Village Seeks Transfer of Acreage
Village Seeks Transfer of Acreage
By CASPAR EWIG
COOPERSTOWN
Most people have procedures per-formed to re-move an appendix, but the Village of Cooperstown is in the final stages of seeking to acquire one.
Town of Otsego Considers Real Estate Tax Exemption for Volunteers
Town of Otsego Considers Real Estate
Tax Exemption for Volunteers
By CASPAR EWIG
FLY CREEK
At its monthly meeting on February 8, the Town Council of the Town of Otsego considered what to do with a newly enacted state law that permits each local taxing authority to pass a law granting a 10 percent real estate tax exemption for active volunteer firemen and ambulance workers.
Fire Chief Chris Voulo of the Fly Creek Volunteer Fire Company spoke out in favor of having the town pass the enabling law to assist in the ability of the Fire Company to attract volunteers.
Collaboration for Canadarago
Collaboration for Canadarago
By DAN SULLIVAN
RICHFIELD SPRINGS – Coping with harmful algal blooms (HABs) has become a distressing reality for those who live, work, and play in and around New York’s lakes. This summer, both Otsego and Canadarago lakes were plagued with long-duration HABs, curtailing activities for much of the summer season. In response to the crisis at Canadarago, a coalition of four communities and one civic organization has formed to take action to save the lake.
The Towns of Exeter, Otsego and Richfield, the Village of Richfield Springs, and the Canadarago Lake Improvement Association have all committed to sharing the $35,000.00 cost of an engineering study for a potential sewer line around Canadarago Lake. The study will be conducted by Delaware Engineering of Albany, a firm that serves the rural communities in New York State. The idea of a sewer line was brought up by Delaware Engineering in 2018, when the firm offered to do a feasibility study at their expense. This study offered several scenarios for full or partial coverage of the lake. The consensus now is that full coverage would be the best option.
Historic Fly Creek Hotel Saved
Historic Fly Creek Hotel Saved
Historic Fly Creek Hotel might see the wrecking ball soon
Historic Fly Creek Hotel might
see the wrecking ball soon
An application filed on behalf of the Leatherstocking Corporation to demolish the historic Fly Creek Hotel at the corner of Route 28 and Schoolhouse Road has triggered a 2017 local law allowing the public to comment on the plans, and Town of Otsego officials anticipate an “interesting” session on May 3.
“I’m sure there have been demolitions in the past in the Town of Otsego, but none of them have triggered this process that is happening now,” said Cindy Falk, chair of the Historic Preservation Advisory Commission for the Town of Otsego. She and commission members Tom Heitz, Shirley Rathbone, Mitchell Owen, and David Olsen are preparing for the hearing, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Town building on Route 31 in Fly Creek.
“This ordinance was put into place in order to slow the process down and to make sure all the alternatives to demolition are presented to the applicant,” she said. “This makes it more deliberate and gives people time to weigh in.”
Ms. Falk said neither the law nor the hearing process oblige the applicant to abide by comments offered.
Death certificates lead to Coop-Otsego dispute
Death certificates lead to Coop-Otsego dispute
By GREG KLEIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
A financial dispute over dead people has left officials in the village of Cooperstown and town of Otsego frustrated with one another.
The disagreement stems from services performed by the registrar of vital statistics, which is a job village officials perform town-wide. Registrar duties include birth and death certificates. While there are some births outside of the village, most are at Cooperstown’s Bassett Medical Center.
However, it is the deaths outside of the village boundaries that have been costly to Cooperstown. According to materials provided at the village’s Board of Trustees meeting Monday, July 26, the cost of providing death certificates to town residents has cost the village anywhere from about $1,300 annually to a recent high of $2,900 in 2015 when there were 290 death certificates prepared for residents outside of the village.
As per the old agreement, the town pays $250 annually and gets remitted the fees for certificates from its residents.
The village must keep and maintain the records, but Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh said it is not adding up for village residents. “This is not sustainable,” she said. “This is a village tax, subsidizing service for the town of Otsego.”
Staff Dining Picks: June 3, 2021
Staff Picks
Out Best Bets for Local Dining
Larissa Ryan
Business Manager
Welcome back to upstate New York.
The season is off to a beautiful start and we know people will be getting hungry after all the activities available around here. So here are our staff picks of local favorites.
One of my favorite places to eat is Alfresco’s in Oneonta. It’s an Italian restaurant with a homey atmosphere, wonderful staff and delicious food. My family’s favorite order is stromboli with salads and garlic bread. I love the house salads. They’re large, with a few kinds of greens, and come with tomato, ham, onion and garnish. I always get the Russian dressing, but they offer lemon vinaigrette, warm poppy seed, ranch, and creamy Italian. Because I always fill up on the salad, I save the garlic bread for later because it is amazing. The bread is crispy with lots of butter and garlic. Alfresco’s is a great place my family has gone to for years to both eat in and for takeout.
Video Captures Bear Near Bed Bug Road
Email Photos, Videos To info@allotsego.com
Video Captures Bear
Near Bed Bug Road
Vince Casale happened upon this black bear last evening on Bed Bug Road, Town of Otsego. After a winter of hibernation, this is the time of year – about mid-March – that bear-spotting peaks. If you’ve spotted a bear lately, and have a photo or video, please send to info@allotsego.com
Earhart Visited Here, Marker Says
HISTORICAL SOCIETY WINS RECOGNITION
Earhart Visited Here, Marker Says
By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
After losing his mother to appendicitis in the spring of 1921 at age 7, Arrie Hecox of Fly Creek found solace in Amelia Earhart three years later.
