County Rep. Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, center, discusses today’s M&C raises with colleagues, clockwise from left, county Reps. Keith McCarty, Meg Kennedy, Adrienne Martini and Gary Koutnik. Upper left, county board Chair David Bliss reviews agenda with Carol McGovern, clerk of the board. (Jennifer Hill/AllOTSEGO.com)
COOPERSTOWN – The Otsego County Board of Representatives made it official today.
With only one dissenting vote from Andrew Stammel, D-Oneonta, the representatives voted a half-million dollars worth of raises for department heads and managers – including $3,000 for themselves, their first raise since the $250 in 2008.
M&C county employees’ titles and current salaries range widely, from Deputy Director of Community Services earning a stipend of $3,000 to the District Attorney having an annual salary of almost $200K. Personnel Director Penny Gentile said she could not give exact percentages of the raises because they were “varying figures” and a list of them had not yet been drawn up.
ONEONTA – An Oneonta man was arrested and charged with attempted murder after he allegedly strangled a woman and twisted her neck, causing severe injury.
David C. Thomas, 28, was arrested after Oneonta Police responded to a domestic dispute that allegedly turned physical. In the course of the investigation, police discovered that Thomas had allegedly twisted her neck “in a violent manner,” causing extensive damage. According to Police Chief Doug Brenner, the victim also had bruises and bite marks.
“I met with Mr. Hobbie and explained to him his rights to an immediate detention hearing and a preliminary hearing,” Zimmer wrote in a memo to Magistrate Judge Therese Wiley Dancks. “Mr. Hobbie told me he understands those rights and that he agrees to waive those rights at this time, reserving his right to request such hearings in the future.”
Flames shoot from the Church Street home where fire broke out Tuesday. (Facebook photo)
ONEONTA – Following Tuesday’s housefire on Church Street, the Oneonta Professional Firefighters union today called for an increase in staffing “to help keep the … community safe.”
In a press release, the OPF called for:
At least six trained firefighters/EMT’s on duty, 24/7, and
At least three personnel, trained at EMT level or higher, responding to each medical emergency.
On Monday, there were only five firefighters on duty, the union said in a press release. One member was located in Binghamton for mandatory training.
The photo shows how a rollbar on a refitted tractor can prevent a farmer from being crushed.
COOPERSTOWN – From 2007 to 2017, at least 10 lives and more than $4 million were saved in New York State due to a Cooperstown-based program to retrofit tractors with rollover bars, an analysis in the American Journal of Public Health had concluded.
The analysis of the program, developed by Bassett Healthcare Network’s NYCAMH (New York Center for Agricultural Medicine & Health), found that a combination of social marketing and rebates saves lives and money.
Over the decade, the rollbars were affixed to 2,510 tractors built before 1995.
Otsego County’s departing congressman, John Faso, R-19th, asked for recommitment to “civil, respectful” debate in the public arena. He also cited two efforts, so far unachieved, of the past two years: One, to lift the burden of Medicaid costs from counties; only New York State has such a requirement, and its counties pay more than than the counties in all other 49 states combined; two, to remove the “absolute liability standard” on falls from scaffolds on construction jobs, which increases all construction projects in New York State by 7 percent; again, only New York has that provision. Faso’s farewell speech was broadcast live yesterday morning on C-Span.
ONEONTA – The local Salvation Army post falling behind on its kettle drive is part of a larger challenge.
With just 10 ringing days left in this year’s campaign, the kettles are trending short of the statewide goal, Maj. Ivan Rock, commander of the Syracuse-based Empire Division, reported today.
With 13 days to go, the Oneonta post that serves Otsego County reported it was $3,000 short at that point compared to last year.
ONEONTA – At the urging of Otsego 2000 and 40 people who showed up at its monthly meeting, the Oneonta Town Board last night unanimously voted to oppose a $3.5 million state grant application for a gas decompression station at Pony Farm.
“No member of the Town Board is in favor of the decompressor gas station,” declared Supervisor Bob Wood at the start of the meeting.
A forum for parents and community members at Cooperstown Central School’s Sterling Auditorium drew 175 intently interested audience members this evening. Here, they listened Beth Coombe, chief prosecutor of the Justin Hobbie case for the U.S. Attorney’s Albany office. (Jim Kevlin/www.AllOTSEGO.com)
Wendy Fical, program director, National Center of Missing & Exploited, paints a scary picture of child predation. She may be brought back for further consultation.
COOPERSTOWN – Cyberspace is a scary place.
“I’m very concerned about what I heard tonight,” grandmother Diane Koffer said during the Q&A that ended two hours of presentations and, at the end, intent public participation this evening in Cooperstown Central School’s Sterling Auditorium.
The reason the 175 people were there was to try and learn whether anything untoward had occurred at the school revolving around Justin Hobbie, the 13-year phys-ed teacher and coach arrested last Friday. He was charged with receiving and distributing child pornography, some of it allegedly showing sexual acts between men and girls ranging from age 12 to as young as 3.
The question was not answered. When Beth Coombe, the Albany-based U.S. Attorney’s prosecutor, was asked directly, she said: She can neither say Cooperstown children were involved, or that they were not involved.
UNADILLA – Peter Francis “Pete” Approbato, 62, a mechanic and bookkeeper at R.C. Sales & Service, his family business, died unexpectedly on Sunday, Dec. 9, 2019.
He was born on Feb. 16, 1956 in Brooklyn,. He lived in New Jersey and graduated from Lenape Regional High School.
