EDITORIAL Nostalgia? Why Not Live By Enduring Values Today? As Christmas nears, it was comforting news: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – for years, youngsters from around Otsego County rode the mechanical Christmas legend at Bresee’s Department Store in Oneonta – is in good hands. The venerable four-story emporium at 155 Main St. – now Klugo’s Parkview Apartments – closed in 1994. And when the building changed hands almost a decade later, the Lettis Auction House auctioned off the remaining contents…
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Opinion - Page 184
MANAGING EDITOR MARKS 10TH Libby Found Love, Work, Heartbreak — And Home Editor’s Note: What a decade! Her friends and colleagues celebrated Manager Editor Libby Cudmore’s 10th anniversary among us on production day, Tuesday, Dec. 10, and agreed to write this memoir. By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special To www.AllOTSEGO.com There’s a lot for Ian and I to celebrate in December. Our families do Christmas, Yule and Hanukkah, our original anniversary, the New Year’s Eve to cap it all off. But…
EDITORIAL Not John Lambert, Somebody LIKE Him Why does John Lambert, son of Cooperstown and now a county judge, keep coming to mind in the past few weeks? Raised in that village, he was a good student and guard on a top CCS Redskins’ basketball team that won two regional titles in the late 1980s. He graduated from Hartwick College in 1992, and earned a J.D. from New England School of Law in 1998. Then he came home, practiced law,…
VIEW FROM WEST DAVENPORT Democratic Intrigues Weave Tangled Web By MIKE ZAGATA • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Speaker Pelosi proudly informed us that she is a Catholic and thus doesn’t hate the President, but she conveniently ignored her pro-choice voting record – even defending the taking of a life about to be born. I think I’d be happier, as a fellow Catholic, if she admitted she hated the President but defended the lives of the unborn. I’d also have more respect…
INTRODUCING ERNA ‘Be Afraid, But Do It Anyway’ By ERNA MORGAN McREYNOLDS • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com One day a woman who had sat next to me at a fundraising dinner called me. She wanted me to be the speaker at an event for women alumnae from NYU. How could I resist? She titled it, “An Interview with a Financial Superstar”. She asked about my growing up outside a little village in Upstate New York. How did you go from no…
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…
Albany Perspective Reforms May Be Costly, Dangerous Editor’s Note: State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, has represented Otsego County in Albany since 1986. As we approach the start of 2020, there are a number of new laws that will take effect in New York State. Among them are provisions I am deeply concerned about that will put public safety at risk. The measures include: • Bail changes that will allow 90 percent of individuals arrested to walk free without posting bail;…
LETTER from JAMES DEAN Study Before Acting On New Zoning Law To the Editor: Sufficient affordable apartments, which the Village of Cooperstown needs, come from an efficiency of scale in single- and multi-building design and construction, lower cost of larger parcels of land, and lower operating expenses with the newest technologies. All of this comes with building new, planned developments, from the ground up. Newly built rental housing units, of all types, on sufficient land, are so important to the quality…
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…
