EDITORIAL No Kidding, Watch Out For Bears After Vince and Lynne Krogh Casale’s sighting (and videographing) of a black bear on Bedbug Hill Road Tuesday, March 23, a reader sent along this photo of a black bear (see photo) rampaging in a yard in the Pierstown area, on the other side of the hill, both in Town of Otsego on the west side. More bears in Otsego County is a new reality, Josh Choquette, the DEC’s new bear expert, based…
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Editorial - Page 17
EDITORIAL Uncle Sam, Font of Plenty, Thanks To Printing Presses Ain’t Uncle Sam great! At least his ability to print money. After the year-long COVID pandemic, which cost Otsego County government $10.6 million, the federal government is sending it $11 million. That’s $400,000 in profit, from the greatest pandemic in 100 years. The beauty of it is county government, under the guidance of brainy Allen Ruffles, the county treasurer, had already taken steps to stem the bleeding. The Ruffles Plan,…
FOOD FOR THOUGHT Abandoning Atlanta? How About Moving All-Star Game To Coop Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the league will move its 2021 All-Star Game and MLB Draft from Atlanta. …MLB has yet to select an alternate host site, but might I suggest Cooperstown, NY? Given the short-term logistics of finding a new site, it would have the quaint feeling like Iowa’s Field of Dreams. Plus, it’s the perfect place to honor Aaron and those Hall of Fame…
EDITORIAL ‘Reefer Madness’ Goes Mainstream Maybe when marijuana vendors appear at Disney World, or when the venerable theme park comes up with a Marijuana Mile theme ride, or maybe Marijuana Maelstrom. Then, perhaps, the Village of Cooperstown – “the pinnacle” of youth baseball camps, according to Lunetta Swartout, Cooperstown Stays proprietor, (and she ought to know) – should approve pot shops, or a “recreational cannabis dispensary,” or whatever, along Main Street in Baseball’s Mecca. Maybe then, but now the debate…
EDITORIAL Otsego Electric’s Broadband: Entrepreneurism At Its Best Otsego Electric’s Broadband initiative wasn’t mentioned in last week’s editorial on entrepreneurism in arts organizations – it’s an electric cooperative, not a dance troupe. Still, it’s worth a separate nod. While local governments and the citizenry at large were crying out to Albany and Washington for universal Broadband, CEO Tim Johnson and the Hartwick-based, non-profit rural-electrification entity simply did it. As reported last week, in the past three years, Otsego Electric has…
EDITORIAL Much To Be Proud Of In Response To COVID-19 Despite the chilling toll – 3,483 COVID-19 cases and 54 deaths – Otsego County people, our neighbors, friends and family, have a lot to be proud of as we ended The Year of The Pandemic on Monday, March 15, we found in revisiting the last 52 editions of this newspaper. Throughout, there was worry, dismay and grief in the face of the implacable and mysterious foe, but little panic. In…
EDITORIAL Water Plant Done, Is One Greater Oneonta Inevitable? Bob Wood was dealt a winning hand when elected Oneonta town supervisor in 2008, and he played the hand well. He announced his retirement last Friday, March 5 – 299 days to go until Dec. 31, he said – and expressed satisfaction that $12 million in projects – $3-plus million for a new town highway garage and $8-plus million for the long-awaited Southside water project – will be completed by the…
EDITORIAL Vaccines Are Here. Keep Trying. You’ll Get Your Shots Elsewhere on this page, Dr. Charles Hyman, Bassett Hospital’s infectious disease specialist, says, “It’s time for hope.” Yes, indeed, all the signs are good. Earlier this week, Heidi Bond, Otsego County public health director, said, “I think it will open up pretty quickly with Johnson & Johnson,” a reference to the new one-shot vaccine approved over the weekend. It’s even encouraging to read the daily reports in the doom-and-gloom national…
FALL from GLORY Probe Of Cuomo Administration Must Run Its Course Editor’s Note: By covering stories other big newspapers have ignored, the New York Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton, is regaining some of its luster. In this latest editorial on the Cuomo Administration’s latest crisis, it questions whether campaign contributions played a role in the March 25 order requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients. Also, below, is a sampling of editorials on the issue. Governor Cuomo is…
EDITORIAL In Time Of Pandemic Hope Blooms Master Gardeners: Our National Mission ‘Extension Master Gardener programs educate people, engaging them in learning to use unbiased, research-based horticulture and gardening practices through a network of trained volunteers directed and supported by land-grant university faculty and staff.” Underneath the quiet of pandemic strictures and social-distancing, the world hasn’t completely come to a stop. Just as, soon, crocuses (not, croci, we’re told) will begin poking through the snow, so will the Otsego County…
