By JIM KEVLIN
　
ONEONTA
It was the beginning of a $9 million plan crafted to spur the rebirth of Oneonta’s downtown, but you wouldn’t call it a modest beginning.
Eastman Associates’ nine-man crew attacked the aluminum front of the former Bresee’s Department Store at 6 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, with blowtorches, two aerial lifts, a forklift, a crane, a couple of dumpsters and a truck to move them around.
A little over nine hours later, Bresee’s corbell-laced turn-of-the-20th-century brick front once again had been revealed to the world for the first time in a half-century.
"I thought we could do it in eight," said Rick Eastman, who founded the company in 1981, along
ong with wife Michelle.
The crew included the Eastmans’ son, Nate, an OHS senior, who had to duck out at 4 p.m. for varsity basketball practice.
By mid-week, cinder block infill had been removed along the roofline. Bresee’s under the aluminum was actually two building: the main one and a smaller one to the east. About 4 feet of brick had to be removed from the second cornice.
Eastman said the facade had already been washed once but, once the front is repointed and upper windows sealed off with plywood, it will be washed again.
"There was just so much grit and grime on it," he said.
The next steps are to firm up the financing, complete the environmental clearances, and prepare for demolition of the back of the Bresee complex along Wall Street early next summer, according to Carolyn Lewis, county economic developer.
Rehabilitation will be continuous after that, she said, with the two penthouses, 20 apartments and ground-floor retail and commercial space ready for occupancy by fall 2011.
The project includes renovations along Dietz Street – the former telephone exchange, Teleky Jewelers and the building to its north.
"It’s very important for us to show physical, tangible progress," said Mayor John S. Nader of the first step.
"There are things happening here," reflected Joe Bernier, City Hall’s director of community and economic development. "There are not a lot of things happening in other places, but there are things happening here."
Sunday, it was the best show in town, as after-church crowd gathered and the crew worked through a strategy to transform a recent landmark back into a less-recent one.
One highpoint came first – removal of the red scripted letters, B-R-E-S-E-E-’-S, of the front; it gave a pang to see them crumpled in a dumpster, but they could not be removed intact.
Then the peeling back of the first 25- by 16-foot piece of the false front, which happened at about 11:30.
How to achieve that was a bit of a puzzle, Eastman said.
Exploring the territory, he determined the false front was formed from 6-inch-wide aluminum slats that ran vertically from the marquee at street level to the roof line.
The slats were attached to aluminum crossbars attached horizontally above and below the windows. The crossbars, in turn, were attached to aluminum brackets driven into the brick facade.
Eastman determined the 25- by 16-foot sections were sufficiently manageable to be detached, swung away from the building and lowered onto the street, where they could be cut in three pieces and trucked away.
Once the strategy was decided upon and the first piece removed, the rest went pretty easily, he said.
Eastman praised City Hall’s cooperation.
Patrolmen were on hand to direct traffic and keep the curious behind the police tape and out of danger.
Firefighters doused the building in the morning before work began, to protect it from sparks from torches. Halfway through the day, they went through the building with heat-detectors to make sure all was well.
"I guess the biggest surprise was what good condition the brick is in," said Eastman. "For the majority of the building they are in pretty good shape."

LEADERSHIP OTSEGO AT OTESAGA

Three presidents – Douglas Gulotty, Nancy Kleniewski and William Mirabito – have been appointed to three-year terms on the Fox Hospital board of directors, through April 2012.
Gulotty heads Wilber Bank, Kleniewski SUNY Oneonta, and Mirabito, Mang Insurance.
The three replace Bud Pirone, Ricky O’Donnell and Dr. David Brenner.
Pirone, O’Donnell and Brenner were honored at a board dinner on Thursday, Nov. 19, in the Levine Conference Center at Fox Hospital.
The three outgoing members represent approximately 30 collective years of service to the Fox Board, with 9 years, 9 years, and 11 years of service respectively.

