Otsego County Leaders Already Looking Ahead: Part II

OTSEGO COUNTY
The new year is now underway, and Iron String Press continues to reach out to area officials—Otsego County’s movers and shakers—to find out what they are most looking forward to accomplishing in the months ahead. We’ll print their responses this month, as they are received, continuing with the following entities and those at their helm.

Hartwick Institute of Public Service

As one of the co-directors of the Hartwick Institute of Public Service, what I am most looking forward to accomplishing in the months ahead is to continue to strengthen democracy across our region by serving as a hub of collaboration and innovation between state and local government, civic engagement, and legal studies. We have a robust array of programming planned for 2024, including a panel featuring high school and college students focused on how to engage young people in our democracy, public service internships with the United Way, Otsego County Court, and the Oneonta Mayor’s Office, and monthly meetings with Hartwick students and Oneonta and Otsego County government officials. Additionally, because 2024 is a presidential election year, we will all continue our vigorous voter registration effort in preparation for the New York primaries in April and the election in November. In tandem with registering voters, we also have a variety of programs designed to inform young people about all of the down ballot races and measures. We hope that our efforts will help to educate the next generation of public servants and inspire legal professionals and government officials to meaningfully engage in democracy in our region.

—Co-Director Zachary McKenney, Assistant Professor of Sociology

Helios Care

We at Helios Care are most excited about our collaboration agreement with Bassett Healthcare Network, to serve more patients sooner and to mirror their service area, reaching into Chenango and Herkimer counties. This is an exciting and innovative endeavor to serve our communities, to provide care in the home, and to allow aging in place. By taking care of the patient, we will help address the disparities of care and identify patients’ social determinates of care which are pervasive in our region. We are also engaged in a grant from the federal government with BHN and other community-based organizations to develop a more tightly integrated service model to address how others can assist with aging in place and care in the home.

—President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Ayres

Otsego County Conservation Association

Here at the Otsego County Conservation Association, we are excited to continue expanding our reach in the community over the next few months by providing more education and stewardship opportunities. With the expansion of our community connections series, the creation of our new Earth and Me conversation series, and more community hikes, programs, and lectures, we are energized to reach more people; hopefully motivating our community to protect our local environment. We are also very excited about some of the big events we have coming up. Earth Festival is on April 20 at Milford Central School and, this year, we are excited to add a new countywide science fair for all K-12 students. We will also host Drive Through Drop Off on April 27 at Brewery Ommegang. We are currently finalizing the list of hard-to-recycle items, so be sure to check out our website for more details. Speaking of the website, if you haven’t been in a while, stop by and check out the new design: www.occainfo.org. We look forward to seeing you all at one of our upcoming events.

—Executive Director Amy Wyant

Otsego Lake Association

For 2024, the mission of the Otsego Lake Association remains the same: to educate, advocate, and actively participate in protecting the health, beauty, and well-being of Otsego Lake by facilitating the implementation of the Otsego Lake Watershed Management Plan.

The last part of the mission statement is where OLA will spend its energy in 2024—supporting work to develop and implement a comprehensive lake management plan.

With volunteers and funds, OLA will continue to support lake water testing, scientific research, and work with partners—including the Otsego Lake Watershed Committee and the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station.

Harmful algal blooms and other risks to our lake can be addressed, but it will take planning to gather the resources and people to manage these threats.

This task will be in addition to our ongoing work: supporting boat washes, helping the volunteer dive team, maintaining no-wake and monitoring buoys, promoting buffer strips, and providing lake information to our community.

—Co-President Jim Howarth

Otsego Lake Watershed Supervisory Committee

The Otsego Lake Watershed Supervisory Committee goal is to actively develop systems and programs to protect and sustain a healthy watershed area.

Our focus in 2024 is to both improve our efforts with septic assessments and to be a leader with our town and community colleagues in developing a comprehensive lake/watershed management plan.

The grant application for this effort was approved, with the Village of Cooperstown as the administrator. The development and implementation of a comprehensive lake/watershed plan is a collaborative effort between the village and the Towns of Otsego, Middlefield, and Springfield, as well as county and community groups who focus on the health of our watershed. We look forward to a robust team effort with many organizations and local leaders taking part.

