Oneonta, Cooperstown County Reps Should Support Sharing Bed-Tax Revenue Edition of Thursday-Friday, Dec. 4-5, 2014 To the Editor: Thank you to your newspapers for the repeated suggestion that the county Board of Representatives should reform the occupancy or “bed tax.” It is inexplicable that the board seems set on ignoring this commonsense appeal, including several representatives whose own districts will suffer greatly. Tourism is one of the primary industries of our County and is led by Cooperstown, the city and…
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Opinion - Page 255
County Bed-Tax Windfall Should Be Everybody’s Windfall Editorial for the edition of Thursday-Friday, Dec. 4-5, 2014 There seems to be a consensus emerging on one thing: Otsego County’s government, which benefits to the tune of $1.4 million a year in bed-tax revenues, should share some of that with communities that host the bulk of the 500,000 people who visit here each summer. Those communities are the city and town of Oneonta, which together generate 30 percent of bed-tax revenues, the…
Thanksgiving and Hospice: Blessings Abound Edition of Thursday-Friday, Nov. 27-28, 2014 Editor’s Note: Lola Rathbone is president/CEO of the Catskill Area Hospice & Palliative Care. Thanksgiving is about family, traditions and a time to be thankful for life’s blessings. Hospice, too, is about family, traditions and a time to be thankful for life’s blessings. Thanksgiving comes once a year. Every day we are privileged to offer a wide variety of “Thanksgivings” to our Hospice families. Personally, one of my most…
Highway Crew In Near-Poverty As Town Officials Get Raises Edition of Thursday-Friday, Nov. 27-28, 2014 To the Editor: Now is the time of year when towns approve their annual budgets for the coming year, and Town of Otsego residents should be aware of what was approved on Nov. 12. Raises have been awarded to some elected officials and part-time administrative employees, yet our hard-working, full-time, highway crew starts at a very low hourly wage, which has cost the town some…
This Christmas, Shop Local – For The Fun Of It! Editorial in the Edition of Thursday-Friday, Nov. 27-28 Shopping local isn’t simply a feel-good decision. It’s essential to the economic well-being of our Otsego County neighbors and ourselves. In recent days, that’s been dramatized by the debate over whether the county should close the Department of Motor Vehicles Office in Cooperstown. The office was under threat because local drivers have opted to renew their licenses in Albany via the Internet.…
As Susquehanna’s Source, Pure Water Matters Here Most By SANDRA VITTI & LARRY BENNETT Edition of Thursday-Friday Nov. 13-14 The Susquehanna River is the longest river in the East, providing drinking water to millions of people and a place for residents across multiple states to boat, swim and fish. What’s more, Cherry Valley Creek, Moss Pond and other local waterways help support dozens upon dozens of small businesses that help New Yorkers use and explore their waterways. Brewery Ommegang, for…
Alas, Dear Citizens, Perhaps Some Of The Fault Is In Ourselves Edition of Thursday-Friday Nov. 13-14 It’s such a cliche we won’t even say it directly: all-ay, olitics-pay is-ay ocal-lay. Yes, such was certainly the case in the race for Congress in the 19th, the district that stretches along the Hudson River, then hooks over to, eventually, Otsego County. The incumbent running for his third term, U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, was everywhere. And even after he soundly defeated…
Fingers Crossed. Forums May Achieve ‘Single Point Of Contact’ Editorial for the edition of Thursday-Friday Oct. 16-17, 2014 Otsego County has never done economic development – and never will, county Treasurer Dan Crowell told the 2014 Otsego Leadership class when it convened last April at the Cooperstown Graduate Program. Economic development requires risk-taking, Crowell said, and the county Board of Representatives simply has been unwilling to risk taxpayer money. He couldn’t imagine the reps ever will. That’s prudent; they shouldn’t.…
Left Alone, Yanks, Ukrainians Friends Edition of Thursday-Friday Oct. 9-10 To the Editor, With all that is going on in the Ukraine, this may be of interest to World War II buffs. My husband Jerry Waller was, for two and a half years, in the Eighth Air Force in England. Suddenly, a group from his squadron was sent by ship down the coast of France to Gibraltar and across the Mediterranean to Cairo. From there they went by truck and…
Friendly Elephant Means No Harm, But Is What It Is Edition of Thursday-Friday, Oct. 9-10 To the Editor: I want to make it clear that at the public hearing on Monday, Sept. 29, I was not speaking against Bassett Healthcare; I was speaking against the strange and needless effort of village officials to create an Institutional District in place of a Residential District. I did note Bassett’s construction of a massive addition to the original hospital and its construction of…