Colleen Blacklock urged Common Council to consider including renewable energy sources in any business development plans in D&H yard during public comment at tonight’s meeting. (Jennifer Hill/AllOTSEGO.com)
By JENNIFER HILL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – Though the formal public hearing on the Railyards Generic Environmental Statement isn’t until Tuesday, March 5, citizens told Common Council tonight that it doesn’t focus enough on used of renewables.
“I would like to see us explore this idea of an ‘eco park,’ a net-zero eco park with wind and solar and geothermal energies,” said Colleen Blacklock, who is associated with the Concerned Citizens of Oneonta.
Delaware Engineering hosted an open house and cut the ribbon on their new offices at 55 South Main St. in Oneonta this afternoon. “We looked at a lot of places,” said John Brust, principal. “But it was important that we stay in the City of Oneonta.” From left, Dave Ohman, president, Brust, state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, Mary Beth Bianconi, partner, Mayor Gary Herzig, Brock Juusola, partner, Barbara Ann Heegan, president, Otsego County Chamber of Commerce and Karen Laing, member services for the Chamber. (Libby Cudmore/AllOTSEGO.com)
LECTURE – 7:30 p.m. Join Mick Moloney for 2018 Buckley Lecture. Learn about Percussive Dance Traditions in North America ranging from Appalachian, African American flat foot, clogging to Irish sean nos, step dance. Donations welcome. 607-547-2586.
HISTORY SERIES – 7 p.m. “Scots-Irish Immigration and Defense of the Colonial New York Frontier including the Cherry Valley Massacre, 1740 to 1778” by Terry McMaster, independent historian whose research focuses on American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley, settlement patterns, family connections, border warfare along New York’s western frontier. Suggested donation, $5. Fort Plain Museum, 389 Canal St., Fort Plain. 518-993-2527 or visit www.fortplainmuseum.com/viewevent.aspx?ID=1032
Entrepreneurs and downtown Oneonta building owners are being briefed today on how to apply for $2.3 million in state money available for facade improvements, signage and renovation of upper floors for market-rate house as part of the city’s state-funded Downtown Revitalizatoin Initiative (DRI). The last of three briefings being conducted by Delaware Engineering’s Elizabeth Horvath is at 6 p.m. in the black box theater at Foothills Performing Arts Center. Public welcome. Applications for signs are due by July 31, with all other applications are due by Aug. 31. A project selection committee will decide on projects this fall. (Parker Fish/AllOTSEGO.com)
Crews from G. DeVincentis & Son, the Binghamton contractor, today began stripping the blacktop off Cooperstown’s Pioneer Street between Lake and Church streets, the start of a $1.2 million reconstruction – water lines, sewerage and the street bed itself. The 90-day job will be paid completely with revenues generated by summertime on-street paid parking, a disputed innovation but a lucrative one. The project is being overseen by Delaware Engineering. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Village Trustee Cindy Falk and Travis Smigel, Delaware Engineering designer, go over the $1.2 million project to rebuild Pioneer Street, and replace water and sewer lines in the process. (Libby Cudmore/AllOTSEGO.com)
By LIBBY CUDMORE • www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – After five years of saving paid parking revenue, the Village of Cooperstown is ready to start the $1.2 million Pioneer Street Reconstruction Project and pay for it with money set aside.
“Some of these pipes date back to the 1890s,” Trustee Cindy Falk, who chairs the Village Board’s Streets Committee, told a public meeting tonight at the fire hall. “In 2014, during the Winter Carnival, we had a water main break while it was snowing. There were crews plowing and crews trying to fix it. They’re over 100 years old. We’re living on borrowed time.”
A porchful or wellwishers gathered this afternoon at 22 Main St., Cooperstown, at a farewell reception for Public Works Superintendent Brian Clancy, who is leaving the Village of Cooperstown Friday, April 29, after 31 years of service. Mayor Jeff Katz, left, presented Clancy with a plaque honoring his dedication, as family, friends and colleagues gathered around to wish him well. Behind them are, from left, Clancy’s son Stephen, his nephew Keenan Murphy, and Heather Place. Clancy plans to join Delaware Engineering in May as an inspector. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)