ONEONTA – City Hall is planning a swearing-in ceremony for the six newly elected Common Council members, plus two incumbents, at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1, in Common Council Chambers at 258 Main St. Mayor Gary Herzig will preside.
New council members are Luke Murphy (Ward 1), Mark Davies (2), Kati Lipari Shue (4), Len Carson (5), Scott Harrington (6) and Mark Drnek (8).
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – The Otsego County Board of Representatives this morning elected David Bliss, the former Middlefield town supervisor just elected to his second term, to be its chairman this year.
The vote was 10 “ayes,” two absentions, one absence, and a single “nay” from Kathy Clark, R-Otego, the chair Bliss replaced.
Unanimously, the reps then appointed Democrat Gary Koutnik, the veteran representative from the City of Oneonta, as the vice chair.
The absent county rep was Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, who departs as board vice chair. It was said he had to take his wife to the hospital.
The pairing of a Republican chair with Democratic vice chair is unusual but not unprecedented: Republican Sam Dubben and the late Rich Murphy, a Democrat, shared the leadership in 2010; and Republican Don Linberg was chair and Ron Feldstein vice chair in 2007.
125 Years Ago
A letter to an editor: Woman’s True Rights – I will take “Woman’s Rights” for my subject. I am in favor of what I call woman’s rights, but am not in favor of voting. Think that woman’s rights is to take proper care of the household; to see that everything is in readiness for her lord and master and for his enjoyment. But as to woman going to the polls on Election Day and casting their votes with rough, burly men, I am greatly opposed to such. And again, if women were allowed to vote, we would have more quarrels, ten times more fussing over one election than we would otherwise have in ten years. What lady is there that would go in a crowd where the rougher men are drinking, swearing, cheering and quarreling over their candidates? I dare say not one. But such is the case at an election. Maggie.
May 1888
100 Years Ago
Postmaster General Burleson, now in charge of the postal affairs of the United States, is heartily in favor of one-cent letter postage. This he most emphatically affirmed in an address to a delegation of the National One-Cent Letter Postage Association which called upon him in Washington recently. He further said that he hoped to bring it about as soon as the revenues of the department could be adjusted. The difficulties that are in the way are that he believes the department should be put on an efficient, paying basis, with adequate compensation for employees and the conduct of the department in a business-like manner. Reasons given for the decrease to one-cent letter postage by the association are that lower postage will promote general intelligence, improve social relations of the people, advance the business interests and increase the volume of matter handled as to defray the costs of handling and transportation.
May 1913
80 Years Ago
Will Rogers Says – This man Roosevelt not only makes Congress roll over and play dead, but by golly he made this tough guy Hitler to bring sticks out of the water. Is there no end to this man’s cleverness? Course there is one thing about Europe – you can never believe ‘em the first time. They will agree to anything ‘til it comes time to sign up. This might be just the ideal time to stop a war, for nobody has anything to fight one with. Like disarmament, it’s not done for humanitarian reasons. It’s only done for economic reasons. The whole thing seems too good to be true. But, the whole world is changing, so maybe they are going to turn human.
May 1933
60 Years Ago
A Binghamton bank president yesterday predicted a “readjustment” of the American economy within the next few months, leading to an eventual recession. “But we must be optimistic, “Cornelius C. Van Patten, president of the Binghamton Savings Bank, told Oneonta Rotarians meeting at the Elks Club. “We have building up the ingredients for a business recession. The Monster of 1929 (excessive stock speculation) will come dressed in different clothes, and we won’t even recognize it,” he continued. “We’re due eventually for a recession. There is evidence that in the next few months there will be some readjustments in the economic picture. But I do not feel they will reach the same levels as in 1932. They should not and cannot. Excessive consumer credit should be watched carefully as should excessive home mortgaging.”
May 1953
40 Years Ago
James Seward of Colliersville, youthful Republican who lost a primary race last year to the late Harold C. Luther of Dolgeville, has declared himself a candidate for the seat in the 113th Assembly District left vacant when Assemblyman Luther died last month. “It is my hope that the Assembly District Convention will recognize my qualifications for the position as well as the fact I am well known in both Otsego and Herkimer counties. I pledge a vigorous campaign this fall and full-time representation for the citizens of the assembly district. Seward was graduated from Hartwick College on Sunday with a degree in Political Science. He is associated with the local Volkswagen agency. Seward says that he ran a successful 1972 primary campaign in Otsego County against Mr. Luther, obtaining 80 percent of the GOP vote in the county.
