Car Crosses Main, Breaches Fence, Lands On RR Tracks
MISHAP IN ONEONTA
Car Crosses Main, Breaches
Fence, Lands On RR Tracks
One Perfect Day, Another One Due
FARMERS’ MUSEUM HARVEST FEST:
One Perfect Day,
Another One Due
Juggling burning sticks, Dickens the Clown was performing again today at The Farmers’ Museum Harvest Festival, as he has for years. Sitting on the bench behind him are the Micelli family of Glenville, near Schenectady, which has come to the annual event for 16 years since Katelyn Micelli, left, was a baby. Inset, the sounds of Milford’s B.J. Baker’s violin serenaded festival goers at the entrance of the museum’s Historic Village. Today’s weather was perfect, mild temperatures under a clear blue sky. More of the same is expect tomorrow, Sunday, Sept. 22, when the festivities – music, food, displays and free rides for festivalgoers on the Empire Carousel – continue from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2019
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
Farmers’ Harvest Festival
Continues For Second Day
HARVEST FESTIVAL – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Two-day fest continues today, featuring live performances, music, family activities to celebrate the seasons bounty. Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1450 or visit www.farmersmuseum.org/Harvest-Festival
FALL FEST – 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Explore the environmental campus this True Blue weekend. Includes apple cider making, cob oven bread baking, hay rides, live music, opportunity to do the ropes course (closed toe shoes required). Pine Lake Environmental Campus, Hartwick College, Oneonta. 607-431-4064 or visit www.hartwick.edu/alumni-and-friends/true-blue-weekend/
Annual Trash Day Packed, With Waits Up To 90 Minutes
Annual Trash Day
Packed, With Waits
Up To 90 Minutes
Due To Crush, Drop-Off Extended
Until All Served At Meadows Complex
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
MIDDLEFIELD – “A record,” Erik Scrivener, the senior county planner, called out as he directed drivers, some who had been lined up this morning for 90 minutes, to their final destination: the annual Hazardous Household Waste Day at the county’s Meadows Office Complex.
By 9 a.m., probably sooner, traffic was backed up ¾-miles out the access road leading to the Meadows (and county jail) and all the way north on Route 33 to Route 11C. Drivers reported waiting an hour, an hour and 15 minutes, even 90 minutes to access the free disposal service, staffed by volunteers and county staff. Everything from used paint, to e-waste, to leftover prescriptions was being processed.
Record Crowd, Record Funds At Out Of The Darkness Walk
Record Crowd, Record Funds
At Out Of The Darkness Walk
Some 285 walkers this morning raised over $22,500 to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention during Oneonta’s eighth annual Out Of The Darkness Walk from the Sixth Ward Booster Club field. Above, Olive Vergari, Ithaca, Clarice Wahl, Oneonta, Brittny Mott, East Meredith, Taylor Hall, Oneonta, and Julie Goupil, West Laurens, carry the banner as they lead the way. At right, Caryn Balnis, Oneonta, sings “Dancing In The Sky” by Dani and Lizzy as white doves are released by Carl Miller, Oneonta, in honor of those lost to suicide. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
New Rabbi, President In Place At Synagogue
Hirschfeld Here; Bauer Succeeds Sider
New Rabbi, President
In Place At Synagogue
Girls Of Summer In Cooperstown For Hall of Fame Tour
All-American Girls League Gathers
‘Girls Of Summer’
Here This Weekend
For Reunion At Hall
The Mighty Casey himself (former Baseball Hall of Fame researcher Tim Wiles, now Guilderland Public Library director) came out to visit with Joyce Westerman, Jeneane Lesko, Gloria Rogers McCloskey, Dolly Ozburn and Mary Moore, all members of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, as their annual got underway today at the Baseball Hall of Fame. At right, Sue Zipay, right, who played for the Rockford Peaches, peruses the scrapbooks of clippings, photos and journals donated by Sarah Ferguson and other AAGPBL players. Several players will give a talk ahead of the Hall’s screening of “A League of Their Own,” the opening film in the annual Baseball Film Festival, tonight at 6:30 p.m. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2019
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
Celebrate The Harvest
With Farmers’ Museum
HARVEST FESTIVAL – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. 2-day fest featuring live performances, music, family activities to celebrate the seasons bounty. Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1450 or visit www.farmersmuseum.org/Harvest-Festival
Treasurer Warns Of Overages, But Chair Unruffled
Treasurer Warns
Of Overages, But
Chair Unruffled
$12M Gap Already Down To $7-8M,
Bliss Says As Deliberations Ensue
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – Saying he has no “black magic” to fix it, County Treasurer Allen Ruffles has advised the county Board of Representatives it is facing a $12 million gap in the upcoming 2020 budget.
