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No? Fine. But, Sidney’s History Tells Us, No’s Not Enough
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Friday, February 26, 2010
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 Anyone who’s ever driven through Sidney has to ask, How did this village get – and keep – so much industry?
There’s Amphenol (formerly Bendix), 751 on the Fortune 1,000 list. It manufactures fiber-optics cable and related connectivity devices.
And Mead Westvaco – the subsidiary was former At-A-Glance, and before that Keith Clark Inc. – the largest calendar-maker in the U.S. There are eight other companies in the Sidney Industrial Park.
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Certainly, history played a role: Upstate New York, with its trained workforce and developed infrastructure, was generally thriving before the cheap-labor, relatively low-tax South embarked on its decades-long raid, beginning in the 1960s.
But there was also a core of community-focused business leaders determined Sidney would be where the action was, wherever that might be.
In 1917, when the owners of Cortland Car & Carriage recognized their business future was limited, they began manufacturing an automobile, The Hatfield.
By 1924, it was clear The Hatfield wasn’t going to make it, so a company executive, Winfield Sherwood, went on the road – on his own initiative and at his own cost – to find a company to fill the soon-to-be-vacant auto factory.
He recruited Scintilla, a Swiss-born magneto company that had moved to New York City, which was purchased by Bendix, which became Amphenol.
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We learned all this during a couple of days spent in Sidney last month. (The Freeman’s Journal & Hometown Oneonta newspapers’ staff plans to visit a different regional town once a month this year; it began with Stamford in January.)
It’s intriguing. Stamford and Sidney are facing challenges similar to the towns we cover on a regular basis, although each are tackling them differently.
To continue with Sidney: In the 1950s, Tom Mirabito, Sr., then president of James Mirabito & Sons (now simply Mirabito) became mayor because he didn’t feel his village was facing up to its responsibilities.
Soon, the village had annexed acreage to the southwest from the town, allowing expansion of the airport and development of the industrial park.
Keith Clark wanted to build a new plant, and a site was provided. When Bendix wanted to expand its Delaware Avenue plant, the Mirabito administration figured out how to do it. When Unadilla Silo Co. wanted to expand its pressure-treated lumber business, it established Uni-Lam in Sidney.
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Sidney didn’t just help these concerns, it celebrated them.
“We did things,” Mirabito said. “We didn’t question: I wonder, I wonder, I wonder. We were becoming more progressive. People weren’t afraid to do things.”
During that time, there was also a corps of activist physicians at “The Hospital,” (now Bassett’s Tri-Town Hospital), that made an institution an effervescent center of community, Sidney booster Chuck D’Imperio recalls.
He also remembers businessmen like Bendix GM George Steiner, and “The Lion of Sidney” Myron Kipp, who owned the local market and, when a local company needed investors, he went out and found them.
That kind of confidence in the future is being continued today at Sidney Federal Credit Union by President/CEO Jim Doig and his board of directors. In the midst of the worst economy in 75 years, a new bank headquarters is rising on Delaware Avenue, twice the size of the current headquarters.
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A latter-day Bendix may not be what most of our communities want today. But what do we want? The public has responded to “no” – no windmills, no biomass plant, no hydro-fracking for natural gas. That’s fine, but simply rejecting someone else’s agenda isn’t enough.
Do we want clean, small-scale manufacturing? (Rabbit Goody’s Thistle Hill Weavers comes to mind.) Or alpaca breeding? Or Web-based knowledge industries? Or retirement villages? Or high-tech spin-offs of our universities?
Prosperity is our best defense against every ruinous (to our environment) get-rich-quick scheme that comes our way.
Let’s take the advice os Tom Mirabito, Sr., and move behind “I wonder, I wonder, I wonder,” to a vision of where we should be. Then get there.Labels: 03-05-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
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EDITORIALS
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Friday, February 19, 2010
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With Layoffs Looming, SchoolsShould Follow BOCES’ LeadIf news is the unusual, then word that 10 teachers and staff members at Cooperstown Central School had been advised they might be laid off – an unprecedented step – was big news. Worse, however, is that this – if it goes through; staff was advised as a courtesy, in the event the school board is forced by budget realities to follow through – is probably just the beginning. The Cooperstown district is facing a $600,000 reduction in state aid, as reflected in Governor Paterson’s proposed budget. Oneonta City Schools are facing a $1.6 million reduction; schools in the Otsego-Northern Catskills BOCES, $6 million. Oneonta School Superintendent Mike Shea observed that, with personnel making up 70 percent of local education budgets, there’s no where else to go faced with reductions of that magnitude. This is regrettable for many reasons. • One, many of the teachers and employees who would be ousted are our friends and neighbors. • Two, it’s easier to tear down a program than rebuild it. If French, for instance, were allowed to lapse at Cooperstown, would it ever be brought back? • Three, the prospective cuts would be good jobs with good benefits that contribute positively to the local economy. The total is $6 million that won’t be spent locally, plus layoff and unemployment costs. • State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, former chair of the state Senate Education Committee, points out that, if state aid can’t be restored and school budgets aren’t reduced, the property-tax payer takes the hit. “Plan for the worst, expect the worst,” he advised, “and hope that we in the legislature will do better.” Much depends on what happens in Washington, D.C., he said: If Congress passes a jobs bill, some teaching jobs may be saved; if Congress passes the right health bill, New York State’s costs will be reduced and some of that money can go to education. Perhaps mandates – local contributions to teacher pension funds, for instance – can be lowered or delayed. “There’s a lot of will to restore school cuts,” he said, “but will there be the wallet?” At best, he predicted, school aid will remain the same as last year, which was the same as the year before. Meanwhile, costs rise. • While this constitutes a crisis, longterm trends – dropping enrollments, in particular – have suggested for some time that something’s got to give. BOCES Superintendent Nick Savin has been making the rounds in recent months, facilitating discussions of how services might be shared. These fall into three areas, according to Jennifer Bolton-Carls, the assistant BOCES superintendent: • One, student programs. “Itinerant teachers,” in particular, are increasingly popular. A small district may not need a full-time speech therapist, for instance, but can share such an individual with two similar-sized districts. • Two, structural services. While most districts need a tech person these days, sub-specialities – a desktop-support specialist or network specialist, for instance – can be shared. • Three, management services. Laurens and Morris, for instance, are sharing a business manager, who can be a big-ticket item. There’s a workers’ comp consortium in BOCES. The system also provides recruitment services. BOCES services, Bolton-Carls explained, all qualify for another level of state aid, thus ensuring more funds will flow from Albany. • Less is not more. It can’t be. Part of the longterm answer is turning around the Upstate economy, bringing in new business and new people, increasing incomes and enrollments. Reducing mandates is a buzz term, but Seward’s right: The out-of-date Wicks Law, for instance, is causing such things at $900 doors. It should go. Short, short term, BOCES’ problem-solving approaches should be embraced. Schools provide jobs, but are not jobs programs, per se. Delivering the best education possible under whatever the constraints is Job One, as always. Only more so. Fair Shake WillBenefit EveryoneIf 900 fans are attending Mohawk Valley Diamond Dogs’ games in Little Falls on summer nights, how much better might we expect in Cooperstown, where 500,000 baseball aficionados from all over the country gravitate every summer?
If 8,926 people living in the Little Falls’ zip code can achieve that turnout, how much better can Oneonta do with 21,058 people in its zip?
How much indeed? The inaugural seasons of the Cooperstown Hawkeyes and the Oneonta Outlaws, both New York Collegiate Baseball League teams, are exciting prospects.
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Past is often prelude, and in the early 1900s, Cooperstown merchants chipped in to underwrite local teams – like the Outlaws and Hawkeyes, those team were made up of college players as well.
Particularly with the state Sen. James L. Seward Cup – Oneonta Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr., devised it for that very purpose – an Oneonta-Cooperstown rivalry could be effective promotional vehicle, and fun to boot.
All has moved swiftly to make the upcoming season happen, and there has been a wrinkle.
To allow the Saratoga Phillies to move to Oneonta as the Outlaws, the NYCBL team owners had to bend a rule that gives teams exclusivity within a 25-mile radius: The home plates at Doubleday and Damaschke are 24.2 miles apart.
As noted, there are all sorts of benefits of two teams in the county – cross-promotions, shared expenses, as well as the heightened competitive atmosphere – but there is also a downside for Hawkeyes owner Tom Hickey of Fly Creek.
In particular, both teams may find themselves competing for some of the same sponsors. Signs along the outfield fences, for instance, are a potentially lucrative revenue source.
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Hickey could challenge the owners in court, sure, but that would be costly to both sides, plus it would dampen the friendly rivalry/competition that could benefit both.
The shortterm goal should be to quickly settle differences, erase any unhappiness, and move forward with the mutually fruitful collaboration that awaits.
Labels: 02-26-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Other Voices
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Road To RuinI had the pleasure of spending the day and evening with Mayor Calvin Tillman of Dish, Texas, as I drove him to speak with officials during the day Tuesday, Feb. 16, and to his lecture in Oneonta that evening.
Dish receives emissions from 11 natural-gas compressor stations and many pipelines. The results are seen in serious health issues for quite a few residents of this little town. High levels of carcinogenic and neurotoxin compounds have been recorded which are above safe levels.
My most poignant personal experience with Mayor Tillman occurred driving up Route 205 north to Cooperstown.
Calvin looking out at a cornfield says: “In Texas, you could not drive straight through at 55-60 mph on a road like this.”
I ask why not?
