Hometown Oneonta - The Otesgo-Delaware Dispatch

Hartwick College Guiding Principle: ‘Let’s Be Best At What We Do Well’

Friday, November 13, 2009

Through Conversation, Drugovich Sought To Identify Campus Goals

By JIM KEVLIN

How do you plan in a community suffering from “planning fatigue”?
That’s the question Margaret Drugovich was asking herself in the spring of 2007, after she’d accepted the Hartwick College presidency.
“Planning matters,” Drugovich said the other day in an interview at her office in a wing of Hartwick’s Stevens-German Library. “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re lost.”
The new president got the job in February 2007, but wasn’t installed until July 1, so she spent the months in between talking to people – faculty, administrators and students on the Oneonta campus, as well as alumni and major donors throughout the Northeast.
Hartwick had conducted a full-fledged strategic-planning effort during the 2001-02 school year. Other challenges – primarily fiscal; the college was nearly broke at the time – got in the way of implementation.
So the college community Drugovich was getting to know was skeptical about planning. That said, because of the visioning it had gone through, it had a pretty clear and unified self image.
In her conversations, Drugovich – the college’s catalyst in chief, if you will – kept asking the questions, “What was the last time we said we will be best at anything, and what was it?” and “What’s keeping us from getting there?”
She met that August with her “cabinet” – the four vice presidents, David Conway, enrollment management; George Elsbeck, finance; Dr. Meg Nowak, student affairs, and Dr. Michael Tannenbaum, academic affairs – and an “organizing principle” and “seven core competencies” emerged.
The principle, distilled from those many hours of conversations: “We will be the best at melding a liberal arts education with experiential learning.” (For the core competencies, see chart – it can be found on walls and bulletin boards through campus – on this page.)
At its annual retreat in October 2008, the board of trustees approved the framework.
But, already, it was being used to help resolve a financial crisis Hartwick faced that fall – “things got very dicey,” Drugovich recalled – that led to 14 layoffs of staff and administrators the following January.
Setting priorities, the president said, allows more efficient use of resources and overcomes institutional “inertia.”
This kind of structured thinking led to the elimination of Hartwick’s laptop program.
In 1993, when the college began giving a laptop to every student, the step was cutting edge, but that was then: Fifteen years later, students already had computers when they arrived on campus.
The step saved $500,000 a year.
Other examples of how the core competencies were used:
• Under “Improve Student Experience and Satisfaction,” a Retention Task Force was established to raise the six-year graduation rate to 75 percent. Nationally, it’s 61 percent.
• Under “Maximize Employee Performance,” every employee had to undergo a performance evaluation last spring.
• Under “Maximize Financial Performance,” the 2009-10 budget preparation was guided by the seven competencies.
“If you are far from the center” – the organizing principal, Drugovich said, “you are most at risk. And that is true for any organization.”
This October, Drugovich’s team went to the trustees’ retreat with seven questions, one in each competency, that only the board could answer.
In “Expand Our Financial Base,” for instance, the administrators asked if they could look beyond the current income sources – in effect, undergraduate tuition, room and board – for revenues.
The board was adamant: “We don’t want to be an online institution,” the president said.
But the trustees gave the green light to developing masters’ programs, expanding the successful nursing program, forming partnerships with other institutions.
“They gave us a lot of space,” said Drugovich, adding that similar questions were affirmatively answered in the other six competencies.
In the days before the interview, the Hartwick president had received encouraging affirmation of the track she’s taken.

She and Lori Collins-Hall, sociology chair and assessment coordinator, had receive a warm response in a presentation at the annual conference of NCSPOD (the North American Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development) in Minneapolis.
Their topic, “Leadership, Collaboration and Assessment of Organizational Development.”
“Planning is a way of making a very complex set of problems more manageable,” said Drugovich. “I think we are doing it right.”

