On Saturday, September 17 from noon to past midnight, Community Arts Network of Oneonta (CANO) will bring back the popular City of the Hills Art Festival.
“This is the largest committee we have ever had. Due to the pandemic, there hasn’t been a festival in 3 years, so we decided to extend the festivities, said Hope Von Stengel, Executive Director, CANO.
There will be a mural unveiling, yoga, activities for adults and children, drum circle, downtown art walk, craft beer garden, live music and performances, vintage/art/maker vendors and more.
PUMPKIN GLOW – 6 – 7:30 p.m. Take a stroll through the park, lit by Jack-O-Lanterns on the Friday before Halloween. Admire the creativity of your neighbors and vote on your favorite. Carved pumpkins must be dropped off before 5 p.m. The theme this year is ‘your favorite spooky story.’ Participants receive prizes for the People’s Choice Award and the best pumpkin that fits this the theme, and a chance to win a $50 gift card. You can also request a free pumpkin to carve and display in the park. Huntington Park, Oneonta. 607-432-1980 or visit www.facebook.com/hmloneonta/
SYMPHONY – 7 p.m. The Catskill Symphony Orchestra returns after a nearly 2 year hiatus. The first concert will be titled ‘Archissimo’ and will feature evergreens of the string orchestra reqertoire from MOZART Serenata Notturna, to BARTÓK Romanian Folk Dances. Health guidelines will be followed. Cost is $32/adult. Foothills Performing Art Center, Oneonta. Visit catskillsymphonyorchestra.org
BENEFIT DINNER – 5 – 8 p.m. Enjoy delicious pasta dinner featuring homemade bolongnese, alfredo and other sauces to help a local women battling against breast cancer. Cost, $10/plate. Anything extra will help toward costs not covered by insurance. The Black Barn, 3522 Co. Hwy. 11, Cooperstown.
OTSEGO COUNTY FAIR – 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Come out for the 6 best days of summer featuring livestock shows, rides, games, food, fair truck and semi pull, Karaoke finale, 4-H Dog Demo, Livestock parade of champions, Open gymkhana, much more. Otsego County Fairgrounds, 469 Mill St., Morris. 607-263-5289 or visit www.otsegocountyfair.org
The Huntington Library and Park is celebrating its centennial anniversary at 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Aug.7, with cupcakes, drinks and a presentation from the city historian.
The first 100 guests will receive a plant. Guests will be able to discuss the proposed renovation of the park.
Call 607-432-1980 for more information.
DRIVE WITH PRIDE – 2 p.m. Decorate your car for pride month and participate in parade down Main Street with the Otsego Pride Alliance. Line-up is at 1:30 in Neahwa Park. Also includes socially distanced and safe LGBT+ remembrance ceremony. Neahwa Park & Main Street, Oneonta. 607-386 1508 or visit www.facebook.com/otsegopride/
Oneonta will be closing Main Street from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, May 15, in celebration of SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College graduates.
The street will be closed between Elm Street and Chestnut Street for the purpose of outdoor shopping and dining.
Council to revisit mask ordinance
The Oneonta legislative council discussed the city’s mask ordinance Monday, May 10, and the matter is expected to be brought up at the next Common Council meeting at 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 18. Questions with the ordinance included whether to have different criteria depending on whether an individual was vaccinated.
Garden Club to hold sale
The Oneonta Federated Garden Club will be holding their Spring plant sale 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday May, 29 at Huntington Park.
TRUNK OR TREAT – 4 p.m. Decorate your cars and bring the kids for fun activities from building a spider, pumpkin carving, make a ghost, and of course collecting candy. All stations are sanitized, 6 feet apart. The Railroad Inn, 28 Railroad Ave., Cooperstown.
Tina Winstead, executive director, Huntington Memorial Library, unrolls plans from the original Huntington Farm, which landscapers from Stimson used to create the new plan. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
ONEONTA – When she saw the new plans for Huntington Park, it was like falling in love.
“I’m so head-over-heels for the fruit orchard,” said Tina Winstead, Huntington Memorial Library executive director. “That’s what Henry did,” Henry Huntington, the 19th century railroad magnate from Oneonta who donated the mansion and property that today makes up the library and grounds.
On Thursday, Sept. 10, Stimson Landscape Architects, Cambridge, Mass., presented its plan for Huntington Park during a Zoom meeting.
“This really is a bright spot in a difficult era,” said Huntington Memorial Library executive director Tina Winstead. “It’s a design I believe Henry Huntington would be proud of.”
The planning began five years ago, but recently ramped up when $420,068 in funding for the redesign was made available from the state department of Parks and Recreation.
According to Winstead, when Stimson was hired, she was asked for previous blueprints, postcards and photos of the park to help guide the design, and when they came back, they had revived the orchards, the lilac walk, the “pinetum” – a collection of conifers along the edge of the upper park – and the rotunda.
