MCS Health Clinic Christened As ‘Wildcat Wellness Center’

MILFORD

Milford Central seventh-grader Brooke Stanford came up with the name, “Wildcat Wellness Center,” for the new student health center.  She is flanked by FNP Corrine Smith and Dr. Douglas Cannon

Bassett Healthcare’s in-school clinic at Milford Central School was christened the “Wildcat Wellness Center” at a reception Saturday, Feb. 12, in honor of the school’s mascot.
Seventh-grader Brooke Sanford came up with that in a clinic-naming contest.
Milford’s school-based health center, opened last April, is one of 18 Bassett school-based health centers in Chenango, Delaware, Otsego and Schoharie counties; last year, they logged 21,000 visits.
Health education’s focus on wellness and prevention been shown to reduce hospital and emergency room visits, the hospital said.

‘American Profile’ Honors Cooper

COOPERSTOWN

Village Historian Hugh MacDougall was contacted in December by David Mudd, photo editor of “American Profile” magazine, asking for a high-resolution photo to help illustrate “The Write Stuff:  Saluting 20 of America’s iconic authors and poets,” by Stuart Englert.
MacDougall, a Cooper buff, sent along his favorite photo, pictured here, and was delighted to see the local writer ranked as #2 when the magazine, which is inserted in 10 million copies of newspapers nationally, was published in January. 

IMPROMPTU HARTWICK REUNION

Hartwick College President Margaret Drugovich poses with Hartwick alumni and trustees who are also Cooperstown Rotarians after speaking to the club Tuesday, Feb. 22.  From left are attorney Martin Tillapaugh and wife, Meg, Dr. Drugovich, attorney Bob Schlather (a former Hartwick trustee), Bob Hanft (alumnus and Hartwick trustee) and Will Monie.

AT CCS, TREP$ MEANS BUSINESS

AT CCS, TREP$ MEANS BUSINESS

The Freeman’s Journal
CCS middle schoolers Elle Kenyon, left, and Jamie Zoltick tie “Knots of Love,” the necklaces they were crafting at the second annual TREP$ Entrepreneurial Fair Saturday, Feb. 12.

August Stegman sells a cup of gourmet coffee to Bob Birch.  The TREP$ program teaches pupils lessons in running a business.

 FOR MORE PICTURES OF TREPS, VISIT OUR FACEBOOK ALBUM!!

Village Buys Land Needed At ‘Gateway’

CYB’s Beanie Ainslie Field To Be Moved As Part Of Deal

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN
It took three years of what’s been a seven-year ordeal so far, but at noon, Friday, Feb. 18, the rights-of-way needed to move ahead with the enhanced “Gateway” at the village’s south end were in hand.
The key final piece was an agreement to buy out the lease Cooperstown Youth Baseball holds on Beanie Ainslie Field, its diamond at the end of Linden Avenue.
The diamond will be moved to the south, beyond Cooperstown Central Middle/High School, and be rebuilt, partly on two acres donated to by Jane Forbes Clark’s Charisma Partners, her real-estate management entity.
The CYB will receive $130,000, plus another $30,000 in moving expenses, much of which will be paid for by the $3.5 million in federal funding the project is eventually expected to receive.  Additionally, the village will provide water, sewer and electrical service at its own cost, plus prepare the land for the field.
In Mayor Joe Booan’s absence – ONC BOCES, where he is employed, had winter break this week – Deputy Mayor Willis Monie confirmed “everything’s been signed; all acquisitions are accounted for.”
The mayor still has to send in a certification advising the Federal Highway Administration that the acquisitions are in place.  Bids can be solicited for the project’s construction phase and awarded, perhaps as soon as April, to allow work to begin as soon at May.

The other pieces put in place by R.K. Hite & Co., which was contracted by CLA Site, the village’s consultant through this phase of the project, include:
• Easements the Cooperstown Central school board approved Thursday evening, Feb. 17, in exchange for $50,000.  The money will be used to pave a parking lot for juniors that can also be used by CYB fans in the summer.
• Easements from Wilber Bank and the Leatherstocking Railway Historical Society to assure access to the site.

The Gateway project will pave the lot between Wilber Bank’s Route 28 branch and the ballfield, and add lighting and sidewalks.
When complete, it will provide a second access to CCS Middle/High School from Route 28, easing traffic on Linden Avenue.
The lot will provide parking for Bassett Hospital employees, and also for tourists during the summer, who Village Hall hopes will then take the trolley downtown.

Facing Budget Cuts, CCS Asks For Help To Buy Whiteboards

COOPERSTOWN

With state-aid cuts looming, the Cooperstown Central school board has learned its 15 “whiteboards” are wearing out, and it has decided to appeal for private contributions to begin replacing them.
Meeting Thursday, Feb. 17, to start coming to grips with Governor Cuomo’s prospective $734,282 aid cut, the school board received a surprise from an ongoing technology review.
“We found we are really behind the eight ball with white boards, which is how a lot of curriculum is now being developed,” said school board President Tony Scalici.  “Our oldest white boards are now running out of juice.”
The whiteboards and associated projectors – the first were installed locally seven years ago – cost about $2,500 apiece, and Scalici said such entities as the Cooperstown PTO and the Cooperstown Foundation, formed for just this purpose – to find private money to supplement school taxes – will be among the entities approached for contributions.
A whiteboard is the high-tech replacement for blackboards.  Teachers can write on them (with black markers in place of white chalk), but can also project interactive lessons onto the screen-like surface.
In one elementary grade, Scalici said, a program that uses whiteboard technology is being used to teach reading.  The idea was to continue the curriculum in the next grade, but another whiteboard is needed to accomplish that.
Eventually, he said, all classrooms are likely to have whiteboards or something like them.
The prospective aid reduction – a 16.2 percent reduction in the total aid, about 4.5 percent of the district’s $16 million budget – was the announced focus of the evening.
But Scalici declined to talk about that other than to say that a lot of the discussion occurred in executive session, presumably because of the staffing implications.
The finance committee will present the first version of the proposed budget at a March 2 school board meeting, he said.

COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND:

O’NEIL HONOREE:  Roland Hemond, 81, an executive who helped build winning franchises in Milwaukee, Chicago, Baltimore and Arizona, will receive the “Buck” O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, only the second ever, during Induction Weekend, the Hall of Fame announced.

HAGERS TOASTED: The OCCA will host a dinner honoring Lou and Susanna Hager Friday, July 8, at The Otesaga, recognizing the couple’s role as co-chairs of the Otsego Lake Challenge Campaign.  Proceeds go toward lake programs.  For reservations, call 547-4488 or e-mail admin@occainfo.org.

STORE CLOSES:  It’s All Good, the popular natural foods store in Cherry Valley, is due to close at the end of the month.

COFFEE SHOP: Nate Ingalls is planning a coffee/sandwich shop on the corner of Seminary Road and Route 28, Hartwick Seminary.  The county planning board is reviewing.

The Freeman’s Journal
Jen Snyder, left, and Katie Franck display their Kistletoes – like mistletoe, except for St. Valentine’s.  The two were partners in the TREP$ entrepreneurial fair at CCS Saturday, Feb. 12, which organizers declared a success again this week.

COOERSTOWN AND AROUND: CCS Readies For Aid Cuts

COOPERSTOWN

Cooperstown schools face a $734,282 cut in state aid next school year and beyond, and CCS Superintendent C.J. Hebert will brief the school board on its options at a special meeting Thursday, Feb. 17.
That’s a 16.2 percent cut in state aid, about 4.5 percent of the districts’ $16 million budget.
The board’s finance committee will present its tentative 2011-12 budget on March 2. 99

STRONG: Friends gathered Saturday, Feb. 5, at Otsego Manor to help Katharine B. Hanor celebrate her 99th birthday.  Mrs. Hanor is the most senior member of the Native Daughters of Cooperstown.

BEWARE:  Starting Wednesday, Feb. 16, talking on a cell phone while driving will carry a two-point penalty. The maximum fine will remain $100.

MEMORABILIA ON EBAY

The Freeman’s Journal
The two signs that welcomed visitors to Cooperstown for decades will be auctioned off on eBay, beginning Saturday, Feb. 19.    Deputy Mayor Willis Monie, who is handling the auction on behalf of the committee that raised the money for replacement signs, said the code wilmonie2lqx will help you find the items on ebay.com

Mayor To Pursue Unifying Police Despite Iffy Reception At County

Booan On Contracting Idea: Village People Want Savings

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN
Despite an iffy reception from Otsego County’s Public Safety Committee, Mayor Joe Booan said he will continue to focus on the “bottom line” in contracting out police services.
“I’m committed to finding efficiencies in our system,” the mayor said Tuesday, Feb. 15, a few days after the committee chaired by county Rep. Greg Relic, R-Unadilla, declined to commit itself on the question.
Before any agreement is made with the county Sheriff’s Department to assume responsibility for 24/7 coverage in Cooperstown, a number of “if bridges” must be crossed, Booan said.
For instance, “if” the county is interested.  “If” the village board is interested.  Then, “if” the public at large is supportive; a permissive referendum would be required for that final step.
“We’ve started the process,” the mayor continued. “We shouldn’t be afraid to look at the options.  If the village residents then decide they want to maintain the force, fine.  I think we can replicate the service we get now, but I’m one vote ... And I’m comfortable with that.”
Over the weekend, the mayor mailed out a message to all homes in the village explaining his point of view.
The mayor and county Sheriff Richard J. Devlin, Jr., have been in conversations for several weeks over whether Devlin’s deputies can provide the same level of service at less cost than the independent village force.
In his remarks, Booan likened the Village of Cooperstown’s situation to New York State’s as outlined in Governor Cuomo’s Feb. 2 budget address:  Statewide, spending has been rising 5.7 percent a year while inflation has held at 2.4 percent.
In the village’s case, the mayor said, the budget has risen $1.4 million or 65 percent in the past nine years, or 5.7 percent a year; if the Village Board had held increases to the inflation rate, the village would be spending $800,000 a year less today than it is.
At the same time, the number of village taxpayers declined by 6.8 percent in the 1990s and another 5.3 percent since 2000, he said.
The police department directly costs village taxpayers $500,000 a year, the single biggest expense, so that’s a natural place to look for reductions, he said.
Asked for comment by county Rep. Jim Powers, R-South New Berlin, Police Chief Diana Nicols said studying consolidation is “an excellent idea,” but that further study is needed.
If the village contracted with the county for 24/7 coverage and no deputy was in town when something happened, would the county be liable? Relic asked.
“There are voids in the 24/7; there are always glitches,” he said.  It was also pointed out that, as is, the village cruisers have been out of town more than 150 times in the past year, transporting prisoners or assisting other departments.
For his part, Powers also asked:  What if other villages – Gilbertsville, for instance, in his district – would then want similar services?
Devlin also said his deputies might not be interested in walking a beat, as village officers are required to do for an hour per shift in the summer, half an hour in the winter.
The committee concluded it would have to confer further on the matter before offering Booan any support.