Labels: 11-20-09, Front Page

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YOUNG ARTISTS EXULT

Valleyview Elementary School Principal Walter Baskin jokes around with the kids squirting paint at him at Oneonta World of Learning’s second annual PaintFest at Arc Otsego’s Day Center on Saturday, Nov. 14. From left the kids are, Devon Wheeler, 9, Oneonta, Avery Burnsworth, 7, Oneonta, and Emma Sanzone, 9, Stamford.

Killian Newman, 2, of Oneonta, uses stamps to make his grandma Sue a painting.

Jaidya, 2 – with Danielle Simon, Laurens – tries out painting with marbles.

Labels: 11-20-09, Front Page

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City Of the Hills

Crowell Lead Maintained, Not Official

A recount expanded Democrat Dan Crowell’s lead over Republican Ed Keator Jr. from five on Election Night to 6,304 to 6,149, but the victory won’t be official until election commissioners meet Tuesday, Nov. 24.

FLU SHOTS:

A Bassett Healthcare Oneonta free H1N1 flu shot clinic for patients from 6 months to age 3 is 8:30-11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at 125 Main St. Appointment required; call 433-1790.

FILM FEST:

UCCCA is working with Friends of the Oneonta Theatre to plan and present its 2010 film series. Once all the theatre group’s certifications are complete the films and dates will be finalized. Meanwhile, anyone wishing to volunteer to help the Friends are invited to a meeting at 1 p .m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at the cinema.

LYME DISEASE:

The SUNY Biological Field Station reports deer ticks – the carriers of Lyme Disease – are becoming widespread in Otsego County, which has so far been mostly spared.

Labels: 11-20-09, Front Page, The City of the Hills

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Horse And Buggy Business Sought In Cooperstown

2 Carriages Would Serve Tourist Trade

By LAURA COX

It’s not hard to imagine Cooperstown traversed by horse and carriage – or horse and sleigh.
It was once, and soon may be again, given George and Elinor Poole’s plan to bring the Cooperstown Carriage Company to town.
The couple – from Truxton, in Cortland County – own seven Haflinger draft horses and two carriages, a nine-passenger surrey and four-passenger Vis a Vis.
The Pooles asked the village trustees Monday, Nov. 16, for permission to operate a livery from Mike Manno’s 21 Railroad Ave., using the former Sage Center as the lobby, and keeping the wagons in the garage out back.
The horses would be lodged outside the village, and – equipped with the equine equivalent of diapers – come to work daily during the summer months, carrying tourists around the sights.
“It started as George’s dad’s retirement hobby, and he just brought us into it,” said Elinor.
She, a program analyst at Cornell, and George, who is retiring from a telecommunications career, live next door to her in-laws’ family farm, where the horses were raised, and have exhibited their teams at state and county fairs in New York and Pennsylvania.
The carriage business has been a long-held dream.
Summers, Elinor can tele-commute to her job, and children Jessica,19, and Nathan, 16, and help out here.

Labels: 11-20-09, Front Page

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After OHS, 60 Years At The Keys

