First Assistant Fire Chief Chris Doucas bows his head on expressing fear firefighters could be endangered if a fire were to break out in a proposed four-story Hampton Inn & Suites. (Patrick Wager/AllOTSEGO.com)
By PAT WAGER • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
HARTWICK – Emotional firefighters shared their worries about a proposed Hampton Inn & Suites’ four-story building with the Hartwick Town Planning Board this evening
Planning Board co-chairmen Alex Thomas, left, and Greg Horth, and Board member Meg Kennedy reflect on the firefighters’ inputs.
“I’m one of the ones who will be entering the building if something happens,” declared Chris Doucas, Hartwick Company #2 first assistant fire chief. “ I think that what I have to say should count since I may die. We have to worry about our families.”
For at least two months now, Hartwick firefighters have been voicing their concerns about the building’s height, and also about having to rely on a ladder truck from either the Cooperstown or Oneonta fire departments if the hotel is built that high and a fire were to break out there.
Pat Wager/The Freeman’s Journal- Hampton Inn engineer Rudy Zona shows plans at Hartwick Planning Board public hearing Tuesday, Jan. 8.
Firefighters and competitors raised objections Tuesday, Jan 8, at a public hearing on a Hampton Inn & Suites planned in Hartwick Seminary.
Hartwick Fire Company #2 pointed out it lacks a ladder truck necessary if the four-story building were to catch on fire.
In regards to the proposed 101 room hotel in Hartwick, I’d like to thank Bob Holt, career hospitality professional, for his willingness to “tell it like it is” regarding the true state of the hospitality business here in the Cooperstown area. While we at the Landmark Hotel in Cooperstown always welcome new competition,
I’d like to introduce the following numbers into the public discussion, hoping it broadens perspective.
1) 36,865 – 101 additional rooms sounds innocuous enough, but
The public hearing on the four-story, 100+-room Hampton Inn next the Dollar General in Hartwick Seminary will be convened at 7 p.m. this evening at Hartwick Town Hall by the town Planning Board.
Hartwick town Planning Board co-chairs Greg Horth, right, and Alex Jones, discuss the evening’s agenda as Tuesday’s meeting was about to begin. At left is Jenna Utter, the board’s clerk. (Patrick Wager/AllOTSEGO.com)
By PATRICK WAGER • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Parent company Hilton released this latest prototype for new Hampton Inn & Suites in May.
HARTWICK – Fire protection, entrances onto Route 28 and septic issues were up for discussion when plans for a Hampton Inn & Suites in Hartwick Seminary came before the town Planning Board Tuesday.
A public hearing has been set on the project for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 8, the planning board’s next meeting.
Skyline Hospitality, which is affiliated with Erfan Khan’s Rainbow Group, owner of the Holiday Inn Express here and hotels in Oneonta, is planning a four-story hotel on Route 28, in the trailer park just south of Dollar General.
Big names in the region’s media and people who deal with them discussed “The Role of the Media in Influencing Economic Growth” Wednesday afternoon at a panel discussion sponsored by GO-EDC, Albert Colone and Bill Shue’s economic-development promotion group, at Oneonta’s Hampton Inn. Front to back are County IDA COO Elizabeth Horvath; Ken Eysaman, editor of the NNY Business Magazine, Watertown; Daily Star publisher Mitchell Lynch (partially hidden); Dick Snyder, publisher of the Evening Sun, Norwich, and the Pennysavers; Jeff Smetana, developer of Hillside Commons, Jim Kevlin, editor/publisher of Hometown Oneonta, The Freeman’s Journal and allotsego.com; Colone, and Dennis Finn, chairman of the city Airport Commission. Retired SUNY Oneonta communications professor Neil Cunningham moderated. (Point of information: As a lad, Eysaman lived in Franklin while his father was superintendent there. Bill Shue planned to treat Eysaman and his mother, Gretchen, who hadn’t experienced it for 40 years, to Brooks BBQ that evening.) (Ian Austin/allotsego.com)
“the Role of the Media in
Influencing Economic Growth,”
