Gelbsman Holds On To Otsego Now Seat He Won’t Quit, So Reps Keep Him There By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www. AllOTSEGO.com COOPERSTOWN – It appears former county rep. Craig Gelbsman of Oneonta will remain on the Otsego Now board of directors. The county board originally appointed Gelbsman to Otsego Now as its “liaison”, intending that he keep the Cooperstown reps in the loop on what the Oneonta-based economic-development entity was up. Then Republican Gelbsman was defeated by Democrat…
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Forums May Build ‘Single Point Of Contact’ By JIM KEVLIN•HOMETOWN ONEONTA Edition of Friday, Oct. 17, 2014 Three forums for small-business owners – in a month or so – are being planned, with a goal of achieving what’s been an elusive “single point of contact” for economic development in Otsego County. “We want to outreach to people in the trenches,” Bob Hanft, county Industrial Development Agency chair, told the county board’s Intergovernmental (IGA) Committee – its responsibilities include economic development…
New Broadband Plan For County Takes Shape By JIM KEVLIN • HOMETOWN ONEONTA A three-person team from FARR Technologies of Sioux Falls, S.D., spent three days in Otsego County last week, tightening a schematic for achieving broadband Internet service countywide within five years. FARR’s mandate is to provide, by mid-October, “information we need to aggressively apply for state and federal funding,” said Sandy Mathes, Otsego County IDA president. He plans to ask the IDA board to approve funding applications when…
Hartwick To Wall Street, Back To Otsego County By JIM KEVLIN When Bob Hanft was a Hartwick College senior in 1968-69, he met a fetching freshman, his future wife Patricia. A memorable courtship followed, much of it in Cooperstown: Friday excursions to “The Pit,” the Tunnicliff Inn’s basement hot-spot, sunny weekend trips to Glimmerglass State Park, the spring formal of Tau Kappa Epsilon, Bob’s fraternity, at The Otesaga. “We loved Upstate New York,” he recalled the other day. By 2006,…
County Or Not, Ec-Dev Will Advance, He Says By JIM KEVLIN Lack of participation by Otsego County’s government won’t slow the “single point of contact” effort to bring business and jobs here. That’s the message that Bob Hanft, Pierstown, elected chairman of the Otsego County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Wednesday, June 25, delivered during an Independence Day interview. “It’s not going to affect us,” Hanft, former chair of the Hartwick College Board of Trustees and a retired Wall Street banker,…
RETIRED FINANCIER BOB HANFT SUCCEEDS OBERRITER AT IDA Bob Hanft, Pierstown, the retired Wall Street banker, has been elected chairman of the Otsego County Industrial Development Agency board. Meeting yesterday, the IDA accepted “with regret” the resignation of Sharon Oberitter of Fly Creek, retired founder, with husband Don, of the Cooperstown Bat Co., who had shepherded the IDA through its dramatic transition.…
Gelbsman May Succeed Schwerd On IDA Board By JIM KEVLIN Given a colleague’s legal troubles, county Rep. Craig Gelbsman, R-Oneonta, is in line for appointment as liaison to the county IDA, the Industrial Development Agency spearheading redevelopment of Pony Farm Industrial Park. He would replace county Rep. Betty Anne Schwerd, R-Edmeston, who District Attorney John Muehl said is under investigation for misuse of campaign funds following a complaint by her former employer, state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford. The idea of…
Newest IDA Staffer’s Focus: Making Microbusiness Work By LIBBY CUDMORE To help Otsego County businesses succeed, all you have to do is ask what they need. That’s the theory Dawn Rivers, the new office manager and director of the county IDA’s Susquehanna Regional Center for Jobs, is operating under. “It’s going to be important, going forward, to listen to people,” she said. “We will be much more successful in helping our economy thrive if we listen to what people want from…
County Committed To ‘Single Point Of Contact’ On Ec-Dev, Clark Says By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com Rep. Kathy Clark, R-Otego, chair of the county Board of Representatives, said today the county is not ready to participate in the IDA’s “single point of contact” approach to economic development right now, but she intends that it will. “In no way did I intend it to be interpreted that we don’t want to do a one-stop shop,” said Clark. “I don’t want it…