NEXT STOP, HOLLYWOOD: Austin screenwriting lecturer Alisha Brophy, OHS ‘97, won Best Television Pilot in the screenwriting competition at the Nevada Film Festival Nov. 20-21 in Las Vegas.
The pilot, "Paradise City," was also a finalist in the 2009 Screenwriting Expo in Los Angeles.
After OHS, Alisha received a B.A. in English from UC Berkeley, with a minor in creative writing. She received an MFA in screenwriting at University of Texas at Austin.

SUNY Oneonta President Nancy Kleniewski described "visioning" – strategic planning, racheted up – as well as anyone might, in this question: "What are we going to do that’s exciting, new and different?"
College President Margaret Drugovich asked a variation on these questions in Hartwick’s planning effort: What do we do well? How can we do it best?
In listening to these executives talk about the planning under way on both campuses, you find both, through strategic-planning, are seeking a rational way to organize complex entities for progress and success.
A first piece is buy-in; without it, there is no vision.
Drugovich, arriving in 2008 at a campus with "planning fatigue" from a huge such effort in 2001-02, low-keyed it: She engaged people in conversation, and listened. She did it again and again and again, looking for common threads.
Kleniewski’s approach – equally valid and, if not more precise, at least more measurable – was to implement a structured, campus-wide, months-long process, with an experienced consultant, to tap into her campus’ aspirations.
•
"Without vision, the people will be lost." That’s the Bible. Drugovich put it this way: "If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re lost."
In a sense, elections are visioning, although a record number of tight races in Otsego County on Nov. 3 – for county treasurer, a county rep seat, several supervisors and a number of town board members – suggests the lack of strong consensus.
Regardless, it’s a lagging indicator.
SUNY Oneonta is a $100 million enterprise. County government is a $200 million enterprise.
The county board chairman Jim Powers has certainly asked himself, "What can I do that’s exciting, new and different?" The county’s fiber-optic network now being laid between The Meadows and Cooperstown is just one outcome.
But has he asked that question of the whole board? Has he asked the county at large? It would be worthwhile to do so.
What about the Village of Cooperstown? The retirement community, business community, Bassett community, parents-with-children-in-school community, lakefront community, old-time townie community, are constantly at war.
Wouldn’t it make sense to seek what exciting, new and different things – in a word, progress – that the different communities can agree on?
•
It was observed the other month that a half-dozen such visioning efforts are under way now in Oneonta alone. Maybe there’s something in the water, it was concluded.
Maybe, indeed. Let’s have another glass.
Because Kleniewski and Drugovich are asking the right question: How do we organize complex entities for progress and success? (Drugovich also put it this way: How do we overcome inertia, the human fall-back option?)
Nationwide, community visioning is common. In Otsego County, while organizations have done it, and good businesses do it, communities haven’t done it at all.
Given that we’re in the middle of an economic hiatus, now would be a great time to get started, to have a consensus vision and strategic plan in place when the economy rebounds.
Jim Powers could get the ball rolling. So could the Otsego County Chamber. But anybody can – a League of Women Voters, maybe, a council of churches, Rotary clubs united.
How can we get something like this started?

At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others.
And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
In 1623, Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth Colony proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to God for ending a drought.
By a great drought which continued from the third week in May, till about the middle of July, without any rain and with great heat for the most part, insomuch as the corn began to wither away though it was set with fish, the moisture whereof helped it ...Upon which they set apart a solemn day of humiliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer, in this great distress. And He was pleased to give them a gracious and speedy answer, both to their own and the Indians’ admiration that lived amongst them.
For all the morning, and the greatest part of the day, it was clear weather and very hot, and not a cloud or any sign of rain to be seen; yet toward evening it began to overcast, and shortly after to rain with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them cause of rejoicing and blessing God.
It came without either wind or thunder or any violence, and by degrees in that abundance as that the earth was thoroughly wet and soaked and therewith. ... For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving.
By George Washington’s presidency, the end of November had become traditional. This is from 1789.
Now therefore, I do recommend and affign Thursday, the twenty-sixth of November next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has conferred upon us.
This is an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation, in the midst of Civil War.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
FDR’s first Thanksgiving Proclamation, in 1933, captured themes that resonate today.
May we ask guidance in more surely learning the ancient truth that greed and selfishness and striving for undue riches can never bring lasting happiness or good to the individual or to his neighbors.
May we be grateful for the passing of dark days; for the new spirit of dependence one on another; for the closer unity of all parts of our wide land; for the greater friendship between employers and those who toil; for a clearer knowledge by all nations that we seek no conquests and ask only honorable engagements by all peoples to respect the lands and rights of their neighbors; for the brighter day to which we can win through by seeking the help of God in a more unselfish striving for the common bettering of mankind.
This year, President Barack Obama issued his first Thanksgiving Proclamation, harkening back to those of his predecessors.
Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed our first national day of public thanksgiving to be observed "by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God," and President Abraham Lincoln, who established our annual Thanksgiving Day to help mend a fractured Nation in the midst of civil war. We also recognize the contributions of Native Americans, who helped the early colonists survive their first harsh winter and continue to strengthen our Nation. From our earliest days of independence, and in times of tragedy and triumph, Americans have come together to celebrate Thanksgiving.