May 1973
20 Years Ago
The Oneonta area saw an unusually high number of rabies cases over the winter and now is the time for pet owners to prevent the spread of the disease by having their dogs and cats vaccinated. “This past winter we saw cases all winter long. Generally it slows down in the winter but this year it kept going all winter and I think it’s just increasing now,” said Robert Pierce, district director for the State Health Department’s Oneonta office. Last year New York State saw 1,716 confirmed rabies cases – the largest number of rabid animals ever recorded in a single state. To help reduce the risk of spreading the disease, Pierce urged all pet owners to get their dogs and cats vaccinated. “It’s extremely important that the pet is vaccinated at three months of age or older and that vaccination should be repeated after one year,” Pierce said.
May 1993
10 Years Ago
“Spiritual confusion and religious fanaticism have convinced increasingly large numbers of people that religion is irrelevant to the modern world. In its place stand man-made ideologies designed to save society from the evils under which it groans. Yet many of these ideologies have only served to deify the state, to subordinate the rest of mankind to one nation, one race, or class, to suppress ideas, or callously to abandon starving millions to the operations of a market system that is aggravating the plight of a majority of mankind, while enabling small sections to live in affluence undreamt of by our forebears. The time has come for an accounting.” (Quoted from “The Promise of World Peace, published by the Baha’i Universal House of Justice in 1985) I read it now and think about how timely it is to re-evaluate the role of religion and spirituality in governance. Marybeth Vargha.
May 2003
By JENNIFER HILL & JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – Induction 2019 was notable for what didn’t happen as much as did.
One, the folks who didn’t collapse from the heat.
A violent storm late Saturday broke the humidity that created a steamy high of 88, making way for much drier Induction Day Sunday, July 21, with highs in the low 80s and a slight breeze keeping the Induction crowd feeling more comfortable than expected.
Two, the parade that didn’t happen.
Due to a pending thunderstorm that didn’t happen (until later), the Hall cancelled what’s become a weekend highlight: The Parade of Legends. Still, as most the Hall of Famer stayed enclosed in the cabs of pickup trucks as they rolled down Main Street past thousands of fans, Johnny Bench, 71, hopped out and walked the distance, and other stars followed suit as 25 Main neared.
Three, the attendance record that wasn’t broken.
While the crowd of 55,000, as reported by the Hall, was 3,000 more than last year’s class that included Chipper Jones and Vladimir Guerrero, it still fell significantly short of the 2007 Cal Ripkin Jr./Tony Gwynn 82,000 record.
By TOM MORGAN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
The bloodbath-cum-circus in Washington these days? It awakens memories. Of how a notorious American ambassador handled a similar brouhaha – the Clinton impeachment.
He deployed a simple device. With it, he brought a certain order to the mayhem of the thinking of his friends. In one stroke he turned their murky thinking to crystal
clarity. I am certain he would use the device today.
G. McMurtrie Godley – “Mac” – retired to Gilbertsville from his distinguished career in our diplomatic corps. The Clinton impeachment proceedings had saturated the nation’s air, airwaves and print with debate and downright wrangling: He said this. No he didn’t. He did this. No. It is not important. It is vitally important. He broke the law! Rubbish!
The arguments raged in offices, bars, coffee shops and millions of homes. They certainly raged in Mac’s home. Where he entertained retired diplomats galore. Along with great and lively minds from academia to business to government.
His dinner parties were often bedlam. That was the case with parties during the Clinton impeachment. That is, until he daubed a four-foot sign and draped it over his television for all the combatants to see. HE LIED UNDER OATH!
“HE”, of course was President Clinton. And clearly, he lied to a judge in a federal court case. He committed perjury.
Case closed. To Mac this ended all discussion of the Clinton impeachment. He believed there was nothing more to consider.
Our president had taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend our laws. He was the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. He had violated one of our most sacred laws. He had lied to a federal judge after swearing to tell the truth.
Mac’s sign hit me like a bucket of ice water. It had the same impact on his other friends. It sobered us to a reality we all knew. A reality we had overlooked in our debates. The reality that truth before a judge is utterly essential. As essential to the running of our country as gas is to our car’s engine. To perjure is to dump sand into the fuel tank.
Mac, by the way, had voted for Clinton. He contributed to his campaign. That did not matter. Once he learned Clinton lied under oath the president became a pariah to the old ambassador.
For me, Mac’s sign floats above today’s debate concerning the intel agencies and their spying mess. This was criminal. No, it was an innocent mistake. They did this. Nah, that’s an exaggeration. I read the IG report and it said this. Well, I read it and got exactly the opposite impression.
