go to Rochester for surgery.
Friot and his wife of 19 years, Deborah, have a son Austin, 11.
When he spoke about his wife and son, the officer had tears in his eyes: “They have been my rock … Austin has been amazing; he knows I’m sick but he has been strong.”
Just a couple days after diagnosis, Friot was admitted to the hospital to have a metaport implanted – a device just under the skin below the collarbone that allows cancer patients to receive chemo drugs without repeated intravenous shots.
He started chemotherapy Sept. 21, with seven bags of medicine. He spent the first week in the hospital hooked up to the machines, then took home a pump for the rest of the regimen.
Friday, Oct. 2, was when he was supposed to start losing his hair. On Thursday, Oct.1 he pulled on it to show that it was still holding fast. “Maybe,” he conjectured, “it may stay.”
In his week of chemo he lost another 10 pounds due to nausea. He didn’t even have an appetite until the morning of Oct. 1.
“I can’t think longterm anymore. I am trying to make every week special from here on out,” said Friot, spending as much time with his family as possible.
Each day, he waits to hear his dog bark: That means Austin’s school bus is pulling up.
Friot’s connection with the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department is strong. He went through his basic training at the county Law Enforcement Academy at SUNY Oneonta, and since has taught there.
“Going over there is like a second home to me, there are still a lot of the same people I met early in my career there,” said Friot.
The sergeant will start his next round of chemo Monday, Oct. 12, but said, if at all possible, he will be at “One of our Own,” “even if I am doubled over in my recliner sideways somewhere, I want to be there. Ideally, I’d like to walk it.”
The recliner he spoke of was bought for him by his co-workers at the Chenango County Sheriff’s Department because he couldn’t find a comfortable place to rest or sleep while hooked up to his chemo pump at home. He was also given a PSP so he has something to do while getting his chemo.
“I didn’t realize how fast word would get out, but I was told there are people I don’t even know praying for me. Out of the county and out of the state even,” remarked Friot, “I have been overwhelmed with calls from people asking what they can do.”

Suspicious Lump Provided Hint Of Teen’s Cancer Scare To Come
By LAURA COX

ONEONTA

At 16, there are many things on a girl’s mind: friends, boys and school, to name a few, but health is rarely one of them.
This fall, one Oneonta girl’s parents are saying blessings that their daughter spoke up when she sensed something wasn’t right.
“Jessica found a lump on her neck in late April or early May,” said Jessica Dresser’s mom Patty. “We went to our family doctor and he told us to wait a couple weeks and see if it went away.”
“I just knew it wasn’t supposed to be there,” said Jessica.
After a few weeks and no improvement, mom and daughter went back.
Jessica’s doctor ordered a needle biopsy of the lump; the results came back inconclusive. A full biopsy in a hospital brought results, but not the results anyone wants to hear.
“They knew it was cancer, but they were not sure what kind it was exactly,” said Patty. The family was referred to theDana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.
Jessica, brother Michael, 8, dad Steve and her mother packed up the family car and made the four-hour trip shortly thereafter.
After six weeks of tests and scans and trips to and fro, a diagnosis was finally made: Jessica had olfactory neuroblastoma, a lemon size tumor in her sinuses.
Organizers of the second annual “One of Our Own” Walk/Run, which starts at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Clark Sports Center, heard about the Dressers’ dilemma, and she was chosen as one of two beneficiaries of this year’s event.
Plus, Jessica’s former daycare provider, Angel Ferguson, has organized the Jessica Dresser Family Fun Raiser noon-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Sixth Ward Booster Club in Oneonta. There will be inflatable bouncy houses, face painting, music by D.J. Wooden, food and a Chinese Auction.
“This type of cancer isn’t a children’s cancer; actually, it is most commonly diagnosed in adults around the age of 45,” Steve explained. “She had no swelling on her face, so we wouldn’t have known if not for her noticing the lump and later her difficulty in breathing from one side of her nose.”
Just two days after the school year began, Jessica and her family made another trip to Boston; this time for surgery.
On Sept. 11, Jessica underwent 13 hours on the operating table and five awful-sounding procedures: craniotomy, tumor removal, removal of some lymph nodes in neck, and installation of a feeding tube and lumbar drain.
The day before she had undergone four hours of surgery to cut off the blood flow to the tumor, making it easier to remove.
“Her doctor was great, which helped us a lot,” said Steve.
Patty added that they were updated on her surgery every few hours.
After 13 days in Boston, Jessica returned home. She returned to school Sept. 28, just in time for Homecoming. She bought a dress for the dance and planned to attend with her boyfriend.
Friends at Oneonta High School have held bake sales in Jessica’s honor.
“All the support is amazing and overwhelming at the same time; the phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Patty.

Labels: 10-09-09, The City of the Hills

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Weekend's Best bets

Comedian Martin Short Plays Oneonta

ONEONTA

Martin Short, legendary comedian and actor, plays Hartwick College at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at Lambros Arena, Binder Physical Education Center. One night only. Tickets $25. For info, call, Andy Binder, 431-4507 or bindera@hartwick.edu.

IT’S DIFFERENT: “Treasures from Thailand,” Hmong needlework, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 11, Goldpetals Barn, near Fly Creek. Info, call Ellen 607-547-8425.

WAFFLES, PUPPETS: An annual celebration for the whole family at Brewery Ommegang. Puppet shows at 1 and 3:30 p.m.

FOLIAGE, PLUS: Check out the fall leaves en route to the Middlefield Fall Festival & Craft Show, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the old schoolhouse in the hamlet off Route 166. Seasonal products, live music, food, ghost stories and children’s activities.

WWII IN ONEONTA: The Greater Oneonta Historical Society’s exhibit commemorating the City of the Hills contribution to the war effort gets under way Sunday. The opening reception is the following Sunday, Oct. 18.

WHY NOT? Pete Oberacker demonstrates sausage making 1-4 p.m. at Williy Farm & Cider Mill, 349 Badeau Hill Road (four miles north of Schenevus) Also, live music with “Out of the Wilderness,” bluegrass & Gospel trio.

Labels: 10-09-09, The City of the Hills, weekend's best bets

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