BULLETIN Oberacker Successor Heads To Full Board COOPERSTOWN – In a party-line vote, the county board’s Administration Committee a few minutes ago voted, 3-1, to send Jennifer Mickle’s name Dec. 2 to the full board, which will consider whether to appoint her to succeed state Sen.-elect Peter Oberacker, R-Schenevus, in Cooperstown. County Rep. Clark Oliver, the Democratic county chairman, said “I’m disappointed this process was so rushed.” The Democratic County Committee planned to meet tonight to designate a Democratic nominee.…
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Appointing Oberacker Successor Complicated By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – Peter Oberacker, elected state senator on Nov. 3, will be leaving the Otsego County Board Dec. 31 at the latest and is blocked by the county board’s Rules of Order from voting on his successor. Absent bipartisanship, that creates a deadlock. There are 6,228 “weighted votes” distributed among the 14 county reps, and without Oberacker’s 534 votes, the Republicans don’t have the 3,115-vote majority to fill his seat…
Barown Set Standard For County Municipalities With Teri Barown, the Village of Cooperstown got professional management right. In 11 years as village clerk, Barown earned the confidence of numerous village boards, of Democratic and Republican trustees alike. When the Katz Administration launched a $10 million redevelopment of the downtown – the Tillapaugh Administration continued it – it soon became clear grantsmanship was too time-consuming for an unpaid part-time board. With NYCOM’s blessing, Barown was promoted from clerk to administrator. A…
County Sales-Tax Loss Largest Across NY State ‘Baseball, College Students’ Among Culprits COOPERSTOWN – Only two counties in New York State saw their sales tax drop in the most recent report – Hamilton in the Adirondacks and Otsego, county Treasurer Allen Ruffles reported to the county Board of Representatives this morning,. “It was very disheartening,” said Ruffles.…
Colman’s Spirit Of Service Lives On In Otsego County Name Rare Locally, But Relatives Of First USDA Secretary Plentiful By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com RICHFIELD SPRINGS – There may be no “Colmans” around here, but there’s plenty of Colman kin: Burches, Osterhoudts, Ainslies and Blisses, among others. “It’s an honor to have somebody at that level in our government related to me,” said Orlo C. Burch Jr. of Hartwick, who called after reading last week’s article about a…
For Sheriff, Son’s Investigation Not Over By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – The County of Otsego’s investigation into Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr.’s correctional officer son ended when Ros Devlin resigned from his father’s department. But to the sheriff, it isn’t over. Tuesday, Sept. 29, the sheriff announced a DVD from the investigation is missing, and he’s asked District Attorney John Muehl to investigate the matter. In an interview, the sheriff said, separately, he’s also asking the…
EDITORIAL Freshman County Rep Shows Guts, Consistency Let’s give credit where it’s due. In our May 29 edition, County Rep. Clark Oliver of Oneonta was tweaked in this space, along with his fellow Democrats who voted against 59 layoffs without offering an alternative. They ducked a hard decision, thus losing credibility with their colleagues, it was argued. • Last Wednesday, Aug. 5, the county board was considering a measure to set aside New York State’s 2-percent property tax cap –…
County Board Moves Toward Lifting Tax Cap Action Possible At Sept. 2 Meeting By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – Facing a fiscal crunch, the county Board of Representatives today took the first step toward freeing itself from the state’s 2 percent property-tax cap in preparing its 2021 budget. At its August meeting, county board Chairman David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield, “put the law on the table,” and freshman representative Clark Oliver, D-Oneonta, seconded it. As County Attorney…
Extended BnB Stays Sap Bed-Tax Revenue County Reps Skeptical About News By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – Zip. Nada. Zero. Air BnB is Otsego County’s single largest bed-tax generator, but from April 1 to June 30, it generated nothing, County Treasurer Allen Ruffles reported to the county Board of Representatives this morning. “They collected something like $140,000 and they sent us zero money,” he said. At a 2 percent rate, that would generally generate $2,800.…
COUNTY DOH SAYS COVID-19 HAS AWAKENED 15 New Cases In July; 4 In Hospitals, 3 On Ventilators By LIBBY CUDMORE & JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com After a quiet May and June, 15 cases since the beginning of July, nine in the past week, may mean we’re heading right back where we started from. “This increase is similar to what we were seeing in the beginning,” county Public Health Director Heidi Bond said Tuesday. “If we continue to see a…