“Because there would be so much heavy-duty tanker-truck traffic from the gas wells. These corn fields would make perfect well sites.”
The Marcellus shale (one of several target strata for the gas companies) in New York state alone is over 3.5 times the size of its relative, the Texas Barnett shale.
It suddenly hit me how much my life will change if drilling proceeds.
Like many people in Otsego County I travel Routes 205 and 28 many times in a month. A lot of gas leases border both routes.
Just imagine Route 28 with the 350,000 +/- tourists a summer traveling to Cooperstown and waiting on the massive tankers carrying water, toxic chemicals and heavy-duty equipment.
There can be little doubt that traffic congestion, road deterioration, accidents and pollution will result. What will this mean to tourism in Cooperstown?
What happens when a tanker carrying toxic waste water from the wells has a spill on the road? Are Otsego County or New York State ready to pay for the clean up?
Spills are the most common accident in natural gas production. According to the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, that state recorded 1,549 spills between 2003 to 2008, about one a day.
Mayor Tillman later stated that, to handle the heavy equipment and tanker traffic, roads must have a gravel base with 8 inches of asphalt on top. Presently, state highways like 205 and 28 have about 2 inches of asphalt.
That would be a very expensive highway, especially if tourists just get disgusted with the industrial level traffic and decide to go elsewhere.
Jim Herman, who lives in Hartwick, is a member of Sustainable Otsego, which sponsored Tillman’s visit.
Labels: 02-26-10, Hometown Views, Other Voices |
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Hometown Views
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Friday, February 12, 2010
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Soccer Hall’s Demise Is Yes,
Indeed, A Call To Look Ahead
Doug Willies had it exactly right in lamenting the  end of a 30-year effort to achieve a flourishing National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta.
“Hindsight is similar to foresight, except it has no future,” the chairman of the board told press and members of the public gathered in the futuristic building in West Oneonta Thursday, Feb. 11, to hear the bad news.
So we’ll leave it alone. No couldas, wouldas, shouldas.
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What was discouraging isn’t what’s lost, but what isn’t ahead – at least right now.
Perhaps the four world-class soccer fields can be preserved and the state high-school soccer tournament – it filled every hotel room from Oneonta to Cooperstown two weekends in October – maintained.
As for the rest of the 62-acre campus, it sounded like the Otsego County Development Corp. accepted the gift – valued at $3.5-4 million, if anyone can be found to buy it – with the idea that something is better than nothing.
The public was asked to “be patient” for a year and a half as planning moves forward, although it was suggested the property might be used for some sort of so-far unspecified non-profit entity.
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Where’s the “big idea” – to borrow from SUNY Oneonta’s Alex Thomas, student of our Upstate atrophy – that made New York the Empire State indeed?
It’s lacking, and the entities we might depend on to provide these “big ideas” – the chambers of commerce, the universities, the major institutions, the banks, our Albany leadership – seem unable to do so.
Meanwhile, let’s stop talking about our so-called high taxes. Those same taxes are being paid in New York City, one of the world’s foremost engines of wealth.
Let’s stop talking about cold weather. The winters in Vermont, if anything, are colder, and that state has taken what we see as a negative and successfully marketed itself as a winter wonderland.
Let’s have our leaders stop talking about how hard they work. People work as hard in Decatur, where the per-capita income is $16,541.
You can’t build a future on your liabilities.
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Sure, let’s be patient.
But at the end of that year and a half, let’s have identified our assets: our world-class tourist attractions, our proximity to urban centers, our good roads, educated population, good schools and delightful seasons – and, if the drilling rigs haven’t arrived by then – our environment.
SUNY Oneonta graduates 1,500 a year, Hartwick College another 400, who we now let slip through our fingers.
Are there a half-dozen students – in the music industry, in fashion, in business – who would welcome the opportunity to start their own businesses? Are we identifying them and giving them an opportunity to do so here?
There it is – the answer.
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Yes, IBM went somewhere else.
But the 800-employee Covidien plant in Hobart is successor to D.M. Graham Laboratories, which Doc Graham founded in his garage in 1960, and employs 800 people.
Ioxus, the growing ultracapacitor maker on Winney Hill Road, is an outgrowth of Custom Electronics, itself the creation of Peter Dokuchitz, a single individual.
The Lifgrens and Astrocom. The Smiths and Medical Coaches.
Eventually, some of these will end up in South Korea or Taiwan, but Otsego County, in its universities, has an unending supply of brains, ambition and youthful enthusiasm in its institutions of higher learning to replace yesterday’s startups – and today’s mainstays – with tomorrow’s startups.
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At the 10th annual SUNY Oneonta Faculty Research Show the other day, professor Jaqueline Bennett was talking about her research in identifying cheaper, quicker and less-toxic ways to manufacture imines, used in cholesterol-reducing Zetia® and cancer-fighting Taxol®.
She applied for her first patent a month ago.
This is what we’re talking about.
OK, let the Soccer Hall of Fame go. And let’s be patient. But by the end of 18 months, let’s have a plan, built from the bottom up, full of “big ideas” that engage our true our assets, foremost, our latent brainpower.
Defeatism and whining are intolerable.
Let The Facts Decide
It’s a shame the Oneonta town board didn’t want to enter the conversation at this point about consolidating with the city.
There is great potential benefit to both entities – and, more important, to their citizens – of the Oneontas becoming administratively what they are in fact: one big family.
There may also be costs, and updating the in-depth 1996 study that recommended consolidation is the best first step, as Common Council has voted to do.
There’s been talk that FoI requests would be submitted to obtain data from the town, but there’s no reason for that. It’s public information, and no doubt Town Supervisor Bob Wood or Town Clerk Cheryl Shackleton would provide the data needed to make an accurate study complete without raising any unnecessary obstacles.
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The town board was rattled when 40 people showed up at the Tuesday, Feb. 9, meeting to object, no way, no how, to even any talk of merger.
Democracy works, the crowd erroneously concluded: 40 people are not 13,791, or even a majority.
There’s no need to make a decision now. But when the time comes and the study is complete, town and city officials should be guided by the facts.
Let’s wait and see what they are.
 Labels: 02-19-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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HOMETOWN Views
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Friday, February 5, 2010
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A Low-Risk, High-Yield Opportunity
To Try Out County Manager
 Here’s an idea that’s been circulating among folks in – and interested in – efficient Otsego County government.
How about the county Board of Representatives naming Terry Bliss, county director of planning, to what would be a newly created position of county administrator?
As a practical matter, Bliss, who has long tenure in various county positions, is already the default county manager.
When the county reps need something done, how often does the cry go up (not in so many words, perhaps, but nonetheless): Let Terry do it!
Certainly, the staffing that’s being done locally on guiding the county past MOSA – the three-county solid-waste authority – is being done by Bliss and his able associates out at The Meadows.
That’s certainly appropriate, but the high-level interactions between independent government entities are usually something that a county manager would handle.
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Part of the resistance to naming a county manager has been uneasiness about whether whoever filled the job would be sensitive to the representatives’ wishes, and Bliss is certainly that.
He’s also had amicable interactions with other department heads over the years, so there would be few surprises there.
And he’s a friendly face to county employees, evident in the annual Ground Hog Day barbecue he’s organized for a dozen years now.
Plus, he plans to retire in 2-3 years, so his role would clearly be interim, with the goal of working out the kinks necessary in any new position, and helping the county board identify his successor and affect a smooth transition.
Laura Childs, veteran clerk of the board, is retiring at the end of this year, so Bliss would have several months to benefit from the vast working knowledge of county government she has absorbed over the years.
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It’s been four years now since the county board contracted with David W. Brenner, the revered former board chair, to study how much administration Otsego County needs.
Brenner discovered professional management is the only way to go. At the time, however, the board was riven with anger and distrust, the result of the Democrats unholy alliance with Republican Don Lindberg of Worcester to extract control from the majority Republicans.
Until tempers could be cooled and amity restored, it wouldn’t be fair to bring a newcomer into such a morass, Brenner concluded.
That’s changed. Republicans have a clear majority. The new chairman, Sam Dubben, is an avowed peacemaker, even in the face of Democratic showmanship.
(Instead of making Dubben’s elevation unanimous, the handful of Democrats nominated county Rep. Dick Murphy of Oneonta, who had no chance of being selected, simply to be a burr in the Republican saddle.)
Naming Terry Bliss county manager would be a low-risk, high-yield step toward professional government. The county board ought to take it.
2 Entrepreneurs + The Oneonta
= Very Promising CombinationGovernment help is great, as are non-profits. They can make good things happen that wouldn’t otherwise.
But it’s a sign that a local economy is on the make when private enterprise starts to invest.
That’s why what Tom Cormier and Jon Weiss are trying to do with The Oneonta – former vaudeville house and cinema – is so exciting.
They have identified a need – for rock ’n’ roll – and are determined to fill it, even in the iffy economic climate.
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Both men bring valuable resources to the table, or the stage, if you will.
Cormier has a growing business installing satellite dishes in most of New York State and all of Pennsylvania outside Philadelphia. His crews topped 1,000 installations in one week for the first time recently. And he knows buildings, or The Oneonta would be a daunting one.
Weiss is a partner in the Warsaw @ The Polish National in Brooklyn, which New York magazine called “one of the city’s premier nightlife destinations – in any borough.” He’s an originator of Cavestomp, an annual celebration of garage bands and “one-hit wonders.”
Both men are old enough to have experience, but youngish enough to have the energy to make things happen.
The link to the New York City scene, in particular, promises great things.