Church Organist Marks 60 Years At Keyboard

By LAURA COX

The first time she visited Milford United Methodist Church, Dorothy Weir was a student at Oneonta High School, tagging along with her pastor father on church business.
Little did she suspect that, 10 years later, she would be organist here. Or that on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009, she would be honored for 60 years as church organist.
“I was here, and my father was here,” Mrs. Weir said the other day as she walked into the wood-trimmed sanctuary, light filtering in through the stained-glass windows, “and I remember looking up at that organ. I would have never thought I’d be looking at it again.”
But so it was. In honor of the occasion, she was asked to pick the final hymn. Then, Cindy Seward, state Sen. Jim Seward’s wife – they live across the street – presented her with a framed photograph signed by members of the congregation.
Mrs. Weir’s father, Rev. Joseph H. Smith, moved his family from their native Binghamton to Oneonta when she was in high school. The pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church was then promoted to superintendent of the church’s Oneonta District.
The moved worried young Dorothy that her musical studies would suffer, but she continued to study with Jay Emery Kelley in Binghamton, driving back and forth ever couple of weeks. She remembers being giddy with excitement about getting her license and being allowed to drive by herself.
“I was fascinated by the harp, and my mom told me to pick an instrument I could carry around – and look what I picked,” Weir said, pointing to the organ. As a young girl, though, she always lived next to a church and could go there for practice.
She played her first church service at Centenary in December 1936. Her knees were shaking. She still has the music she played. As she’s done with all the music she’s played since, the date is neatly written on the front of the score.
At Oneonta High School, she met her husband, Richard, whose family owned Weir’s Restaurant & Hotel on the old Broad Street. When they graduated in 1939, she went to Syracuse to study the organ, but she returned after two years. They married and moved to Massachusetts, where he was working in an airplane factory.
After World War II, the couple moved to Milford Center, living across the street from a church. Why don’t you attend that church, she was asked. There’s no organ, she replied.
In 1949, Edith Sherman, the organist at Milford United Methodist Church, up Route 28 in the village, wanted Mother’s Day off, so Dorothy substituted. She took over regularly that fall, and has been playing since.
Since then, she’s played through six hymnals and at least as many pastors, and there are still songs she said she has never played. In addition to hymns, she loves to play Bach, although she’s been doing it less as her feet and fingers have slowed down.
At 89, Weir plans to continue playing for her church until she can’t anymore, though she said she is looking for someone to teach to play so that when she calls it quits there will be someone who she is confident can take her place.
Weir’s husband passed in 2002, but she still has many family members who live locally. Daughter Donna Jones lives in Richfield Springs; son Jim lives just around the corner on Gifford Hill. Her oldest son, Richard, lives in Hobart and summers down to Florida. She has eight grandkids and eight great grandkids.
When asked what has kept her playing all these years, Weir said, “One thing that really gets to me is when there is a full congregation and everyone is singing along.”

Labels: 11-20-09, Front Page

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‘Very Vigorous Listserv’ Connecting Local Gas-Drilling Opponents

300 Debate, Share Data, Debate Daily Via Internet Tool

By JIM KEVLIN

Maybe it wouldn’t have been to others, but “it seemed obvious to me,” said Adrian Kuzminski, recalling the founding of Sustainable Otsego in the spring of 2007.
“It” was a listserv, an e-mail fueled program that allows multiple members to communicate with each other via the Internet.
At one of Sustainable Otsego’s early meetings, he asked attendees to provide their e-mail addresses, and they became the first members.
For a year or so, it moved sedately along, with earnest members discussing energy conservation and wind turbines.
Then, it erupted.
Last spring, Sustainable Otsego partnered in three forums with other groups opposing hydro-fracking for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale Formation that undergirds Otsego County.
More than 500 people attended the sessions, and Kuzminski passed around his clip board for e-mail addresses.
Listserv membership leaped, and continues to grow, reaching almost 300 members today.
“It’s a very vigorous listserv,” Kuzminski, a retired professor and resident philosopher at Hartwick College, agreed the other day. “There are a lot of dead listservs.
“It’s the content. This is a forum for discussing issues that there’s nowhere else to discuss, where people can exchange ideas in a sustained way.”
Before, people worried about the gas-drilling industry’s incursion felt helpless and isolated; the listserv changed that, Kuzminski said.
Take Sunday, Nov. 15: There were 37 postings that day.
One hot topic was whether participants should support Governor Paterson withdrawing his request to the DEC to update regulations governing gas drilling, or whether to seek an outright ban on hydrofracking.
An aspect of that debate was whether to sign the e-petition, floated by Walter Hang, the ecological strategist from Ithaca, (the one who raised the flag on continuing underground pollution from that former gas station on lower Chestnut in Cooperstown.)
Another alerted folks to a report on syracuse.com on “Endicott’s Plume,” vapors from underground that roiled that Binghamton suburb.
The listserv can also mobilize like-minded people, as it did in filling the atrium at Foothills Performing Arts Center on Monday, Nov. 8, for a public hearing on the proposed regulations.
Kuzminski moderates, making sure participant eschew personal attacks and maintain a certain level of “decorum.” He’s had to kick three or four folks off for not doing so.

