Editorial for September 28, 2018 Balance Today’s Energy Needs, Tomorrow’s Energy Wishes It’s a great idea. In a column at the end of August, Adrian Kuzminski – citing the Tompkins County Energy Roadmap, completed in March – wrote, “Let me suggest … that the Otsego County Board of Representatives, in a bi-partisan spirit, is the logical authority to establish an Otsego Energy Task Force. A large, diverse umbrella group is far more likely to develop a comprehensive, viable energy strategy…
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Editorial - Page 35
Editorial for September 21, 2018 MISTAKES WERE MADE. WHO MADE THEM? Who Lost Otsego Manor? It’s pretty clear to everyone by now that the sale of Otsego Manor in Jan. 27, 2014, was a mistake. That was punctuated with numerous exclamation marks Wednesday, Sept. 12, when Focus CEO Joseph Zupnik and his chief financial executive, Daniel Herman, pleaded guilty before Otsego Town Justice Gary Kuch in the Fly Creek courtroom. Under a plea agreement, Zupnik and Herman admitted to only…
Editorial for September 7, 2018 For Now, Only Choice In Sheriff’s Race Is For Due Process A letter to the editor the other week drew on the Biblical injunction, “The son shall not suffer for the sins of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquities of the son.” And surely that’s as it should be. That said, it’s legitimate for open-minded citizens to question how county Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. has handled the situation involving his son,…
Editorial for August 31, 2018 A Good Idea From Fire Commissioners: Dissolve, Let Town Negotiate OFD Pact When one least expects it, a breakthrough. The Town of Oneonta’s Board of Fire Commissioners has voted, 3-2, to set a hearing to consider dissolving. The vote could come at the end of the hearing, scheduled at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, at Elm Park Methodist Church. Good idea. About time. If the fire district is dissolved, a “fire zone” continues to exist…
Editorial for August 24, 2018 Roadwork Can Mean Life, Death The Good News: Oneonta, Cooperstown Projects Moving Forward If DOT engineer Peter Larson thought it was going to be a ho-hum hearing that Dec. 15, 2008, at Oneonta High School, Kay Stuligross quickly advised him otherwise. “My husband was killed right there,” the former county representative told Larson, pointing to a spot where Lettis Highway enters Southside, in front of McDonald’s. Stuligross’ husband, Jack, a retired Hartwick College economics professor,…
Editorial For August 17, 2018 Sensible Plan Surfaces To Ensure Energy For Industry When Otsego Now Executive Director Jody Zakrevsky was Schoharie County economic developer, a Canadian firm was a half-step away from buying long-vacant Guilford Mills, that rambling complex to the right of I-88 as you drive to Albany. All that was lacking was a letter from the mayor, assuring the company would be guaranteed sufficient power to conduct business. Such a letter was forthcoming, but the last line…
Editorial, August 10, 2018 The Arithmetic Is Inexorable: 2/3rds City, 1/3rd Town Fire District. Make The Deal Judges generally are loath to get involved in situations that should be resolved through the political process. But once in a while their hand is forced. Such seems to be the case shaping up in the now years-long standoff between Oneonta City Hall and the Town of Oneonta Board of Fire Commissioners over what the town should pay to be covered by professional…
Editorial, August 3, 2018 America – And Cooperstown – Fearing Fear Itself One of the many delights in getting older is you realize some things aren’t going to be resolved in your lifetime. If you’re 65-and-holding, you can relax. American paranoia and its companion, the National Security State, won’t be dissipated tomorrow, if it can ever. And, year to year, we witness the ever-fuller flowering of these truly abhorrent aspects of modern American life during the Hall of Fame’s Induction…
Editorial, July 27, 2018 Do We Divert XNG Trucks Now – Or After First Fatality? On the surface, the argument makes sense, (sort of). Boston-based Xpress Natural Gas’ trucks, carrying fuel from fracking fields in Northeastern Pennsylvania across Otsego County to the Iroquois Pipeline near Little Falls, are legal carriers and should be allow to use New York State roads just like any other legal carrier. After all, what’s next? Should we then ban oil tankers? Suburban Propane delivery trucks?…
Editorial, July 20, 2018 AD The Voice’s Rap Career Emerges As Campaign’s First Hot Potato Get ready, folks. We’re going to be hearing a lot of hip-hop music between now and Nov. 6. It was generally known during the just-completed primary campaign in our 19th Congressional District that the victor, Antonio Delgado, had been involved in a rap venture in Los Angeles more than a decade ago, but details were fuzzy. And they didn’t really matter: Chances were even or…