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Oneonta is a city with multiple arts venues.
The Foothills Performing Arts Center is going to be a great catalyst for downtown revival. Have you seen the little theater in the former Eagles’ Aerie – Muscles in Motion is there now; very neat. SUNY Oneonta’s Goodrich Theater was refurbished in 2004-05. There are numerous very fine church halls.
There’s plenty of space for everyone to do whatever everyone wants.
The Friends of the Oneonta Theater had hoped to use the cinema for movies, and perhaps it still can in collaboration with Cormier and Weiss.
If it can’t, there are other places – the small theater in Foothills’ production facility is very adaptable. Regardless, The Friends deserve the community’s thanks for achieving its goal by spreading the word of The Oneonta’s availability.
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With entrepreneurial flexibility, who knows what Cormer and Weiss can accomplish.
Perhaps they will tap the talent of SUNY Oneonta’s 600-major music industry department. Perhaps they will help catapult one of the many fledgling local bands to fame.
Perhaps ... The point is, this is all very good. Labels: 02-12-10, Hometown Views, Opinion |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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HOMETOWN Views
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
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If ConsolidationAdds Up, 2 OneontasShould Become OneIn communities that have pulled together and presented a united front to their existing constituencies, the residential population will expand and businesses will succeed. Those that don’t will eventually fail.
Certainly, there are efficiencies that would be realized if the two Oneontas – the town and the city – became one, an estimated $250,000.
Expenses can be reduced, sure. But the biggest benefit is on the revenue side, through a vehicle obscurely called “preemption.”
Preemption allows cities and counties in New York State – AND ONLY CITIES AND COUNTIES – to claim a portion of sales-tax revenues within its jurisdiction.
When Barry P. Warren, then director of SUNY’s Center for Economic & Community Development, studied a possible town-city merger in the mid-1990s, he concluded the combined municipality could claim an additional $2 million a year.
Today, that number has risen to $3 million.
Think about it. Southside Mall. Walmart. Lowe’s. Home Depot. The Holiday Inn and other Southside motels. The restaurants along Route 23. The supermarkets. Right now, they’re doing the two Oneontas no good, tax-revenue-wise.
The Three Musketeers had it right: United, we do stand.
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This is more than theoretical all of a sudden.
Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr., whose platform included renewing merger talks with the town, is following through.
Common Council Tuesday, Feb. 2, approved collaborating with the town in reviving and updating the findings of Barry Warren’s Greater Oneonta Task Force.
The Oneonta town board meets next Tuesday, Feb. 9, to take up the same matter.
In the first round of discussion, Mayor Miller emphasized that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the merger – the possible loss of jobs – should be taken off the table for five years.
During that time, retirements and turnover would minimize the chance that any strong measures would have to be taken, and any could be cushioned to minimize harm to anyone.
This is as it should be. Should individuals have to suffer harm for something that, if Warren’s initial conclusions bear out, would be a boon to all?
Certainly not.
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The Warren Report has lots of good reading. Police, parks, economic development could all be more effectively managed in a larger entity.
Think about it historically. When the City of Oneonta formed 101 years ago, it would take hours to walk from one end to another. West Oneonta? Forget it. It might as well have been on a different planet. The automobile – and I-88 – changed all that: Anyone can get from Emmons to West Oneonta in minutes.
The horse-and-buggy era had certain imperatives. The space age has different ones for Planet Oneonta. Let’s do what makes sense in the modern world.
Labels: 02-05-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
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Hometown Views
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Friday, January 22, 2010
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We’re All In ‘It’ Together, But Tackling ‘It’ Differently
Spending a couple of days in Stamford  underscores the inter-related nature of the towns in and around Otsego County today, historically and – more to the point – tomorrow.
To begin with a little inside baseball, it was interesting to discover that Simon Bolivar Champion of Bloomville, a hamlet between Stamford and Delhi, apprenticed in Cooperstown in the 1840s for John Prentiss, then publisher of The Freeman’s Journal.
He applied the lessons he learned to create the Bloomville Mirror, which he later moved to Stamford. It evolved into the Mirror-Recorder, and continued to publish into 1992.
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Like many of our downtowns – not Cooperstown’s, thankfully – Stamford’s has been challenged in recent years by the opening of I-88, Scotch Valley Ski Resort’s bankruptcy and the ease in getting to Oneonta just a few miles west on Route 23.
This year alone, however, Stamford (and nearby Hobart, to a lesser degree), has obtained $3.5 million in state Main Street and Restore New York grants to renovate venerable, but deteriorating, downtown buildings.
While Hobart is getting only $500,000 of that, it’s enough to redo six buildings, including the former Delaware Valley Propane Co. plant, which will then house the Liberty Tree Book Store, expanded to 85,000 volumes.
Hobart is becoming ever-more success as “Book Village of the Catskills” – a brand it’s been promoting for five years – but promoter Don Dales believes Liberty Tree’s expansion will hit “critical mass,” catapulting the tiny village into the book-selling stratosphere.
Brand-wise, Stamford is taking lessons from Hobart. Oneonta, which is undergoing a brand-building exercise now, could likewise benefit.
That tiny Hobart – it’s about the size of Schuyler Lake – can make big things happen means Cherry Valley, Springfield Center, Middlefield, Milford and Hartwick can as well.
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Another lesson: attorney Mike Jacobs, believing Stamford’s population of 1,200 – Cooperstown has 1,900 – was too small to support a fulltime police department, was able to convince the powers-that-be in Albany to assign two more troopers to the area.
When former mayor Anne Slatin pressed ahead with plans for a full-time police department regardless, Jacobs ran for mayor in March 2009 and defeated the incumbent.
There’s a question worth asking as the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department and Cooperstown village police press to expand: As costly local forces grow, does is simply mean state police will cut back their presence?
In other words, does more local money investing in police mean no greater police protection?
Mayor Jacobs would have an opinion or two on that.
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Another quick one – we could go on and on – is the Catskill Watershed Corp.’s $2 million renovation of Stamford’s historic Delaware Inn.
As former Oneonta Mayor John S. Nader discovered with Bresee’s, private financing alone couldn’t make the project viable. The public piece – investment, if you will – was needed.
(Delaware County’s Clark-Foundation equivalents – the Robinson Broadhurst and O’Connor foundations – are in the thick of all this; could the Clark play a fuller role in economic development here?)
The Delaware Inn experience brings to mind the $7.5 million in public money obtained to make Bresee’s viable. It closed the gap, allowing a private developer to take on the project and make money.
Once complete, Bresee’s offices and apartments and the Delaware Inn’s conference center will be catalysts for the revival of their individual downtowns. It’s not Communism, but simply common sense.
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There’s an intrinsic logic to all of these projects – Eklund Farm Machinery’s owners are planning a processing plant for the Stamford area’s organically grown meat, an idea that would make sense across our rural region.
One community’s ideas can inspire another. One community’s experience can show another community it’s on the right path.
Once a month during 2010, our reporters will be spending a day or two in a town in our region that most of us might not usually happen to visit. From the Stamford experiment, we can anticipate the rest will have a lot to share as well.
We Must Take Care Of UsAll of a sudden, Mayor Dick Miller must feel a bit like Barack Obama inheriting 1.8 trillion deficit. It’s more of a case, as the amended saying goes, of “stuff” happening. Or as Elbert Hubbard, our philosophical friend from western New York, had it: “Life is just one d----- thing after another.” It’s like losing the trifecta, one fecta at a time. We already knew the National Soccer Hall of Fame & Museum was in trouble. In recent weeks, soccer’s high priests have announced this year’s inductees, who will be entered into the Hall someplace, somewhere, somehow. Meanwhile, word on the street is the West Oneonta property is about to be sold. Second, the Foothills Performing Arts Center hits a wall, as Albany decides to hang on to an anticipated $100,000 grant the center had anticipated. Then, the county Board of Representatives does the same with $25,000. (The recent exodus of Foothills staff may be a good thing; it gives the able board of directors a chance for a clean-sheet review.) Then, it turns out in recent days that the Oneonta Tigers, which had pledged to stay at Damaschke Field through the 2010 season, may be scurrying off by the time you read this to vacant Dodd Stadium in Norwich, Conn. The only financial commitment to the city is $7,500 rent for the upcoming season. Do you see a trend here? Lessons? Here’s one: When the community allows local institutions to fall into out-of-town hands – the soccer hall, the Tigers – the community loses control. (Happily, Foothills is still firmly anchored in a local foundation.) In truth, no one cares as much about Oneonta as Oneontans, (or, if you will, Otsego County as Otsego Countians.) Edna St. Vincent Millay did Elbert Hubbard one better: “It’s not true that life is one d--- thing after another; it’s the same d--- thing over and over.” That certainly seems to be the current case in Oneonta. But it doesn’t have to be. Let’s learn the lesson. Apply it. And move on. 
Labels: 01-29-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Landowners, Unite!
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Friday, January 15, 2010
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RICHARD DOWNEY
OTHER VIEWS
A few weeks ago in an “Other Views” column, Harry Levine of Springfield warned readers “If You Signed Gas-Drilling Leases, It May Be Too Late.”
I offer a counterpoint – “If You Haven’t Signed a Gas-Drilling Lease, Consider Joining a Landowner Coalition.”
Mr. Levine and I are at opposite ends of the gas drilling issue. He opposes drilling. I’m for it. But we do agree on one thing – gas drilling leases are complex instruments with implications that can affect a family, and possibly a community, for years into the future.
