CITY-TOWN FIRE DISPUTE

After 45 Minutes In Chambers,

No Decision; Lawyers Try Again

COOPERSTOWN – State Supreme Court Judge Michael V. Coccoma took lawyers for the City of Oneonta and Town of Oneonta Fire District #1 into his chambers at 10:15 a.m. to see if they could talk their way through to a resolution of the fire-contract standoff.

HERE ARE CHARTS TOWN USING 

TO MAKE CASE BEFORE COCCOMA

The closeted discussion was supposed to last half an hour, but City Attorney David Merzig and the fire district’s lawyer, Terence Hannigan of Delmar, emerged after 45 minutes at 11 a.m. with no resolution.

Coccoma had a hearing on another case, and directed Merzig and Hannigan to return at 11:30 a.m. to resume the negotiations.

Meanwhile, Merzig was meeting in a side room with Mayor Gary Herzig and Acting City Manager Meg Hungerford, and Hannigan departed from the buildng with Fire Commissioners’ chair Fred Volpe and vice chair Johna Peachin.

The fire district’s contract for service from the city’s Oneonta Fire Department expired at midnight Dec. 31, but Coccoma ordered that the 2015 contract remain in place until