Walking back and forth to school, Hecox spotted Earhart, then in her 20s, at the inn that neighbored his family’s farm on Route 28.
“As you did in that time, they introduced themselves,” Arrie Hecox’s grandson, Michael Baker said.
In later years, Hecox told his story to newspaper columnist Jim Atwell, who included it in his 2004 book, “From Fly Creek: Celebrating Life in Leatherstocking Country.”
“What are you reading?” Hecox asked the young woman in a khaki shirt, jodhpurs and boot, who was seated under an apple tree.
“A book about airplanes,” she replied with a smile.
Earhart sojourn and what became the Famulare family’s farm in the 1940’s is about to be memorialized.
The Fly Creek Historical Society announced its application for a “Legends & Lore” marker has been approved by the Pomeroy Foundation, and will be erected later this year.
That’s the historical society’s sixth Legends & Lore marker. Sherlee Rathbone, society president, said that means the Town of Otsego, where Fly Creek is located, has more than any community in the state.
The others memorialize David Shipman, inspiration for James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumppo, as well as Cattown Road, Honey Joe Road, Bed Bug Hill and Panther Mountain.
Mary Winne, who lives on nearby Johnston Road, is a Famulare and was raised in the white clapboard cape across 28 from Simple Integrity’s headquarters.
When her family moved into the house in the 1940s, the living room had been divided into three bedrooms, she said; her parents concluded it had been a rooming house.
It’s also thought, she continued, that Earhart, the first woman aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was friendly with aviators at an a airstrip in Frankfort, down in the Mohawk Valley, which kept her around for a while.
As Atwell related it, Hecox considered Earhart, who would disappear in 1937 trying to fly over the Pacific, the “first love of (his) life.”
“When my grandfather heard (Earhart) went missing, he said he felt it in his heart that she was gone from this world,” said Baker.
James S. Ainslie, 93; Farmer, Rural Carrier For Post Office
IN MEMORIAM
James S. Ainslie, 93; Farmer,
Rural Carrier For Post Office
RICHFIELD SPRINGS – James S. Ainslie, 93, of Ainslie Road, Town of Otsego, a farmer and longtime rural mail carrier, passed away Wednesday morning, Dec. 9, 2020, while being transported to the hospital.
His family regrets they could not be with him due to COVID-19 restrictions; he will be greatly missed. A kind, giving man, loving husband, grandfather and dedicated father, he would do anything to help family, neighbors and friends.
He was born on July 4, 1927, to Edna and William Ainslee. In addition to her parents, he was predeceased by his loving wife of over 60 years, Effie (Locke), as well as brothers Harold Ainslie and Leo McLean.
RAGING BLAZE LEVELS BARN
RAGING BLAZE
LEVELS BARN
Firefighters Called To Christian Hill,
Where Wood Bull Loses Stored Antiques
Cooperstown firefighter Henry Stewart, top left, and Fire Captain Chris Satriano watch for flare-ups after a fast-moving fire leveled Kip Coburn’s barn this evening at 324 Williams Road on Christian Hill, Town of Otsego. Coburn operates Wood Bull Antiques on Route 28, Milford, and said today the barn was used to store overflow antiques from that operation; all were lost. Coburn’s son said the only animals in the barn were chickens, and they escaped to safety. Inset, Cooperstown’s second assistant chief, Kevin Preston, moves debris to allow the flames to burn out. Firefighters responded from Fly Creek, Hartwick, Hartwick Seminary, Schuyler Lake and Richfield Springs, as well as Cooperstown. “They toned us all,” said Cooperstown firefighter Frank Capozza. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
SNOW GIANTS ON WILEYTOWN ROAD
SNOW GIANTS
5 Statues Slow Drivers On Wileytown Road
Democrats Off To Races In Otsego, Middlefield
CLICK HERE FOR ALL FILINGS
Democrats Off To Races
In Otsego, Middlefield
Kiernan Runs Again; Marc Heller Enters Politics
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – Democrats in the two towns that serve the Village of Cooperstown – Otsego and Middlefield – were fast out of the gate this morning as the county Board of Elections began accepting petitions at 9 a.m. for the Nov. 5 elections.
In the Town of Otsego (including Cooperstown west of the Susquehanna, incumbent Supervisor Meg Kiernan filed to run again, and two newcomers submitted petitions for Town Board seats: Suzanne Johnson and Matthew Zwissler.
Cooperstown FD Douse Fire On County Route 28
Cooperstown FD Douses
Blaze On County Route 28
Joseph A. Eccles, 73; Retired To County From Long Island
IN MEMORIAL: Joseph A. Eccles, 73;
Retired To County From Long Island
COOPERSTOWN – Joseph A. Eccles, 73, who retired to the Cooperstown area after 30 years with UPS, died Tuesday April 17, 2018 at Bassett Hospital in the company of his loving family.
Born in Glen Cove, L.I., he grew up in Glen Head and graduated from North Shore High School in the Class of 1962. He enlisted in the Army in 1965, serving his country until 1971. He married Ellen Wapniarski in Westbury in 1987. They moved to the Cooperstown area in 2000, residing on Route 80, Town of Otsego.