EDITORIAL Job One, Beat Coronavirus; Job Two, Limit The Harm As a community, we face two tasks. Job One is to tackle the coronavirus threat. As evident in closing schools and colleges, local governments and business, in our adherence to “social distancing,” and in Bassett Hospital’s pro-active agenda, there is community-wide commitment to that. Governor Cuomo, who has been at his best since the crisis loomed, put it well Sunday, March 22, in his interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “In…
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Editorial - Page 23
SOUTH KOREA DID IT: WE CAN TOO Rah, Team! Beat Coronavirus! There’s been a lot of great reporting, nationally, regionally and from local newspapers and TV, but this one was particularly helpful in helping we Otsego County folks sort out the crisis we find ourselves in. The Wall Street Journal over the weekend contrasted how South Korea and Italy responded to the corona-virus arrival “South Korea’s known infections are now stabilizing at about 8,000, whereas Italy’s are rising relentlessly past…
Your Favorite Business Needs YOU To Survive Sure, local governments and school districts can close their doors and send thousands of employees home Friday, March 13 – tax revenues will ensure they get paid. Private enterprise is different. Your favorite diner or restaurant. That lively boutique or gift shop. They need your continuing support – in many cases, to simply survive. Same goes for local institutions we rely on. The Catskill Symphony Orchestra had to cancel its Cabaret Concert Saturday,…
ENDORSEMENT EDITORIAL Mary Margaret Will Put People Back In Picture Mary Margaret Robbins Sohns was a breath of fresh air at the Thursday, March 5, League of Women Voters’ debate for Cooperstown Village Board candidates. Village voters should open the windows Wednesday, March 18, and let that fresh air in. Polls are open noon – 9 p.m. at the fire hall. “They never should have allowed CVS to leave Main Street!” she declared, and cut to the heart of an…
ENDORSEMENT EDITORIAL Membrino Adeptly Fills Key Role: Finance Chair Interviewing the three candidates, it was quickly clear: Three exceptional people – and exceptional in different ways – are running for Cooperstown Village Board. Mary Margaret Robbins Sohns is a trained and organized pharmacist, a wife and mother, and someone with an inspiring personal story: enduring misdiagnosed Lyme disease and emerging victorious from a heart transplant. Joe Membrino is a semi-retired D.C. lawyer with a specialty in Indian affairs, who is…
Editorial Inspired By 5 Heroes At Fire Scene, Consider Joining Good Samaritans What’s happened in the past week is another opportunity to be impressed about the brave men and women who respond, in dark of night and bright of day, any hour, any day, when fires and accidents happen in Otsego County. Training and experience have made mishaps so rare, we forget – certainly the public, but volunteers and ambulance squad members, too – that every fire call and crash…
Cooperstown, Oneonta Face Common Problem That the aristocratic Village of Cooperstown and funky City of Oneonta are so different adds texture and richness to the experience of living in Otsego County. Different as they may be, it turns out they are united by the same challenge: Both lack sufficient housing to thrive. Cooperstown’s school and downtown are suffering from a declining population. Oneonta’s colleges and institutions attract young professionals, but many have to commute from afar. Thinking people understand it:…
DISSENSION IN TOWN OF RICHFIELD Electorate Spoke – Now, Work Together It was troubling to attend the Richfield Town Board’s latest meeting, on Monday, Feb. 17. The meeting room in the Town Hall on East James Street was full, which is good – citizens participating. But what followed was less so. Control of the Richfield Town Board shifted from 3-2 to 2-3 on Jan. 1, with the majority shifting from supporters of the town’s new comprehensive plan and zoning code…
EDITORIAL If Not Allen Ruffles, Someone With SOME Of His Qualities The question was, “Do you think THEY will let the county administrator do the job?” They, of course, being the county Board of Representatives. But the question misunderstands how the new county administrator job is envisioned. Judging from discussions surrounding the new job’s creation, the county representatives aren’t looking for someone to tell them what to do. They’re looking for someone who will allow them to do what THEY…
EDITORIAL ‘Trusted Traveler’ Revocations Aside, ‘Green Light’ Bad Law On Sept. 11, 2001, the 19 terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon, or crashed in Schwenksville, Pa., had 30 driver’s licenses among them that allowed them to gain access to and hijack the four jets. Nineteen licenses were from Florida, eight from Virginia, one each from Arizona and Maryland, plus two from California that were issued to two “watchlisted” participants. None were from our state’s DMV, but if…
