Editorial for November 9, 2018 ‘Knowledge’ Is Our Future This week’s Tom Morgan column on the facing page, and former DEC Commissioner Mike Zagata’s column last week capture the Upstate dilemma: Upstate is rebounding more slowly than any other area of the country. First, let’s look at local bright spots. • Custom Electronics in Oneonta is planning a futuristic 250-job production line making self-recharging batteries. Andela Products, the Richfield Springs glass recycler, is likewise looking to expand. And Corning’s Oneonta…
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Editorial - Page 40
Editorial for November 2, 2018 Are We Doing Political Debates Right? Let’s Talk About It League of Women Voters’ moderators lost control of the Monday, Oct. 22, debate between the incumbent Otsego County Sheriff Richard J. Devlin, Jr., and his challenger, retired state trooper Bob Fernandez. Not the candidates – the League, to the point where moderator Barbara Heim of Oneonta threatened at least twice to shut it down and send home the 150+ attendees who packed The Fenimore Museum…
AllOTSEGO.com, HOMETOWN ONEONTA, FREEMAN’S JOURNAL ENDORSEMENTS The Center Will Hold – If You Vote Nov. 6 As voters – in Otsego County, the 19th Congressional District and nationally – struggle to make the right decision in the Tuesday, Nov. 6, midterm elections, a study, “The Hidden Tribes of America,” surfaces with a conclusion that has been widely commented on nationally: “A majority of Americans (61 percent), whom we’ve called the ‘Exhausted Majority,’ are fed up by Americans’ polarization. They know…
Editorial for October 19, 2018 Justice Must Be Done, And SEEN To Be Done The truism, “not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done” – actually, it’s a famed quote from a 1924 British legal case – should apply to court proceedings and – if credibility is to be maintained – to democratic government generally. With intent interest, the citizens of Otsego County have observed the wheels of justice turn since Memorial Day Weekend…
Editorial for October 12, 2018 Uncreative? With Full Plate, That Might Be Just The Thing ‘I’m not creative,” Otsego Now CEO Jody Zakrevsky told the Otsego County Board of Representatives at its October meeting on the 3rd, as he began to deliver an “economic update” on the economic-development organization’s 2018 accomplishments. While lacking creativity, Zakrevsky continued, he said he has the capacity to embrace someone else’s ideas and carry them to fruition. Credit Zakrevsky with self-awareness and frankness, both virtues.…
Editorial for October 5, 2018 Isn’t It Time For City To Act, Or Get Out Of The Way? You know, of course: Creativity is making something out of nothing. Or, better, recognizing potential where nobody else does. The scoop in last week’s paper is a case in point: A group calling itself The Market Street Alliance is proposing a distillery in the former Oneonta Ford building, that dreary, long-empty, black-painted hulk at the foot of Chestnut Street, across from Foothills.…
Editorial for September 28, 2018 Balance Today’s Energy Needs, Tomorrow’s Energy Wishes It’s a great idea. In a column at the end of August, Adrian Kuzminski – citing the Tompkins County Energy Roadmap, completed in March – wrote, “Let me suggest … that the Otsego County Board of Representatives, in a bi-partisan spirit, is the logical authority to establish an Otsego Energy Task Force. A large, diverse umbrella group is far more likely to develop a comprehensive, viable energy strategy…
Editorial for September 21, 2018 MISTAKES WERE MADE. WHO MADE THEM? Who Lost Otsego Manor? It’s pretty clear to everyone by now that the sale of Otsego Manor in Jan. 27, 2014, was a mistake. That was punctuated with numerous exclamation marks Wednesday, Sept. 12, when Focus CEO Joseph Zupnik and his chief financial executive, Daniel Herman, pleaded guilty before Otsego Town Justice Gary Kuch in the Fly Creek courtroom. Under a plea agreement, Zupnik and Herman admitted to only…
Editorial for September 7, 2018 For Now, Only Choice In Sheriff’s Race Is For Due Process A letter to the editor the other week drew on the Biblical injunction, “The son shall not suffer for the sins of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquities of the son.” And surely that’s as it should be. That said, it’s legitimate for open-minded citizens to question how county Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. has handled the situation involving his son,…
Editorial for August 31, 2018 A Good Idea From Fire Commissioners: Dissolve, Let Town Negotiate OFD Pact When one least expects it, a breakthrough. The Town of Oneonta’s Board of Fire Commissioners has voted, 3-2, to set a hearing to consider dissolving. The vote could come at the end of the hearing, scheduled at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, at Elm Park Methodist Church. Good idea. About time. If the fire district is dissolved, a “fire zone” continues to exist…
