HOMETOWN HISTORY, June 6, 2014

125 Years Ago
A petition is being circulated asking the board of trustees to pave Main Street from Grove Street to the Silver Creek bridge; Broad Street from Main Street to the railroad; and Chestnut Street from Main Street to the westerly limits of the Windsor Hotel. The petition is being very generally signed by property owners and will be presented to the Board of trustees next Monday evening. The boundaries described above, it will be noted, omit the residence portion of Main Street. While there will always exist more or less difference of opinion as to just what kind of pavement it is desirable to lay, all are agreed that Main Street ought to be paved, and, as a majority of the board of trustees are in favor of Trinidad asphalt, that pavement is likely to be laid here. It will give Oneonta some grand thoroughfares and will add greatly to the attractiveness of the village.
June 1914

80 Years Ago
The Zulu Giants, also labeled the Cannibals, and the victors in four recent baseball games in this vicinity, will clash with the Oneonta Merchants on the Neahwa Park diamond this afternoon at 4:15 o’clock. Wearing few clothes, painted and sporting their native headdress, the Zulus present a colorful appearance on the diamond, but they are also good ballplayers. One of the members of the jungle team is a former Mohawk Giant, it is said. The lineup of the visiting team contains a weird list of names – Limpo, Mani, Tangia, and Rufifi will cover the infield positions, while Wahoo, Budras, and Tanna will roam the outfield. Okapi will coach. The Zulu pitcher will be Kalkani, or Waloo, or Rahoo, or Bondno. Oneonta manager Thomas Wilcox will send Joe Long or Francis Lee to the mound.
June 1934

60 Years Ago
After a public hearing last night Oneonta Common Council voted 4 to 1 to abolish rent controls in the city. Under state law the decontrol will become effective four months after the vote on October 1. This will affect everything except leases, which will continue until their expiration dates, after which the properties involved will be freed of rent ceilings. The vote came after a hearing attended by 23 landlords and one tenant. Similar increases in heating fuels and property taxes over the years have not been offset by rent increases.
June 1954

40 Years Ago
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that employers must take steps to root out past wage discrimination against women. In a 5 to 3 decision against the Corning Glass Works, the court said that even a remnant of past discrimination violates the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963. The law, which requires that women and men draw the same salary for the same work is “broadly remedial” and it should be construed and applied “so as to fulfill the underlying purposes which Congress sought to achieve,” Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote for the court. The court found that Corning was guilty of sex discrimination by maintaining a pay scale which perpetuated a 1920s-era reward for men who took night jobs reserved for women workers during the day. The decision clears the way for payment of some $600,000 in back wages to victims of the discrimination at three plants in Corning, N.Y.
June 1974

30 Years Ago
The New York State Department of Transportation will fund reconstruction of a bridge over the Millrace at Neahwa Park. The bridge will be part of a flood control project that will entail building a large earthen dike along the Millrace. The Millrace is a manmade channel that carries Susquehanna River water away from the river in a long loop enclosing Neahwa Park. The Millrace crosses I-88 through two culverts on its way to and from the river. The city wants a dike built along the Millrace because the water backs up through the culverts when the river is in flood stage and inundates parts of the Sixth Ward. The dike would control flooding by diverting waters away from the 6th Ward onto Neahwa Place, but the bridge needs to be raised to match the height of the dike.
June 1984

20 Years Ago
New York lawmakers voted Monday to spend up to $4.5 million to help build a stadium and museum building at the National Soccer Hall of Fame campus in Oneonta. The money is part of a $62 billion-plus state budget agreement reached last week by legislative leaders and Governor Mario Cuomo. Winning state aid for the Soccer Hall of Fame was a roller coaster ride for Albert Colone, executive director of the Soccer Hall. Colone said the organization will launch a drive later this year to match the state money with private sector donations. In this way, the Hall expects to raise a total of $9 million. The money will go to build a 4,000 to 5,000 seat soccer stadium and a 27,000 square-foot museum building.
June 1994

10 Years Ago
Hundreds of alumni, their families, and friends of the State University College at Oneonta will return to campus for Reunion Weekend 2004. The Alumni Association will present its annual outstanding service awards. Faculty member David Ring will receive the Faculty Service Award.
June 2004