Like any contract, the two parties in a gas lease have different interests. One wants to buy cheap; the other wants more money and better terms.
Nothing new here; This is as old as human nature. The problem is drillers have 150 years of gas-field law and experience under their belts and most New Yorkers don’t know a pump jack from a Christmas tree.
With the technical terms and jargon of the industry foreign to us, we’re lost on Word #1 when reading a lease. The sentence ends on Word #175. And that’s just the sentence. Wait until you see the paragraph.
You need an attorney, preferably one experienced in gas-field practice and law. You also need an association of fellow landowners. The solidarity, the sharing of knowledge, the ability to bargain on a larger scale, all give the individual landowner the means of leveling the playing field.
Understand this. The drillers and the landowners are in for a decades-long relationship, longer than many marriages. And like marriage, the benefits have to be mutual to work.
Mr. Levine and I disagree in his call for a ban on hydro-fracking. After 50 years of hydro-fracking and with 35,000 hydro-fracked wells coming on line each year in the U.S. alone, the industry, the nation and the world isn’t going to cripple itself over anecdotal tales of groundwater contamination.
Close to a million wells in the United States have been hydro-fracked and there are no studies that indicate groundwater contamination through hydro-fracking.
However, contamination of groundwater can occur from drilling activities. The primary sources are migration of methane up the well bore in instances of faulty casing and from surface spills. Anti-drillers often confuse this with the effects of hydro-fracking.
What are the real probabilities of contamination? In Pennsylvania, over 350,000 wells have been drilled since 1858. Of that number, 120,000 are active today. Each year, less than a dozen cases of migration are reported. To be exact, 54 cases over the last five years.
The odds of methane migration from a lower strata to a higher up are either about 30,000 to one, if all possibilities are taken into account, or 10,000 to one if only working wells are considered. In most instances, cases of methane migration are mitigated within a year.
Surface spills also have to be put it in perspective. New York has about 13,000 active oil and gas wells, over 10,000 of which were drilled since 1979. During that period, the DEC has recorded 160 surface spills attributable to oil- and gas-field activity. Over the same period, there have been 354,615 spills from commercial, industrial, residential, transportation and all other sources. The percentage of gas field spills to all spills is 0.045 percent (45 thousandths of 1 percent). About one out of every 2,000 spills in NY is gas-field related.
We hear a lot about Dimock, Pa. In Dimock, Cabot Oil hit unsuspected gas at 1,500 feet. Due to faulty casing, the migration of methane contaminated the water wells of 13 households. A year later some water wells are still contaminated.
The DEP levied a fine and set the date of March 31 for final remediation. The 13 households have retained an attorney. If the attorney can’t win this one, I would suggest he find a new line of work. Dimock is an anomaly, a rare instance of slow remediation. However, the contamination was caused by methane migration, not hydro-fracking. Certainly not pleasant for the 13 households, but the DEP did its job, and residents affected will get their recompense.
Those are the risks. What are the rewards? Our association has identified over 50 occupations and services that will prosper as the industry expands. They range from attorneys to welders, from truckers to restaurant workers. People from all walks of life will make money. And people will spend that money. Expendable income means JOBS.
Broome County has done an economic impact study; Google “Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Natural Gas in Broome County.” Check it out. Likewise, check the Houston-area economy as reported by the Perryman Group. Not only jobs will be created but also tax revenues. Each well has a tax number. Broome County conservatively anticipates 2000 wells over the development of the plan. Imagine 2000 small businesses contributing to school and local taxes, lowering our tax burden.
These are the economic rewards. The environmental (cleaner energy) and geopolitical (energy independence) rewards are topics for another day. So landowners, join an association and help yourselves, your area, your state and your country.
With risks minimal and rewards substantial, look forward to the completion of the regulations and possibly the best opportunity for Upstate New York since the opening of the Erie Canal.
Mr. Downey is president
of the Unatego Landowners Association.
Labels: 01-22-10, Hometown Views, Other Views, Richard Downey |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’
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Editor’s Note: This an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream Speech,” delivered Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during a historic march on Washington, D.C. for civil rights. It is considered among the greatest speeches of the 20th century.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”Labels: 01-22-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Editorial
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Much Has, Can And Will Be
Accomplished, King Would AgreeWhen Oneonta Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr.,  graduated from a suburban Rochester high school in the early 1960s, there was not a single black in his graduating class. He went to Middlebury College. Among the 325 freshmen, there was one black. In Vietnam, he observed that not a single officer in his company was black. Miller related those vignettes in addressing the annual commemoration of Martin Luther King Day, sponsored by the NAACP, Oneonta Chapter, and held this year at Oneonta Temple Beth El on Chestnut Street. We’ve all come a long way, baby, all of us. For it’s a truism that prejudice harms the holder to as great a degree as the target. Hatred curdles life’s sweetness. • Miller went on to observe that integration is complete “at the very top,” a reference President Obama, a black president in our nation’s White House. That, certainly, should have been a source of pride to all Americans, whatever our politics, on Martin Luther King Day 2010. The new mayor further observed that, nonetheless, a disproportionate number of blacks are among the ranks of our nation’s impoverished. Today, while the unemployment rate for all workers has topped 10 percent, it is 16.2 percent for blacks. This should be a continuing source of shame, but not a source of hopelessness. As Miller’s story underscores, there has been progress, vast progress in the lifetimes of many of us who are not that old. Let’s project that progress ahead another lifetime, or half lifetime, and we will see: Much remains to be accomplished before we will indeed love one another. But much will be. Labels: 01-22-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Paterson May Give More Control To SUNY Campuses
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NANCY KLENIEWSKI
OTHER VOICES
Editor’s Note: After Governor Paterson released his proposed 2010-11 budget Tuesday, Jan. 19, SUNY Oneonta President Kleniewski shared this with the campus community.
Chancellor Zimpher has informed all SUNY campuses that Governor Paterson will include The Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act in his 2010-11 budget proposal.
Offering the most significant reforms to the state’s system of public higher education in a generation, the act includes zero-cost solutions to strengthen public higher education and build the foundation for tomorrow’s economy.
The Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act would provide SUNY and CUNY the flexibility necessary to become centers of job creation, enabling New York’s public higher education system to become the new model of excellence that better prepares students for the jobs of the future while also developing jobs today.
The proposal would enable SUNY campuses to operate more efficiently and ensure the more effective use of resources by relieving campuses of overly bureaucratic procedures.
In addition to financial efficiencies and the elimination of redundancies in some processes, the act places tuition policy under the auspices of the Board of Trustees. This change is expected to provide the financial stability necessary to establish multi-year plans for the SUNY system and the campuses.
The inclusion of the Public Higher Education Empowerment and Innovation Act in Governor Paterson’s 2010-11 budget proposal is a positive sign for SUNY Oneonta, our community, and the State of New York.Labels: 01-22-10, Hometown Views, Other Views |
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Streamline Government, Make It Solvent, Innovate. Amen
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Friday, January 8, 2010
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 Not to keep going back to the Otsego Chamber’s State of the State luncheon, but members of the state delegation kept calling us – their constituents – “taxpayers.”
Sure, we’re taxpayers, but that’s too narrow a definition. We’re citizens, meaning was have rights and responsibilities (only one of which is paying taxes).
Likewise, state government is more than just an aggregation of accountants, sending out bills and collecting money. And municipalities – local governments – should be more than road-repairing and snow-plowing operations.
To reduce the grand experiment that is the United States of America to financial transactions shows a pinched imagination.
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That’s why Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr.’s first in-depth conversation with Common Council was so, frankly, exciting. That’s not too strong a word.
Miller challenged the alderpeople not to be bookkeepers of City Government.
“Are you guys and ladies spending your time on the right things?” he asked during a five-hour retreat Saturday, Jan. 9, in a City Hall basement conference room. (Lunch was pizza from Sal’s.)
The mayor succinctly presented the financial challenge: City Hall has been spending $1 million more than it has each of the past three years; in three years, reserves will be gone.
And, point by point, he ticked off ways to enhance revenues and ways to cut costs. And he streamlined the committee system (to just four) and introduced a “consent agenda” to free up Common Council’s time to do the right things right.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Alderman Paul Robinson observed when Miller completed his recommendations.
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The mayor sees this financial challenge as an opportunity to do things that make sense but, for whatever reason (a variety of them) haven’t.
For instance, the savings and efficiencies that would result from merging and city and town of Oneonta were first detailed in the mid-1990s in a study by SUNY Oneonta’s Center for Community and Economic Development.
Governor Spitzer’s Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness identified two cases – the City of Cortland and Town of Cortlandville; and the city and town of Oneonta – that could optimize benefits of a merger.
Miller ran on the issue of consolidation, and told Common Council he is “encouraged” by the initial reaction of Town Supervisor Bob Wood and others.
Wisely, the mayor said that for such a concept to work, there have to be assurances no one will lose jobs for at least five years.
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The mayor also talked about enhancing quality of life, of energizing the retail economy downtown and on the east and west ends, of reviving the 2030 sustainability committee to look at ways to “green” Oneonta, at assuring the Tigers’ future at Damaschke Field.
This is all exciting stuff, but Common Council, certainly, but for we citizens – the taxpayer part and everything else – as well.
If people – and communities – do well by doing good, then let’s do good by doing things right. Mayor Miller is plugged into that dynamic. We say, go for it.Labels: 01-15-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Level Bresee’s, Alderman Moran Advises Common Council Retreat
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It was a conversation stopper during the Common Council retreat.
