Shared Garage Back On Otsego’s Agenda By GREG KLEIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com Otsego County’s plan for a shared transportation garage has been revived. County officials met with representatives from Otsego Northern Catskills BOCES in the past month to gage interest in another push to build a centralized, shared services facility on county Route 35 in the town of Milford, on land adjacent to the ONC BOCES campus. “I would not say it is full speed ahead, but maybe it…
Online home of The Freeman's Journal and Hometown Oneonta
Advertisement
David Bliss - Page 3
EDITORIAL Much To Be Proud Of In Response To COVID-19 Despite the chilling toll – 3,483 COVID-19 cases and 54 deaths – Otsego County people, our neighbors, friends and family, have a lot to be proud of as we ended The Year of The Pandemic on Monday, March 15, we found in revisiting the last 52 editions of this newspaper. Throughout, there was worry, dismay and grief in the face of the implacable and mysterious foe, but little panic. In…
ONEONTA TO HOST VACCINATION SITE, BLISS ANNOUNCES By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – The state will open a vaccination center in SUNY Oneonta’s Dewar Arena in the next few weeks, county board Chairman David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield, announced a few minutes ago. The Oneonta site was one of 10 Governor Cuomo announced at his press briefing this morning, and is the only new one in the Mohawk Valley region, which includes Otsego County.…
Village, County, City Completing Review Of Police Procedures By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com With April 1 a few weeks away, it’s crunch time. Following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last spring, Governor Cuomo issued an order requiring all 330 communities in New York State with police departments to form Community Advisory Boards to review “policies and procedures” by that date. That covers three governments in Otsego County: • The Village of Cooperstown: Monday, Feb. 22, the Village Board…
Herzig, Bliss Frustrated County Still Awaits Vaccine By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com For now, Otsego County is not getting the COVID-19 vaccines it should, according to Mayor Gary Herzig and county board Chairman David Bliss. Both men represent the county on the Mohawk Valley Regional Control Room, which briefs local officials weekly on the state’s COVID-19 response. The county’s not getting “proportionate distribution,” the amount based on its relative population to the rest of the state, Herzig said…
Survey Seeks Your Opinions Of Local Police The Otsego County commissioner directed by Governor Cuomo to assess local policing is seeking your opinion, according to county board Chairman David Bliss. Attitudes toward state police, sheriff’s deputies, and Oneonta and Cooperstown police will be sought. A Survey Monkey questionnaire will be activated through Feb.1 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/otsego2021…
VACCINATIONS ARRIVING Obstacles Aplenty On C-19 Shots Bliss Ticks Off Shortcomings By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com The struggle to lockdown concrete information and a larger anti-COVID vaccine allotment continues in Otsego County and beyond. “There is not an adequate supply of the vaccine,” David Bliss, county Board of Representatives chair, said Tuesday, Jan. 19. “This is a statewide problem.” According to a list he provided, the problems include: • Demand is higher than the current supply. • Only…
10 AYES Vs. 3 NAYS, ABSTENTION Despite Democrat Objections, Bliss Relected As Chair Turmoil Over Oberacker’s Vacancy Continues To Sting By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – Democratic unhappiness over how state Sen. Peter Oberacker was replaced on the county board spilled over at today’s reorganizational meeting. County Board Chair David Bliss, R-Cooperstown/Town of Middlefield, was reelected, but the vote was 10-3, plus one abstention. And not before Bliss was criticized for partisanship, poor communication and a lack…
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…
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…