EDITORIAL Everyone Wants Fair Deal For Animal Shelter, County Drop The Threats, Negotiate An Agreement The issue’s been hanging out there for a while: What role should the Otsego County Board of Representatives play in funding the Susquehanna Animal Shelter? Schoharie County’s contribution is $75,000 a year to its shelter. Delaware County splits $88,000 among two shelters. Until now, Otsego County has contributed nothing. The county has been allocating $5,000 a year. It is not a donation, but a fee…
Online home of The Freeman's Journal and Hometown Oneonta
Advertisement
Editorial - Page 25
EDITORIAL On County Manager, Now Hard Work Begins By the time you read this, it’s very likely Otsego County will have created a job of county administrator, joining all but a handful of counties around New York State. Heading into the Wednesday, Dec. 4, monthly meeting of the county Board of Representatives, the momentum to professionalize government was clear. Six of the seven Democrats were firmly in favor, plus two Republican leaders – chairman David Bliss and Schenevus’ Peter Oberacker.…
EDITORIAL Kennedy, Bliss, Committee Deserve Praise Who gets the praise for professionalizing Otsego County government? Foremost, probably county Rep. Meg Kennedy, C-Hartwick. The idea caught fire with her, evident in her close questioning of SUNY New Paltz Vice President Gerry Benjamin, keynoter at “County Manager v. County Executive,” a forum on the idea Dec. 14, 2017, at Springbrook’s new community center. In the months that followed, she became the first local county representative ever recruited to New York State Association…
EDITORIAL Conductor Search: What A Treat, Opportunity Now, THAT’S marketing – in the nicest possible light. On learning its venerable founding conductor, Chuck Schneider, was retiring after 46 years, The Catskill Symphony Orchestra Governing Board could have simply advertised for a new one, sorted the resumes, interviewed top prospects and made a decision. Instead of handling matters in-house, the search committee threw open the decision-making to the public; not exclusively, of course, but it encouraged attendees at three concerts this…
EDITORIAL Citizens, Cooperstown Needs You To Run For Village Trustee Position Bernie Viek’s testimony nailed it. In the past few months, the Cooperstown Village Board’s default response to any traffic issue has been, put up a blinking light. After a driver rolled his car through the boat ramp at the end of Fair Street April 11 and drowned, suddenly a blinking red light appeared at Fair and Lake streets. At the Sept. 23 trustees’ meeting, Viek, attending with a crowd…
EDITORIAL From All, Best Wishes For A Speedy Recovery Editor’s Note: This editorial is reprinted from this week’s editions of Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal, on newsstands now. The news that state Sen. Jim Seward’s cancer is back – his office issued a press release Wednesday, Nov. 6 – brings two immediate reactions. One, fingers crossed. Advances in cancer-fighting research can mean five years, 10 years – and more – of active living. Everyone’s got a story of a…
WHO MIGHT BE COUNTY MANAGER? You Can Read County Manager Job Description Editor’s Note: Here are the qualifications for a county manager the Otsego County board was scheduled to consider Wednesday, Nov. 6. ►Section 3. Appointment and Term of Office The County Administrator shall be appointed by the Board of Representatives and shall serve a term of three years at the pleasure of the Board of Representatives. In the event of a vacancy in office, the County Board of Representatives…
EDITORIAL Reps Ready To Balance Credentials, Experience As the City of Oneonta has demonstrated, moving to a city manager – or county manager, the issue of the day – can be “fraught.” (That’s the word of the day – or year – all of a sudden, every reporter is finding every situation “fraught,” filled with possibilities for undesirable outcomes. It’s the “Where’s the Beef?” of 2019.) Wednesday, Nov. 6, the Otsego County Board of Representatives, after almost two years of…
EDITORIAL Early Voting Begins In County, And With It, New Opportunities “Anything that allows more people to exercise the right to vote is important,” said Mike Henrici, the county’s Democratic elections commissioner after the first weekend of early voting in Otsego County. Maybe. Early voting has been around for 30 years – Texas was first – and today 38 states open the polls in advance of Election Day, which this year is Nov. 5. New York was the 38th state…
ENDORSEMENT EDITORIAL Revisit Richfield Comp Plan: Elect Palevsky, Eckler, Bello In the lead-up to the Richfield Town Board adopting a new Comprehensive Plan & Zoning Code, people said they want to see the town come together. People observed that “nothing’s happened” in the Richfield Springs area in the past 20 years (or longer). Send Political Letters To info@allotsego.com By noon Monday, 10/28 People mourned the decline in enrollment of the Richfield Springs Central School, which graduated 29 seniors on June…
