Golfers are able to get into the action at The Clark Sports Center now. The center debuted its new golf simulator on Monday, April 5.
The simulator features 108 courses from around the world and will be updated with Leatherstocking Golf Course this summer.
Go to www.clarksportscenter.com/facilities/golf-simulator to make reservations, or for more information.
GHOST TOURS – 5:30 p.m. Explore historic village by lantern light and learn about the ‘Things That Go Bump In The Night.’ Tours leave at half hour intervals to 8. For social distancing 8 people/tour. Reservation required. Recommended for people aged 10+. Cost, $17/non-member. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1534 or visit www.farmersmuseum.org
To the Editor:
Michael Whaling’s recent letter in The Freeman’s Journal and Hometown Oneonta, regarding pesticide use by the Leatherstocking Golf Course, was spot on. This is just the time when the course begins its annual dousing of the shores of Otsego Lake with chemicals dangerous to humans and wildlife alike.
The last time the public was able to learn the specific materials and quantities used on the course, it was revealed that the golf course used over 3,300 pounds and 100 gallons of pesticides – many carcinogenic, acutely toxic, and developmental or reproductive toxins.
The golf course has not released its pesticide usage since – is there any wonder why?
The use of these poisons adjacent to a public water supply and recreation area is unconscionable and goes unchallenged by SUNY’s Biological Field Station, the Otsego County Conservation Association, Otsego Lake Watershed Supervisory Committee, and the Village of Cooperstown – all ostensibly concerned with the lake and public health. Clearly these entities are more interested in staying in the good graces of the Clark Foundation, owner of the golf course, than in living up to their responsibilities.
The Leatherstocking course claims to be environmentally responsible.
If that is truly the case, let them tell the people who drink and recreate on Otsego Lake’s waters just what they are spraying
next to it.
ANDREW MASON
Oneonta
To the Editor:
As spring slowly approaches, golf season will begin and pesticides applied to the Leatherstocking Golf Course on the sloping west shore of Cooperstown’s drinking water source and Susquehanna River headwaters.
While this practice has been previously challenged by this writer and others, the Biological Field Station has been silent. Their only comment was: “Nothing was found” in their testing.
While this is good news, the reality is that when these chemicals do appear, it will be too late. There is also the troubling contradiction that biology is the study of life, and pesticides are designed to kill living organisms.
Common sense should prevail, and the Leatherstocking Golf Course should be be managed organically. Where’s the harm?
MICHAEL WHALING
Cooperstown
TREES OF COOPERSTOWN – 5:30 p.m. Tour Cooperstown with Otsego County Conservation Association, learn benefits of street trees, threats to urban forests, basics of tree anatomy, identification. Free, open to public. Pre-registration preferred. Meet at Pioneer Park, Main St., Cooperstown. 607-547-4488 or visit occainfo.org/calendar/the-trees-of-cooperstown/
GARDEN CLUB – 6:30 p.m. Public meeting hosts Don Urtz presenting photographs of work done by the club over the years. Free, refreshments provided. Richfield Springs Village Library, 102 W. Main St., Richfield Springs. 315-858-0230 or visit www.facebook.com/Richfield-Springs-Public-Library-1068210423236404/
TASTE OF THE REGATTA – 6 p.m. Taste the products of local producers before the canoe regatta. General Clinton Canoe Regatta Park, Bainbridge. Info, cooperstownchamber.org/calendar-of-events/#!event/2017/5/26/2nd-annual-taste-of-regatta
OPENING RECEPTION – 5-7 p.m. Opening “8×10: Recent Paintings by Edward McDaniel, Leatherstocking Brush and Palette Club Fine Arts Exhibition, and the 26th Annual Essential Art Regional Juried Art show. Cooperstown Art Association. Info, www.cooperstownart.com
FLY CREEK – Larry G. Gallup, 64, an avid golfer and recently retired electrician, passed away Friday, April 21, 2017, at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester following an extended illness.
A Cooperstown native, Larry was born June 21, 1952, a son of Marge and “Pudge” Gallup. Raised in Cooperstown, he proudly graduated as one of the Cooperstown “Redskins” in 1970 and recently retired as an electrician.
On Oct. 10, 2003, Larry married Teriann Sammis in Shelby County, Tennessee. They shared their life and love with chocolate labs named Reno and Hunter in Fly Creek Valley and Titusville, Florida.
COOPERSTOWN – Wilhelmus “Willy” Pijnenburg, a long-time resident of Cooperstown and retired superintendent of The Leatherstocking Golf Course, passed away Saturday morning, Aug. 2, 2014, at his home on Fair Street, surrounded by his family. He was 78.
COOPERSTOWN – Cooperstown, celebrated this spring by “I Love NY” and honored by President Obama’s visit, has another promotional feather in its touristic hat: Fodor’s Travel has just selected it as eighth on a list of ten of “America’s Best Small Towns.”
“Cooperstown isn’t just a destination for sports lovers,” the listing says, “with cultural attractions including the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, the annual Glimmerglass Opera season, and the Fenimore Art Museum. Outdoorsy types, meanwhile, can enjoy golfing at Leatherstocking Golf Course, boating on Otsego Lake, and hiking in Glimmerglass State Park. Beer lovers shouldn’t pass up a chance to tour the esteemed Brewery Ommegang.”
Is the slogan, “Believe it or not this is Cooperstown,” finally catching on?
Fodor’s numero uno is Telluride, Colo., “replete with small-town charm that many other major ski areas lack,” and numero diez is Bardtown, Kty., “a stopover in Kentucky bourbon country … where it’s easy to be charmed by the Georgian architecture and local hospitality.”