Alderman Rodger Moran had just said of the $7 million project to renovate the former Bresee’s Department Store, “The building should come down.”
Moran told Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr., that Common Council hasn’t been kept sufficiently informed on the Bresee’s. In particular, he said, he objects to plans to convert Wall Street into a leafy parking lot/park behind the Main Street structure.
Alderman Mike Lynch added, “There are few votes I regret: One of them is buying that building.”
But Alderwoman Maureen Hennessy responded, “If we do it piecemeal, it’s never going to be done the way we envision it.”
Mayor Miller suggested “a one-hour work session attached to a Common Council meeting” devoted to discussing the Bresee’s project.
He said he’ll bring in Caroline Lewis, the county’s economic developer, to bring aldermen up to date on Bresee’s, and will continue to keep them in the loop.Labels: 01-15-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Encourage, Help Foothills Complete Final Half-Step
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Granted, the Foothills Performing Arts Center is in a bit of a tight spot. But that calls for calm deliberation, not overheated rhetoric.
Look at the accomplishment: An $8 million state-of-the-art facility is a few hundred thousand dollars away from completion.
Already, The Atrium of the new theater is a viable venue for weddings, receptions, dances and such events as the second annual The Foothills Bridal Expo 2010, which packed ‘em in Sunday, Jan. 10.
The board of directors consists of unpaid volunteers, and they are considerable ones. Gene Bettiol, Arnie Drogen, key administrators at both colleges, attorneys, businesspeople.
The departed executive director, Jennifer McDowall, is a formidable personality and a creative one, but that chapter has closed.
The gathering Monday evening, Jan. 11, at the Autumn Cafe, smacked of the first step of the grieving process, necessary, but irrelevant as far as Foothills’ future.
One attendee was quoted as saying of the board of directors, “They robbed us; the public should be outraged.” That’s wrong on several levels.
First, most of the $8 million is state money, a boon, not a detriment to “us,” the people of Oneonta.
Second, the current board stepped up to a daunting challenge when Peter Macris, Foothills’ (and Glimmerglass Opera’s) founder and a considerable fundraiser and impresario, simply ran out of time: Age and ill-health required him to step aside.
The directors – particularly Doug Reeser, a retired engineer who filled the vacant helm, but all of them – should be honored, not decried.
Calls to state Sen. Jim Seward for the board’s dismissal are nonsense. Who would want to step in?
That said, the community’s leaders – Seward, Mayor Miller, the college presidents, the arts community among them – should engage the Foothills directors in this conversation: What can we do to help?
Happily, one report said Monday’s meeting reflected support for the theater’s completion, for promoting Foothills in other venues, and for arts groups sharing resources.
It’s a truism: If we don’t appreciate what we have, we lose it. The National Soccer Hall of Fame is a case in point.
A better story: The community got behind a struggling Hartwick in the 1920s and assured its successful move to Oyaron Hill.
That’s a better model for how this scenario should play out.Labels: 01-15-10, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Hometown Views
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Friday, January 1, 2010
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20-10 – What A Year Awaits!
Since we can’t predict the future, why not predict optimum outcomes?
So here goes, for Otsego County in 2010:
10 The Christmas Spirit remains strong within the Baseball Writers Association of America, which elects the biggest induction class in years: Andre Dawson (Cubs), Roberto Alomar (Blue Jays), and Bert Blyleven and Dave Parker (Pirates). (The announcement was due Wednesday, Jan. 6.) The "commuter Induction Weekend" draws a record crowd, a punctuation mark on a banner summer tourist season.
9 The Cooperstown Hawkeyes and Oneonta Tigers (although in different leagues) organize a "Tweety and Sylvester" series that generates a red-hot in-county rivalry, selling out Doubleday and Damaschke fields and raising interest in local baseball throughout the season.
8 Organic farmers and dairymen create an All-Otsego Coop and obtain financing to build a processing plant and market their O-So-Fresh brand in the New York Metropolitan Area, (a la Cabot Cheese.)
7 Madison Square Garden Entertainment announces it is reviving plans for its Bonnaroseboom music mega-festival targeted for East Springfield, but is shifting the site to the Worcester or Schenevus exits of I-88, and is tapping students in SUNY Oneonta’s music-industry program to help with the planning and management.
6 The National Baseball Hall of Fame hosts a national forum, "Let’s Grow To-gether," on steroids abuse. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig emcees as owners, players, academics and fan delegates gather. The resulting manifesto eradicates the scourge from the National Pastime.
5 The county’s Albany delegation, led by state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, convinces the state Legislature to designate the whole county as the Otsego Opportunity Zone (acronymn, OOZE; slogan, "Let’s Ooze to Prosperity, and Beyond!"), where all manner of novel community- and economic-development ideas for Upstate can be road-tested.
4 Glimmerglass Opera, the Foothills Performing Arts Center (it’s temporary challenges behind it), Orpheus Theater, the Cooperstown Art Association, the Smithy Pioneer Gallery, the Oneonta Theater and all the other arts groups, galleries and artists unite and use each others’ talents and facilities to move a strong base in the arts to a world-class one. The UCCCA opens its umbrella wide, extending its name to UCCCCCCCCA to handle the new responsibilities.
3 Ginnah Howard of Gilbertsville’s "Night Navigation" wins the National Book Award. Oprah names Dana Spiotta of Cherry Valley’s "Burn The Document" as one of her book club selections. Tom Travisano of Oneonta’s thinly disguised "fictional" take on the Oneonta college scene electrifies the county as no novel has since "The Sex Cure" roiled Cooperstown. Cooperstown’s Lauren Groff turns out a hit sequel to "The Monsters of Templeton." This creative outpouring draws national attention to the "Colliersville Renaissance."
2 The Big Three automakers announce they’ve awarded a contract for Oneonta-based Ioxus to install ultracapacitors in all its hybrids. (In a flashlight, a capacitor connects the battery with the bulb; an ultracapacitor recycles the power back into the battery, extending its life.) As was IBM, so becomes Ioxus, reviving the region, and the U.S. auto industry in the process.
1 Gov. David Paterson throws out the DSGEIS – that’s draft supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement – prohibiting use of horizontal hydro-fracking to extract natural gas from Marcellus Shale until it can be guaranteed safe. In short, forever.
Of course, there’s much more good that can happen then fits in this space. 2010 – we can hardly wait!
TEMPORARY Trauma Spurs
Decisive Action At Foothills
You can look at it a couple of ways.
One, Foothills Performing Arts Center was extraordinarily unlucky to nearly complete an $8 million building in the worst economic dip in decades.
Two, Oneonta and the Otsego County arts-creating and arts-consuming community is extraordinarily lucky to have a nearly completed, brand-new, state-of-the-art, $8 million performing arts center a half-step away from completion.
This week, the Foothills PAC board prudently decided to scale back operations for the winter – hibernate for a while, if you will: it’s the season – while adjusting its planning and strategy to a new reality.
Oneonta’s new mayor, Dick Miller, had it exactly right the other day when he said Foothills, as well as the Oneonta Theater, are "challenged financially IN THE SHORT TERM" – our caps – but "they offer a wonderful future for the performing arts."
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City Hall has contributed little to date to Foothills; the funding has been from Albany.
So it’s makes sense, particularly given Mayor Miller’s focus on a new round of downtown revitalization, to step up now.
A thriving Foothills is the logical – and dynamic – center to the arts, entertainment and dining hub that will define the successful downtown of the future.
Main Street Oneonta’s members – the many restaurants, in particular – would garner a better than dollar for dollar benefit from Foothills’ success.
This is also the time for the city’s arts entities to pull together – Orpheus and other theater groups, the Catskill Symphony and other musical ventures, the galleries – and collaborate in making a world-class structure come alive.
Labels: 01-08-10, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion |
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Letters to the Editor
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Welcome, New Decade!...Er, Wait Just A MinuteTo the Editor: In the months just before the Year 2000, there was a lot of silliness. Many thought their computers would crash. Some believed the world might end. Just as silly was the belief that 2000 was the first year of the 21st century. Eventually, common sense prevailed and 2001 was recognized as the beginning of the new century. Recently, I’ve heard some mention on TV of 2010 being the first year of a new decade. Obviously, some who have a clear conception of months, weeks, days, hours, etc., lose contct with reality when considering decades and centuries. A decade is ten (10) years; every decade ends in a number with a final digit of 0. A century is one hundred (100) years; every century ends in a naumber with O the final digit. Surely, this is only common sense – whatever happened to common sense? WILLIAM F. ROBERTSOtegoIf It’s Unsafe, Don’t DrillTo the Editor:
For the past two years I have been trying to check out the reasons for the support of gas drilling.
First of course, is that our farmers are not being paid enough to even meet their costs. However, here is a reported statement from a couple shopping in Cooperstown, ”We just leased our land. We had our doubts, but the country needs alternative energy.”
Natural gas is an ancient fossil fuel – formed just as coal and oil, also causing CO2 climate change. The industry and oversight should be spent on real alternative energy: hydro, wind, biofuels and solar.
U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy, D-20th, said he supports safe drilling. Right now, that is wishful thinking. Past drilling in the west, in Texas and even in Pennsylvania shows drilling will endanger the source of our most critical water.
Bob Homovich of Delaware County said that gas drilling is no different than quarrying blue stone or harvesting trees or farming the land. That might be so, if gas grew on trees; unfortunately the gas is in rock, a mile beneath us and our natural aquifers and is not renewable.