Labels: 11-20-09, Front Page

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EDITORIALS

Let’s Hope Crowell
Will Blaze A Trail For Future Leaders

The near-final resolution of the race for Otsego County treasurer isn’t an end, just the end of the beginning.
The election commissioners are due to meet Tuesday, Nov. 24, to affirm the final count, 6,304 to 6,149.
Then, hard work begins for Dan Crowell, a rare Democrat elected to countywide office. (Although it’s been pointed out that in recent years Brian Burns was elected county judge and Jim Magee coroner.)
The next several months are probably the most dangerous period of Crowell’s four-year tenure in this key county position, and how he navigates it will determine whether he will be a success or not.
First, it would be wise to sit down with each member of the county Board of Representatives, over a sandwich, beginning with chairman Jim Powers, the South New Berlin Republican.
Crowell’s goal should not be to tell them what he plans to do, but to learn what they need from him.
•
The new county treasurer is not the kind of candidate we’ve seen around here for a while, if ever.
Born at Bassett, raised locally – he is a CCS grad – he operated on the world stage, getting his master’s from the London School of Economics, winning a Fulbright to study rural economies in India and joining the World Bank.
He then returned home to start a family – he and wife, Dee, raised in Cherry Valley, have a young son, plus her two teen daughters by an earlier marriage – and, after a couple of years as a consultant with national reach, enter politics.
With that background, the greatest danger Crowell has to guard against is being perceived as precocious. Smart, yes, but smarty-pants, no.
•
When you look at the county board, it’s been populated primarily with sage presences – Republican Scott Harrington of Oneonta, the youngest member, was bumped from his majority Democratic district Nov. 3 after just one term – by people as long in the tooth as the writer of this editorial, or longer.
There’s nothing the matter with experience – Jim Powers is an energetic idea man, Greg Relic knows the ropes, Steve Fournier is a steady presence, Jim Konstanty, the board’s counsel, is formidable. And that’s just the beginning.
Crowell is different: 30-something, educated rather than specifically experienced, but eager to apply that education to tackling big-picture local issues.
•
And when you look at the big picture, the big institutions are failing the county at large.
Except for Oneonta’s stable middle class, and wealthy pockets around Cooperstown and Gilbertsville, the per capita income is stubbornly below the national average.
There are no more jobs in Otsego County then there were 20 years ago, a fact that is a rebuke to the county board and its economic-development entities, the Otsego County Chamber, the banks, and local leaders.
If Crowell succeeds – his idea of providing the county board with five-year projections of costs and revenues is exciting; (but not yet) – his example will surely encourage like-mind young people – Republicans and Democrats – to dive in to local politics. The water’s great.
It’s a chronological fact that these people, with young children and careers in the making, will look ahead, not a decade, but a generation or two.
This is to be wished for. And Dan Crowell succeeding in his new role is to be mightily wished for as well.

Labels: 11-20-09, Editorial

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REMEMBERING 11-11-11

Memorial Walkway Will Be Credit To Veterans, City

City Community Development
Director Joe Bernier, left, and
City Historian Mark Simonson,
right, walk the walkway.

The Memorial Walkway, now under construction in Neahwa Park, is going to be very, very nice.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that everyone who attended the city’s Memorial Day remembrances on 11-11-11 came to the same conclusion.
It’s hard to communicate the scene’s inspiring sweep, from the World War II and Korean monuments on the east end, past the obelisk – it had to be shifted six inches to align – to the monument on the west end – it honors Ethel Scratchard, an Army nurse killed by the influenza pandemic at the end of WWI, and had been hidden by evergreens.
With Hodge’s Pond to the north, walking the so-far gravel trail you get the same kind of feeling as walking The Mall in Washington, with its reflecting pool.
There’s traquillity, scope and balance, everything soldiers in the heat of conflict must miss most in life.
When you look closely at the trees that were spared in last spring’s controversy, they’re pretty scrufty. When the rest of the plan is in place, adding the flowering pears may seem inevitable and proper.
But for now, walk the walkway and judge for yourself.

