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For Now, Sun Costs Same As Nuclear, Hydro
MAYHEM ON I-88
By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
A
The Freeman’s Journal
Against the backdrop of a slide of a fisher cat, DEC Senior Wildlife Biologist Michael Clarke tells a Butternut Valley Alliance Thursday, March 31, in Garrattsville that a six-day trapping season on the wiley weasel will begin this fall. Details at
WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM
Restroom $$, Gone 8 Years, Now In Hand COOPERSTOWN
A
$100,000 member item announced by state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, eight years ago, has finally shown up. The money, originally intended to build restrooms for tourists in 22 Main, shows up in the form of a check from the state Comptroller’s Office. The money will now be used to repair Village Hall’s front porch pillars and steps, and to repaint the building’s Main Street side. QUIET, FOR NOW: Elementary students are taking three days of Common Core tests this week, but delinking test scores and teacher evaluations appears to have quelled some of last year’s concern. RECORD TURNOUT: 380 people registered for Catskill Area Hospice’s annual Epicurean Festival Sunday, April 3, at The Otesaga, a record.
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
A Trailways bus, two semis and a tanker truck tangle Sunday, April 3, in a whiteout on I-88.
Pileup Surprises, But Rescuers Ready By LIBBY CUDMORE & JIM KEVLIN
FOR A SLIDE SHOW of more photos from the accident scene, visit
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
SCHENEVUS
A
multi-vehicle pile-up – a bus, three tractor trailers and 11 cars and SUVs – on I-88’s west bound lanes on Sunday, April 3, was the worst incident First Assistant Chief Paul Neske of the Schenevus Fire Department had seen on the fourlane in his 40 years as a firefighter. “This is the stuff we hear about on the national news,” he said that evening at the fire district headquarters on
Main Street. Neske was in church when the first call came in at 11:51 a.m. – a single car had gone off I-88’s westbound lane. He dispatched a fire engine and ambulance, and the team was soon reporting from the scene: A whiteout, By day’s end, Schenevus First Assistant Fire Chief Paul Neske “heavy traffic” and “weather conditions deteriorating.” had happier duties: Ensuring Meanwhile, the Worcester Emerfirefighters still at the scene Please See PILE-UP, B8 had hot coffee and pizza.
As Trustees Reorganize, 2 Jobs Gone At 22 Main
Almost 100 Give Views On Proposed Village Plan
R
esident Melinda Hardin chats with village Planning Board chair Gene Berman during a day-long “Open House” Tuesday, April 5, at the fire hall, where 100 citizens provided inputs on Cooperstown’s proposed Comprehensive Master Plan. The document, which the Village Board will vote on by summer’s end, may be viewed at www.allotsego. com
Deputies To Village Clerk, Treasurer Let Go By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
T
his year’s Village Board reorganizational meeting, usually routine, was anything but. The positions of deputy
village clerk and deputy village treasurer were eliminated, saving approximately $80,000 but, respectively, leaving Jennifer Truax and Laurie Torres out of work. At the meeting Monday, April 4, Mayor Jeff Katz was sworn in for a third term, Please See SHAKE-UP, A7
fter two years of study, the Village of Cooperstown’s plans for a solar farm to provide electricity to itself, CCS, several neighboring municipalities and two churches, have been switched off for now. The reason: Buying electricAllstadt ity from NYSEG or generating it via solar power costs about the same 11 cents per kilowatt hour, removing the financial incentives for going it alone, according to Village Trustee Lou Allstadt. The retired Mobil Oil executive vice president has been exploring the issue on the village’s behalf. “Relative price drove more developers to go downstate, to California, to other places around the country,” where they can anticipate receiving 18 cents per solargenerated Kw hour from utilities instead of 11 cents here, said Allstadt in an Please See SOLAR, A7
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD