Albany Perspective Reforms May Be Costly, Dangerous Editor’s Note: State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, has represented Otsego County in Albany since 1986. As we approach the start of 2020, there are a number of new laws that will take effect in New York State. Among them are provisions I am deeply concerned about that will put public safety at risk. The measures include: • Bail changes that will allow 90 percent of individuals arrested to walk free without posting bail;…
Online home of The Freeman's Journal and Hometown Oneonta
Advertisement
Columns - Page 109
MATHISEN: Memoir Takes Us To 911 Bombing Editor’s Note: Don Mathisen, retired to Oneonta after a career as a reporter for WNYC, New York City’s NPR station and other outlets, published “A Broadcaster’s Life” last month, primarily for his children and grandchildren, but a few copies are available at The Green Toad Bookstore, 198 Main St. I ran for my life as the South Tower fell. I was just a few hundred feet away, standing in a crowd of people,…
Front Porch Perspective On Thanksgiving, Remembering Blue Four years ago on a snowy winter day, Dr. Fran Fassett came to our house and released our good old Blue from his failed body. It was amazingly peaceful, even blessed time. Anne and I had had Blue for about 10 years. He was a rescue dog who’d been picked up along Route 88 near Oneonta. Thank God, he was brought to our own animal shelter. A friend on staff there contacted Anne;…
COLUMN FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE Angst At Age 15 By JIM ATWELL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Last time we talked, I described the start of a major teenage crisis: when I knocked a nun flat on on her face, and then sat on her. To summarize: During halftime of our high school’s basketball team, I was selling candy and gum in the hallway just outside the gym to raise money for new uniforms. I was sitting on the edge of rickety…
ISSUE & DEBATE Martini: County Manager Will Save Much Wasted Time Editor’s Note: This commentary from County Representative Martini was in response to County Representative Frazier. By ADRIENNE MARTINI • County Representative City of Oneonta I am about to complete my first term on the Otsego County Board of Representatives as the District 12 representative for Wards 3 and 4 in the City of Oneonta. A few weeks ago, I was re-elected and will serve a second two-year term. Like my…
COLUMN WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER Disunity Is As American As Cherry Vs. Apple Pie By LARRY BENNETT • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com The press says we live in an era of unprecedented political division. The amplification of every tweet may make it seem so, but there is a different view of the severity of our polarization. The American Revolution saw Loyalists interested in compromises to prevent war, but colonists seeking independence who were not. Anyone trying to effect compromise or…
COLUMN ‘Love Unknown’ Travisano’s Elizabeth Bishop Biography Is Pinnacle Of 45 Years Of Scholarship By ROBERT BENSEN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com ONEONTA – Randall Jarrell (a friend of Elizabeth Bishop) said that a poet is one who, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, manages to get struck by lightning six or seven times. It doesn’t work that way. And don’t try it at home. And don’t let your kids try it either. But Jarrell’s outlandish savvy underscores one…
COLUMN THE VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT The Haves And The Have Nots Possibly the most important outcome of the recent meeting to discuss the future of the Schenevus Central School District is a quote from the superintendent: “The District’s revenues are inflexible.” She went on to say, “the District does not have property wealth or the income wealth to raise taxes enough to cover the deficit.” Finally someone in a position of authority has admitted the truth! We live in…
Column ONEONTA MAY BE AHEAD OF CURVE In Our Brave New World, No Parking Lots Needed! Editor’s Note: In sending this along, Oneonta’s Laurie Zimniewicz observed, “Based on these predictions, Oneonta is ahead of the curve regarding the parking spaces at the Dietz Street lot,” focus of a public debate on whether 80 parking spaces should be given up to allow construction of the Lofts on Dietz, 64 artists’ lofts and studios, and middle-income apartments. Auto repair shops will go…
ISSUE & DEBATE Frazier: County Manager Job Won’t Pay For Itself Editor’s Note: Mr. Frazier’s letter arrived after this week’s editions of Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal had gone to press, and is published here so the public may review it before the first information meeting on the county manager position, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. this Thursday, Nov. 14, at Oneonta City Hall. A second is planned at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, at the county courthouse…