COOPERSTOWN – Bassett Hospital’s proposal to build housing for its employees on Averill Road, on property owned by the Templeton Foundation, was the subject of a public hearing before Cooperstown’s Board of Trustees on January 5. That hearing was in conjunction with the board voting on whether a special permit to allow the construction should be granted and, if granted, under what conditions or limitations.
The hearing had attracted interest and was well attended.
At the outset, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh set the ground rules for the hearing. After the Bassett representatives explained the project, each participant was allowed five minutes to comment.
Community Foundation of Otsego County Executive Director Jeff Katz welcomes representatives from more than 50 Otsego County nonprofits. (Photo by Larry Bennett)
On November 9, the Community Foundation of Otsego County, in collaboration with SUNY-Oneonta, brought 50 nonprofit organizations together in one room for its first “Nonprofit Breakfast” networking opportunity. The goal of the breakfast was to engage a diverse group in conversation about the future of Otsego County.
After an introduction from SUNY President Alberto Cardelle that highlighted the significance of our countywide charitable organizations—and an update from Danielle McMullen, chief of staff to the president, on microcredential programs at the college and how they can benefit nonprofits—CFOC Executive Director Jeff Katz explained to the enthusiastic audience what the goals were for the morning session.
In last week’s publication, we incorrectly reported the location of Allen Schery’s former Corvette Americana Museum.
While it did reside along Route 28, the building that once housed the museum is south of the Cooperstown Commons and currently occupied by Bassett Healthcare.
Everyone should be concerned about the new House majority, which can’t even select a Speaker without historic chaos.
The House of Representatives is now controlled by MAGA Republicans. According to “The Washington Post,” over 70 percent of House Republicans are election deniers, and they will use their power to enrich their corporate donors and advance their extreme agenda—including threatening our freedom to vote, criminalizing abortion, and cutting Social Security and Medicaid.
Judging by how the election for the Speaker of the House has gone, we should all be concerned about their ability to govern.
MAGA cronies like Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and Marjorie Taylor Greene have already indicated that their top priority in 2023 will be sham investigations into the Biden administration and other democracy defenders, including those charged with investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
We must call out their lies at every turn and combat their far-right agenda to protect our freedoms and our democracy in 2023.
Most septic systems are designed to remove solids and bacteria, not nitrogen and phosphorus. The harmful algae blooms, or HABs, in Otsego Lake are driven by two key nutrients: nitrogen and phosphorus. Septic systems in the Otsego Lake watershed—including ones that are adjacent to the lake—may be leaking nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil, which may subsequently enter the lake, feeding a toxic bloom. Old-fashioned septic tanks are the culprits in other areas where HABs are becoming chronic.
Most of the housing on Cape Cod is on septic tanks—which can introduce nitrogen into the ponds and creeks, triggering HABs that have closed ponds for swimming and killed wildlife. Let that be a warning to Otsego: You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod. Until you gag on the water.
My wife and I so enjoyed the “Greetings, Friends” poem in your recent edition; no apology to Roger Angell or “The New Yorker” necessary! We look forward to next year’s version.
Every year the growth, and non-growth, of a variety of areas of interest—such as the economy, the population, bird migrations, immigration, wildfires, utilities, stocks, violence, college rankings, China and the like—are subject to intense research and interpretation. Inevitably, the results are published far and wide just after the last drop of the New Year’s ball.
One such fast-developing aspect of our life is our carbon footprint (CO2e), the total greenhouse gas emissions that trap and release heat, causing global warming. GHG is caused, directly and indirectly, by individuals, events, organizations, services, places or products. As these emissions enter the atmosphere they give rise to extreme precipitation, acidification and the warming of the oceans. Think climate change.
A BUNDLE OF JOY: Born at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown on December 13, Alara Yasmine Jean Imtiaz—at 6 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches—was welcomed by parents Ariel and Farhan Imtiaz of South Kortright, siblings Ayaan, Faris, and Aidin, and grandparents Mehmooda Yasmin Imtiaz and Marianna and Michael Costakis of Long Island. (Photo provided)
SOUTH FINGER LAKE SCHOLARS: Two students from Worcester—Maya Powers and Willow Tompkins—were named to the Dean’s List for Academic Achievement for this fall’s term at Elmira College. Qualifying students earned a term grade point average of 3.60 or higher and were registered for 12 credit hours. Elmira College is ranked nationally as a top college for student internships and their Center for Mark Twain Studies is one of four historically significant Twain heritage sites in the U.S.
