Capt. Zachary German, a member of the 105th Airlift Wing, is the Company Grade Officer of the year for the New York Air National Guard for 2023.
NEWBURGH An Oneonta resident, Capt. Zachary German, is one of two members of the 105th Airlift Wing to be named Airmen of the Year by the 5,880-member New York National Air Guard. German was named the Company Grade Officer of the Year for 2023, while Senior Master Sgt. Renea Turner, of Middletown, was selected as First Sergeant of the Year for 2023.
The 105th Airlift Wing is based at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh.
German, who joined the New York Air National Guard in 2017, is the medical plans and operations officer for the wing’s 105th Medical Group Detachment 1. He is responsible for daily operations and readiness of the medical detachment and coordination for all training, exercises, and operations.
The first-ever solo photography exhibition by Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson, featuring images captured during his trek across Africa, begins on April 1 at Fenimore Art Museum. (Photo by Randy Johnson)
COOPERSTOWN Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson will share his 40-year passion for photography in his first-ever solo exhibition at Fenimore Art Museum beginning April 1, 2023. “Randy Johnson: Storytelling with Photographs” features an array of images captured by Johnson during his treks across Africa. The work includes intimate shots of the people he engaged with and the abundance of wildlife he encountered. Johnson’s accompanying written account partners with the vibrant imagery, weaving together a visually appealing grand tour of the continent.
“I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel the world and capture rare moments,” said Johnson. “All of my photos tell a story, but none of these are more meaningful than the ones I was able to collect during my time in Africa.
The images reflect my experiences with the people and wildlife there.”
‘Summer’ Concert Set for February 19 ONEONTA—The Oneonta Community Concert Band will perform its “Good Ol’ Summertime in Winter” concert at the Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center on Sunday, February 19 at 3 p.m. The performance is free and open to the public. Conductor Kerri L. Hogle said the subtheme of this concert—supported by a generous grant from the Dewar Foundation—is “Oh, the Places You Can Go!” and alludes to the similarly titled book by Dr. Seuss. “This year’s concert will feature music that references different places one might travel to during the summer,” said Hogle, who teaches band to junior and senior high school students at Cooperstown Central School. Pieces on the program include “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Sammy Nestico’s arrangement of “Loch Lomond” and Ernesto Lecuona’s “Malagueña.” Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center is located 24 Market Street in Oneonta. For more information, visit the Oneonta Community Concert Band on Facebook or call (607) 376-7485.
By TED MEBUST COOPERSTOWN The Community Foundation of Otsego County announced its largest, most recent and final donation of the organization’s 2022 award cycle, giving $25,000.00 to help Catholic Charities of Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie Counties support the Oneonta Warming Station. This is the second award the Oneonta Warming Station has received from CFOC, the first to the tune of $10,000.00 at the end of the 2021 award cycle.
“Homelessness, as a rising problem, is all around us…clearly there’s an ongoing need and we wanted to help them [Catholic Charities] out again,” said Jeff Katz, CFOC president.
Approximately 80 people took part in the February 9 Community Cat Forum in the Foothills Atrium, including Edie Offhaus and Jill Masset—co-founders of Feral Cat Focus Inc.—who participated via Zoom. The forum was spearheaded by the SQSPCA. (Photo by Allison Hungerford)
By DARLA M. YOUNGS ONEONTA Approximately 80 people attended the Community Cat Forum on Thursday, February 9 at the Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center. They gathered to discuss the increasing numbers of unowned cats in Otsego County and share strategies which might curtail that growth.
“Community cats” is a term used by the American SPCA to describe outdoor, unowned, free-roaming cats. They can be friendly, feral, adults, kittens, healthy, sick, altered and/or unaltered, and may or may not have a caretaker. A caretaker is a person who monitors and provides care to a community cat, but who is not the legal owner. The only outdoor free-roaming cats who are not community cats are those who have an owner, by the ASPCA’s definition.
The majority of dogs in our nation’s animal shelters come from “puppy mill” situations. Whether it is a large-scale operation with many dogs bred, or a local “back yard” situation mating a couple of dogs. Add to this the unneutered dogs allowed to roam freely. People buying/acquiring these dogs often do not keep them long. The person has no time, can’t afford the expenses, their lifestyle changes, or they can’t be bothered to train or spend time with the dog(s).