200 Businesses Petition To Halt Fracking Here

Gas-Drilling Threatens Economy As We Know It, Chamber Declares

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

Natural-gas drilling poses “a direct and material threat” to Otsego County’s business community, the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce has declared.
And in issuing its statement Monday, Feb. 14, it also released a list of almost 300 entities, including almost 200 Upstate businesses, many local, that have joined the chamber in declaring their opposition.
“Industrial-scale hydrofracking in the region will irreparably damage the essential qualities that make the Cooperstown area an excellent place to live, raise families, farm and work,” the statement reads.
“It puts at risk much of the local economy, ranging from hotel and tourism to restaurant and retail businesses, most of which are driven by the hundreds of thousands of tourists who choose to visit the region every year.”
Tourism-related businesses dominate the list – restaurants, lodging, attractions (from Alex & Ika to Sharon Springs’ American Hotel to Sam Smith’s Boatyard) – but it also includes several medical societies, including Otsego’s, and professionals.
The largest entity may be Brewery Ommegang, which also recruited the New York State Breweries Association the cause; 65 breweries also signed on individually.
“The issue for us is very simple: It’s about water,” said Ommegang President/CEO Simon Thorpe, who is also a Cooperstown Chamber director.  “If you want to have great beer, you have to have great water.”
Meanwhile, the Oneonta-based Otsego County Chamber is in the midst of its own process of assessing the issue, according to chamber President Rob Robinson.
Thorpe and Larry Bennett, Ommegang’s public relations director, appeared before that chamber’s Business Action Committee Jan. 27, as did Orville Cole, principal in Gastem Inc. of Montreal.  Gastem has drilled a vertical well on Crumhorn Mountain and is doing exploratory drilling in the Beaver Meadow section of Middlefield.
While the county chamber endorsed a county-manager form of government “many, many moons ago,” it has focused primarily on statewide economic-development issues, Robinson said.
The Business Action Committee, chaired by Steve Sinniger of the Otsego County Farm Bureau, is meeting again Thursday, Feb. 24, but Robinson said deliberations are in the “preliminary stages.”
The result, Robinson said, could be to “endorse, not endorse, or leave it alone.”
In an interview at Ommegang, Thorpe said, “Even a potential threat (to water) for us is significant, as it is, I think, for a lot of businesses, but also a lot of people.”
The brewery came to object to natural-gas drilling – the intrusive horizontal hydrofracking method in particular – only after “exhaustive” study of the impact on the environment, roads and infrastructure, and water quality, he said.
Thorpe presented the finding to Duvel Moortgat’s board of directors in Belgium, and received an immediate endorsement.
Pointing to a map on a dividing wall, Bennett showed how the leases in the Beaver Meadow area, just north of the brewery, have multiplied in the past two years. 
The aquifer the brewery draws on extends north, under Beaver Meadow, and 10 miles hence, under Otsego Lake, he said.
This is the first such action by the Cooperstown chamber’s directors since endorsing Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s proposed Bonnaroo-like, three-day music festival in the Town of Springfield, according to chamber Executive Director Susan O’Handley, who attended the briefing.
Her directors endorsed a draft anti-fracking statement in December, then distributed it to members and asked for feedback; more than 80 percent supported the statement, O’Handley said.

Baby Amanda Rose Armstrong Arrives

JORDANVILLE

John and Marie Armstrong announce the birth of their daughter, Amanda Rose Armstrong, born at 5:46 a.m. Friday, Jan. 21, 2011, at Bassett Hospital.
She weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces, and was 20 inches long.

SENIF SHINES:

Daniel Senif, CCS 2009, a sophomore at Castleton (Vt.) State College, was named to the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference 2010 All-Academic Team for combining athletic and academic ability.  He is son of Bill and Michelle Senif, Fly Creek.

Ainslie Field Put Off Limits

COOPERSTOWN

The CYB has been advised it’s unlikely youth baseball teams will play at Beanie Ainslie Field this summer, after a consultant to the village on the Gateway project discovered hazardous hydrocarbons there and on the proposed new ballfield site to the south.
The site will be remediated, Mayor Joe Booan said.

You Know You Live In Upstate New York...

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you may live in Upstate New York.
If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don’t even work there, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you’ve worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you’ve had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Upstate New York.
If “vacation” means going anywhere south of Harrisburg for the weekend, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you have switched from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day and back again, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you can drive 75 mph through two feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both doors unlocked, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you may live in Upstate New York.
If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph – you’re going 80 and everybody is passing you, you may live in Upstate New York.
If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you know all four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you may live in Upstate New York.
If you find 10 degrees “a little chilly,” you may live in Upstate New York.
 If you actually understand these jokes, you definitely do live – or have lived – in Upstate New York.
Courtesy Dennis Jackubowicz

Lyn Edinger adds: If you don’t understand  how anyone confuses Otego,  Owego, Oswego and Otsego, you may live in Upstate New York.