Whenever I see Comey, Clapper or Brennan on my television, the sign flashes: HE LIED UNDER OATH.
Each lied. That much is clear. People can argue over a hundred other issues. They cannot argue that these guys did not lie under oath.
Not important? It shouldn’t matter? After all, everybody lies. It’s only politics. It was an attempted coup. Rubbish!
People said the equivalent during the Clinton impeachment. Hey, it was only sex. It didn’t affect his job performance, did it?
Mac devoted his working years to serving this country. To him, oaths were sacred. To violate an oath was unthinkable to him. Anyone who did so instantly sullied his own character. A person who lied under oath no longer deserved to be trusted. Every other of his or her activities would be under a cloud, in Mac’s view.
As Amy Coney Barrett prepared for her swearing-in as a U.S. Supreme Court justice in Washington, D.C., Carina Franck, left, and Meg Kiernan led off a march a few minutes ago from Cooperstown Village Hall, up Main Street to the county courthouse. Susie Knight, inset, carries a sign that captures the message: “RGB Cannot RIP.” The message contrasts the legacy of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a supporter of Roe v. Wade who died last month, with Judge Barrett, her replacement, who is expected to be more open to abortion curbs. Annually for 10 years before COVID, Justice Ginsburg led an “Opera and the Law” presentation at the Glimmerglass Festival. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
When I was 8 years old, the hero in my life was my cousin Chickie, who drove an oil truck and often took me with him on deliveries.
The job led him all over Brooklyn and, being somewhat of a scavenger, he often came home with a bike or a wagon or some other discarded contraption he thought would be useful.
We lived in Bensonhurst, in a 12-room Victorian that had been divided into apartments. I occupied the second floor with my dad, while Chickie and his wife and two babies lived on the first floor and my Aunt Edna and Uncle Dave and their sons Leo and Charlie lived on the attic floor.
There was also Mr. Bilideau, the boarder, who was a leftover from the time when my grandmother had rented rooms. There had once been a Mr. Yumtov as well, a man who liked to store smoked whitefish in his dresser. Mr. Bilideau was from Canada. He had a room on the second floor and shared the bath with my father and me.
Just about everyone in the house owned something that Chickie had brought home and thrown on the front porch. “I thought you could use one of these,” he’d always say.
In spite of the partitions, it was difficult for so many people to be housed under one roof without having feuds over hot water and noise and things disappearing from refrigerators. Half the time somebody upstairs wasn’t talking to somebody downstairs. Chickie, with his various street finds, was often instrumental in getting them back on speaking terms.
One year, about a week before Thanksgiving, arguments were running high when Chickie came home with a live turkey in a crate. “It’s a 27-pounder,” he announced to several of us who had gathered on the front porch.
I had never seen a turkey alive and up close like this. “Where’d you get it?” I asked, cautiously poking a finger through the bars. “Did it fall off a truck?”“Never mind,” he said. “There’s enough here for all of us.”
I was placed in charge of watering and feeding the bird, which to me looked like some kind of prehistoric monster. I had to lower the water pan through an opened hatch in the top of the cage.
“Don’t worry,” Chickie reassured me when he saw the concern on my face. “That big bird’ll never get through that little hole.”
I figured they must have put the turkey in the crate when he was small and kept feeding him.
So any hard feelings were put aside and preparations for a Thanksgiving dinner at one table were divided between Aunt Edna and Chickie’s wife Ann.
Aunt Edna would bake the pies – mince, blueberry and apple – while Ann would roast the turkey, make stuffing and gravy and prepare candied sweet potatoes, plum pudding and the rest.
Dad, who was working nights on his taxi, would supply the wine and cider and Mr. Bilideau would buy some fruit – and chestnuts, I hoped.
Meanwhile, Chickie had taken to calling the turkey Sylvester, and would spend time with it out on the porch when he came home from work.
He’d stick a fat calloused index finger through the bars and let the bird peck at it. “You’re gonna be a good turkey,” he’d say affectionately.
I was still afraid of the thing and hadn’t warmed up to it that much, but all the talk about how this bird was going to taste sent uneasy twinges through my wishbone.
Three days before Thanksgiving, Chickie came home with bad news. The butcher around the corner didn’t want to slaughter Sylvester. He tried other butchers and they refused too. It suddenly looked like we weren’t going to have turkey for dinner.
