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…
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Opinion - Page 245
Column by Adrian Kuzminski, Friday, September 21, 2018 Let’s Build On Sustainable Assets, Not Unsustainable Liabilities Otsego County needs a new direction for energy and economic development. An important step to that end was taken last week when the county board’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee endorsed the idea of setting up an energy and economic development task force. Kudos to them! A county-wide task force would give us two things we don’t have now: long-term economic planning and a wide range…
Column by Adrian Kuzminski, September 7, 2018 THE GOAL: ECONOMIC, POLITICAL FREEDOM Populism As American As Apple Pie Ever since the last presidential election the words “populist” and “populism” have been widely bandied about, mostly as pejorative terms. A populist politician, we often hear, is a demagogue who wins votes by inflaming the resentments and emotions of ordinary people at the expense of rational thought. Those who fall prey to populism are no more to be trusted, critics suggest, than…
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…
Column by Mike Zagata, August 31, 2018 Rising To The Fly On Natural Gas One of the main reasons that local brook trout don’t get very big is that they tend to rise to and take the first dry fly that is drifted over them. During my professional career, I have avoided “rising to the fly,” but my fellow columnist, Adrian Kuzminski, in his Aug. 23-24, 2018 article, floated one that was just too tempting. He was commenting on my…
Column by Adrian Kuzminski, August 24, 2018 Let’s Take Control Of Our Energy Future Recently, nearly 100 people crowded the Oneonta Town Hall to respond to a report by Otsego Now head, Jody Zakrevsky, about the controversial gas decompression station proposed for Oneonta. The backlash was overwhelming. A long series of speakers unanimously condemned the project and demanded instead a full-scale effort to transition to renewables as soon as possible. As the speakers pointed out, a myriad of solutions 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…
Column by Mike Zagata for August 17, 2018 Exotic? Natural Gas As Common As … Manure It’s amazing that the natural gas opponents all talk about wanting to protect the environment by moving from natural gas to “renewables.” Is it that they are misinformed or have an agenda? It’s difficult to tell, but here’s what the science tells us. Natural gas, or methane, is naturally occurring. It is emitted from volcanoes, manure piles and humans. It is the cleanest burning…