45 Reasons to Attend the 2011 Cooperstown Winter Carnival

1. You will finally have an occasion to wear the floral print shirt you got for Christmas years ago.
2. When is the next time you will be able to ride a wave in the dead of winter?
3. Be served breakfast at the Cooperstown Lions Island Pancake Breakfast Saturday and Sunday.
4. Support local businesses who have donated generously to make winter a little more fun.
5. Make some memories with your kids as you help them make a snow-surfer on the Village Library lawn.
6. Practice your hula
dancing during the Rip Tide Carnival Cooler.
7. Start your weekend off right by enjoying the
Carnival Fireworks Display over Otsego Lake.
8. Even your dog can get out and socialize with his puppy friends at the SPCA Dog Show.
9. Tire your kids out by letting them jump around in the Inflatable Bouncy House on Saturday.
10. That way you can stay out later at the Hang Ten Hangout and enjoy great bands at the local area bars.
11. Have you ever been to a Pig Roast in the middle of February?
12. Don’t feel guilty about indulging in all the samples during the Dessert Festival – we need judges for the fan favorite prize!
13. Run off the extra
calories on Sunday at the Bob Smullens 5k and 10k Run.
14. Channel Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation during The Sled Stampede races.
15. Show everyone that you are the best hula hooper in town at the Hula Hoop Contest.
16. The chance to check out the bamboo ice sculptures in Pioneer Park.
17. You heard correctly, the lip-sync contest is BACK!
18. Make sure you get enough fruits and veggies in your diet at the Waikiki Watermelon-eating contest.
19. Test your bartending skills at the DUVEL
Pouring Contest at the Pit.
20. Sample a number of different wines and find your favorite at the Paper Umbrella Wine Tasting on Saturday.
21. You could be one of the lucky people to win a raffle prize announced at the Last Stand Chili Contest and Carnival Closer.
22. Join your neighbors on Main St. for the Tropical Paradise Parade or enter to win cash prizes!
23. See if your kids
inherited your moves at the Children’s Disco held at the Cooperstown Fire Hall.
24. Trade your flip-flops for bowling shoes at the
Bowling Tournament held at the Clark Sports Center.
25. If you get cold, warm up at Doubleday Field and enjoy hot food and
beverages at the Beachfront Warming Tent, served by the CCS Softball Team.
26. Check out “Muppet Treasure Island” at Movie Float Night at the Clark Sports Center pool.
27. Enter your chili in the Aloha Means Goodbye Chili Contest and Carnival Closer and see if you can 


        bring the title of “best chili” home!
28. Get free entry to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum all weekend by wearing a 2011 Winter Carnival button.
29. Try luau-themed drinks made by competing bars and good music at the Rip Tide Carnival Cooler and Drink Contest.
30. Win the Cross Country Ski Race on Saturday
afternoon beginning at the Clark Sports Center.
31. See which Cooperstown high schoolers are named to the Carnival Court during Saturday’s Pancake
Breakfast.

32. Listen to some
talented youngsters take part in Kid’s Karaoke at the Masonic Lodge Building on Sunday.
33. Win a prize for your art by entering the Surf, Sun and Sand Snow Sculpting Contest on Saturday
morning.
34. Show everyone what that you’ve got what it takes at the Cooperstown’s Got Talent show.
35. Stop by the Winter
Carnival Farmer’s
Market in Pioneer Alley on Saturday morning and the TREP$ Marketplace in the Cooperstown Middle/High School Gymnasium on

Saturday afternoon.
36. Wear grass skirts and say things like ALOHA and not get funny looks from your neighbors.
37. Catch “Lilo & Stitch” during the Cabin Fever Film Series on Friday
evening at the Hall of Fame.
38. Learn about the hauntings of Cooperstown by taking a Candlelight Ghost Tour during the weekend.
39. Warm up with the
Soup ‘r Chili Luncheon at the First Baptist Church.
40. Back, back, back, GONE. Participate in the Homerun Hitting Showdown in Lakefront Park.

41. Test your shot in the HOOPLA Free Throw and Three Point Contest at the Clark Sports Center.
42. Dig in during the
Volcanic Blast Chicken Wing Contest.
43. Enjoy a Spaghetti
Dinner to benefit the Susquehanna SPCA On Saturday evening from 5-8 at Templeton Hall.
44. Try some great
Cheesecake at the 12th annual Cheesecake Tasting at the Cooperstown United Methodist Church.
45. Be apart of a 45-year tradition of the best
community in America.

Have Your Baby In Style In $4.7M Birthing Center

At Bassett, Labor Seems A Bit Easier

The Freeman’s Journal
No one seemed happier about the new Birthing Center than the nurses who staff it.  At left are Jill Bauenfeind, Whitesboro, and Pat Otis, Worcester.  Behind them is Peggy Bergan-Pavelka.  At right is Robin Stasilla, Mohawk.