We were all gathered in the kitchen trying to come up with a solution. Chickie had carried the crate into the house and put it on top of the stove. “I hear you just chop off his head,” he was musing.
Uncle Dave mentioned that Mr. Bilideau had grown up on a farm in Canada: Surely he’d know how to butcher the bird. “But what about cleaning it and plucking the feathers?” Aunt Edna protested. “That’s a real mess!”
All this talk about butchering must have been too much for Sylvester, too, because suddenly, impossibly, he was out of his crate, flapping his tremendous wings and scratching at anything in sight with his clawed feet.
Everyone scrambled out of the kitchen. Leo and I ran for the bathroom while the others headed for the hall. The last thing I saw was Chickie struggling to keep Sylvester from becoming airborne. I worried that the bird would take my cousin’s eyes out.
How was he going to squeeze Sylvester back through that small trapdoor? I could hear both of them swearing.
After what seemed like a very long time, Chickie announced that the coast was clear. We all crept into the kitchen and found that Sylvester was back in his box. He didn’t look much worse for wear.
“I was careful not to hurt him,” Chickie said.
Mr. Bilideau came downstairs and entered the kitchen to find out what all the commotion was about. When asked he said, “Yes, I’ll butcher the turkey if you have a sharp hatchet.”
He explained that the way to get the feathers out easily was to scald the freshly killed bird in a vat of boiling water. He would use the tree stump in the back yard for the first part of the operation and a lobster pot from the cellar for the second. The procedure would take place the next day after work. We were going to have turkey after all. Chickie stood there in the kitchen with his hand on the hatch door as Sylvester tried to bite through the bars.
The next morning when I left for school the bird wasn’t on the porch. He wasn’t in the cellar or out in the garage, either. Chickie’s Nash was gone from the parking place next to the house. Maybe he had come up with a brainstorm on how to get Sylvester butchered and avoid all the mess.
I was glad that Mr. Bilideau had been relieved of the job. With him doing it, I pictured us all sitting around chewing on feathers.
After school I ran home and eagerly waited for Chickie to return with Sylvester. I felt a little guilty about it, but I was kind of looking forward to seeing the bird stripped of his claws and feathers and head. I sat on the stoop as big wet snowflakes floated toward the ground.
Chickie pulled in the driveway right on schedule. He got out of the car with a large brown paper bag and walked up to where I was sitting.
“Is that the turkey?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. I looked in the bag. There was a bald thing with pockmarks all over it.
That Thanksgiving was one of the most festive I can remember. The table was so long we had to set it up in the hall. I noticed that Chickie, sitting at the head, was in especially good spirits.
In my mind, the feast with a golden-brown bird at the center seemed to exude a joyous radiance. Somehow I understood that it was our turkey, Sylvester, that had brought us all together.
Years later, on a cold November day, as we were on our way to make an oil delivery, I asked Chickie if it had really been Sylvester in the bag that afternoon. He chuckled as he shifted the Mack down to a lower gear.
Then he looked over at me and said, “Nah.”
COOPERSTOWN – Expressing appreciation for Village Trustee Joan Nicols’ contribution, Mayor Jeff Katz said today he will seek to appoint her successor before deliberations begin in early January on the 2016-17 village budget.
Mrs. Nicols, who resigned Monday, said her husband, Hank, the former village police chief and Democratic county chairman, will be recuperating from a rotator-cuff operation over the next few months in a warmer climate, so she would have been unable to fulfill her trustee role. Her term would have ended March 31.
The current attack on Ukraine reminds me of Russia’s invasion of Hungary back in 1956 and an army buddy who had been a product of the Hungarian Revolution. His name was Thor Dackin. His family upon fleeing Hungary and entering America, settled in Philadelphia. The first time I saw him was in June of ‘65 on the troop train that was carrying us and several hundred other guys down to Fort Gordon, Georgia for basic training. He was sporting a wild black head of hair that hung down to his shoulders. I remember thinking, ‘This guy’s looking for trouble. Wait till a drill sergeant eyeballs him.’
With wife Katie holding the Bible, County Judge John Lambert of Cooperstown, top, prepares to be sworn in for a second 10-year term by his colleague, County Judge Brian Burns of Oneonta, right, this afternoon in the Foothills Atrium in Oneonta. At left are the Lamberts’ children, Anna and Charlie. At right, county Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. of Milford is sworn in by Lambert. Next to the sheriff is his father, Richard J. Devlin Sr. Also sworn in were state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, new county Coroners David Delker and Christian Shaefer, and Assemblyman John Salka, R-Brookfield.