“I hear every year that Dan (Ruffles predecessor, Dan Crowell) used to work his ‘black magic,’ and always reduced the budget somehow last second,” said Ruffles in an email from the Horn of Africa, where he is on assignment with the Army Reserve. “There is no magic: We will be using the fund balance to help offset this gap.”
However, county board Chairman David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield, said a budget working group has already reduced that to $7-8 million, and he’s aiming to produce a budget that will be under the 2 percent state-mandated budget cap.
John Swank, Jr., 89; Korean War Veteran, Jehovah’s Witness
IN MEMORIAM: John Swank, Jr., 89;
Korean War Veteran, Jehovah’s Witness
WEST BURLINGTON – John Swank Jr. (AKA Dad, Grandpa, Pops and Big Cheese), 89, a combat veteran of the Korean War and Jehovah’s Witness, passed away on Sept. 18, 2019, after a long fight with Dementia. He went to sleep peacefully surrounded by his family in his home.
John was predeceased by his parents and eight of his 12 siblings. He was born at home in Canajoharie. He met his wife, Anne C. Swank in December 1950, and nine months later they were married.
Truitt Trial Scheduled For Jan. 20, 2020
Truitt Murder Trial
Scheduled For Jan. 20
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – With a motion to suppress evidence rejected this morning, Gabriel Truitt, charged with the murder of John Heller after he allegedly lit his girlfriend’s Walling Avenue apartment on fire, will stand trial in Otsego County Court Jan. 20. 2020.
During a hearing this morning in front of county Court Judge Brian Burns, Truitt’s lawyer Dennis Laughlin submitted motions to suppress photos and video taken inside of Truitt’s Tru Cuts that allegedly showed him taking the chemicals allegedly used to start the fire at 5 Walling Ave.
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
Presenting Tribute Band
‘The Eagles Experience’
TRIBUTE – 8 p.m. One of Nations top Eagles tribute band ‘The Eagles Experience’ presents evening of Eagles greatest hits & fun. General Admission, $20. Foothills Performing Arts Center, Oneonta. 607-431-2080 or visit foothillspac.org
CCS Board Creates Special-Education Administrator Job
CCS Board Creates
Special-Education
Administrator Job
As Services Leap 40%, Public Told,
‘Litigious Environment’ Requires It
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – With 14 percent of Cooperstown Central students in special-education programs, up from 10 percent a handful of years ago, the school board this evening created a new administrative position: “director of pupil services.”
With the complexity of the services growing, and the “litigious environment” – parents suing who are dissatisfied with the level of service – even school districts Cooperstown’s size (831 in K-12, it was reported this evening) are creating such jobs, Superintendent of Schools Bill Crankshaw told his board.
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019
HAPPENIN’ OTSEGO for THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Ecology Of Eastern Coyote
COYOTES – 1:30 p.m. Learn about Eastern Coyote, NYS largest wild canid. Wildlife biologist Selinda Brandon will discuss the coyote’s ecological role, how we can coexist. St. James Manor, 9 St. James Pl., Oneonta. 607-436-9974 or visit www.facebook.com/St-James-Manor-Retirement-Community-394485027409541/
Harold ‘Hal’ Slover, 77; Army Lieutenant Colonel, Vietnam Veteran
IN MEMORIAM: Harold ‘Hal’ Slover, 77;
Army Lieutenant Colonel, Vietnam Veteran
COOPERSTOWN – Lt. Col. (ret.) Harold “Hal” L. Slover, 77, United States Army, passed away surrounded by loved ones on Sept. 12, 2019, in Fairfax, Va., where he lived.
Fondly referred to as “Hal,” he grew up in Cooperstown, and graduated from Norwich University’s military college in Vermont.
He joined the Army as a second lieutenant and served two tours in Vietnam. In all, he served 28 years in the Army before retiring in 1993 as a lieutenant colonel in Fairfax, Va.