Bound Volumes, Hometown History
April 16, 2026
90 YEARS AGO
President Roosevelt proposed shorter working hours and suggestion limiting jobs to men and women between the ages of 18 and 65 in an address tonight calling the nation to a period of “social pioneering” against unemployment. Appearing before the cheering members of the young Democratic clubs of Maryland crowding the huge armory where he spoke, and also to the youth of the nation over the radio, the President emphasized that the government “must give and will give consideration” to length of working hours, stability of employment and minimum wages.” “Flaming youth has become a flaming question,” he said, “and youth comes to us wanting to know what we propose to do about a society that hurts so many of them. The world in which the millions of you have come of age is not the set old world of your fathers…because the facts and needs of civilization have changed more greatly in this generation than in the century that preceded us. If you are young enough in spirit to believe that poverty can be greatly lessened; that the disgrace of involuntary employment can be wiped out; that class hatreds can be done away with; that peace at home and abroad can be maintained; and that one day a generation may possess this land, blessed beyond anything we now know, with those things – material and spiritual – that make man’s life abundant. If that is the fashion of your dreaming then I say, ‘Hold fast to your dream. America needs it.’”
April 1936
50 YEARS AGO
A move designed to end the City of Oneonta’s constant parking struggle with the downtown merchants passed in the Public Safety Committee last night with little discussion and no opposition. The proposal made by Committee Chairman Richard McVinney, calls for all on-street parking meters to be removed downtown and replaced with 15 or 30-minute free parking zones. “It’s not fair to continue to grant customer parking spaces to some downtown businesses and not to others,” McVinney said. McVinney’s plan would place 15-minute parking zones on Main Street where meters currently exist, and on one side of the Chestnut Street extension. All side streets now having meters would now have 30-minute customer parking zones. The proposal calls for elimination of 26 meters on Main and Chestnut Streets and 34 meters on Dietz, Ford and Elm Streets. The parking meters in back of Bresee’s Store on Wall Street will be eliminated and replaced with 30-minute zones. “Meters are expensive and in many cases they don’t pay for themselves,” McVinney said.
April 1976
40 YEARS AGO
The New York Lottery sold a record $1.31 billion in tickets and made a record $616.3 million profit in the state fiscal year that ended March 31. State Lottery Director John Quinn said Tuesday that ticket sales in the 1985-1986 fiscal year increased by $43.8 million from the previous year and state earnings by $16.3 million. The past year was the sixth that lottery ticket sales and earnings have broken records. In the 10 years since it was reorganized the state lottery has sold $5.55 billion in tickets, earning the state $2.53 billion. New York State’s lottery ticket-sellers, of which there are more than 10,500, earned a record $78.9 million in commissions this past fiscal year.
April 1986
30 YEARS AGO
Fifty students who plan to attend Hartwick College this fall will pick up computers and choose dormitory rooms during a visit to the Oneonta campus today. The day is part of a new incentive at Hartwick to encourage prospective students to decide early to enroll at Hartwick College. Hartwick is aiming for an entering class of 435 students this fall according to Carol Clemens, Dean of Admissions. Admission applications at Hartwick fell five percent this year from a high of 2,360 received last year.
April 1996