125 Years Ago
The owners of the Oneonta silver mine are having hard luck. No sooner had a glimpse been caught of the long-sought-for green ore than earth above the shaft caved in and covered the vein several feet from sight. At work they went again and were once more nearing the goal, when the heavy shower of last Sunday came on, when the hole was partly filled with water and had to be bailed out. Since, the weather has been so boisterous up there on the mountain that the workmen could not withstand it, and so the work has lagged. When finally, the recompense for labor comes, however, we imagine it will be all the sweeter because of the great obstacles met with and overcome in pursuing the work.
November 1884

100 Years Ago
Advertisement – Despair and Despondency – No one but a woman can tell the story of the suffering and despair, and the despondency endured by women who carry a daily burden of ill-health and pain because of disorders and derangements of the delicate and important organs that are distinctly feminine. The tortures so bravely endured completely upset the nerves if long continued. Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription is a positive cure for weakness and disease of the feminine organism. It makes weak women strong and sick women well. It allays inflammation, heals ulceration and soothes pain. It tones and builds up the nerves. It fits for wifehood and motherhood. Honest medicine dealers sell it. It is non-secret, non-alcoholic and has a record of 40 years of cures.
November 1909

80 Years Ago
More and more residents of our smaller towns and rural communities are coming to realize that even though the auto has provided them with a quick means of reaching the big city stores, there are still many drawbacks to doing their shopping there. The problem of parking is the most general one. With thousands of city car owners clamoring for parking places the outsider finds it next to impossible to find a place for his car. If it is stored in a garage or parking lot there is a charge of from twenty-five to seventy-five cents. Then, too, there is also the danger of violating a parking law or traffic ordinance, and perhaps paying out as much in a fine as you would have spent shopping. Again, if you find a parking space the time is so limited that you have to keep fretting and worrying for fear you’ll leave the car a few minutes overtime and find a tag on it when you do finally get back to it.
November 1929

60 Years Ago
New regulations for the municipal parking lot on Dietz Street will go into effect next week, just as soon as workmen complete the demolition of the old house at 30 Dietz Street. The lot will be permanently closed to all-night parking, the open hours being 7 a.m. to 12 midnight. In addition, commercial vehicles will be banned at all hours during the Christmas shopping season. A member of the city parks department will be placed in full charge of the lot to supervise parking and enforce regulations. A small wooden structure that had served as a ticket booth on Webb Island will be moved to the parking lot and used as the custodian’s office and shelter during cold weather.
November 1949

40 Years Ago
A long-delayed high-rise apartment complex for Oneonta moved closer to reality last week when the federal Housing and Urban Development Agency approved the city’s $2.2 million annual contribution contract, clearing the way for work to begin on a Sixth Ward plot that includes the site of the old Mitchell Street School. The Fox Ledge Corporation is the developer of the project and is now expected to proceed with purchase of the land which will cost more than the projected $87,500 because of the delays in gaining the grant. The site is currently owned by Oneonta attorney Frank Getman.
November 1969

