EDITORIAL ‘Sanctuary County’ Idea Understandable, Unwise What goes around comes around. When it does in this context, you have to wonder: Is a jurisdiction – 560 in 2018 – declaring itself a “sanctuary city” or town, county, village, etc., about anything such a good idea? Now, a Facebook drive is underway to make Otsego a “sanctuary county” – the idea is local authorities would simply not enforce New York State’s SAFE Act and its gun-control provisions. The effort was launched…
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editorial - Page 8
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.…
EDITORIAL From All, Best Wishes For A Speedy Recovery Editor’s Note: This editorial is reprinted from this week’s editions of Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal, on newsstands now. The news that state Sen. Jim Seward’s cancer is back – his office issued a press release Wednesday, Nov. 6 – brings two immediate reactions. One, fingers crossed. Advances in cancer-fighting research can mean five years, 10 years – and more – of active living. Everyone’s got a story of a…
EDITORIAL Reps Ready To Balance Credentials, Experience As the City of Oneonta has demonstrated, moving to a city manager – or county manager, the issue of the day – can be “fraught.” (That’s the word of the day – or year – all of a sudden, every reporter is finding every situation “fraught,” filled with possibilities for undesirable outcomes. It’s the “Where’s the Beef?” of 2019.) Wednesday, Nov. 6, the Otsego County Board of Representatives, after almost two years of…
EDITORIAL How Can We Make 8th Most Vibrant Arts County Thrive? What? In a United States that some insist on characterizing as a burning dumpster, can there be good news? Well, here it is: Oneonta, as Otsego County’s “urban core,” has been ranked the eighth most-vibrant small community in America in Southern Methodist University’s fifth annual Arts Vibrancy Index Report. According to the Census Bureau’s American Factfinder, there are 16,360 towns in the U.S. Not all of them, of course,…
EDITORIAL All Richfield Folks, Not Just A Faction, Should Map Future As it stands, regrettably, the Town of Richfield’s proposed Comprehensive Master Plan hasn’t yet accomplished its mission. So the Town Board – it meets on the second Monday of each month, and may act on the plan in either April or May – should put it on hold, at least for the time being, until the community’s will can be dispassionately determined and the plan revised to reflect it.…
EDITORIAL The Pride, Exhilaration Of Championship Run Belong To All Of Us Forever A columnist – a dad, too – wrote in Psychology Today a few years ago: “My hope is that their involvement in sports will help to build their character in positive ways. I’d like them to learn to cooperate with others, work together for a common goal, respond appropriately to victory and defeat, and grow in virtues like courage, humility, patience and perseverance.” Why did the CCS…
Please, County Reps And Trustees: Get Chief Covert Help He Needs How often do any of us, over the course of our lifetimes, get the opportunity to save another human life? But the Otsego County Board of Representatives and Cooperstown Village Board have been presented with that opportunity in the case of Mike Covert, 58. Covert, a 25-year county employee (mostly as a deputy sheriff) and village police chief since 2013, has suffered the health travails of a modern-day…
In City Of The Hills, Candidate Avalanche In Oneonta, go figure.Five Common Council members retiring – not a record, Council member Dana Levinson reminded us: there were six retirements in 2016, but an exodus nonetheless.And the resulting ferment: Len Carson confirmed Thursday, Feb. 21, he was running in Ward 5, and within days, 11 more candidates emerged. Most were Democrats in that Democratic enclave, but three were Republicans, signaling party politics – missing since 2011 – may be coming back…
EDITORIAL Congressman Emerging As Moderate, Balanced If anyone was looking for a bomb-thrower – Urban Dictionary: “A colloquial term used to describe people who stir up trouble” – Antonio Delgado isn’t he. That had to be the conclusion of any objective ear at his Feb. 18 “Town Hall” in Cooperstown Village Hall, where one speaker, opining President Trump is “mentally ill,” asked the freshman congressman if he would vote for impeachment. The reply was perfectly circumspect: “I’m going to do…