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)
Rabbi George Hirschfeld, center, earlier this evening led his second Shabbat interfaith since being named rabbi at Oneonta’s Temple Beth El earlier this month. With him is outgoing board president Ken Sider, Oneonta, and new board president Stephanie Bauer, Cooperstown. (Libby Cudmore/AllOTSEGO.com)
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)
Levi Lazar, new administrator at Centers Health Care’s Cooperstown Center, poses with his administrative team and Regional Administrator Laurie Mante, right, after a welcoming reception at noon today at the facility in Index. Center right is Assistant Administrator Victoria Williams; center left, Chief Nursing Officer Heidi Hendrix. Most recently, Lazar was administrator at the Buffalo Center. A New York City native, he has also been assigned to Overland, Kans. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Brian Barlow and Chris Law (Chris is posing here with Great Dane Macy) were first-time winners in this year’s Clark Foundation Annual Cooperstown Beautification Contest; the results were announced today. Barlow and Law took first place in Category III, Most Appropriate Residential or Business Window Box or Boxes and/or Hanging Basket. Other first place winners (who have won top honors before) are Ursula and Chuck Hage, 73 Pioneer St., Category II, Most Effective Overall Planting Which Enhances a Residential Propery, As Seen From The Street; and Marc and Sherrie Kingsley, Inn at Cooperstown, 16 Chestnut St., for Most Attractive Floral Display in a Business Setting. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
At the 24th annual Central New York Stock Car Hall of Fame Induction today at the Otsego County Fairgrounds in Morris, Don Eckler of Milford, top photo, looks at Kenny Moore’s #60X modified “The Flying Milkman,” one of several vintage modifieds on display. Moore won the 1975 track championship at Five Mile Point Speedway, as well as several championships at Skyline Speedway. Today’s inductees at the 1 p.m. ceremony included Floyd “Pop” Wilcox, Don Lent and Pete Hulbert, as well as Edmeston’s Paul Jensen and Bret Belden, and Joe Donahue Jr. and Paul Holic, along with the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department. Inset, the crowd gathers around 2019 Inductee Bret Belden’s late model which was on display. (Cheryl Clough/AllOTSEGO.com)
Habitat For Humanity celebrated 30 years of building homes in Otsego County at the Elm Park Methodist Church this evening. A slideshow of the 36 homes and two major renovations was played for the guests as they enjoyed refreshments and cake. Above, Brad Conforti, wife Colleen and their children Abrielle and Micah, Town of Maryland, show off the most recent Habitat newsletter that features the home they will move into. The home is one of the newest residences Habitat is building on McFarlane Road off of Route 205 between West Oneonta and Laurens. At right, Habitat president Mary Ann Dowdell, Oneonta, who gave the evening’s keynoter, recognizes those who have donated time and talents over the past three decades by having their names included on an honorary plaque. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Otsego County’s Assemblyman John Salka, R-Brookfield, top left, shares lessons from the campaign trail with attorney Mark Masler, Cortland, candidate for state Supreme Court judge for the Sixth Judicial District, which includes Otsego County, this afternoon at the freshman assemblyman’s first annual Fall Festival at Rustic Ridge Winery, Town of Burlington. In the background, Rob Norris of Leonardsville, right, and Tripp Swart, West Edmeston, provide the foot-tapping music; the musicians usually play with Loose Canon, a four-man band. Inset, Army meets Navy, as Maj. Gen. (ret.) Tony German of Oneonta, left, shares war stories with David Rees of Oneonta and Five Mile Point, a retired Navy man. German, who stepped down as commander of the New York State National Guard in February, is running for 19th District congressman; in the 1990s, Rees ran for the Assembly seat Salka now holds. Attendees ranged from state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, and wife Cindy, to Bobby Walker, Fly Creek, the SUNY Albany senior who is president of the New York State College Republicans. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
To cheering crowds, Hanzolo, the Cooperstown band on the make, ends its set a few minutes ago at PearlPalooza, the downtown Albany music festival underway today. The band qualified for today’s main stage by winning radio station WEQX’s Albany-area Battle of the Bands last month at the Crossgates Mall. (Libby Cudmore/AllOTSEGO.com)
Chris Chase, vice president, American Legion Riders, Post 259, gears up with fellow riders as they prepare to head out Saturday morning on the 2019 Legacy Run. Inset, Deborah Rodriguez-Heim, Oneonta, starts out on her red Can-Am Spyder. The ride funds the American Legion Legacy Scholarship, which provides scholarship money to children of post-9/11 veterans who died on active duty. This year, the riders made their way from Oneonta, over Franklin Mountain to Delhi where they will take a break before going to Walton, Margaretville and Downsville. In past year, the riders have circled Otsego Lake and stopped at Glimmerglass State Park before heading home. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Phoebe Schreiner, Oneonta, Center for Agricultural Development & Entrepreneurship executive director, presents he talk, “Why America Needs a New Foodshed,” at this evening’s TEDx Talk At Slade Theater at Hartwick College. She was one of five speakers who spoke at the event, but the one local ones. Others were: “The Real Reason Relationships Fail” by Abby Medcalf, “Ubuntu 2.0: Humanity’s Operating System” by Getrude Matshe-Kanicki, “Personal Power; Establishing Connections For Success” by Matt Episcopo, and “Rising is a Risk. Do it Anyway,” by Cait Scudder. TEDxOneonta is a locally organized TED event associated with the national TED Talk movement. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Habitat for Humanity built home sweet home for Lois Newell, foreground, and daughters Adrianna, left, Gabriella and Isabella. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Habitat President Mary Ann Dowdell and Marjorie Pietraface discusses this Sunday’s celebration of Habitat’s 30th anniversary.
ONEONTA – A decade ago, Lois Newell felt hopeless.
“I was living in an apartment on Academy Street, my window faced the back of the Salvation Army,” she said. “I would look at that wall every day and cry. I was freshly divorced, I had no money and no resources. I wanted hope, a better life for my kids.”
Now, when she looks out her window, she sees an apple tree and the wildflower garden she’s cultivated in the yard of her Habitat For Humanity house, one of 35 the the nationwide organization’s local chapter has built locally over the last three decades.
This Sunday, Sept. 15, Habitat for Humanity of Otsego County will celebrate its 30th anniversary with an open house 2-4 p.m. at the Elm Park Methodist Church, Oneonta.
In honor of National Constitution Week, the Oneonta chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has put together a display on the document at the Southside Mall, commemorating the signing of the United States Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. From left are DAR members Jeanne Westcott, Helen Rees and Linda Riddell. The display is near Bath and Body Works and will remain up through Sept. 23.
Francesca Vanasco, who has homes in the Town of Middlefield and New York City, set up her cello on the veranda of the Village Library of Cooperstown this morning to remember her narrow escape on 9/11, and to celebrate the joy of being alive. On Sept. 11, 2001, she was working for Marsh & McLennan, the consulting firm, on the 99th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. She’d been working a lot of overtime, had worked the previous weekend, so on a whim that fateful morning she decided to sleep in. At 8:46 a.m., when she usually would have been at her desk, the North Tower was struck. A professional musician – she is former lead cellist at the Maracaibo Symphony in Venezuela and performed with the New Jersey Symphony – she has played her cello annually on 9/11 in New York City. April to October in recent years, she’s moved up to her local home, and thinks she may make her performance – mostly Bach – in front of the library an annual 9/11 ritual. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
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)