By JIM KEVLIN : COOPERSTOWN

‘It doesn’t look very medical.  It looks like a hotel room,” observed FoxCare’s Dr. Carlton Rule as he toured Bassett Hospital’s $4.7 million Birthing Center, which opens for business Valentine’s Day.
“It’s very nice,” agreed Kathleen Ash, a clinical nurse specialist who was leading tours around the sparkling new suite of rooms for moms and babies on the third floor of Bassett’s original building.
Anyone who has participated in so-called birthing, moms- and dads-to-be and anyone else, would have to agree as well.
Dozens of people were taking the tour Tuesday, Feb. 8, sampling the buffet line and listening to expressions of thanks from Bassett President/CEO Bill Streck, OB/GYN Chief Dr. Siobhan Hayden and Mike Stein, who had just returned to Bassett fulltime as VP of Development the day before.
Len Marsh, president of The Friends of Bassett in 2005, when the bulk of the money for the Birthing Center was raised, was singled out for particular praise.
Afterwards, Stein recalled that when he joined Bassett in the 1980s, one of his first fundraising undertakings was for the maternity unit this new one replaces, built on the LDRP model.
That combined L (labor), D (delivery), R (recovery) and P (post-partum), “all in one room,” a new concept then.
This new entity takes that model apart.  The about-to-deliver moms go into one of four LDR rooms and, once baby arrives, are shifted into one of eight post-partum rooms.
The idea is that if there’s a rush of deliveries, the LDR rooms can be opened up more quickly for those who may be waiting.
That’s become more important over time, Stein said, as the number of deliveries rose from 350a year in the 1980s to more than 800 today.  That’s more than four a day, and Brahms’ “Lullaby” played twice over the P-A system while the tours were in progress, each signalling another young arrival.
In the ‘80s, Tri-Town Hospital in Sidney, Cobleskill, Mohawk General and other hospitals had maternity wards.  But with rising insurance rates in that particular specialty, hospital closings and consolidations, only Bassett and its Fox affiliate are doing so today.
But describing the shift from LDRP to LDR-plus-P doesn’t deliver the full impact. 
Each delivery room has a jacuzzi to ease moms’ stiffness during labor.
In the post-partum rooms, the sinks are shaped like bassinets so babies can be bathed at their moms’ bedsides.  There’s a fold-out couch if dad wants to stay the night.  And there’s a small fridge, for snacks.
There’s a well-appointed family lounge.  And one for staff as well.  The bathrooms are larger, and there are more of them.
There’s an operating room handy in case a C-section is required.  The state requires access to an O-R in less than 30 minutes.  “I imagine we can do it in less than five minutes,” Ash observed.
And there’s a nursery, although most babies stay with mom these days.

Clinical Nurse Specialist Kathleen Ash describes features of the post-partum room to Dr. Carlton Rule


FOR MORE PICTURES OF THE NEW CENTER, HEAD TO OUR PICTURES TAB

 

 

CCS Senior Finds Hula Girl Wedged Between 2 Rocks

Nancy Fisher Will Claim $500 Reward From Carnival

Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
Nancy Fisher reenacts her discovery of the Winter Carnival hula girl in Council Rock Park.

COOPERSTOWN

The third clue was out.  The start of the Cooperstown Winter Carnival 2011 was only a week away.  Would the hula girl be found at all?
And then it was, at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4, by CCS senior Nancy Fisher.
Divining the latest clue, published the day before in the Feb. 3 Freeman’s Journal, Nancy slid down the ice covered steps at Lake and River streets, then skirted back along the Susquehanna.
She brushed back the snow covering a clump of rocks.  She dug between two small boulders.  She felt something.  Could this be it?  She pulled it out and discovered she was holding a tiny hula doll.
And so it was. 
She headed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Steve Light, the member of the carnival committee who was running the contest, and he affirmed her find.
The means Nancy wins the $500 prize offered by The Journal for the fourth year.  It will be awarded Sunday, Feb. 13, during the carnival’s closing activity at Brewery Ommegang.
By the time she found the prize, Nancy estimates she’d spent about 8 hours on the hunt, sometimes assisted by her sister Becky, a Colgate senior home for winter break.
“It’s frustrating thinking how close we were,” she said.
One important clue was provided by her dad, Steve, who was aware that once there was a brewery on the spot. 
Also, Nancy had become familiar with an arrow at the bottom of the park steps.  The third clue had read, “the arrow points north; reverse your direction to stay on course.”
And she did.
Year One, the carnival medallion was discovered at Three Mile Point after the first clue.  Year Two, it was hidden under steps at Fairy Spring.  Last year, the Toulson family found it in a hollow tree at Lake Front Park.
The idea for a medallion hunt was originated by David and Donna Borgstrom, who had experienced a similar one in St. Paul, Minn., when he was undergoing his residency there.

COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND: End Conflicts, Otsego 2000 Asks Leaders

COOPERSTOWN

In a scorching letter, Otsego 2000 has asked two leaders of the Otsego County Board of Representatives to check possible conflicts of interest with the county attorney.
County Reps. Dubben and Powers stand to gain if natural-gas drilling goes forward, the group alleged.  (Details, A11)

NO DRILL: Meanwhile, the Middlefield Town Board has set a public hearing for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 8, on regulations to limit gas drilling in the town.

CAPITALISM LIVES:  The second TREP$ marketplace, a student-entrepreneurial fair, is noon-2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, at CCS.

IT’S COMING:  OCCA is looking for sponsors for Earth Festival 2011, planned 11 a.m-3 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at Milford Central.

The Freeman’s Journal
It was a “did you see that icicle week” around Cooperstown, as Bob Russell, Richfield Springs, can aver, as he cleaned off the Delaware Otsego Corp. roof.

