Greetings, Friends! The time is nigh
To bid this Covid Year good-bye.
We’ve had enough, we’ve played our parts
Stayed home alone filling Amazon carts.
And cleaning our closets and working online
Making do with our WiFi that’s not always fine.
We’ve said goodbye to some friends, to some relatives too
Our families we’ve not seen, travel’s been so taboo.
Goodbye ’21, au revoir, off you go
Adios and kwaheri, arrivederci, adjo.
Go away ’21! But wait! Not before
TFJ has its way with some thank-yous galore.
Joshua Beams, a 2005 SUNY Oneonta graduate, was appointed as Otsego County administrator, effective Oct. 4, at a special meeting of the county’s Board of Representatives Tuesday, Sept. 7.
The position was originally approved in December 2019, but the hiring was delayed a year because of a 2020 hiring freeze at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
The position was discussed in county government circles for decades, as Otsego County is governed by a group of 14 legislators and has no executive branch of government. The county’s Inter-governmental Affairs Committee studied governmental forms and executive roles for a year before approving the change in 2019.
As with a lot of things in America, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Induction Weekend changed 20 years ago, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Before, at Induction, you were thinking, ‘what if someone has a heart attack out here in the field?’ Suddenly, you had to think about a lot more things that could go wrong,” said Otsego County Board of Representatives Chair Dave Bliss.
Flood waters overtook the Meadow Brook Bridge on county Route 4 in the town of Gilbertsville on Saturday, July 17, causing extensive damage in the southwest part of Otsego County. (Contributed).
By KEVIN LIMITI and GREG KLEIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials were on the scene in southwestern Otsego County on Sunday, July 18, to assess flooding Saturday, July 17, in the villages of Morris and Gilbertsville and the towns of Morris and Butternuts.
According to Rep. Michelle Farwell, D-Butternuts, Morris, Pittsfield, the cost of the damage is expected to be in the millions, particularly with the damage to one of the bridges on state Route 51.
Heavy rains Saturday night caused the Butternut Creek and several of its tributaries to flood, first around Gilbertsville, and later in Morris south of the Otsego County Fairgrounds. An eyewitness account said the floodwaters in Gilbertsville at about 8:30 p.m., Saturday, were “like a waterfall coming down the hill.”
The floods stuck Morris a few minutes later, after a wash of flood debris clogged the culverts around the fairground, which were put in after the massive 2006 floods. The debris rendered the improvements useless and many of the same areas that flooded in 2006 got reflooded.
COOPERSTOWN – As expected, the county Board of Representatives this morning unanimously passed its review of policies and procedures in the county Sheriff’s Department, per Governor Cuomo’s June 11, 2020, order following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
The deadline for submitting completed plans to Albany is April 1, and the county will meet that.
The vote was 12-0, with county Reps. Danny Lapin, D-Oneonta, and Dan Wilber, R-Burlington, absent from the Zoom meeting.
COOPERSTOWN – Democrat Charles Varney, who lives in Cherry Valley and operates the Cooperstown Underground Barbershop on Main Street, plans to challenge county board Chairman David Bliss in the Nov. 2 elections, he announced today.
Bliss, a Republican, represents District 7, which includes the Village of Cooperstown east of the Susquehanna River, plus the towns of Middlefield, Roseboom and Cherry Valley.
“My announcement was the long and short of it,” he said. “The county’s response to COVID has been lackluster at best, terrible at worst.” He said county finances are being mismanaged and service “chipped away.”
COOPERSTOWN – Reach out and be inspected, so you can reopen, county Board Chair David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield today advised operators of gyms and fitness centers.
“Normally we don’t issue permits to these establishments, so the Health Department may not be aware of every facility looking to reopen,” said Bliss. “We need them to contact us so we can work with them and get them open as soon as possible and make sure they are in compliance and help any way that we can.”
The businesses should e-mail business name, specific business type, location and owner’s name (and contact person) to the county Health Department at bondh@otsegocounty.com (and meet other requirements detailed below.)
