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Bill Bellen - Page 2

Fenimore Farm Stone Barn Featured in New Book

Written by Dr. Robert Kroeger, this text is the first of a two-volume series exploring the expansive history behind notable stone barns across the United States. Featuring barns and historical accounts from more than 20 states, “Stone Barns of America” is a passion project of epic proportions.…
October 2, 2025

GYLA Installs Memorial for Former President Shultis

Before sitting down for casual banter, GYLA Board Member and recently-designated historian Lori Michaels and Joyce Shultis, former longtime treasurer and secretary for the association, took the short drive down the street to one of GYLA’s designated lake access sites—affectionately dubbed “Journey’s End”—where they visited a recently-installed bench along the waterfront. Placed on September 15 at roughly 10 a.m., the bench was dedicated in loving memory to Bruce Shultis.…
September 25, 2025

OCCA Continues Efforts to Remove Invasive Water Chestnuts

Throughout the past few months, the Otsego County Conservation Association has been taking action against invasive plant species threatening the county’s waterways. In particular, the organization has performed five removal operations in Goodyear Lake alone across this summer. The threat at hand: the invasive water chestnut.…
September 18, 2025

County Board Approves Sales Tax Extension

Otsego County currently maintains a sales and use rate tax of 8 percent—4 percent being state tax and the other 4 percent being local. The additional 1 percent in this resolution is not being added onto existing taxes, but rather is an extension of those already in effect.…
September 4, 2025

Our Otsego: Central Scenery and Southwestern Wonders

With the heights of eastern Otsego County behind us, Maria Griswold and I set our sights westward toward the many state forests of the central and southwestern regions of the county. This is part three of “Our Otsego,” a four-part series covering every nook and cranny of state and Department of Environmental Conservation-regulated wilderness in Otsego County.…
September 4, 2025

New Marker Commemorates Anti-Slavery Heritage

“This marker helps bring to light Oneonta’s role as a central location in New York of anti-slavery activism and a site on the Freedom Trail in the 19th century,” Micucci wrote via e-mail. “As a historian, it makes me incredibly proud to be able to commemorate and celebrate Oneonta’s significance and the many abolitionists, like E.R. Ford, who challenged and advocated for an end to slavery and helped those escaped enslaved people in need.”…
August 28, 2025

Editorial: It’s 2025. Do You Know Where Your GEIS Is?

Twenty-three years ago, “The Freeman’s Journal” was reporting on the Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or GEIS, on the capacities of the Cooperstown region. Developed by Community Planning and Environmental Associates of Berne, under the leadership of Nan Stolzenburg and in collaboration with other environmental science agencies, the 243-page draft of the GEIS was released for public comment in May of 2002.…
August 21, 2025

Correction

In last week’s article by Bill Bellen, “Subdivision Presentations Draw Large Crowds, Raise Concerns,” comments incorrectly attributed to Town of Springfield Clerk Jeannette Armstrong regarding the proposed Manocherian subdivision were actually made by Springfield Town Planning Board Member Gretchen Sorin. We apologize for the error and have corrected the article online.…
August 21, 2025

PUTTING THE COMMUNITY BACK INTO THE NEWSPAPER

For a limited time, new annual subscriptions to the hard copy of “The Freeman’s Journal” or “Hometown Oneonta” (which also includes unlimited access to AllOtsego.com), or digital-only access to AllOtsego.com, can also give back to one of their favorite Otsego County charitable organizations.

$5.00 of your subscription will be donated to the nonprofit of your choice: Friends of the Feral-TNR, Super Heroes Humane Society, or Susquehanna Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 

Visit our “subscribe” page and select your charity of choice at checkout