League Plans Discussion On Redistricting

The Oneonta and Cooperstown chapters of the League of Women Voters will co-host a panel discussion, “Redistricting: The Road to Legislative Power” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, at Elm Park Methodist Church, Oneonta.
Featured at the start of the meeting will be a presentation based on a report jointly prepared by four New York “citizen action” groups: LWV New York State, NYPIRG, Common Cause of New York and Citizens Union of the City of New York.   Representatives of the Cooperstown and Oneonta Leagues will then offer brief commentaries.
Audience discussion will follow on redrawing state Senate, Assembly and U.S. congressional districts, which will begin shortly after release of final population data from the 2010 Census.
Under the current system, legislators get to draw the boundaries of their own districts.

Merge Delaware, Otsego Counties? Now That We Have Your Attention...

Of course, it’s easy to quibble about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s – or any governor’s – budget message, delivered Feb. 1.
A $96 billion budget, even one cut by $10 billion, funds so many jobs, schools and agencies with such varied impact that someone’s ox is bound to be gored.
In this space, we’ve consistently questioned how it makes sense to cut expenditures in the middle of a recession, but it seems we’re not all Keynesians any more.
Likewise, when you read that Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein paid himself a $12.6 million stock bonus for 2010, a 40 percent raise over the year before, you have to ask, Why not raise taxes on Wall Street’s top earners?  Why not, Andrew?
They got us into this mess, and were the first to get out; let’s share a teeny bit of the pain.

•

That said, there are benefits to periodic dips – although not as long, widespread and extreme as this one – in that they tend to flush weaker players out of the body economic, leaving survivors strengthened when things rebound.
And having to get by with less can start people asking, Is there a better way?
Mayors Booan and Miller have been talking about consolidating services, but what about schools?  In the ONC BOCES, only the Stamford, Jefferson and South Kortright districts are in conversations about consolidation. 
One of Cuomo’s whipping boys is superintendent salaries.   While the governor makes $179,000, the Orange County BOCES superintendent makes $400,000; the Syosset schools superintendent, $386,868.
“I applied for that job,” the New York Times had Cuomo kidding about the Syosset slot.  When he got turned down, he said, he ran for governor.
No doubt we would be surprised to learn what superintendents are making in these parts.  Of more concern:  Do we have more administration than we need?
In the old days – here we go – supervising principal was top job in local districts.  Now there’s a superintendent, a principal or two, a business manager.
Could these functions be shared?  Could they be shared among districts?  One superintendent, say, for Laurens and Morris?
The point is not to mount a witch-hunt.  Superintendents and principals are some of the most revered members of our communities.
The question is, Can we do the same, in schools, in town governments, in perhaps merging Otsego and Delaware counties into one entity? (They used to be.)
Now, fellow Otsegians and Delawarians, is time.

This Valentine’s Day, Try A Little 5-Minute Conversation

By LAURIE PUHN


Are you looking for a meaningful Valentine’s Day without spending a dime?  Here goes.

♥ Gift of Words #1: Compliment Your Mate Inside and Out
There are two types of compliments: those that address a person’s outer appearance and those that address a person’s inner character.
Surprisingly, our research shows 84 percent of people prefer to receive a character compliment as in, “You are an incredibly kind person,” over a comment like “your hair looks great.”  Start sharing character comments with your honey today.
♥ Gift of Words #2: Show You Care 
We all experience unique events during our busy days, so when our mate shows interest in our day’s happenings it creates an immediate loving bond with him/her. 
Find something in your mate’s schedule on Valentine’s Day (and other days too) such as a special meeting, an important errand, a doctor’s app’t, and call/text/email mid-day to specifically ask how it went.
♥ Gift of Words #3: Talk Forward 
If you want to have a special Valentine’s Day, it’s important to persuade your mate that he or she is special to you every day, not just on Valentine’s Day.  Do this by “talking forward.”
Take charge and make a thoughtful plan for the future..  On Valentine’s Day, say, “I’d like to make a special plan for us next month.  Let’s go to __________.” (Fill in with something your mate enjoys, a museum, the theatre, shopping, a road trip, etc.) “What do you think?”
♥ Gift of Words #4: Make an Offer
If you want to receive instant love and appreciation from your honey, volunteer to do something for your mate before he or she asks you to do it. 
For example, offer to pick something up at the store, offer to repair something, prepare dinner or offer to put your kids to bed (if you don’t usually).
A surefire way to boost your love life is to make an offer.  It says to your mate, I care about you and when you’re happy, I’m happy.
♥ Gift of Words #5: Be Memorable
Do and say memorable things this Valentine’s Day and year ‘round.  Instead of dining out, create a candlelit indoor picnic.  Sing karaoke together. Arrange for a massage – together.  Post love notes in surprise places. Buy a lasting plant instead of flowers. Phone your mate to give a heartfelt comment during the day like, “I love you because….”.
You will spark love and romance this Valentine’s Day (and the year through) by showering your sweetheart with the priceless gift of words.

Laurie Puhn, is a Harvard-educated lawyer, is the bestselling author of “Fight Less, Love More: 5 Minute Conversations to Change Your Relationship without Blowing Up or Giving In.”