From my study window I can just make out the withered, bedraggled remains of one of our kale plants. Otherwise, all is snow-mantled and covered up and tucked in for the winter. Down in the barn, where I hung out for a few minutes yesterday staring at the bundled glad bulbs drooping from nails in the rafter, my thoughts turned to, well, the indescribably self-destructive instincts that humanity insists on turning upon itself. Not all that sure what dry glad bulbs and weather-beaten kale have to do with humankind’s worst inflictions upon itself, but there must be some sort of synaptic thing going on because I often find myself ruminating on things existential when in the company of produce.
It reminds me of the time quite a few years ago that I voiced an interest in attending a Buddhist retreat of some sort. My better half nixed that idea by reminding me, as if I did not know it, that I was strange enough already—no need to feed the beast.
Terry Berkson’s grandmother’s drafty, 12 room “country” house in Brooklyn was serviced by a coal burning steam boiler, later converted by his Uncle Harry into an oil fired system.
In 1932, my Uncle Harry graduated from New York’s City College with a degree in aeronautical engineering. For more than a year he tried to get a job in that field but, likely due to the Great Depression, he was unsuccessful. So, he turned to the heating business where thousands of homes and industrial buildings were converting to oil to take the place of coal, which was messy and, in most cases, required a lot of physical labor. Maybe it was for practice or maybe he was just being a good son, but one of his first installations was in my grandmother, Fanny’s, drafty, 12 room “country” house in Brooklyn, where he converted a coal burning steam boiler to an oil fired system.
135 YEARS AGO The Local News: Some sixteen of the ladies of the Universalist Sunday School in Mr. Tompkins’ Bible class met on Tuesday evening and organized a society to be known as the “Murray Club.” Miss May Whipple was elected president, Mrs. Charles Paul, vice-president, Miss Anna Haswell, secretary, and Miss Alta Price, treasurer. A committee on entertainment, consisting of Misses Carrie Campbell, Ethel Doolittle and Grace Green was appointed, and it is proposed through the means of sociable, entertainments, lectures, etc. to raise a fund to help build the new church. The Guy Table Company has been moving their machinery to the new factory at the East End. The building has been constructed under the supervision of S.R. Barnes, and when in running order will be one of the best equipped and most complete table factories in the country. Last year there were upwards of 10,000 tables made by the company, double the number of the year previous. Next year it is estimated that fully 20,000 tables will be made.
ONEONTA – The Christmas “Side Hunt” was a holiday tradition around the turn of the 20th century, in which people would shoot as many birds as possible. In 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman proposed a new holiday tradition, to count birds rather than kill them. Twenty-seven participants counted birds in locations around North America that year.
Thus was born the National Audubon Christmas Bird Count, now the longest running citizen science program in the world, spread across more than 20 countries.
The Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society Oneonta CBC was begun in 1969, with the 54th count taking place on December 17. This year, the count seemed doomed from the beginning, with several team leaders having to bow out for other commitments. Substitutes were found, but then a snowstorm hit, continuing into the early hours of the count date, leaving a couple of teams snowbound until the early afternoon. Three more teams and a FeederWatcher dropped out due to illness or other unexpected events.
Jeff Katz, president of Friends of Doubleday, gives Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh a check for $10,000.00 to aid Doubleday Field renovations. (Photo by Ted Mebust)
By TED MEBUST
COOPERSTOWN – The Friends of Doubleday, a 501c(3) nonprofit fundraising organization based in Cooperstown, has donated $10,000.00 to the Village of Cooperstown to bolster renovation costs of Doubleday Field’s new third-baseline building, which will be named the Bud Fowler Pavilion.
“We’re very thankful for the Friends of Doubleday and excited to be nearing the end of the road on this project,” said Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, who accepted the donation on behalf of the village at a meeting of the Doubleday Committee on January 9.
210 YEARS AGO Charleston – On Monday last, twelve British seamen were taken from on board the prison ship in this harbor and conducted to jail as hostages to abide the fate of those six men taken from the crew of the privateer Sarah Ann, Capt. Moon of Baltimore, (carried into Nassau sometime since) and sent to Jamaica to be tried for their lives as British subjects; although five of them were stated by Acpt. Moon to be American born, and the other one a naturalized citizen. Let this practice be continued and there will soon be an end to taking and hanging American citizens by the British.
ONEONTA – LEAF, the Leatherstocking Education on Alcoholism/Addictions Foundation, has been awarded $378,704.00 toward efforts associated with a new substance use disorder recovery and workforce development initiative. The funds, from the Appalachian Regional Commission, will support the North4 INSPIRE program, providing those in recovery with education, workforce training and wraparound services.
The INSPIRE Initiative Implementation grant from ARC will improve individuals’ chances for successful employment and sustained recovery. In addition, the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors has allocated American Recovery Plan Act funds for $75,000.00 over three years to support the project. LEAF, based in Otsego County, will be joined by partners in Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties.
