Paul Nevin, director for the Zimmerman Center for Heritage, works on the Chief Uncas on Tuesday, Oct. 12, to prepare her to move from Otsego Lake to Lake Clarke in Pennsylvania. (Kevin Limiti/AllOtsego.com)
Cooperstown’s most famous boat, Chief Uncas, is moving to a new home.
The 55-foot-long boat, which is 109 years old and has been ridden by President Herbert Hoover, among other dignitaries, is set to be moved to Lake Clarke, Pennsylvania, so it can give boat tours on the Susquehanna River by the Susquehanna National Heritage Area.
Mark Platts, president of the Susquehanna National Heritage Area, said he has gotten “very intimate” with the boat, which has become a staple for Otsego Lake.
“We’ve come to appreciate how much people in Cooperstown really care about this boat,” Platts said, who mentioned he traveled up to Cooperstown seven times. “I think people’s reaction to this boat is just visceral, emotional.”
Years ago, when I began covering high school sports here, I coined a truism about New York State Public High School Athletic Association seasons.
If you are playing in the spring season, you need to be playing in June to have a successful season.
If you are playing in the winter season, you need to be playing in March to have a successful season.
If you are playing in the fall season, you need to be playing in November to have a successful season.
I mention this because I have been trailing around the Cooperstown’s boys soccer team this fall. My son is a reserve on the team and I had a small hand in training these boys — specifically for this season — and perhaps a larger hand as their cheerleader.
A legendary member of the Otsego Lake community has bid us farewell this week. Ownership of the Chief Uncas, the 55-foot electric launch that has continuously plied these ancient waters for just fewer than 110 years, has been transferred to the Susquehanna National Heritage Area, in Wrightsville, PA, a not-for-profit organization focused on the cultural and natural resources of the Susquehanna River and the communities along its shores.
The Chief Uncas arrived on the lake June 15, 1912, delivered to Adolphus Busch, founder of the Anheuser Busch Company, who had just eight years earlier purchased Uncas Lodge, the large house and farm at Three-Mile Point. And so began the storied history of a remarkable craft and the loving family that cared for her.
A ribbon cutting will take place at 10 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 16, at Cooperstown’s Badger Park to open a new pavilion.
The purchase of the pavilion is a result of a partnership between Cooperstown Friends of the Parks and the Cooperstown Lions Club in conjunction with the village.
Susie Knight, the acting chairperson of Friends of the Parks, said her group first had the idea for the pavilion.
The Film COOP Women in Film 2021 location tour group prepares to board a Leatherstocking Trolley on Friday, Oct. 1, in Cooperstown. The filmmakers are, from left, Cheyenne Phillips, Sierra Sangetti-Daniels, Alysa Blasetti, Elizabeth Zephyrine McDonough, Lauren Sowa and Skye Bailey. (Greg Klein/AllOtsego.com).
COOPERSTOWN — From Sept. 30, to Oct. 3, Film COOP hosted a group of female filmmakers for a location tour and networking event.
“It was an amazing, transformative weekend,” said Film COOP Board President Greg Klein. “We started on Thursday as a group of strangers but by Sunday it was like a family of artists who had bonded in unpredictable and amazing ways.”
Film COOP is the pioneer film commission in the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District and the official film office for Otsego County, the village of Cooperstown and the town and city of Oneonta. Klein said the tour was underwritten by Film COOP, its donors, including the C.J. Heilig Foundation, and a tourism micro-grant from Otsego County.
From left, Elizabeth Zephyrine McDonough, Lauren Sowa, Cheyenne Phillips, Ellie Pink and Skye Bailey ride the Leatherstocking Trolley on Saturday, Oct. 2, to see film locations as part of Film COOP’s first women in film event and location tour. (Greg Klein/AllOtsego.com).
Last weekend my film commission office, Film COOP, hosted a bunch of female filmmakers for a destination weekend location tour and networking event.
As with our too long and klutzy legal name, the Cooperstown, Oneonta, Otsego County Film Partnership, Inc., the name Film COOP presents the Women in Film Peak Leaf Weekend Location Tour and Networking Event soon fell by the wayside. The shorthand Women in Film Weekend, or even shorterhand WIF, became the usual references.
We had five official customers who signed up for the four-day event, plus three industry-connected board members who went on parts of the tour, a Delaware County union location scout who did one day of touring with us and our college intern, Ellie Pink, who is studying film at Boston University.
The Rotary Club of Cooperstown is hosting the Fall Fling fundraiser at the Clark Sports Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday Oct. 9.
Fall Fling is replacing Spring Fling. which the club has hosted annually in May since 2017, event chairperson Sydney Sheehan said. It was canceled in 2020 and postponed this year.
“We decided to hold this event in the fall because we felt that a fun and festive fall event might be just the thing to bring everyone together,” Sheehan said. “Cooperstown has so much to offer in the autumn and year-round and it’s a great time to celebrate our community.”
Lack of childcare in Cooperstown Central School District is causing a crisis for many families of young children.
The Clark Sports Center had previously served the role but now is closed for children under 12 because of COVID pandemic restrictions.
Mary Jane Sansevere, a Cooperstown resident with a husband and two children, said her family was forced to move her children out of the school district because of a lack of childcare. She also resigned her position in Cooperstown and took a job at Schenevus Central School as a pre-k teacher.
