Bound Volumes, Hometown History
December 4, 2025
110 YEARS AGO
The city council, at a special meeting held Tuesday evening passed a resolution directing the calling of an election for the purpose of voting on a proposition to appropriate the necessary funds for the purchase of a building and site for the Oneonta Public Library. The sum asked is $6,000. The rooms now occupied by the library are too small for its use.
December 1915
50 YEARS AGO
A scared cat, stranded 50 feet up in a tree on Dietz, Oneonta, for three days, was finally rescued yesterday by Robert Ives of the Cooperstown SPCA. The days when one can call the fire department to rescue a cat from a tree are apparently over. Fire Department Captain Ronald Pidgeon explained that it is now against department policy to rescue cats from trees. Pointing to a three-inch scar he had suffered after being scratched by a tree-caught cat, Pidgeon said he had seen too many men hurt while rescuing cats. “A man’s life is too valuable for that,” he said. Another fireman noted the expense in bringing out fire equipment to rescue a cat in a tree. Pidgeon said “if a cat was able to get up in the tree, he could come down, if hungry enough.” Doris Taylor, who lives at 62 Dietz Street, reported that she and her neighbors could not find anyone to come and get the cat out of the tree in front of her house. “It’s been up there for three days,” she said. No one would come until Robert Ives responded.
December 1975
40 YEARS AGO
The Oneonta City School District is developing a plan for a guidance program on child sexual abuse in grades K-6. The initiative complies with a recent state education commissioner’s order. According to Oneonta Assistant Superintendent John Lutz, a staff development program was begun last spring in which faculty and staff received information on child abuse in general, including sexual abuse. Information on available public services was included. In addition, a school district family worker has designed a program on child abuse for preschool children, and has received special training on the subject of abuse from the National Center on Child Abuse. The Oneonta School Board has also adopted a policy on child abuse that defines child abuse and requires employees to reports incidents of abuse.
December 1985
30 YEARS AGO
Discouraged by a recent New York State court ruling city officials said Monday that Ithaca, New York, does not yet have the authority to issue a marriage license to two gay men. Phillip Storrs and Toshav Greene applied for a marriage license in May but were turned down by a city clerk who cited state law. In July, Ithaca’s socialist mayor, Benjamin Nichols, backed a Common Council resolution urging the state to grant them a license. However, on Monday, City Attorney Charles Guttman said the State Court of Appeals ruled November 2 in a case involving adoptions by unmarried couples that nothing “in New York law authorizes that a same sex couple can get married.”
December 1995
20 YEARS AGO
The U.S. Supreme Court confronts a gay rights issue this week in a case that asks whether law schools can bar military recruiters because of the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Justices will decide whether universities that accept government money must accommodate the military even if the schools forbid the participation of recruiters from public agencies and private companies that have discriminatory policies. It is the first time that the court has dealt with a gay-rights related case since 2003 when a ruling struck down laws that criminalized gay sex.
December 2005
