Buzz Hesse and One Man’s Mission To Change a Road Sign

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN EMPIRE STATE DEVELOPMENT’S “MOHAWK VALLEY” REGION, NYS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION “REGION 9,” AND THE SUSQUEHANNA RIVER

Buzz Hesse, a local archaeologist, is on a mission. One day several years ago, he noticed a sign on Interstate Route 88, Exit 12 near Otego: “Mohawk Valley Region.”

“Well, it’s totally wrong,” Hesse told AllOtsego. “It’s totally erroneous.”

He has sent appeals to anyone and everyone—former State Assemblyman John Salka, current State Senator Peter Oberacker, and prior letters to the editor, one of which listed phone numbers for the state’s Department of Transportation—in an effort to rectify it.

As a geographic matter, much of Otsego County is part of the Susquehanna River’s watershed, not the Mohawk River’s further north. The main branch of the Susquehanna River starts from Otsego Lake, in Cooperstown. But that’s not what the signs are based on.

“The signs do not indicate the Watershed Region, but rather the Regional Economic Development Region in which they are located,” Lonni Rawson, assistant to the regional director for Region 9 for the NYSDOT, said in a statement.

The state’s 10 economic development regions fall under Empire State Development, a state economic development agency.

“Uh… hello,” one ESD staff member replied to AllOtsego’s phone question about the name, before directing it to the press team, who did not respond.

The Mohawk Valley Region also includes Oneida, Schoharie, Montgomery, Fulton and Herkimer counties. ESD’s webpage for the region describes it as “at the geographic center of upstate New York”—but seemingly not central enough to earn the neighboring regional title of “Central New York,” which is anchored by Syracuse.

That is different from DOT’s Region 9, according to its website, which is headquartered in Binghamton and includes the “Central Leatherstocking Area to the northeast and extends into the Catskill Region to the southeast” and in another place on the site is referred to as part of the “Southern Tier.”

The ESD designation is also different from how a page on the Office of the Comptroller’s website presents regions, counting Otsego County as part of a “Southern Tier” region.

“Unequivocally, it sends an incorrect message to people traveling through this region,” Hesse said of the signage. “This is not the Mohawk Valley. This is the Upper Susquehanna Valley. It has its own history.”He wants an update, or for the signs to be taken down altogether.

However, Hesse said, his inquiries to officials have been unrequited.

“That’s where it began and ended right there, and nothing has happened.”