Cuomo Medicaid Plan May Cost County $1.9M Reps Resolution Urges Governor To Keep Zero Cap On Local Share By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – Governor Cuomo’s plan to close the state’s $6 billion budget gap includes passing more Medicaid costs on to the counties, county Rep. Meg Kennedy, R-Hartwick/Milford/New Lisbon, told her colleagues at their March meeting this morning. It could cost Otsego County a maximum of $1.9 million, she said, having been briefed as a member…
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EDITORIAL If Not Allen Ruffles, Someone With SOME Of His Qualities The question was, “Do you think THEY will let the county administrator do the job?” They, of course, being the county Board of Representatives. But the question misunderstands how the new county administrator job is envisioned. Judging from discussions surrounding the new job’s creation, the county representatives aren’t looking for someone to tell them what to do. They’re looking for someone who will allow them to do what THEY…
They Love Meg Kennedy, But Debate Bipartisanship By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – When the 9-4 vote affirmed Meg Kennedy as the first woman vice chair of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, Andrew Marietta leaned over and said, “Meg, you know I support you.” The Conservative for Hartwick, Milford and New Lisbon and the Democrat from Cooperstown and the Town of Otsego both shook hands and smiled. But for the preceding few minutes Thursday, Jan. 2,…
‘OUR CITIZEN’ ELEVATED TO VICE CHAIRMAN REELECTED BOARD CHAIR, BLISS NAMES 3 NEW COMMITTEE CHAIRS By LIBBY CUDMORE & JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.COM COOPERSTOWN – The Otsego County Board of Representatives, 9-4, with one absence, today elected Meg Kennedy, C-Hartwick/Milford/New Lisbon, as vice chairman. David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/ Middlefield/Cherry Valley, was elected chairman for a second two-year term. Dan Wilber, R-Burlington, nominated “our Citizen of the Year” for the post, a reference to Kennedy receiving that designation last week…
EDITORIAL As Did Garretson, So Does Kennedy Kindred Spirits In Problem-Solving In a way, our Citizen of the Year designation – it will continue, of course – has come full circle. Interviewing Meg Kennedy, this year’s designee, brought to mind Tom Garretson, the first designee, in 2006. Throughout that stormy year, when the Cherry Valley area was torn between those who feared 24 industrial-sized windmills would degrade the town’s environment and ambience, and those who saw a boon in new…
2019 CITIZEN OF THE YEAR The Kennedy Method County Rep Shepherds In Professional Management, Energy Task Force, More By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com HARTWICK – Leadership gravitated toward Meg Kennedy, to hear her tell her story. She first realized that was happening at an Oneonta Farmers’ Market vendors’ meeting in 2008 or 2009, where a difficult issue was being debated. As the point of decision approached, Tom Warren, who runs the Stone & Thistle Farm, raising meadow-fed lamb…
HIRING COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR For Stuligross, Career-Long Dream Coming To Fruition By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com ONEONTA – Kay Stuligross has come a long way, baby. Growing up in Oberlin, Ohio, in the 1940s and ’50s, the daughter of a college professor, her mother sometimes wouldn’t vote “because she didn’t want to cancel out my father’s vote.” Raising a family in Oneonta in the 1980s, she and her husband, Hartwick College Economics Professor Jack Stuligross, agreed her time would…
CLICK FOR ADMINISTRATOR JOB DESCRIPTION Past And Present Collide In Debate On Administrator Planning v. ‘Dealing With It’ Explored; Also, Redistricting By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – Three decades of striving ended today as the Otsego County Board of Representatives, 11-2-1, created the position of county executive. In a half-hour of give and take, it was clear that, despite and lopsided vote, starkly contrasting outlooks remain. “You talk about planning,” said county Rep. Keith McCarty, R-East Springfield,…
Debate Renewed On Funding Animal Shelter By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com INDEX – It all began with a helpful conversation, and erupted while the SQSPCA was doing what it does best: saving Zoe, who chewed off her leg to stop the pain of a tumor. The spark: one word, “unilateral.” The issue: Is Otsego County funding the shelter to minimum standards? Richard Sternberg, a Susquehanna SPCA supporter, Cooperstown village trustee, retired surgeon and MIT graduate, stopped by the…
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.…