20 Years Ago
Bowling News – Frank Bagnardi rolled a 684 series and teammate Mark Rathbun a 656 to help Zim’s Shoes to a 3-0 sweep of Snap-On-Tools, and move into sole possession of second place by a half game in Karns’ Ford Classic Bowling action. Gus Lampo rolled a 723 series on games of 280, 224, and 234 Monday night, but it wasn’t enough, as Three H Masonry, led by Rich Fink’s 692, upset Holiday Lanes, 2-1 in Genesee Light Bowling action Monday.
November 1989

10 Years Ago
On Thursday, November 18, Wilber National Bank President and CEO Alfred S. Whittet presented Opportunities for Otsego a check for $37,500 to kick off a campaign to raise funds for the purchase of a permanent home for their Community Connections County Food Bank. The bank also donated a matching grant of $37,500 as an incentive for other prospective donors. Created in 1997, the CCCFB provides a constant supply of food to local food pantries and soup kitchens, said Gary Herzig, community development director for Opportunities for Otsego.
November 1999

To the Editor:
Growing up in a home of immigrant parents, as had my contemporaries with whom I had gone to school, my English was good enough with which to get by, and even good enough, when I was in high school, to earn me good grades in writing (yes, I was an avid reader) despite such errors as splitting the infinitive during those days when scientists were working so hard at splitting the atom.
When I served in the military, sharing space with other young men from around the country, I became more aware of how my companions spoke, and got laughed at for my non-standard use of English, say when I wanted someone to turn off a light in the barracks and had yelled, "Hey, make out the light!"
Everyone stated mimicking me: "Make out, make out." Of course, that’s the way I had heard it and learned it; it was the literal translation from good Yiddish (or German) into English. (No doubt there were the same kinds of non-standard syntactical errors coming from Lousianans, Texans and so on.)
But people understood me and my English, which was good enough for me. However, when after my service I wound up as a photographer at NYU, I became a lot more conscious of my way of speaking, sometimes having been subtly corrected by some professor with whom I was dealing. (Such as my pronunciation of "ruined," when I told a professor that some photos had "...been runed in the drying process." Every time I said "runed," he said "ruined?" and I nodded. As I later thought about it, I realized what he was doing.)
I was determined to focus on my pronunciations and syntax as well (I’ve always been a good speller) And, being some kind of autodidact, I’ve been working on it ever since.
It has made me so much more aware of all the college graduates I know (of which I am not one) and those holding post-grad degrees as well as lofty positions, who are murdering the English language with syntactical as well as pronunciation errors. When I had corrected some local minister’s error at one point, her response was that it wasn’t important, and that I knew what she meant, and that was the important point: that she was communicating.
I had to agree to her point: Language is for communicating. Period. So maybe I was just being a snob, trying to put myself above others because I had had such a limited formal education.
"But", I had asked her, "Why then is English being taught at all levels of formal schooling to people who already speak English? Isn’t time and money being wasted on those who already have the ability to communicate?"
What’s the difference if they use who for whom and she for her (or vice-versa) which I hear all over the place, (especially by the over-educated, and by Garrison Keillor, who boasts of having been an English MAJOR). And the appearance of incorrect homophones in our local newspapers?
She had no response for that, nor do others who defend the descension of the standards of spelling, syntax, & pronunciation, saying that language is always changing. Then why bother teaching English? I ask them. No response.
I am like so not getting it, totally. Whatever. Anyone out there to answer?