Arizona Shooting Is Personal To Hartwick College Professor

Within minutes, his phone was buzzing.  Friends were texting.
It was Saturday, Jan. 8, in Tucson, Ariz., and a gunman had just shot Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in the head and killed six people at a “Congress on Your Corner” at a Safeway less than a mile from where Oneonta’s Jason Curley was staying.
Curley, Hartwick College music professor, was back in southern Arizona – he had spent six years there while earning his master’s at the University of Arizona – recruiting during the college’s January Off-Campus Program for the Hartwick Summer Music Festival.
During those years, Curley had often performed on the French horn in a brass quartet at the Giffords’ fundraisers, first for City Council, then for Congress.  A friend of his, Brad Holland, headed the quartet (and was also the Realtor who sold Giffords her house.)
“She’s just wonderful,” Curley said the other day, back in Oneonta for the spring semester, “an absolutely glowing personality.”
The day she was shot, he took his French horn to the lawn of the University Medical Center, where she was being treated, to play her favorites – “Strauss, Reicha.  She liked 19th-century Romantics” – as bouquets and other tributes piled up nearby.
In his half-dozen years in Tucson, Curley often read of shootings and multiple shootings in the local press, but only the worst made national headlines – in 2002, for instance, when a failing nursing student shot three of his teachers.
“The gun laws in Arizona are so relaxed,” he sawid.  “There are no significant background checks.”

Gordon Lightfoot Plans Benefit In Oneonta For Foothills Stage

It may be surprising to Baby Boomers to learn that Gordon Lightfoot isn’t a name familiar to everyone.
But play “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Carefree Highway” or “Sundown,” and a few bars in everyone knows those iconic songs of a generation. (Plus “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”)  Go to YouTube.  You will too.
This news will certainly thrill the Boomers:  Gordon Lightfoot will be performing a benefit at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 31, at the Foothills Performing Arts & Civic Center.
The proceeds will be use to buy the stage curtains necessary so Oneonta’s recently completed 634-seat theater – Foothills’ centerpiece – will be able to host national acts routinely.
“He’s a wonderful singer and a songwriter,” said jazz singer Dana Marcine of Cooperstown, who has performed at the Autumn Cafe and other local venues.
While the wavy-haired, dreamy-eyed folk singer of yesteryear is now 72, recent reviews conclude that, backed up by “a terrific band,” he still delivers.
“...The lifelong habit of top-loading every phrase with emphasis has paid off in the autumn of his career, when it is truly difficult for him to sustain the volume throughout,” Curtis Scheiber wrote in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.  “His attack sounds nearly as natural today as it did 40 years ago.”
Tickets are $75 and $60 and may be purchased online at www.foothillspac.org and at the following Oneonta locations:  The Eighth Note Music Store, Five Star Subaru, and The Green Toad Bookstore .

Lightfoot

COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND: Bassett Picks Stein To Lead Fundraising

COOPERSTOWN

Mike Stein, who has filled leadership roles at Bassett Healthcare for almost 30 years, has been named vice president of development and executive director of the Friends of Bassett.
In the Friends of Bassett position he replaces Scott Barrett, who departs after six years to become vice President of Development at Loretto, which operates eldercare facilities in the Syracuse area.
Details, A3

REPORT DUE:  CLA Site’s Peter Loyola said his report on possible toxic waste at Beanie Ainslie Field will be at Village Hall by Friday, Feb. 4.

HAVE YOU HEARD ... about the CCS tradition:  Putting spoons under your mattress to assure there will be a snow day?  (Or wearing your PJs inside out?)

The Freeman’s Journal
Cooperstown’s Mike and Linda Flynn and daughter Jennifer were in the throng at the Chinese auction Sunday, Jan. 30, to benefit the Goodyear Lake Polar Bear Jump.  (More photos, A2)

Let it, Let it, Let it SNOW!

After a relatively mild winter locally, Mom Nature dumped 12 inches on Otsego County overnight Monday, Jan. 31.  Another 10-15 inches was expected by the end of the week.
• In top photo, Brook D’Ambrosio scrapes his windshield in front of the Doubleday Cafe Tuesday, Feb. 1.
• In middle photo, Chris Hollister, president, Cooperstown Volunteer Fire Department, shovels snow from in front of an OPT bus that went off Route 33 near the county’s Meadows Complex at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 1.  No one was injured.
• At right, Bill Lecates tries to get ahead of it on his Chestnut Street sidewalk.

Fate Of Lakeside Mansion Debated

By JIM KEVLIN


COOPERSTOWN

What to do about the old mansion on Brookwood Point is still an issue, even though the 22-acre property is about to move from the Cook Foundation into the hands of the Otsego County Land Trust.
“The landscape can wait, but the house has to be dealt with,” said Martha Frey, the former Otsego 2000 executive director who, with Dr. Francis Nolan, is co-chairing a Land Trust study group seeking to chart a course for one of the last public access points to Otsego Lake.
Frey was addressing 70 people who gathered Sunday, Jan. 30, in Templeton Hall for the first of three public-input meetings designed to help the Frey-Nolan citizens committee put together a plan as soon as this spring.  The theme of the undertaking:  “Brookwood Point.  Discover Its Part; Imagine Its Future.”
But the issue about the mansion was raised in atmosphere of some excitement, which Nolan captured in his remarks:  “Looking ahead 10-20 years, I see an amazing place out there.”
Frey and Nolan outlined the status and history of the property, which grew from a simple home in the 1820s to an extensive and substantial summer retreat by the time it went into decline in the 1950s, when Robert Cook bequeath it to a foundation he created.

In the Q&A that ended the afternoon, four options were outlined:
• Renovate the house, which immediately needs a new roof and other steps to protect it from the elements.
• Historically reconstruct the house and the barn, which was razed four years ago.
• Replace the house with a “footprint,” perhaps a pavilion that occupies the same space and echoes the existing structure.
• Sell the house with a conservation easement that limits how it can be used.  Perhaps a boutique-hotel developer would be interested, and as a private entity could take advantage of tax credits that a not-for-profit like the Land Trust cannot, Nolan said.