—Chairperson Bertine McKenna

Otsego Land Trust

Since 1988, the Otsego Land Trust has worked with local landowners to conserve more than 12,000 acres of forests, farms, fields, and wetlands in perpetuity. A healthy natural environment contributes directly to the quality of life in the Upper Susquehanna region and builds climate resiliency for the benefit of future generations.

We are privileged to own and manage the Brookwood Point Conservation Area, one of the few free public access points on Otsego Lake. The north side of the 22-acre preserve opened last year with the installation of two new pedestrian bridges. In 2024, we will be developing a new accessible trail on the north side, leading to an expanded canoe and kayak launch area on the lake in collaboration with Otsego Area Rowing and Canoe and Kayak Rental and Sales. Delta Architects and Engineers are working on the landscape plan and the required state permitting in anticipation of the summer season.

Private property owners play a key role in preserving the landscape and environmental resources of the region. With a conservation easement, landowners can protect their land from future development and create a sound legacy for future generations. We are working with landowners to conserve hundreds of additional acres and with farmers to protect more than 1,000 acres of working lands this year. Our conservation work supports agriculture and tourism as mainstays of the economy.

We continue to advocate for conservation of the former BSA Camp Henderson on Crumhorn Lake in Milford. The 666-acre site adjacent to Susquehanna State Forest is one of the largest undeveloped properties in private hands. Crumhorn Lake and the forested uplands on Crumhorn Mountain are vital to the ecological health of the region and have the potential to expand access to nature for residents and visitors. Public support will help to ensure that the Boy Scout tradition of respect for nature continues.

Public programs throughout the year offer multiple opportunities to connect with nature. Check our website for details, www.otsegolandtrust.org, and join us in celebrating our local landscape.

—Executive Director Gregory Farmer

SUNY Oneonta

I look forward to celebrating the 135th anniversary of SUNY Oneonta’s founding this year. Since its establishment as the Oneonta Normal School, our institution has provided transformative education and contributed to the region’s growth. I look forward to commemorating this anniversary by strengthening the synergy between these two worthy pursuits.

This winter, the university is excited to extend our educational opportunities to the community through the unveiling of a new downtown Oneonta location: Our Expanded and Community Learning (EXCL) Center. All will be welcome to find out more about our workforce program, continuing education and lifelong learning courses at this new site.

Building upon our community partnerships, we aim to broaden opportunities for students to remain in our region to pursue healthcare careers through our work with Hartwick College and the Bassett Healthcare Network. We are also expanding our successful direct support professional training program together with Springbrook, thanks to a new grant.

Looking even further forward, we are committing wholeheartedly to our role as environmental stewards. We will expand our work in energy storage, clean energy and composting. And our student and faculty working at the Biological Field Station based in Cooperstown will anchor our ecological protection efforts. SUNY Oneonta’s 135th year will be among its most exciting.

—President Dr. Alberto Cardelle

Village of Cooperstown

First and foremost, the Village of Cooperstown is looking forward to hearing which projects are selected by the governor as our community’s New York Forward projects! It was just last March that we learned that Cooperstown was selected as our region’s first NYF recipient and would receive $4.5 million. Several municipal projects and private projects were placed on the Priority List by the Local Planning Committee for consideration. Village projects included improvements to Hoffman Lane, Pioneer Alley, and Fowler Way and a field upgrade at Doubleday. Whichever projects the state selects, the village will need to budget accordingly for the start of our June 1, 2024 fiscal year.

We also await notification on five other grants submitted to New York State and to the federal government.

The village has already been notified of a successful NYS grant for development of a Watershed Management Plan. Spearheaded by the Watershed Supervisory Committee and supported by many local environmental groups, the Watershed Management Plan (9E Plan) will provide a data-driven path forward, for the stewardship of Otsego Lake.

The Welcome Home Cooperstown committee has met and planned an exciting year of first Tuesday celebrations centered on cultural holidays as well as Pride Month, with the month of December featuring a reprise of our fabulous Stroll the Street event.

Your village leaders look forward to the year ahead and welcome your suggestions and involvement!

—Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh