PHOTO EXCURSION – 6-8 p.m. Walk through The Farmers’ Museum with photographer Kevin Gray and learn tips on composition, lighting and camera techniques, and return home with your own beautiful pictures of Otsego Lake and the museum’s historic village at sunset. Bring lenses, camera battery, tripod (if you have one). Cost, $17/non-member. Fenimore Art Museum & Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1400 or visit www.fenimoreartmuseum.org
OLDEST PARADE – 11 a.m. The second oldest parade in the country kicks off again, with a full day of festivities to follow, including a concert and fireworks at dusk. Springfield Center Community Center, 129 Co Rd 29A, Springfield Center.
NO FIREWORKS – An item that appeared here for a few minutes was incorrect: Fireworks are planned Friday, July 5, at Brookwood Gardens, not tomorrow.
CONCERT – 3 p.m. Town of Springfield Appreciation Concert will offer an overview of The Glimmerglass Opera’s 2019 season. Proceeds will benefit the Springfield 4th of July Committee. Alice Busch Opera Theater, 7300 NY-80, Cooperstown. Info, 315-858-0304 or visit www.glimmerglass.org
Bob and Peggy Poulson’s daughter, Jill, visiting in Cooperstown from New York City, captured the Friday afternoon lightning storm. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning from 3:15 to 3:45 p.m., a rarity around here. Dark clouds and lightning cross Otsego Lake from west to east for about a half hour, but moved on without any damaged.
At this hour, a severe thunderstorm is on it’s way from Exeter to Cooperstown, bringing 70 mph winds and the possibility of quarter-sized hail. The county was under a tornado watch until 3:45 p.m., with no weather-related issues, according to Rob O’Brian, Otsego County 911 director, but the strong thunderstorm warning remains in effect for Northeastern Otsego, including Middlefield, Cooperstown, Westville, Springfield, Burlington, Westford, Cherry Valley, Bowerstown, Exeter Center and Oaksville, until 4:30 p.m.
There was a new Bubba on Otsego Lake this afternoon: “Bubba” the Tug Boat, that is, which Lakefront Hotel proprietor Paula Wickoff purchased from Seattle’s harbor last fall and was delivered to the docks at Cooperstown on Thanksgiving Weekend. Ice-breaking is a spring ritual, to avoid damage to the docks at the Lakefront or Landland Shores; last year, however, the ice was particularly thick, and Paula spent hours on end in an icy, unheated cabin. Today, “we never cut this much ice in one day,” Wickoff – waving in photo at left – said by phone from Bubba’s cozily heated cabin. “I couldn’t be more pleased.” In the background is steel-hulled “Blue,” manned by Joe Lepetich and Brian Murphy, which “cut through the ice like steak,” Wikoff said. “Bubba” then broke the ice into smaller harmless pieces. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
Parasites. That doesn’t sound good.
But SUNY Oneonta biology professor Florian Reyda says having a variety and plentiful parasites “is a sign of a healthy ecosystem, of biodiversity.”
By that measure, Otsego Lake is quite healthy. Especially now that Margaret Doolin, a student in SUNY’s master of science biology program and one of Reyda’s advisees, had discovered a parasitic
Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.life – She’s bundled up against the cold now, but this April Paula Wikoff will be cutting up Otsego’s ice floe from the heated comfort of “Bubba’s” cabin.
COOPERSTOWN – You may have noticed a tug boat, “Bubba,” parked in the snow between the Lakefront Hotel & Restaurant and the lighthouse. There’s a story behind it.
Last April, as her family – beginning with grandfather Alfred Engelmann – has done for 63 years, Lakefront proprietor Paula Wikoff headed out in a 30-foot steel cutter – let’s call it “Blue” – to chop up Otsego Lake’s ice pack before it could break up and damage docks along Cooperstown’s lakeshore.
The ice floe “can be a mile wide. It can be two miles, coming at us,” she explained.
Usually, a warm Southwind is ‘blowing by then, pushing the ice away from the shore. Last year was another story, she recalled with a shiver, “there was a Northwest wind, 30 miles per hour, that never stopped.”
SUNY Oneonta undergrads Rachel Zeino and Jeanmarie Russell completed the seasonal swap of non-wake-zone buoys for winter spar buoys yesterday at Springfield Landing. They completed the task in snow sleet, rain and hail, Paul Lord, who leads the Biological Field Station diver team, reports. This was the last no-wake zone buoy on Otsego Lake this year: The buoy off Lakefront Park in Cooperstown was removed earlier in the day by BFS volunteer diver Pat McCormack and SUNY Oneonta grad student Sarah Coney. (Paul Lord photos)
RICHFIELD SPRINGS – Frank Joseph Kranitz, 92, World War II veteran and owner of the Lake-n-Pines Motel on Otsego Lake for many years, passed away peacefully on Monday evening, Nov. 12, 2018, at the Saint Johnsville Rehabilitation Center in Montgomery County.
He was born on Oct. 12, 1926, in Woodside, Queens, son of the late Joseph and Mary Tones Kranitz. Frank was raised in Queens where he graduated high school.
After graduation, he answered the call of his country by enlisting in the Army during World War II.
PHOTOGRAPHY – 5 – 7 p.m. Take photographs during ‘Golden Hour’ just before sunset with staff member Kevin Gray providing pointers on composition, light, shadow, more. Cost, $17/non-member. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1450 or visit www.farmersmuseum.org/Sunset-Farm-Photography
COMEDIAN – 9 – 10 p.m. Have a fun night out with bonafide Georgia peach (native) Mia Jackson, who has appeared on Last Comic Standing, NickMom’s Night Out, others. Water Front Room, Hunt Union, SUNY Oneonta. Visit oneonta.campuslabs.com/engage/event/2644366
FIBER ARTS FEST – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Explore world of natural fibers through demonstrations, exhibits, hands-on-activities showing how they’re harvested, processed, transformed to wearable, utilitarian, and decorative items. Included with admission, $12/adult. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1450 or visit www.farmersmuseum.org/fiber-weekend
GARLIC FEST – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Features locally grown garlic for planting or cooking. Sample products like cheese, honey, garlic recipes, more from local vendors. Free parking, admission. Sunnycrest Orchards, 7869 St. Rt. 10, Sharon Springs. 518-284-2256 or visit www.facebook.com/Sunnycrest-Orchards-Farm-Market-and-Greenhouses-174470682568232/
Pat Donnelly, Cooperstown, talks with artist Michael McBane about his colorful paintings at the annual Arts On The Lake this afternoon at The Fenimore Art Museum. Works from 21 artists from around the region were on display, ranging from sculpture, to paintings and photography. At right, Linda Tracz, Roseboom, accept her award from Fenimore President Paul D’Ambrosio for the top award in photography. (Ian Austin/AllOTSEGO.com)