Lee Fuller, a gas spokesman, wrote in another newspaper that only .5 percent of the fluid pumped in the ground will be chemicals. These have been shown to be bioaccumulative substances, carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxicants, neurotoxicants and hormone disruptors. This is nothing he would want his children to drink.
I have read and heard interpretations of the dGEIS proposed plan by geologists, biologists, chemists and lawyers. Many of us question the financial and human resources the state has to protect our water, air and community.
If there is no safe drilling, there should be no drilling.
DOROTHY HUDSON
Cooperstown
Labels: 01-08-10, Hometown Views, Letters to the Editor |
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Activism Good For City, Nader Tenure Proves
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Friday, December 25, 2009
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In a county where activist government is little evident, John S. Nader – Hometown Oneonta’s  Citizen of The Year for 2009 – is an exemplar of its value.
In a county notable for the gap between the very rich around Otsego Lake and the relatively poor, Oneonta is the one community with a thriving middle class.
And it didn’t just happen.
Public works have been part of the City of the Hills’ landscape for decades, back to the very beginning, when a group of leading citizens lobbied the Delaware & Hudson to locate its roundhouse midway between Albany and Binghamton.
The city’s fortunes were made, but fortunes aren’t made forever.
From the 1920s on, when Hartwick College was lured from up-county, through the expansion of the one-time Normal School into modern SUNY Oneonta in the 1960s, city fathers have been looking ahead, preparing for the always-uncertain future.
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John Nader fits into that tradition.
He called his father, former Mayor Sam Nader, one of his heroes, and recounted how, back in 1962, he was first in line in Washington, D.C., to emphasize Oneonta’s interest in the first federal public works project of the JFK administration.
Sam Nader’s interest paid off: The city received a $2.5 million grant, sufficient to upgrade the water and sewer systems to accommodate an expanded SUNY.
Progress doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and the second mayor Nader learned and applied the lesson.
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Thus John Nader’s personal crusade: to ensure the Bresee’s project – it includes improvements to Wall Street and renovation of buildings on Dietz – will continue to fruition after he retires from public office Jan. 1.
He made sure Gov. Eliot Spitzer knew about it, and the former governor specifically mentioned Bresee’s in his 2007 State of the State speech.
Likewise, Gov. David Paterson’s office was kept in the loop, and a $2.2 million Restore New York grant, received in September, was the final fiscal piece that made the Bresee’s project financially viable.
This is political fence tending at its best.
Nader considers the recruitment of a particular high point in his administration: Without a quality developer, you won’t have a quality project.
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In the years ahead, as you see Bresee’s transformed, its penthouses leased, its apartments rented, its stores and offices filled ...
As you see Deitz Street revived, and parking expanded in a leafy landscaped stretch next to Library Park ...
As you see businesses upgraded along the block, and then throughout the downtown, and smiling shoppers going back and forth ...
Remember Oneonta’s tradition of progress, and put a face to it: John S. Nader, Hometown Oneonta’s Citizen of The Year for 2009.Labels: 01-01-10, Editorial, Hometown Views, Opinion |
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Pieces In Place For Downtown Initiative
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RICHARD P. MILLER, JR.
MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
Over the past seven months, I have been working with Carolyn Lewis  from Otsego County Economic Development, city officials, and the leadership of Main Street Oneonta to set the ground work for greater economic development in Downtown Oneonta.
As I contemplate being sworn in on Friday, Jan. 1, I am excited by the relative opportunities that present themselves to our community.
I say “community,” because whether you are downtown, at the east or west end, or at Southside, in the eyes of the consumer, there is only one Oneonta ... There is no distinction between City and Town.
I say “relative” because we have the same challenges as all upstate New York, and all cities across the Northeastern United States for that matter. But we are well-positioned to do better than most in recruiting new jobs because of the quality of life, our colleges, natural surroundings, plentiful water supply, business parks, transportation, and proximity to major markets.
I am “excited” because we are already the regional shopping hub between Binghamton and Albany with significant tourist traffic and the opportunity to generate even more.
Oneonta can become an even greater destination, recreational, retail center. There are already new and expanded businesses on and near Main Street.
There is space and parking, and the resolution of the Bresee’s building challenge is underway.
By encouraging and assisting new businesses downtown (and we have the ideas for them), we will make a big jump up the competitive ladder, with our goal being to capture more leisure and shopping dollars from customers who reside outside zip code 13820.
We have grant money, low-interest loans, business planning expertise, and ideas. We need people who want to become entrepreneurs, those who are willing to take modest economic risk and invest sweat equity in starting their own businesses.
To support them, Main Street Oneonta is being strengthened. Plans are underway to develop, for the entire Oneonta Community, a brand, tag line, and web based marketing materials to draw people here. We need one brand, and then support it wall to wall. Wall to wall support is critical. The City, Town, County, Chamber of Commerce and our employers, including retailers, must promote only one Oneonta.
In the months and weeks ahead, I will be working with city and county officials, Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Oneonta, individual businesses and community leaders to expand our community’s marketing/sales effort.
There is an adage: Nothing happens until something is sold.
Together we must sell Oneonta to ourselves, those who already visit as tourists, and others within a day’s drive. There is plenty of room for all to join in.
Oneonta is already a good and interesting place. Together we can make it even more exciting.
Labels: 01-01-10, Hometown Views, Opinion |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS
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Friday, December 18, 2009
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And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Gospel of Luke
Chapter 2, Verses 8-14
 Resurrection Gave Birth MeaningBy THE REV. PAUL R. MESSNER • The Otsego County Lutheran Parish“Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,“He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He“Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see:“Evermore and evermore.”So wrote Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-413 A.D.), some 1,600 years ago, not long after the Christian Church began to observe the incarnation – the celebration of Our Lord’s holy birth – the coming of God in human form. For the first several hundred years of Christian faith Jesus’ birth was not considered of great significance. Every human being is born, and every human being dies. Jesus’ birth, and His death by crucifixion were not unusual. It was His resurrection from the dead, His return to life, that was – and is – the great and unique proclamation of Christianity. Christian faith, worship and teaching literally rise and fall with the historical truth claim of the Church for 2,000 years: He is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia.” If that is NOT true, nothing else matters. Certainly not His humble birth in a stable in census-crowded Bethlehem. But if the resurrection IS true, then Jesus’ birth has eternal significance and deserves to be remembered and celebrated with reverent awe and abiding joy. And what better time than at the darkest time of the year, when our solar system’s sun is farthest away from those of us in the northern hemisphere (where Christianity originated), and the days are shortest? What better time to celebrate the birthday not of an astronomical entity, but of the true Son of God who created every galaxy, star and planet? The early Christians did not know (and did not need to care) precisely when Jesus was born. Most Bible scholars surmise He was probably born in the spring, when “shepherds were abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night” (Luke 2); a better time for the mass migration of travelers going to ancestral hometowns for Augustus Caesar’s census. It was not primarily an historical date our Christian forbears were interested in, but a theological reality. God loves us so much that He entered human history in a human child: “by the power of the Holy Spirit He became incarnate from the virgin Mary, and was made man.” These phrases, from one of the 3 great ecumenical creeds of the church, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (commonly called the Nicene Creed, dated 325 and 381 A.D.), expressed the fullness of Christian understanding in Prudentius’ time, that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior, the Chosen One. He was, and is, fully God and fully human, from all eternity. He came to earth to save us from ourselves; He lives to open eternity to the whole of God’s beloved creation. In the midst of the darkness of this world’s dreary oppressions: war, hunger, disease, disappointment and despair, the Church follows its Lord’s example by relieving the death-dealing of these enemies of humanity. And one weapon in the Church’s arsenal is certainly its hymns. For 2 millennia Christians have sung their faith. We continue to do so powerfully at this time of the year. The Advent, Christmass and Epiphany carols, familiar and less so, boldly proclaim our faith in the God-child of the manger, echoing Prudentius’ ancient words: “Let the heights of heaven adore Him; Angel hosts His praises sing; “Pow’rs, dominions bow before Him and extol our God and King! “Let no tongue on earth be silent, every voice in concert ring: “Evermore and evermore…” Blessed Christmass!
Come To A Full Stop, And ReflectBy THE REV. Teressa M. Sivers • First United Methodist Church, of OneontaI remember my driving test as an adolescent. I remember the police officer sitting next to me in my parent’s car, giving me a lengthy and impassioned lecture about the simplest of traffic signs – the stop sign. “What are the rules regarding the stop sign?” he asked me as we began our jaunt around the small town. I thought it was a trick question, “You stop?” What could he possibly mean by asking me something so silly? It was a stop sign, you stop. “Wrong!” he shouted, “Wrong! The correct definition of a stop sign – you must come to a full and complete stop! FULL and COMPLETE!” He annunciated those words with every ounce of his being. I must admit, I am not unlike other drivers. Most of the time, I do come to a full and complete stop. However, on those rushed days, or dragging home late at night, when no one is around, no police officer in sight ... I roll. I allow the car to come close to stop, but not completely, and then proceed forward, anxious to arrive at my destination. I have seen others push the definition of that red octagon, some treating it more as a yield or slow sign instead of a “full and complete” stop. We are a busy people; places to go, people to see, things to do. We don’t have much time for full and complete stops. For a large number of Christians in the world, it is fast approaching the season of Christmas. And Christmas is FAST approaching! The media counts down the shopping days for us. Christmas concerts, parties and functions fill our calendars. Traffic is heavier, retailers packed, and the people we meet, friends and strangers alike, are stressed and harried. The pace becomes more frantic and frenzied the closer Christmas looms. And yet, the story of Christmas calls for something completely different, a full and complete STOP! The story that Christians read from Luke, Chapter 2, each Christmas eve or day, speaks of an interruption of the world’s schedules and plans. Mary and Joseph are halted from their travels, a baby is coming. Angels from the realms of glory join in song, a baby is here. Shepherds are pulled in from their nighttime rest and watch, a miracle has arrived. Stop what you are doing! Come to a full and complete stop here, at the feeding trough where divine peace in human form lies wrapped in strips of cloth. Encounter, perhaps for the first time, the narrative of life and world transformation-a new ordering of reality-in the gift of a baby. Stop! If we allow the frantic pace of the world’s schedule to rule us, we will roll on by the deep meaning of this holy day. If we cannot lay aside our wants and desires, our lists and calendars, our “but we always do it this way” mentality, we will miss it. All the many people who surround the birth of this child proclaim a new way of living – a life that seeks peace, love, hope, and joy for all. It calls us to come to a full and complete stop and examine our lives, to see where we must change to live a life reflecting God’s glory and not our own. Such transformation is not found in an abundance of packages, overloaded dinner tables, and overflowing schedules. It is only found in the stopping, full and complete. Merry Christmas! Meaning Of Christmas Available To AllBy THE REV. CRAIG D. SCHWALENBERG • Unitarian Universalist Society of OneontaYou celebrate Christmas?” the question comes, eyebrow raised.