“All structures change over time,” said Susan Birdsall.  “To say you should never change a house doesn’t make sense.”
Maria Tripp envisioned the house being used for receptions.  Earl Peterson suggested perhaps it can be reduced to its original size, before unprepossessing servants quarters were added to the south side.
Bill Parsons, the preservation contractor, observed that, whatever the cost of renovation, “the demolition cost can be so high it ameliorates that cost.”
Added Frey:  “The house right now can’t be used at all, due to code issues.”
Wayne Mellors, who is on the citizens committee, wondered whether the handful of slips that are rented out in summer might be increased as a source of revenue.
Since the garden was planned by a noted landscape architect, Frederick DePeyster Townsend (Lucy Townsend’s great-great-grandfather), it could be revived and perhaps become a stop on the American Heritage Garden Trail system, Nolan said.
Regardless, the group seemed to favor passive recreation, picnicking but probably not swimming, an access for canoes, but likely not motorboats.
The citizens committee will review the public input, continue its deliberations, and come back to the second public meeting, perhaps in March, with a firmer concept.

St. Mary’s Church Open This Winter

COOPERSTOWN

On learning travelers and others were seeking shelter during the sub-zero cold snap, the Rev. John P. Rosson has announced St. Mary’s “Our Lady of the Lake” Church will be open 24 hours a day for the rest of the winter.
“It is unconscionable to have a locked  warm  church when a human being is freezing to death at 1 am. in 10-below-zero weather,“  Father Rosson told his congregation during a recent mass.
 A pew has been outfitted in case of such emergency.

AUCTION WARMS UP FANS FOR POLAR BEAR JUMP

Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
Milford’s Charlotte Bernhardt and sisters Destiny and Faith Marshal posed with the Goodyear Polar Bear Jump mascot at the Sunday, Jan. 30, Chinese auction at Milford Central School to benefit the event, which begins at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19.  The event will aid eight ailing youngsters, plus Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care, and a local Milford church.   For details, or to register to jump, visit www.pbjump.com.

As Ethel Gardner of Milford announces the drawing is about to begin, Cooperstown’s Ed Gwilt contemplates the challenges ahead:   He’s collected the most pledges for the past three years, and hopes to do so again this year.

Breaking Onto TV

Daniel V. Parsons, son of Bill Parsons, Cooperstown, is production assistant on the new NOVA series, “Making Stuff,” which you would have seen promoted prominently (above) if you’d driving into Boston lately.   The show airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on PBS.  Young Parsons is a 2009 graduate of Fitchburg (Mass.) State College.

SZEJBKA SHINES:

SZEJBKA SHINES: Marissa Szwejbka, ’12, of Cooperstown, a junior early childhood/childhood dual major, is on the Dean’s List for the fall semester at Canisius College, Buffalo.

16 On SUNY Dean’s List

Sixteen northern Otsego County students at SUNY Oneonta have been named to the Dean’s List for the fall semester:
• Cherry Valley – Joelle Nick, Wesley Nick
• Cooperstown – Kristen Busse, Kamileh Demirel, Emily Hunter, John LaDuke, Patrick LaDuke, Amanda Willsey
• Fly Creek – Nicholas Weir
• Hartwick – Kaylan Alban, Sasha Boulay, Emily Davidson, Everett Farrell
• Milford – Eliza Higgins, Chelsea Krieg
• Richfield Springs – Meaghan Forbes

Stein Assumes Development Role At Bassett As Barrett Moves On

COOPERSTOWN

Michael Stein, a Bassett Healthcare stalwart for almost three decades, has been named vice president of development and Friends of Bassett executive director.
At the Friends he replaces Scott Barrett, who after six years at Bassett has joined Loretto, the largest Upstate supplier of eldercare services, in Syracuse, as vice president of development.
Stein will oversee philanthropic activity across the Bassett network, as well as pursue government funding and handle legislative relations at the state and federal levels.
For the past five years, he has served as Bassett’s executive director for government affairs, and as an independent fundraising consultant to many Upstate not-for-profits.
He joined Bassett in 1982 and later became its first director of public relations and fund development, helping orchestrate Bassett’s first capital campaign to build the Bassett Clinic.
In 1994, he left Bassett and spent two years as vice president for development of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
He returned in 1996 as the vice president for external affairs, managed a $15 million capital campaign in 1997 and later led the Bassett Heart Care Campaign, raising $12 million for the health system’s heart care institute.
He on Delhi’s O’Connor Hospital board and SUNY Albany’s University Council, and co-chairs Planned Parenthood of South Central New York.
During his tenure with the Friends, Barrett led campaigns to fund the Bassett Birthing Center, the cancer screening coach, school-based health and many other projects throughout the network.
The New Year’s Gala at The Otesaga, a signature Friends’ fundraiser, raised $244,000 this year, a record.

Vermont Governor On NBT Bank Board

Former Vermont governor James H. Douglas is among three new members of the NBT Bancorp board of directors. 

The other two new directors are:
• Timothy E. Delaney, Mayfield, founder and president of The Delaney Group, an engineering and construction firm in Gloversville.
• Matthew Salanger, Binghamton, president and chief executive officer of United Health Services.
Vermont governor from 2003 until last month, Douglas also served as chairman of the National Governors Association.