The Rev. Ken Baldwin, chaplain, delivers the invocation at Memorial Day ceremonies on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month at Oneonta’s Memorial Walkway, now under construction in Neahwa Park. The time commemorates the signing of the armistice that ended World War I; (Marshal Ferdinand Foch signed for the Allies; Matthias Erzberger for the Germans.) At left are Mayor John S. Nader and his father, former mayor Sam Nader.

Les Grummons shares memories with Marshall Smith, Oneonta, left, and Dale Smith, Laurens, after the ceremony. In the background is Skip Beijen, Oneonta, Oneonta Vets Club president who conducted the flag-retirement ceremony.

Veteran Scott Sorensen, Oneonta, pauses by the Korean War monument. An ink sketch he drafted – a soldier looking skyward, inspired by a photo in Life magazine – was incorporated into the design by Cherry Valley Monuments.

Gracie Wilsey and Margaret
Gaughan of the VFW Post 1206
Auxiliary were twins for the occasion.

Eleanor Hickein, Oneonta, makes sure her veteran
(and husband), Fred, is protected from the cold.

Vets Butch Waring, left, and Dan Gaughan, commander, VFW Post 1206, Oneonta, chat with Fran Holderman, a member of the honor guard and an Oneontan who has served around the world.

Labels: 11-20-09, Hometown Views

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HOMETOWN People

OCCA HONORS CONSERVATIONISTS OF YEAR

J. Robert and Jean Miller were honored as Conservationists of the Year by the Otsego County Conservation Association Friday, Nov. 13, at the OCCA’s annual dinner at Stella Luna Ristorante, Oneonta. From right are OCCA Executive Director Erik Miller, the Millers and OCCA President Martha Clarvoe. The Millers, who live near Crumhorn Mountain, have been involved in ornithological research locally and in South America. He is a retired Hartwick College chemistry professor.

GIFTS FROM BEAUTIES

Dr. Eric Dohner, center, poses with Kim Defalco, the Family Service Association, left, and Patricia Leonard, Opportunities for Otsego, with 750 items donated to the organization during
Oneonta Laser Derm’s “Beauty & The Feast”
Patient Appreciation Day Party on Oct. 21.

McReynolds
Honored For Volunteerism

Erna Morgan McReynolds, Oneonta, managing director/wealth management, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, has received the company’s President’s Volunteer Service Award.
McReynolds, who is active in the Girl Scouts, Hartwick College, NYSHA and other community endeavors, was measured on the number of hours of community service over a 12-month period.
Barron’s has placed the Franklin resident on two prestigious lists for 2009: Top 100 Women Financial Advisers and Top 100 Advisers.
McReynolds advises several foreign governments, individuals and foundations.

Labels: 11-20-09, Hometown People

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HOMETOWN History

Compiled By Tom Heitz
Courtesy of
New York State Historical Association

125 Years Ago

Belva Lockwood, a equal rights for women activist and the first woman in America to mount a campaign for president of the United States, though unsuccessful in the election of 1884, stirred considerable interest and controversy around the country. Local newspapers reported on Belva’s post-election analysis: “To tell the truth, as Cleveland says, I did not much expect to be elected this year. My canvass began too late and then it takes time to educate the masses to a higher standard of thought. I think I represent an ideal in politics and, I trust, a higher ideal than has been attained heretofore.”
November 1884

100 Years Ago

Mrs. Eve Catherine Harter, who died November 11 at Columbia near Richfield Springs, was the oldest resident of Herkimer County, her age being 101 years and three months. Despite her advanced age, Mrs. Harter retained to the last the brightness of her intellect, although for several years she had been blind. The deceased was the mother of 10 children, of whom seven are dead. Those living are William Harter and Mrs. Norman Getman of Richfield Springs and Mrs. Joseph Migue of Columbia, with whom she resided. The late Dr. George D. Harter of Oneonta was the youngest son of the deceased, and the late Dr. Albert D. Getman of this city was a grandson.
November 1909