135 Years Ago
A letter to an editor: Woman’s True Rights – I will take “Woman’s Rights” for my subject. I am in favor of what I call woman’s rights, but am not in favor of voting. Think that woman’s rights is to take proper care of the household; to see that everything is in readiness for her lord and master and for his enjoyment. But as to woman going to the polls on Election Day and casting their votes with rough, burly men, I am greatly opposed to such. And again, if women were allowed to vote, we would have more quarrels, ten times more fussing over one election than we would otherwise have in ten years. What lady is there that would go in a crowd where the rougher men are drinking, swearing, cheering and quarreling over their candidates? I dare say not one. But such is the case at an election. Maggie.
May 1888
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – When the 9-4 vote affirmed Meg Kennedy as the first woman vice chair of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, Andrew Marietta leaned over and said, “Meg, you know I support you.”
The Conservative for Hartwick, Milford and New Lisbon and the Democrat from Cooperstown and the Town of Otsego both shook hands and smiled.
But for the preceding few minutes Thursday, Jan. 2, at the Otsego County Board of Representatives’ organizational meetings, things were a bit more tense.
David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Middlefield/Cherry Valley, had been unanimously reelected board chairman. Dan Wilber, R-Burlington, then nominated Kennedy – “our Citizen of the Year” – as vice chairman, and freshman Rick Brockway, R-Laurens, second it.
Bliss called the vote, but Michele Farwell, R-Morris, asked tentatively, “Is there discussion?”
What followed was a discussion about the future of bipartisanship, with Farwell noting that two years ago, when the county board was also split 7-7, now-retired Gary Koutnik, D-Oneonta, “was nominated, and he got unanimous support of the board. I thought that was a very positive show of bipartisanship.
“I’m just a little bit concerned we might be taking a step backward, and that would be unfortunate.”
Marietta, who as senior Democrat was the party’s leading prospect to succeed Koutnik, agreed. “Having that bipartisan approach contributed to how we worked well together,” he said. “… I think we lose some of the value of the past two years by not having that structure.”
Two Oneonta Democrats, Andrew Stammel and freshman Clark Oliver, speaking for the first time in an official capacity, concurred.
But another Oneonta Democrat, Adrienne Martini, said, “I also think it is nice to have some diversity in terms of who is the vice chair, and I think Meg brings that in terms of gender.”
In the end, Kennedy’s election was bipartisan.
Voting aye were Republicans Bliss, Wilber, Brockway, Unadilla’s Ed Frazier and East Springfield’s Keith McCarty. And Democrats Farwell, who paused for a moment before voting aye, Stammel and Martini.
Voting nay were Marietta, and the other three Oneonta reps, Oliver, Danny Lapin and newcomer Jill Basile.
Peter Oberacker, R-Schenevus, was absent with the flu.
After the vote, Bliss said, “I agree we’ve done some great work together lately as bipartisans. And I will endeavor to continue.”
He pointed out Kennedy, a Conservative, “is neither Republican or Democrat. And she’s proven her worth, and I know she will endeavor to be as bipartisan as possible.”
Still, Farwell regretted the Democratic loss of the vice chairman post. In an interview, she also noted that Koutnik, an environmentalist, was replaced by Brockway, “a climate-change denier,” on the board’s Solid Waste & Environmental Concerns Committee. And that Oliver was only named to one committee, Human Services.
“I wasn’t expecting a return to partisanship,” Farwell said. “I hear over and over that they want functional government, and not party nonsense like they see in Washington. I feel some trust has been lost.”
In an interview, Bliss said Marietta had expressed interest, “and I would have had no problem with Andrew as vice chair. Andrew was great. Meg was the better candidate.” The climate-denier statement surprised him. He said that Oliver was also named to Performance Review & Goal Setting, a special committee that is about to be elevated to full-committee status.
“Bipartisanship, by my definition, is the best person, the best candidate, the best idea,” the chairman said.
Throughout the debate, speakers were at pains to separate the issue of bipartisanship from Kennedy herself.
“I think Meg – representative Kennedy – will do a great job, and she has my respect and esteem,” said Farwell. Marietta said, “I think Meg will do a tremendous job.” And Stammel, turning to her during his remarks, said, “Meg, I think you will obviously do a great job.”
In the just completed term, Kennedy had chaired the two most time-consuming committees, Intergovernmental Affairs and Administration (ways and means), which won approval for a county administrator form of government and the establishment of the county Energy Task Force.
