EDITORIAL Action Needed, And Responsible Majority Acted 9 ACCEPTED IMPERATIVE; 5 DIDN’T Sometimes things have to be done. Imperatives, they’re called. Such is the regrettable layoff of 59 county workers, a decision made May 20, a week ago Wednesday, by the Otsego County Board of Representatives. The layoffs go into effect Monday, June 8, the day county government is allowed to reopen. The vote was 9-4-1, with the nays all Democrats: a veteran county rep, Andrew Stammell, Town of Oneonta,…
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Editorial - Page 22
EDITORIAL Every Business Should Build On DMCOC’s Smart Marketing It’s been hard to approximate layoffs. Business owners don’t want to announce them, and the monthly figures seem so theoretical. Bassett Healthcare Network, people figure – and have heard anecdotally from time to time – has certainly furloughed and cut back hours after closing two floors and halting elective surgeries while coronavirus was considered a pending local emergency. But it doesn’t want to brag about it either. So the county Board…
Editorial For Good Of All, Hope Marty Patton Right It may turn out Marty Patton made the right call, delaying opening of his Cooperstown All Star Village, the youth baseball tournament camp in West Oneonta, in hopes of salvaging at least some of the 2020 season. Things are happening so quickly. With this week’s Glimmerglass Fest cancellation, pretty much all of the major summer activities have been cancelled or delayed – mostly notably, of course, Derek Jeter’s July 26 Induction…
Editorial COVID-19 War Not Over, But Let’s Take Victory Lap Let’s take a victory lap. As of Monday, May 4, the coronavirus threat in Otsego County had been reduced to one case. One case in the whole county. It’s a battle won, not the war. Testing for the coronavirus identified 62 positive infections once symptoms appeared, through the Bassett Hospital hotline (547-5555) and other means. In all likelihood, though, there is still coronavirus in our neighborhoods. Testing for antigens, which…
Editorial First Cooperstown Village Election Was A Wild One Editor’s Note: The uncertainly surrounding this year’s village elections locally and throughout New York State, now scheduled six months late on Sept. 15, brought to mind the tumult surrounding Cooperstown’s first village elections, recounted in Alan Taylor’s “William Cooper’s Town,” which won a 1996 Pulitzer Prize. The (state) Legislature (in 1807) was considering two rival petitions to incorporate the village at the foot of Lake Otsego. Incorporation would provide Cooperstown with…
EDITORIAL Turn On Porch Light For Hometown Heroes In New York City, folks are leaning out their windows beating on pots and pans at 7 each evening, an appreciative salute to the First Responders in our latest national trial: Healthcare workers, from ambulance drivers to surgeons, and everybody in between. In more sedate Cooperstown, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch had an appropriate alternative: the Porch Lights for Support campaign. (Thankfully: lawnmowers will be roaring soon enough.) The idea is for residents…
EDITORIAL With Facts As Guide, Let’s Start Reopening As the headline has it, that’s what Governor Cuomo is doing. And he’s convincing. When on April 16, Cuomo announced he was extending NY PAUSE from April 29 to May 15, most of us probably thought that it would then be extended to the end of May, then mid-June, and so on. Upstaters, given the daily reports of New York City’s spiraling death code, were in that frame of mind. So it…
EDITORIAL In Time Of Trial, All Of Us Have A Chance To Do Good Otsego County is blessed with generous foundations. The Clark Foundation and its spinoffs have, of course, been transformative, and continue to be, with supporting the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Fenimore and Farmers’ museums, Glimmerglass Opera and more than $10 million in college scholarships to top local students countywide since the 1960s. The Clark’s Scriven Foundation is focused exclusively within the county, and it’s the rare…
EDITORIAL Reprinted From This Week’s Hometown Oneonta, Freeman’s Journal ANDREW CUOMO FOR PRESIDENT He’s Ready For White House; Americans Ready For Him Andrew Cuomo for president. Already, he seems presidential, never more than this past Monday in announcing his collaboration with five other Northeast governors in a multi-state council “to restore the economy and get people back to work.” Let’s do it. In the five weeks of New York State’s fight against the coronavirus invasion, the governor’s shown all the…
EDITORIAL County Avoids ‘Reactive, Emotional’ Measures Here Visitors Asked To Take Sensible Steps To Protect Themselves, Us By now you’ve heard about Rhode Island: Last Friday, it had state police stopping cars with New York license plates at the state line, and instructing passengers they must self-quarantine for 14 days if they planned to stay in Ocean State. The next day, National Guard troops went door to door in coastal areas, advising any Empire Staters who had gotten out of…