80 Years Ago

“Don’t fly unless in a licensed airplane or with any but a licensed pilot,” is the advice of Reginald I. Heath, manager of the Utica Flying Service. Heath touts the rapid development of aviation in the recent past from several standpoints and paints a most enticing picture of the advantages of travel by air over other means of locomotion. A trip in a modern cabin plane from Utica to Detroit and return is easily made between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. with plenty of time for lunch and business in Detroit. Not only would there be a saving in time, but the air passenger entirely avoids the grit and stickiness encountered on trains and the inconvenience and strain of driving by motor car. “Is it safe to fly?” Heath asks rhetorically. U.S. Department of Commerce reports and statistics do not even list flying among the most dangerous occupations. Along approved routes of air travel the United States maintains beacons every ten miles and emergency landing fields every 35 miles. Pilots are licensed after thorough tests and are required to pass rigid physical examinations every six months. The planes used are also subjected to thorough testing so that today a report of a plane going to pieces in the air is never heard.
November 1929

60 Years Ago

The appointment of Dr. J. Herbert Dietz, Jr., to the staff of Fox Hospital was announced yesterday. Dr. and Mrs. Dietz, who also is a physician, have purchased the former Ford home at 13 Walnut Street. Dr. Dietz will begin his practice December 1. Mrs. Dietz, who practices under her maiden name of Dr. Sarah E. Flanders, will begin practice when their two daughters, one age two and the other five months, are somewhat older. Dr. Dietz, a neurosurgeon, is a graduate of the Horace Mann School of Teachers College, received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and his medical degree from Cornell.
November 1949

40 Years Ago

Democratic state senators say the state’s narcotic addiction program is a failure and a waste of money. In a 12,000-word report the senators conclude that the program has been completely ineffective in getting addicts off the streets. The document says that more than $130 million has been poured into the Narcotic Addiction Control Commission since it was established in 1966. Governor Rockefeller promoted the formation of the commission on the assertion that it would get the addicts off the streets and provide comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation. Instead, addicts are more numerous on the streets this summer than they were three years previously.
November 1969

20 Years Ago

More than 200 Thanksgiving holiday diners were served free turkey dinners with all the trimmings Saturday afternoon at the Salvation Army gymnasium on River Street. The Salvation Army staff was supported by the Farmhouse restaurant and thirty volunteers from the Hartwick College Community Service Program. The meal included turkey, stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes and gravy and a selection of pies including apple, mincemeat, custard and lemon crunch. “Kids on campus are interested in helping out, Hartwick College senior Stephanie Richardson said. “They just need to find ways to do it.”
November 1989

10 Years Ago

Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-New Hartford) announced last Wednesday November 10 that Otsego County was awarded a $29,611 federal grant to assist local service organizations in providing food and shelter this winter. The funding was awarded through the Emergency Food and Shelter (EFS) program under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
November 1999

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Letters

As You Give Thanks, Think
Of Those Who Have Less

To the Editor:
This November, many families in Otsego County are thankful for something special: the gift of their friendship with a New York City child.
Through The Fresh Air Fund’s Friendly Town program, local families open their hearts and homes to inner-city children as volunteer hosts for up to two weeks during the summer.
By volunteering as a host family for summer 2010, the spirit of Thanksgiving can continue in your home throughout the year.
One child recounts the activities she tried in Friendly Town during her visit. “I saw things here that I don’t get to see in New York – like deer, frogs and the stars!”
Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities.
Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2009, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and into Canada. Additionally, 3,000 children attended five Fund camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves 2,000 young people each year.
For more information, please call me at 432-6476. Also, check out the fund’s Web site – www.freshair.org.
DARLENE PONDOLFINO
Oneonta