“Childcare in this town is sort of at a crisis level,” Sansevere said in a conversation with AllOtsego.com.
An unidentified protester demonstrates against vaccination mandates at Bassett Healthcare Network in Cooperstown on Tuesday, Sept. 21. (Kevin Limiti/AllOtsego.com)
Anti-mask and anti-vaccine protesters staged two rallies in Otsego County in the past week, bringing their message to Bassett Healthcare and others.
Hundreds of protesters, along with Assemblyman John Salka, R-Brookfield, marched to A.O. Fox Hospital and through Main Street in Oneonta on Friday, Sept. 17.
Protesters also marched Tuesday, Sept. 21, in Cooperstown, from the Otsego County Courthouse to Bassett Medical Center.
A former Cooperstown resident is pursuing his dream of making it on the professional bass fishing tour and having success doing it.
Kyle Patrick, who grew up in Cooperstown, and whose family still lives here, has spent his year since college graduation making advances into the pro tour.
“It has been a neat thing,” said Patrick, who lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, but was home last week visiting. “It is just something I love.
COOPERSTOWN – Sandra Lou Stockdale (Sandy) passed away peacefully after a brief illness on Thursday, August 26th, 2021. She was surrounded by her loving family who made certain she was comfortable.
Sandy is survived by her loving husband of 30 years and one day, William Stockdale. She is survived by her children and their spouses: Greg and LisaMarie Morrison, Glenn and Michele Morrison, and Glenda and Matt Vatovec. She is also survived by her loving granddaughters, Emily and Abigail Vatovec and her grandsons Kane Morrison and Brett Morrison. She was predeceased by her daughter, Gretchen Miller, and her first husband, Walter Glen Morrison.
Sandy was a hard-working woman who had her fair share of obstacles to overcome in life. After losing her first husband, Walter Morrison, she became the sole caregiver to her four children. With very little means and not having had a job to date, Sandra picked herself up and took charge of getting things in order. She got her first car, worked hard to find several jobs to make ends meet, and still managed to care for her four young children. There were many tough times. One of Sandra’s favorite stories to tell is finding her family low on funds, and needing to feed her family, she was able to find 5 dollars with the help of her eldest son, Greg, and she purchased hot dogs and macaroni and cheese with which she built a meal for her children. That was just the kind of person she was, she could make a full meal out of very little.
Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, center, speaks with the Board of Trustees before the meeting Monday, July 26. From left are, Richard Sternberg, Deputy Mayor Cindy Falk, Tillapaugh, Hanna Bergene, Joe Membrino and MacGuire Benton. (Greg Klein/AllOTSEGO.com)
COOPERSTOWN — The village Board of Trustees tabled a proposed law to charge license and site fees for village property and the use of village icons in commercial endeavors.
There were two public hearings on the docket Monday, July 26, but four of the five members of the public at the meeting at 22 Chestnut Street spoke against charging local artists who paint, photograph or otherwise use local Cooperstown icons, such as Doubleday Field or the Sandlot Kid statue, in their work. The speakers included two store owners who sell artwork, an artist and Cooperstown Art Association President Cheryl Wright.
Cooperstown’s Village Board of Trustees has a majority of female members for the first time as seen in this picture from Monday, July 12. From left, are trustees Jeanne Dewey, Cindy Falk, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh and Hanna Bergene. (Greg Klein/AllOTSEGO.com)
COOPERSTOWN — When Hanna Bergene decided to run for a village trustee position and Jim Dean
announced he would step down to make way for her, it inadvertently led to a local first: a female majority board of trustees.
Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, who was first elected in 2018, and is the second female mayor of the village, Deputy Mayor Cindy Falk and trustees Bergene and Jeanne Dewey hold four of the seven votes on the local board, although with all seven members being part of the Democratic Party, there are not many political or ideological differences being debated in the village.
Instead, the four women are a majority part of Cooperstown’s expansive investments and infrastructure projects, working to shape the village for the 21st century and helping it get past the economic damage brought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Artist’s rendering for the Chestnut Crossing property proposed for 10 Chestnut Street, shows the alleys, parking area and adjacent property on Pine Boulevard that will act as a buffer between the 13-unit rental property and its neighbors. (Greg Klein/Allotsego)
COOPERSTOWN — About 50 village residents gathered Monday, June 15, at a residential space at 20 Lake Street to hear a detailed presentation and ask questions about a debated proposal to build a 13-unit rental apartment on several pieces of property on Chestnut Street.
Josh Edmonds, a Cooperstown native who is the owner of Simple Integrity Construction, and Francesca Zambello, the artistic and managing director of The Glimmerglass Festival, detailed their private partnership and its plans to develop the three pieces of property they own—two on Chestnut and one on Pine Boulevard, behind it—into one housing project.
COOPERSTOWN – James F. “Jim” Tongue, a true man about town and well-respected Cooperstown businessman who for many years owned and operated The Cupboard on Main Street, passed away following a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease Tuesday night, June 15, 2021, at his home on Walnut Street with his beloved wife and best friend, Barb, his daughters, step daughter and sister-in-law at his side. He was 80.