“The rotunda really was here in 1919,” she said. “I like to think that Henry planned it. Stimson was very excited about the whole overlook idea.”
It’s not the only piece of forgotten history to be reinstalled. Stimson revived the sledding hill, which was fenced off and planted with shrubbery in the 1990s.
“Everyone talks about the sledding hill!” said Winstead. “And once we get all that cleared off, you’ll have such a beautiful view of the hills behind Main Street.
At the meeting, plans were detailed for Phase One of the project, which included the Playland and the Literary Garden.
The Playland would incorporate spaces at the top and bottom of the hill, including a labyrinth, a small play area, and a 40-foot long slide built into the hillside. “It’s a very unique element that will draw from all parts of the town,” said Glen Valentine, principal. “And to get to the top of the slide, there will be a rock scramble, which gives kids an opportunity to explore the hillside.”
“The slide was very unexpected!” said Winstead. “But my charge was for Stimson to do something remarkable that would bring families to the park. It could be a huge draw.”
The library doesn’t want a full playground, she said, for liability reasons, and hopes the public would weigh in on the slide on the survey, linked from the library website. “We really want people to either be all for it or not,” she said.
Stimson associate Sean Kline, an Oneonta native, said bluestone would be incorporated into the design, including the overlook and the rock scramble. “Table Rocks is my favorite spot in Oneonta,” he said. “It gives you an amazing context for the city and the materials of the region.”
The gardens, said Valentine, would function as a series of “outdoor classrooms,” each with specific plantings, such as a pollinator garden or an herb/medicinal garden.
There would even be a “literary garden,” which the library could change yearly to tie to a particular theme. “One year it could be colonial plants or a World War II ‘Victory Garden’,” he said.
In all, the full redesign would include a performance space in the lower part of the park and orchards in the arboretum at the top, similar to the ones Huntington had on the family farm the library is built on.
Additionally, the library received $122,000 in Library Construction Aid to install new lampposts to match the ones on Main Street.
Winstead said the park could get underway as soon as this spring, with completion by the summer.
“They really brought back the elements of the park that Henry wanted,” she said. “It feels very right.”
The proposal for Huntington Library Park includes gardens, an orchard and a 40-foot slide with a “rock-scramble” made of native bluestone.
By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
ONEONTA – With a labyrinth, an orchard and a 40-foot slide set in the hillside, Stimson Landscape Architects, Cambridge, Mass., presented their plan for Huntington Park during a Zoom meeting this evening.
“This really is a bright spot in a difficult era,” said Huntington Memorial Library executive director Tina Winstead. “It’s a design I believe Henry Huntington would be proud of.”
Phase One was detailed during this evening’s meeting, with the plans for the Playland and the Literary Gardens.
ART WORKSHOP – 7 p.m. Join SDC to get started creating botanical illustrations of the natural world around you with artist Tessa Scheele. Zoom workshop presented by A.J. Read Science Discover Center, SUNY Oneonta. 607-436-2011 or visit www.facebook.com/AJReadSDC/ for info.
GLIMMERGLASS CONCERT – 7 p.m. Enjoy performance by Glimmerglass Festival Young Artists at the Gazebo, Huntington Park, Oneonta. 607-432-1980 ext. 20 or visit www.facebook.com/hmloneonta/
Ethan Winner packs food in plastic bags for United Way’s “Warm Inside and Out!” program. The bags of food and warm clothing will hang in Huntington Park until the end of the month for people in need to help themselves. (Jennifer Hill/AllOTSEGO.com)
By JENNIFER HILL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
United Way’s Executive Direct Kim Lorraine, left, and Volunteer Coordinator Valerie Adams, right, hung bags of warm goodies on trees in Huntington Park for anyone to take.
ONEONTA – Frigid temperatures on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day did not stop United Way Volunteer Coordinator Valerie Adams and nine volunteers from getting warm winter clothing and food to people who need them.
“I kept thinking I should cancel this morning because of the weather,” said Valerie Adams, volunteer coordinator for United Way. “But we had advertised we would have the packets on the trees today, and I didn’t want people going out in such cold weather to take them and then not find them there.”
Volunteers gathered at First United Methodist Church this morning to do the last stage of United Way’s “Warm Inside and Out!” event, packing gallon-sized plastic bags with food and warm clothing – hats, scarves, gloves, and mittens – donated by caring Oneonta residents and business owners over the past two weeks.
With the sudden onset of winter conditions, many squirrels can be seen gathering nuts for their winter hibernation. But this furry Oneontan seems to have hit the foraging jackpot as he is seen enjoying a slice of pizza this afternoon in Huntington Park. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
