EDITORIAL Take Control! Consider Otsego Lake Association Annual Meeting at 9 a.m. This Saturday With so many areas of American life seemingly spinning out of control, there’s a contrary example in the Otsego Lake Association (OLA). Its “100-percent volunteers,” according to Jim Howarth, co-president with David Sanford, are focused on a common mission: “Protecting the health, beauty and wellbeing” of the lake. Listening to them, it’s clear: Local volunteers, working together, can get a lot done. There are larger non-profit,…
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Editorial - Page 36
EDITORIAL Marijuana Law Prudent Step. Maybe, Just Maybe, Enough This year’s wild and crazy one-party bloc in Albany may have, by failing to reach it’s ultimate goal, achieved a sensible outcome in one area. Governor Cuomo Monday, July 29, signed legislation that reduces the penalty for unlawful possession of marijuana under 2 ounces from felony to violation. The penalty: a $50 fine for less than an ounce to a maximum of $200 for one to 2 ounces. (Above that, dealing’s…
EDITORIAL What Is It About Flags, Anyhow? The First Amendment is pretty clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Operative phrase: “No law.” The devil, of course, is in the details, beginning with “shouting fire in a crowded theater,” the metaphor…
The Lofts May Fulfill Dream Of A Renewed Downtown Speaking of development, The Lofts On Dietz, artist studios and middle-income apartments proposed for downtown Oneonta, is simply thrilling. The developer – a father-son combination, Ken and Sean Kearney, principals in Parkview Development Inc. – have completed two similar projects, in Beacon and Poughkeepsie, The father outlined the project to Common Council July 16, and to the city’s Planning Commission the following evening, and came across as seasoned, knowledgeable and level-headed.…
EDITORIAL No Land For Apartment Complex? Harrumph! “The Grove” developer Josh Edmonds did the right thing Wednesday, July 17, in withdrawing his application for a 12-unit apartment building between Pine Boulevard, one of the Village of Cooperstown’s finest streets, and lower Chestnut. It promised to be a long fight, with no certain end. As reported here before, Edmonds has figured out the home of the future – energy efficient, bright, supremely comfortable – and has built a half-dozen of them…
EDITORIAL Fans, Cooperstown Spent $10-15 Million Preparing For You Welcome, Induction attendees! Will there really be more than a record-breaking 84,000 of us? Excitement. If you’re been here before, look around: You will see many changes and improvements to Cooperstown’s downtown that have occurred since the last record-setter, when Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn set the record for attendance in 2008. If you came then, you might be astonished by what you see now. Then, all the sidewalks were…
EDITORIAL • July 11-12, 2019 County Board’s ‘Green Light’ Resolution Was Litmus Test – And Democrats Failed It First, it should be said that there’s a troubling lack of interest this year in running for the Otsego County Board of Representatives, whose reach, from road building to social services, touches all 60,094 of us. In the 14 districts, there are only three contests coming out of the June 25 primary: In District 2, the one-term Democrat, former Morris Town Board…
EDITORIAL In Sam Nader’s Story, American Dream Lives Sam Nader has that rare gift: When you talk to him, you feel there’s no one other than you he’d rather be talking to. That, of course, is only one of the secrets of his success – there are many facets to his personality and accomplishment. Part of the rest of the secret is the City of Oneonta itself. • In the years before World War II, it was an exciting vital…
EDITORIAL Village Trustees: Keep Cooperstown Cooperstown A sitting-room-only-on-the-floor crowd Monday, June 24, at the Cooperstown Village Board’s monthly meeting had a point: Why put an apartment house in the middle of one of the village’s finest single-family-home neighborhoods? There it is. That said, who doesn’t have some mixed feelings, given that the developer, Josh Edmonds, intends to build a complex that is supremely energy efficient, as is his new home at 45 Delaware St., and to price it so young…
EDITORIAL Energy Amity Not Easy, Chamber Policy Shows The Otsego Chamber of Commerce’s “Energy & Infrastructure Policy,” released last Thursday, June 13. The title sounds innocuous enough. In effect, it is rank-and-file business owners’ Declaration of Independence. The whole of the Otsego Chamber’s new policy appears in this newspaper, beginning at right. Read it. But there are a couple of key paragraphs. The first makes common cause with every sensible person’s aspirations: “As we head toward the inevitable move to…
