PRESIDENTS DAY!
PERFORMANCE – 9 – 10:30 p.m. ‘Step Afrika’ performs dance that uses the human body as an instrument as practiced by traditionally African American fraternities, sororities and incorporates song, story telling, audience participation. Admission, $3/person. Hunt Union Ballroom, SUNY Oneonta.
SUNDAY PROGRAM – 3 p.m. Presenting ‘2020: Science, Policy, & Capital Converge on Climate Change – What Will Happen?’ talk with Paula DiPerna. Cooperstown Village Library. 607-547-8344 or visit www.facebook.com/VillageLibraryOfCooperstown/
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
SOUTH NEW BERLIN – Republican Jim Powers, former Otsego County Board of Representatives chairman, announced this morning he’s running for state Assembly in the 122nd District to succeed Cllifford W. Crouch, Bainbridge, who is retiring. Both are career farmers.
“I enjoy public service and being able to help people with their problems,” and to do so “without raising taxes,” said Powers, who served 18 years on the county board. As his most satisfying accomplishments, he points to initiating the withdrawal from MOSA, which he characterized as paying for not generating trash, and the county’s current 911 emergency system.
Otsego County’s former congressman, Chris Gibson ’86 Ph.D., will be Siena College’s new president, effective July 1, the Capital District college announced yesterday. He will be formally inaugurated in the fall.
Dr. Gibson’s appointment – he is the first permanent lay leader at the Catholic institution – was approved unanimously by the College’s Board of Trustees in a special session.
“Siena played an instrumental role in shaping my values and ideals, and I am forever indebted to the faculty and staff, including the many friars who have been so influential in my life, said Gibson, who graduated from Siena in 1986 with a B.A. in history. “The connection I developed to the Franciscan tradition as an undergraduate inspired my personal calling to servant leadership. The Franciscan tradition sets Siena apart, and it will inform every decision as I work with the Siena community to advance the legacy of my predecessors and promote the mission of Siena College.”
COOPERSTOWN – The two-car accident that sent six Pathfinder Village residents to Bassett Hospital this afternoon occurred after an SUV ran a stop sign at the intersection of Route 205 and 80 in the Town of Otsego, according to Trooper Aga Dembinska, Troop C public information officer.
HEART WALK – 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Support American Heart Association at 4th annual indoor Heat Walk & Health Fair featuring vendors, fitness classes, fun for the whole family. Cost, $30/person. FoxCare Center, 1 FoxCare Dr., Oneonta. 607-431-5009 or visit www.facebook.com/FoxCareCenter/
COOPERSTOWN – A Pathfinder Village transport van was involved in accident in the Town of Otsego, Lori Grace, director of development at Pathfinder, confirmed a few minutes ago.
According to Rob O’Brien, Otsego County 911 operator, state police and and Cooperstown Fire Department responded to the scene of a two-car accident at the intersection of Route 205 and Route 80 in the Town of Otsego at 2:17 p.m. this afternoon.
COOPERSTOWN – Last weekend’s Friends of Bassett fourth annual Valentine’s Soiree raised $250,000 to support medical education at Bassett Hospital, the Friends announced a few minutes ago.
More than 360 guests attended the Soiree at The Otesaga and paid tribute to Dr. James Dalton, the hospital’s director of Medical Education Dr. James Dalton, who retired from Prime Care last year after more than 30 years.
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special To www.ALLOTSEGO.com
SIDNEY – A week after 20 dogs were rescued from a Franklin home “like something out of a horror film,” Nasir Azmat, 41, has been arrested and charged with 41 counts of animal fighting and cruelty charges.
“I have a special place in my heart to defend the defenseless,” said Delaware County Sheriff Craig DuMond at this morning’s press conference. “I got to meet some of the beautiful souls of the Franklin, and it’s heartbreaking to see such innocent victims in these horrendous living conditions. And they were horrendous.”
One female pit bull that he saw, he reported, was used for breeding. “She just had this look of horror and abuse, even when you just reached out a hand to her,” he said. “It was awful.”
SIDNEY – The Delaware County Sheriff Department’s press conference on dog-fighting arrests after 19 dogs were seized in Franklin will be livestreamed on the Delaware Valley Humane Society’s Facebook page beginning at 11 a.m . today.
Governor Cuomo visited the White House yesterday but was unable to persuade President Trump to allow New Yorkers back in the federal “Trusted Travel” program.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters that Cuomo and Trump held a “productive meeting.” He called the relationship between the state of New York and the federal government an important one but said it “has been made difficult by the unilateral actions of New York State regarding the sharing of critical security information with DHS.”
The Trump Administration announced it was curtailing the program in New York because the “Green Light” Law granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and cut off federal access to state DMV records, preventing the U.S. Customs & Border Control Agency from properly vetting “Trusted Traveler” applicants.
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
WORCESTER – Kyle Van De Water, a lawyer, Army veteran and father of three triplets – his daughter, challenged since her days in the womb, has undergone 30 operations in her 10 years – received the unanimous backing of the Otsego and Schoharie county Republican committees’ executive committees here this evening to challenge freshman Congressman Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, in this fall’s election.
The straw poll, while expressing the executive committees’ consensus, must still be affirmed by a meeting of the two full county committees.
Meeting at Worcester’s White House Inn, executive committee members heard from both Van De Water and the other Republican contender, Ola Hawatmeh, a Poughkeepsie native and successful fashion entrepreneur in St. Louis, Mo.
VALENTINES DAY!
VALENTINES – 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. City of the Hills Sweet Adelines deliver love songs, tokens of affection at location of your choice within 25 miles of Oneonta. Cost, $30. Call 607-267-5540 or visit sachorus.wixsite.com/cityofthehills