THIS WEEK’S NEWSPAPERS The Freeman’s Journal • Hometown Oneonta Feb. 28 – Mar. 01, 2019 PHOTO OF THE WEEK FRONT PAGE OHS Boys Head Into Tournament Dad John Coaches, Son Jack Plays, As Hawkeyes Look Toward Finals Koutnik Set To Retire As Season Starts This Nasty Little Parasite Is Meaningful Dog-Rescue Mission Sends SSPCA Director To Beirut Council Candidates Announce In A Rush Trustees Intensify Noise Law Push CITY OF THE HILLS: Feb. 28-Mar. 01, 2019 COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND:…
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EDITORIAL County Rep. Kennedy Right To Seek Faulty Policy’s End State Law ‘Silent’ On Issue – So Stick To What Law Does Say The end of what is, at best, an anomaly, may be in sight. County Rep. Meg Kennedy, C-Mount Vision, says she plans to ask the Administration Committee she chairs to remove two extralegal clauses from a policy it passed last month: “Use of Photographic Equipment and Recording Devices at County Meetings.” The complete policy appears in the…
For Now, AllOTSEGO Suspends Videotaping County Rep Meetings Yet Policy – Register Or Be Expelled – Isn’t In State Law, County Attorney Says COOPERSTOWN – County Attorney Ellen Coccoma today acknowledged a new requirement that the public and the press register before taking photographs or videos at county board meetings is not contained in state law. “The law is silent on this,” she replied when asked if the state Freedom of Information Act allows elected bodies to require reporters, photographers and citizens…
With 2 Nays, Bliss Keeps Chairmanship Clark Again Demurs; Frazier Joins Her By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – His predecessor, Kathy Clark, R-Otego, again voted nay, but county Rep. David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield, was reelected nonetheless for a second year as chairman of the county Board of Representatives. Clark was joined by her vice chair when she led the board, Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, making the vote 12-2 for Bliss. Bliss’s vice chairman, Gary Koutnik, D-Oneonta, was…
Calvary Hill Displays Creches Debbie Kabat and Bev Carpenter look over a collection of manger scenes from Abbey and Gary Koutnik at the Creche exhibit at Cavalry Hill Retreat Center on Saturday. The collection includes many small whimsical depictions of Christ’s birth, including one on top of a VW bus! At right, Kabat shows off another addition: a handmade plush scene made in 1991 by Patricia Follett. The annual event features dozens of manger scenes from many different countries and…
County Board Gives Final OK To Raises By JENNIFER HILL • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – The Otsego County Board of Representatives made it official today. With only one dissenting vote from Andrew Stammel, D-Oneonta, the representatives voted a half-million dollars worth of raises for department heads and managers – including $3,000 for themselves, their first raise since the $250 in 2008.…
Editorial for November 30, 2018. Ruffles Takes First Step Against Whack-A-Mole For years now, Otsego County’s annual auction of foreclosed-on tax-delinquent properties has eaten up a lot of oxygen at the county Board of Representatives’ monthly meetings. It’s the Whack-A-Mole of county government, which suggests: There are unresolved issues. So a take-charge presentation by the new county treasurer, Allen Ruffles, at the November meeting was welcome, if partial. First, he declared, having studied the issue, giving delinquent taxpayers four years…
Low Turnout At Hearing Clears Way For ’19 Budget Due to the snow, perhaps, no member of the public appeared at the public hearing on Otsego County’s 2019 budget, which began at 6 p.m. this evening in Courtroom #1 in Cooperstown. Above, county board Chair David Bliss, left, gave the floor to Clerk of the Board Carol McGovern to officially convene proceedings. The budget keeps the tax increase under the state tax cap, and includes $500,000 in raises for 104…
PUBLIC HEARING AT 6 TONIGHT Raises Possible For Supervisors, Representatives By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – The culmination of a two-year study designed to bring department-head and county-rep salaries into line will be presented this evening at the public hearing on Otsego County’s 2019 budget. The public hearing will be at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on upper Main Street, Cooperstown. The salary plan, developed by averaging maximum-minimum salaries in 16 similar Upstate counties, would increase…
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…