CURATOR SPOTLIGHT – 2 p.m. Celebrate the 2020 World Series champions through the Autumn Glory exhibit (celebrating Cooperstown in the post season). Learn how the museum acquired artifacts to tell the story of the World Series in a season unlike any other. Free, registration required. Presented by The Baseball Hall of Fame. 607-547-7200 or visit baseballhall.org/events/virtual-curator-spotlight-autumn-glory-dodgers?date=0
In Washington for President Trump’s 2017 nomination, Bobby Walker, then a SUNY Albany freshman, recognized the Commerce Secretary Steven Mnuchin, then little known, and snapped a selfie.
COOPERSTOWN – Bobby Walker, Cooperstown Central School, ’16, stepped aside over the weekend as chairman of the New York State College Republicans. He is completing his degree at SUNY Albany and plans to continue fulltime with the state GOP Committee’s Communications Department, where he is currently digital director.
Walker has been succeeded by Augustus LeRoux, a Syracuse University sophomore, Walker’s chief of staff at the NYFCR. Daniel Koerner of SUNY Cobleskill become vice chairman.
COOPERSTOWN – Eyewitness accounts of last Tuesday’s fatal shooting by a police officer on River Street “have not been accurate,” District Attorney John Muehl said this morning.
“I’ve seen the video,” said Muehl, referring to the body cam worn by Sgt. Ralph Pajerski, who twice shot Tyler Green, 23, of 48 River St., on responding to a domestic disturbance. Green, also known as Tyler Johnson, later died.
PLAY READING – 2 p.m. Enjoy virtual performance of 2 new one-act plays by the Cooperstown Playwrights. ‘The Glass Eye of Jimmy Cooper’ by Fred Schneider & ‘Dragon Fly’ by Terrance Dwyer. Part of the NEXT! Emerging Playwright series. Presented by The Fenimore Art Museum. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
Oneonta’s foremost bowling alley, Holiday Lanes, burned this morning on Southside. This reports comes courtesy of WKTV, Utica, AllOTSEGO.com’s partner.
HISTORY PROGRAM – 7 p.m. “History Preserved in Quilts” with Aernecke Aitchison. Free webinar, pre-registration required. Presented by Sharon Historical Society. Call 518-860-5513 or visit www.sharonhistoricalsocietyny.org to register.
COOPERSTOWN – Cooperstown Dreams Park’s announcement that it will require players 12 and over at the youth baseball park this summer to have COVID-19 vaccinations is already causing consternation among parents.
So far, some states will not provide vaccines to students under 16 until further testing is done, according to Jodi Plimpton-Werstein of Lee County, Fla., which puts parents in a bind.
“Should a vaccine become available (for 12-15 year olds) in the near future,” said Plimpton-Werstein in a letter to the editor, “they are now putting parents in a position to decide between breaking their child’s heart by denying them a lifelong dream of playing at Cooperstown, or give them a vaccine that is still in its infancy, with no real data regarding long term effects or efficacy.”
Here is the text of Dreams Park’s statement, released today:
COOPERSTOWN – Laurie Zimniewicz of Oneonta, current Fox Hospital board chairman, was one of three new members of the Bassett Health Network Board of Directors announced today.
Also appointed are:
• Anil Rustgi, MD, director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and dean health sciences and medicine at Columvia.
• Carl Mummenthey, superintendent of schools for the Cobleskill-Richmondville Central School District since 2014.
COOK-A-LONG – 4:30 p.m. Join nutrition educator Kimberly for fun lesson on the ‘why’ & ‘how’ of eating healthy. Includes time for a cook-a-long dish. Free, registration required. Presented by Cornell Cooperative Extension. 518-234-4303 ext. 120 or visit cceschoharie-otsego.org/events/2021/04/08/whats-for-dinner
ONEONTA – A few minutes ago, state police at Sidney identified the Oneonta police office the officer who “fired his duty weapon, striking the subject” as Sgt. Ralph Pajerski, an 18-year veteran of the department.
The state police press release also said the man who was shot twice in the chest was Tyler R. Green, 23; he has been identified in press reports as Tyler Johnson. He later died en route to Albany Medical Center by Medevac.
Andy Turner, foreground, and Mike Ansbro from of Lupini Construction, Utica, began Tuesday to remove the protective covering on the bell tower of the Red Door Church, at Walling Avenue and Main Street, Oneonta. Due to deterioration, and cover been in place since October 2016. “First United Presbyterian Church is grateful to everyone who contributed to their Tower Restoration Capital Campaign this past fall to enable them to move forward with the project,” Rev. Cynthia Walton Leavitt wrote on the church’s Facebook page. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
ONEONTA – Tyler Johnson, 23, shot twice by an OPD officer during an incident at 1:30 p.m. in a River Street home, has died, Mayor Gary Herzig said in a statement to the public via YouTube a few minutes ago.
INTERNATIONAL NIGHT – 5 – 8 p.m. Enjoy 3-course meal from abroad. This week enjoy dinner from Argentina. Cost, $20/person. Reservation required. Take-out available. The Otesaga, Cooperstown. 607-544-2524 or visit www.otesaga.com/dining/seasonal-dining
ONEONTA – Mayor Gary Herzig plans to brief the public on today’s shooting when Common Council convenes at 7 p.m. today.
Then he’ll issue a press release describing what happened at 1:30 p.m. on River Street, when it appears a police officer shot a knife-wielding man in the chest, perhaps twice.
“I’m still gathering information,” he said a few minutes ago, adding that he believed the man who was shot was still alive.
While declining to release too many details, Herzig did say the wounded man is white, and was medevacked from the city by helicopter, but he didn’t know to where.