These unwanted dogs end up at the animal shelter, or worse, are left tied in the yard or left totally abandoned. The shelters become overcrowded, forcing some of them to euthanize the animals. Their budgets and staff are very limited.
I would like to urge people to contact Governor Hochul’s office (518-474-8390) in support of the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition and Nourish New York programs. At the food pantry here in Cooperstown last year, we saw a 25 percent increase in demand and distributed over 85,000 meals to more than 5,600 people. With the expiration of SNAP Emergency Allotments next month, there will be an average loss of $87 per month per person, at a time when food costs are markedly increased. These programs are important to a lot of our neighbors! Let’s support them.
By TERESA WINCHESTER GILBERTSVILLE Eleven original pieces by the late collage artist Jane Evelynne Higgins-Main are up for bid in an online auction mounted through Lambrecht Auction Inc. to benefit Gilbertsville’s Village Improvement Society.
Higgins-Main graduated from Sidney High School in 1976. She went on to study fine arts at SUNY Oneonta and the University of Siena, Italy, graduating with a BA in 1980. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Southern California to pursue a career in graphics and typesetting. Higgins-Main relocated to Gilbertsville in 1995, where she opened the Hilton Bloom Art Studio in a carriage barn behind her house, at the corner of Hilton and Bloom streets. From the gallery’s 1998 opening through 2010, Higgins-Main mounted summer exhibits featuring local artists and held opening receptions at the gallery.
One of the hottest advances in technology is the development of an artificial intelligence product called ChatGPT. Its basic program is available free on the Internet. It is causing an uproar in academia because students are using it to write their homework assignments. This is already a game changer for teachers in figuring out how to evaluate student’s performances.
ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art language model developed by OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence research lab. The model is built using the transformer architecture, a neural network designed to process sequential data such as text.
First, a heartfelt thanks to our many readers who have reached out to us with praise and appreciation for the steps we have been taking to make our print and digital publications a more informative and engaging community resource.
Now we are asking for your help in the next phase of our improvement efforts; please respond to a new survey designed to help us get a better sense of how our readers interact with our newspapers and website. Our intent is to discover what our readers most enjoy and what we could be doing better. In hopes that as many voices as possible will be heard, the survey has also been designed for non-readers—and sporadic readers—to complete as well. The more information we gather, the better able we will be to continue our efforts to make our papers—and their online counterpart, currently in the throes of re-design—vital and integral resources for our communities.
Otesaga Golf Season Extended To March 31 COOPERSTOWN Those who think that golf is just a summer hobby should hang on to their clubs and get ready to sharpen their skills this winter. The Otesaga Resort Hotel is introducing a state-of-the-art TrackMan indoor golf simulator at its Leatherstocking Golf Course Clubhouse, allowing participants to “play” the resort’s famed course in a whole new way now through March 31. Golfers can choose from more than 200 golf courses to play virtually, including such legends as Leatherstocking and Pebble Beach. Designed in 1909 by golf course architect Devereux Emmet, the 18-hole Leatherstocking Golf Course offers scenic views of Otsego Lake. The simulator offers the same sloping fairways and serious water hazards of the par-72 course, along with raised “blind” greens for a challenging virtual course. Interested participants can pick their virtual “tee time” online, 14 days in advance, and can choose times between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. from Wednesdays through Sundays. There is a 48-hour cancellation policy and booking prices start at $40.00 per person. Golf instruction and swing analysis are also available for an additional fee. For more information about the TrackMan indoor golf simulator and the resort’s Winter Golf Package, please visit www.Otesaga.com.
MARYLAND—Nelson, curious little companion of Arlene Nygren and Judith Sobers, peeks out from behind a vase of tulips. Nelson is the first four-legged, furry and/or feathered subject to be featured in our new weekly photo series highlighting animals and the important role they play in our lives. We invite you to send your pictures to darlay@allotsego.com. Every week, we’ll select at least one photograph to be highlighted in the newspapers and online.