The Price Of Liberty?
Having To Read 1,990 Pages

To the Editor;
Your newspaper appears to support HR 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act,” the avowed intention of which is: “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.” (My italics.)
I am attempting to plow though the entire bill, which is a daunting task, as it is 1,990 pages in length. It is a bill of incredible complexity and the legalese is at times mind boggling.
For example, Title II, Subtitle B, Sec. 212 reads, and I quote: “The requirements of sections 2711 (other than subsections (e) and (f) and 2712 (other than paragraphs (3), and (6) of subsection (b) and subsection (e)) of the Public Health Services Act, relating to guaranteed availability, etc.”
Now I am not sure if that is purposeful obfuscation, but as an otherwise reasonably informed and literate citizen, I am bewildered by the maze of references and exceptions in that sentence. Read it again at your peril. Such terminology is not rare in the bill. Read it for yourself.
The rest of the HR 3962 is broad reaching in its scope:
(1) It grants massive discretionary powers to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(2) It establishes a vast parallel bureaucracy that appears to have internal conflicts.
(3) It lays significant burdens of administrative, reporting, and underwriting requirements on the insurance industry, which will be passed on as increased premium costs to the policy holders.
(4) It does nothing to reduce the cost of health care at the delivery level, nor to address the cost of medical education, all of which are ultimately borne by those of us who pay for the medical/health care services we receive. We pay for them either through the insurance premiums we pay or out of pocket co-pays (or taxes for those who pay neither of the preceding.) Just as there is no free lunch, there is no free health care.
I have yet to read to page 1,990, but just scanning ahead, I see that there are provisions for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Public Health Services Act (PHSA), and of course the Internal Revenue Code, which provides for employer responsibility, small business credits, exclusions for Indians, surcharges and excise taxes, limitations on treaty benefits – the beat goes on. Congress regards the Internal Revenue Code as that ever-popular legislative vehicle for social engineering.
I suppose that I cannot be too critical of the proposed Public Health Care Insurance Option (Title III, Subtitle B.) After all, I am an active user of Medicare Parts A, B and D. There are parts of that section that are troublesome, but I will leave that for another day.
I respectfully suggest that concerned citizens take some time to read what Congress has proposed. The bill is available on the Internet. (My source is www.defendyourhealcare.us.)
As someone once said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
WILLIAM DORNBURGH
Cooperstown

Labels: 11-20-09, Letters to the Editor

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In Memoriam

Eileen M. Damon, 87; Operated
Blue Bonnet Antiques With Husband

PORTLANDVILLE – Eileen M. Damon, longtime proprietor of Blue Bonnet Antiques with her late husband, Steven, died Friday morning, Nov. 13, 2009, at Hampshire House Assisted Living Home in Oneonta, following a long battle with congestive heart failure. She was 87.
She was born Eileen Marie Noon on April 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, a daughter of William and Emma (Hamilton) Noon.
She married Steven N. Damon Jan. 24, 1954, in a ceremony at the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan.
In 1967, Steve and Eileen purchased an old mill in Portlandville on the banks of the Susquehanna River. In 1970, they also bought a home on Lake Street, Cooperstown, and spent endless hours on weekends and in the summers renovating the mill.
They soon moved Blue Bonnet Antiques, which they had been running on Long Island since the late ‘50s, to the mill, and moved permanently to Portlandville in 1981.
In later years, Eileen and Steve spent winter months at their home on St. Martin in the Caribbean.
After her husband died in November 2006, Mrs. Damon moved in with her daughter Lori and family in nearby Milford.
Due to deteriorating health, she spent the past year of her life with the exceptional people at the Hampshire House where she was adored by all.
Eileen is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Donna McQuillen and her husband, J.C. George, of Austin, Texas, and Mrs. Lori Henry and her husband, Ted, of Milford; one step-son, Wayne Rodier and his wife, Matoka, of Saratoga Springs; two beloved granddaughters, Megan and Krista of Milford; and one special daughter, Louann Liner of Milford.
She followed her husband of 52 years by three years to the day: He passed away Nov. 13, 2006.
Burial will be private in Lakewood Cemetery in Cooperstown.
Memorial contributions may be made to Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, 1 Birchwood Drive, Oneonta NY 13820 or the Lions Club of Cooperstown, P.O. Box 2, Cooperstown, NY 13326-0002.
Arrangements are with the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