“Yes, I do.”
“I didn’t know you were a Christian.”
“I’m not.”
And yet, I celebrate Christmas. I have a Christmas tree. I give and receive Christmas presents. This year, I’m leading two Christmas Eve services at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta with candles and carols and a reading from the Christian Scriptures. (I’m partial to Luke, myself.)
Yes, I celebrate Christmas.
I celebrate Christmas because it is a apart of my history and our culture. I grew up in the Catholic and Lutheran faiths. I know the stories, the carols, and the rituals. They bring me comfort and connect me to my family. This country, with all of its religious diversity, celebrates Christmas, (starting some time in October, judging by the aisles of the local drug store). I watch the Christmas specials and I sing the favorite Christmas songs.
I celebrate Christmas because it is meaningful to me and so many others. Christmas is a celebration of hope, a celebration of generosity, a celebration of hospitality. It is a festival of lights in a time of cold, darkness; a reminder of the importance of, the power of, our love for one another; and an invitation to be the kind, caring people we truly wish to be (and so often fall short of being in practice.)
I celebrate Christmas because it is worth celebrating. The birth of the baby, Jesus, is worth celebrating. (All births are worth celebrating, every child a holy miracle worth heralding.) Jesus brought to this world a message of radical love and acceptance, breaking bread with the traditionally unworthy, lifting up and caring for the often forgotten, and inviting all people, regardless of their nationality or religion, to join him in loving one another, forgiving one another, serving one another. Such a message was radical 2,000 years ago. It is, unfortunately, still radical today. And it is a message worth celebrating.
And so I celebrate Christmas this week. I will also celebrate Yule service hosted by the Pagans in our sanctuary. And last week, during our service, I told a Jewish story in honor of Hanukkah.
I do these things not to detract from or diminish these faiths’ holy days in anyway; but rather, to hold them up, to celebrate that which we all hold in common: the values of Love, Peace and Goodwill.
Happy Holidays.
Labels: 12-25-09, Hometown Views, Opinion |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Hometown Views
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Friday, December 11, 2009
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Act Now, Then Market New York’s
Own Cheese, Lacto-Land
 Here’s a way to start: The Fly Creek General Store sell fresh eggs from Vaughn’s Poultry Farm, a stone’s throw from Richfield Springs. Also, someone was saying the other day that, in effect, you can buy 50 or 70 or even 100 percent of your weekly grocery needs at the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market; the Oneonta Farmers’ Market is also functioning through this winter in the walkway between the parking deck and Main Street. And, to a degree, supermarkets are also seeking out local suppliers. You should ask about them, which would also nudge the supers in that right direction. Otsego 2000 organized a tour of local dairy farms a couple of weekends ago, and its executive director, Robin Krawitz, said that was the main conclusion the mostly non-farmers reached: Buying local meat and produce strengthens local farms. • Otsego 2000 sees strong farms as a means of protecting Otsego County’s viewsheds. Prosperous farmers will continue in their chosen careers. Thus, no sprawl. But we all have a larger stake in making agriculture a success. While we may bemoan the fact that there’s one dairy farm left in the Town of Otsego or Town of Oneonta, more important is that there are still 160 in Otsego County, according to Bill Gibson of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, generating 95 percent of farming’s $50 million gross sales locally. Thus, it’s still one of the county’s largest employers, larger than Hartwick College, (although smaller than county government, Bassett, New York Mutual, SUNY Oneonta or Fox.) • Leading the good fight is Tammy Graves, Richfield Springs, spokesperson for United States Dairy Farmers & Friends, who took a busload of local farmers, including Doug and Connie Lull of Schenevus and Beth Kean of SUNY Morrisville, a Gilbertsville native, to Washington D.C. Dec. 2 to lobby for in favor of struggling farmers. You may know that farmers need $16 per hundredweight of the milk they produce to break even, and the price – tagged to the (irrelevant) Chicago Mercantile Exchange commodities price for cheese – has gone as low as $9 (in California) and $11-12 locally. Gibson said farmers are losing $100 per cow per month, an $8,500 price tag for the Lulls’ 85-cow herd. • The locals farmers were seeking four things. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is already empowered to set an emergency milk price for a year, and the contingent – first – urged Gibson’s top boss, Jonathan Coppess, FSA national administrator, to ask Vilsack to do just that, at the $18 level. Second, the Merc’s commodities price is based on over-estimates of warehoused cheese; the local group asked that the supply be audited, also already authorized in legislation. Third, MPC (milk protein concentrate) from Third World countries is routinely added to cheese-like products on U.S. supermarket shelves. It does not have to meet USDA standards, as stateside MPC must, and its use requires less fluid milk be used. The double-standard makes no sense. Fourth, try to control milk supply to get away from the price swings now part of farming. • What Tammy Graves discovered, to her discouragement, is that congresspeople from non-farming districts could care less about the dairy crisis. Fine, but that’s going to take a while – years. And she’s resigned to that. “In general,” she said, “our day was about political farming. Just like regular farming, it’s like planting seeds. As you need to do with any crop, you have to fertilize and water it, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.” But there’s immediacy to the challenge. Otsego County farmers, Gibson said, are starting to slip into insolvency. Less than a handful have gone into bankruptcy so far, but who knows what will happen over the winter. There is an immediate solution at hand, and that’s for Secretary Vilsack to act, to raise the price to $18 and beyond. That may solve the immediate pain, but Dick Blabey of Cooperstown, retired from a high-level USDA post, is skeptical of government meddling in the free market. Branding and marketing offer a better solution, he said. Farmers can join together, buy their own processing plant and compete in the New York-New Jersey market, where nutrition-sensitive consumers want to know where their food is coming from. Vermont farmers have done this through the Cabot brand, and can charge a premium for their cheese. Why not Cooperstown or Leatherstocking or New York’s Own dairy products, additive free? Summers, metropolitan families can bring their kids to tour Otsego County farms to see where their food comes from. Lacto-tourism, maybe. Act now, but come up with a better way.
Lessons In County Budget
The Otsego County Board of Representatives has adopted a “suck it up” budget, which raises taxes by 7.2 percent.
It can’t be helped is the best anybody can say about it.
Still, there are lessons to be learned.
One, the proportion of Otsego County’s tax levy that comes from tourism-related sales- and bed-tax revenues is among the highest Upstate. So when the economy dips, our county is among the most vulnerable.
This shows that, when the economy rebounds, “what me worry” is not the appropriate frame of mind. The representatives should spend any windfall on broadening the county’s tax base to shelter it from future fiscal valleys.
Second, towns that have failed to keep their assessments current take the biggest hit: Butternuts (15.9 percent), Cherry Valley (15.6), Oneonta (15.7) and Middlefield (a whopping 20 percent). Otsego, which reassessed last year, saw a 1.8 percent increase.
Towns that have done what’s fair – keeping their own finances in order – are benefitting, and there’s a certain justice in that.
•
Regrettably, the City of Oneonta took some particular hits.
$10,000 the fledgling Foothills Performing Arts Center had depended on was removed.
County Rep. Cathy Rothenberger, D-Oneonta, went back at it, but her effort to add $5,000 for Foothills and another $5,000 for the UCCCA was rejected.
With Glimmerglass Opera’s budget restructuring that eliminated seven jobs, and the National Soccer Hall of Fame’s future in doubt, these cuts – a miniscule part of the county budget – are particularly worrisome.
As with dairy farms, it must be kept front of mind in these trying economic times that it is easier to tear something down than rebuild it.
The economy will come back, so don’t panic. Longterm efforts that make Otsego County such a special place must be preserved.
Labels: 12-18-09, Editorial, Hometown Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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Hometown Views
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If You Signed Gas-Drilling
Lease, It May Be Too Late
HARRY LEVINE
OTHER VIEWS
To my neighbors who have signed gas leases:
Victoria Switzer signed a gas lease on her property in Dimock, Pa. Her family now drinks water from bottles because her own water well is contaminated with methane.
A drilling company spokesman told a reporter, “At this point, no specific connection has been made between the tentatively identified compounds and oil and gas activities.”