By JIM KEVLIN
　
ONEONTA
century ahead of federal Urban Renewal, Oneonta had a similar downtown renewal.
They called it fire, said Loraine Tyler, retired SUNY Oneonta Human Ecology chair, Greater Oneonta Historical Society director and resident expert on downtown architecture.
The GOHS’ History Center, 183 Main St., was erected in 1865, and was the downtown’s first brick building – one side a hardware store; the other a grocery.
"Its construction marked the shift to a more permanent downtown," said Tyler, interviewed in Latte Lounge as Bresee’s aluminum storefront was being removed across the street.
"Can you imagine all these short wooden buildings?" she asked. "The three-story brick structure: It must have made quite a statement."
In 1881, however, the wooden Ford Block burned, and was replaced within a year with today’s brick building, home to Key Bank’s local office.
In 1882, the north end of the block where Bresee’s was later built burned, from Chestnut to Deitz to Main.
In 1886, the wooden building to the Ford Block’s west burned, and was replaced by the brick structure that would house Sisson’s, another department store.
In 1888, a fire destroyed the South Main Street neighborhood from Main to Market, making way for a new city hall, (now the county annex.)
"Once a fire started, you couldn’t put it out," said Tyler. Limited to horse-drawn engines and hand-pumps, the most firefighters could hope to do was limit a blaze’s spread.
The good news: "Because we had the railroad, there was money to rebuild." And when that happened, Tyler said, firewalls were usually installed between buildings.
The early downtown architecture reflects that prosperity.
While the History Center building, later Laskaris’ ice cream parlor, is a simple brick cube with stone lintels, things quickly got fancier. One architectural feature that’s everywhere is corbelling, small tooth-like brick buttresses that Tyler believes served a structural purpose as well as a decorative function.
The old city hall is Beaux Art, among the most exuberant architectural styles.
After World War II, aluminum storefronts were embraced as adding "a clean, fresh look to the building, and easily done."
Ruffino’s first floor was redone at that point. So was the future History Center. Bresee’s – its brick storefront was characterized by corbels – was caught up in the craze: Its redo was the largest and most dramatic.

LAURENS – Douglas V. Sperry Sr., 61, of Laurens, passed away on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, at his residence.
Doug was born on Aug. 14, 1948, in Oneonta, the son of Russell and Lucille (Koerner) Sperry. On April 4, 1970, he married Wanda Kilmer in Troy, NY.
For 15 years, Doug worked as a mechanic for Casella Waste Recovery of Oneonta, retiring in 2007.
He was an avid hunter and fisherman. He especially enjoyed spending time with his family, and his two dogs, Abby and Zoe.
Doug is survived by his wife of 39 years, Wanda Sperry of Laurens; his father, Russell Sperry and his wife, Christina of Otego; his stepfather, Henry Riley of East Greenbush, NY; his children, Dennis Sperry and his wife, Carol of Unadilla, Douglas Sperry Jr. of East Meredith, Deanna Effner and her companion, Bob Thayer of Otego, Douglas Zindel of Marlboro, MA, and David Zindel and his wife, Heather of Massachusetts; his grandchildren, Sabrina, Ashley, Kristen, Tyler, and Jarrett.
He is also survived by his brothers, Russell Sperry of Triangle, Alaska, Thomas Berger of Syracuse, and Richard Sperry of Otego; his sister, Virginia Castle of Buffalo, and many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins.
Doug was predeceased by his mother, Lucille Riley; his son, Donald; and a brother, Jimmy.
A service to celebrate his life was held on Friday, Nov. 20, at the Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, 14 Grand Street, Oneonta, led by his brother, Thomas Berger.
Arrangements are by the Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, Oneonta.

ONEONTA – Frank J. Schwager, 93, of Wakefield, R.I., who worked for NYSEG while living in Oneonta, passed away on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, at the South County Hospital in Wakefield.
He was born on Jan. 6, 1916 in Newark, N.J., the son of the late John and Elizabeth (Geist) Schwager. He married Marie Grambs on Dec. 15, 1945, in Newark; she predeceased him on Oct. 26, 1999.
Frank was an electrical engineer for the Jersey Central Power Light Utility Co. for 25 years, retiring in 1979. Prior to that, he worked for NYSEG in Oneonta. He was a staff sergeant in the Army during World War II.
A family man, Frank enjoyed the outdoors with his wife and children, particularly fishing, hiking, swimming and camping. Also, he enjoyed working in his yard and on household projects and renovations.
Survivors include his his children, Frank C. Schwager of Manchester, N.J., Jeanne M. Schwager and her husband, Ted Bosack of Wakefield, R.I., and Kathleen E. Schwager and her partner, Paul Rabenold of Avon, Conn., grandchildren Seth and Sean Bosack, and great-grandchildren Lily and Sasha Bosack, as well as several nieces and nephews.
After a private funeral, interment will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery, Emmons.
Memorial donations may be made to the Home & Hospice Care of Rhode Island, 143 Main St., Wakefield, RI 02879.
Arrangements are by the Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, Oneonta.