Martin L. Finch, 84; Witnessed
D-Day From USS Catamount

ONEONTA – Martin L. Finch, 84, of Oneonta, a veteran who witnessed D-Day, passed away Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, at Fox Memorial Hospital.
He was born April 3, 1925, in Oneonta, the son of the late Mark W. and Lela Belle (Knapp) Finch.
In 1943, Martin enlisted in the Navy. He trained at Sampson Naval Base and proudly served his country during World War II as a diesel mechanic. He witnessed the invasion of Normandy from the reserve post on the USS Catamount and received a certificate of recognition from the Consulate of France for the part he played in the battles for the Liberation of France. He was honorably discharged in 1946.
After returning from the Navy, Martin graduated from Oneonta High School class of 1948. He then attended and graduated from Delhi Agricultural and Technical School in 1952. He also attended Utica College of Syracuse University.
Martin married Freda Wells, who predeceased him. He later married Frances Mary Berner, to whom he has been married to for over 50 years.
By trade, Martin was a carpenter and building contractor. He worked for Neil R. Neilson Contracting for over 25 years. In 1979, he started Finch Contracting and did most of his work at Bassett Hospital for over 15 years.
You could always find Martin up in the barn puttering on some construction project.

Doris Marion ‘Granny’
Little, 82, Oneonta Bookkeeper

ONEONTA – Doris Marion (Christiance) Little, 82, of Oneonta, died peacefully at home on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009.
Affectionately known as Granny, she was born Oct. 28, 1927 in Amsterdam, N.Y., the daughter of Ruth B. and Chester Christiance. The Christiance family relocated and made their home in Oneonta in 1941.
Granny was a bookkeeper for several local businesses over the years but her most recent and loved place of employment was for Dr. Bryan Evanczyk.
Survivors include her sons, Rodric Little of Charlotte, NC; Christopher Little and wife, Patricia of Otego and her daughters, Bon Zuefle of Charlotte, NC and Roxana Hurlburt and husband, James of Otego.
Granny also is survived by her faithful grandchildren, Tifanne (Jerry) Wells of Oneonta; Aric Fleming of Steamboat Co; Jim (Patti) Hurlburt of Clayville, NY; Shyloe (Greg) Luehrs and her father, Larry of Charlotte, NC; Jesse Hurlburt of Otego; Kristen (Dave) Ferguson of Concord, NC; Seth and Levi Little of Otego and Colleen (Alan) Gaydorus of Afton.
She is also survived by 10 great-grandchildren, Cassandra (Thomas) Smith; Austin & Dalton Wells; Alexa and Gunner Hurlburt; Taiten Luehrs; Cali, Sayde, Nikiah and Shyahnna Gaydorus and one great-great granddaughter, Brenna Lynn Smith. Doris Marion also leaves behind her beloved brother and sister-in-law James and AllieMae Christiance and her two special nephews, James (Debbie) and William (Karen) Christiance and their children and great-grandchildren.
Granny’s life was enhanced by her very special friends, Linda Evancyzk, Beth Lifgren, Polly Bump, Bertha Redmond and Elaine Eldred.
Committal services for Granny will be private and held at the convenience of the family in Oneonta Plains Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers Granny has asked that donations be made to Catskill Area Hospice and Palliative Care, 1 Birchwood Drive, Oneonta, NY 13820.
Condolences to the family may be made online by visiting our website: www.grummonsfuneralhome.com
Arrangements are by the Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, Oneonta.

Labels: 11-20-09, In Memoriam, Obituaries

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