Mrs. Switzer fears that if she tries to sell her home, which sits in the middle of a drilling zone, no one will buy it.
“Can you imagine the ad? ‘Beautiful new home. Bring your own water’,” Ms. Switzer said. “We’re like a dead zone here.”
She probably should have hired a lawyer before she signed her lease.
I am not an attorney and have no expertise in the legal niceties of gas leases. However, I have spent a few years negotiating commercial leases and know how complex these documents and their interpretations can be.
Please consider the following:
1. The lease you signed most likely allows the drilling company to drill as close as 200 feet from your house, in the middle of your corn field, or deep in your woods where they must clear-cut 5-10 acres of good standing timber. It also allows the drilling company to build roads, construct pipelines, erect compressor stations, bring in employee housing and operate 24/7 without regard to your own preferences.
2. Before signing a lease, did you check with your insurance agent about your homeowner insurance? Will your current insurer continue to offer coverage with no increase in premium?
3. Are you comfortable that home-mortgage lenders (including yours) are willing to extend a loan on property that has a gas lease? If you want to sell your property, how many buyers will be unable to obtain financing due to the gas lease and therefore have no ability to enter into a sales contract?
4. As drillers leave your property, be sure they remove all their equipment and structures and restore your land to its original condition. Once the gas is gone, there is no more value left in the lease, only expenses from which to run. Check out what it says in your lease about your remedies if they fail to do the job properly. Most likely, you may have to file a lawsuit or go through arbitration. Either way, the process is time consuming and expensive.
5. Hydrofracking, according to some experts, puts significant amounts of toluene and benzene (cancer causing chemicals) into the air during the drilling process. There are over 260 other chemicals used many of which are not well enough identified to determine just how dangerous they may be to you and your family.
6. If your water well becomes contaminated, it is very likely that your neighbor’s well, which draws from the same aquifer, will also be contaminated. Your neighbor may be forced to sue you, and then you can sue the drilling company. What was your lawyer’s advice on avoiding this problem?
7. Does your lease give you the right to demand a bond from the driller before drilling starts? How much bonding is enough? What is the financial strength of the company that signed your lease? Can this company avoid liability by assigning its position to a shell corporation, without your consent?
8. Did you know that your lease very likely allows the drilling company to build roads, install pipelines, erect buildings on your property BUT not actually drill any wells? So you might just suffer all this surface activity and get no royalties. If the landman with whom you dealt made oral promises that this would never happen, but these promises were not put in writing, who is going to remember them when you fail to get royalty checks?
9. Attorneys routinely recommend that landowners pre- and post-test their water wells. However, testing labs require a list of the chemicals to be tested. Gas companies have thus far refused to release this information. So you have a Catch 22: You cannot test for chemicals that are not identified and therefore you cannot claim pollution because you did not perform any pre-testing for these chemicals. Sounds crazy, but true.
10. If you are relying on the DEC to be your watchdog, think about how the 17 current state inspectors need to spread their time over thousands of wells to be drilled each year. It is possible that you might see an inspector only once or twice during the entire drilling operation.
11. By signing a lease, you expect to receive royalties for gas removed from wells on your property. But those royalties may be adjusted by deducting expenses known as production and post-production costs. And even worse, you may get paid only for oil or gas and not for any other products that are taken from the well. When other products (such as carbon dioxide, sulphur, and gas condensate) are recovered, you may not share in the income!
Now what? It is too late for you to tear up your lease, unless it was signed under fraudulent conditions or has some other legal defect. Instead of spending your rents and royalty checks, you might wisely put this money aside to offset the costs and losses you may be facing.
A lot of people have been shouting about the evils of drilling. If some or all of the 11 points listed above concern you, you may want to consider that just maybe these people have raised legitimate issues.
Knowing the full facts is the best defense. Start paying attention to what they are saying.
If you now wish that you never signed your lease, your best option is to join many of us who are concerned about regulating drilling activity.
Regardless of the terms stated in your lease, the DEC can set restrictions and regulations to protect you and the rest of the community from environmental damage. But the DEC must be pushed.
You should also encourage your local and state elected officials to adopt better laws that regulate drilling and all the related activities.
If you are really upset, you can join those who are calling for a complete ban on hydrofracking. They believe that ultimately there is no way to regulate or monitor this activity so that it is safe.
The one action that you should avoid is doing nothing. You may not be happy with the lease you signed, but you can offset that fact by educating yourself and encouraging governmental actions to protect your family and your community.
Personally, I feel that current evidence is not adequate to conclude that drilling can be done safely without long-term harm to our drinking water. Until such evidence is available, we should not drill.
At the end of the day, we remain neighbors. What you do has impacts on me and the reverse is also true. We have good reasons to collaborate for both our benefits. Neither of us wants to be put in Mrs. Switzer’s situation in Dimock.
Thanks for listening.
Harry Levine, Town of Springfield, is president of the Otsego Land Trust and Advocates for Springfield. He credits the list to Glenn Williams, who in turn credits Linda Adams and Lisa Wright.
Taxis, Taxis
Everywhere!
K.C. HARLOFF
OTHER VOICESHas anyone noticed the ever so growing number of taxicabs in Oneonta? It used to be that you could walk down the street and only see a taxicab once in a while, but now they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. They are everywhere!
I spoke with Oneonta City Clerk James Koury, who furnished me with a tally of the number of taxicab companies registered to operate in the city as well as the number of registered cabs each company owns. It is a lot!
As of Nov. 30, there are six taxicab companies registered with a total of 28 cabs on the street serving Oneonta. Oops! As of Dec. 14, change that to seven taxicab companies and 29 cabs. Yes, since my meeting with the city clerk, yet another company has entered the arena.
There are good points to this – and there are not so good points.
The good point is that you can step out of just about any building downtown and easily hail a taxi day or night, or have one dispatched to your address in a reasonable time.
Another good point: The city receives revenue in the form of licensing fees charged to the taxi companies and cab drivers for the privilege to do business in the city.
The bad points require a lengthier explanation.
Recently, I met up with several cab drivers who were sitting at, as one driver called it, “The fishing hole,” referring to the Trailways Bus Terminal on Market Street. They say it’s a good place to pick up bus passengers in need of a ride to their homes whenever arriving in town via bus as well as college students who can’t wait for the scheduled OPT bus that goes to the campus, or people who don’t wish to drink and drive.
One driver said that he used to average around $200 driving the night shift but now only brings home around $75, and that includes tips.
After being in the business for almost a decade he’s looking for another job. “Cab driving just isn’t profitable anymore,” he said.
You would expect the cab driver’s main complaints would center on the economy, unemployment and the all-so-popular complaint of rising gasoline prices, but no! What complaint eclipsed all others? There are too many taxicabs out here – nobody’s making any money!
It’s a classic example of Plato’s “Tragedy of the Commons.” The overabundance of taxicabs has cut into the market share so deeply that nobody is earning a decent wage, not even a modest one.
In fact, the taxicab business has reverted from just friendly competition to a high-tech war.
Radio-dispatched companies now communicate with their drivers using cryptic jargon just in case other taxicab companies are monitoring their calls through the use of radio scanners.
Some companies bypass two-way radio systems all together preferring to dispatch calls via cell-phone to their drivers.
To win over customers from competitors, several companies now offer “frequent-flyer” discount cards, special holiday rates, acceptance of credit cards and local college-issued debit cards, and one even has gone so far as to roll back some of their prices to what they charged five years ago. Good news for the customers … bad news for the cab drivers.
While these tactics may increase a taxicab company’s market share, they also cut deeply into the individual cab driver’s earnings. Cab drivers usually aren’t compensated by their companies for the discounts; they, too, have to bare the price cuts.
To add to the taxi companies’ woes, Oneonta Public Transit, the city bus system, has recently offered Sunday bus service between downtown Oneonta and Southside. Sundays used to be a great day for the taxicab companies. A lot of people used to use cabs to get to work or shop in Southside – those days are gone!
Having seven taxicab companies operating in the city has also created another problem. If you board a cab from the wrong company, you may end up arriving at your destination only to discover that the driver doesn’t accept your frequent-flyer or student debit card; a combined result of a passenger not distinguishing which cab they board and drivers snatching one another’s calls.
Beside’s that, the rates are different amongst the varying taxicab companies so a return trip may be a different rate than what you expected.
It’s a “Win-Win-Lose” situation. The city wins from the additional and much needed revenue from the increase in companies registering to do business in the city, the customers a win by getting lower rates and faster service, but the individual taxicab companies, especially the cab drivers, are the losers.
As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, there are too many taxicabs, and the situation is going to get worse. That is until city government takes the bull by its horns and addresses the situation.
This can be accomplished in several ways: Regulate the number of taxicabs that can be licensed to operate in the city, or get together with the taxicab company owners and agree upon unified cab fare rates, or do both.
Also, requiring drivers to take some kind of “area knowledge” exam would not be a bad idea either. I once actually had to explain to a driver how to get to Maple Street. How do you hire a driver that doesn’t know where Maple Street is?
My grandfather’s favorite expression was, “Mark my word.” Well, “mark my word, if something isn’t done soon, the situation is only going to get worse.”
Until that day arrives, you can help in solving part of the problem by doing this: whenever you take a cab ride, especially during these fast approaching days of harsh winter weather – don’t forget to tip your driver!
K.C. Harloff, Cooperstown, drove cab while a student at SUNY Oneonta.
Labels: 12-18-09, Hometown Views, Opinion, Other Views |
| posted by The Freeman's Journal @ 12:00 AM |
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