This Presidents’ Day, Honor Otsego County’s
3-8088 607-35 om | a t n Oneo door.c Street, windowand is w e L a t 20 neon www.o
HERITAGE BUSINESSES FOR TRIBUTES, SEE PAGES A2, 3 and 7
HOMETOWN
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
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E FR Volume 12, No. 19
City of The Hills
ONEONTA
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, February 13, 2020
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‘Tortured’ Dogs Fostered Probe Continues; Susquehanna Shelter Houses 6 By LIBBY CUDMORE HARTWICK SEMINARY
W Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
OJC Student Found Frozen In Streambed ONEONTA
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he body of Elias A. Zedeno-Correa, 19, Union City, NJ, was found in a creek of West Street in Oneonta, two days after he was reported missing in January. A report of the death wasn’t made public until Feb. 6. According to Chris Kuhn, director, Zedeno-Correa’s roommate reported that he had gone out the window on Monday, Jan. 6 and didn’t return. State police and Job Corps staff searched, and found him partially submerged in the stream. Though the body showed signs of hypothermia, a cause of death has not been determined.
ON
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► THE NYs DELEGATION representing Otsego County rallied against the state’s bail reforms Thursday, Feb. 6, in the lobby of the Otsego County Correctional Facility. ►this winter’s worst storm hit Friday, Feb. 7, closed schools and offices, and caused Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. to issue a travel advisory. ►2020 WINTER CARNIVAL is featured in multiple postings, from the Soup ‘n’ Chili starter to karaoke and the Carnival Closer Sunday afternoon.
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hat a difference a few days makes. “All six dogs are doing great,” said Stacie Haynes, Susquehanna SPCA
Oneonta’s Tom Slicer won the venerable Bob Smullens 10K race Saturday, Feb. 8, at the 2020 Cooperstown Winter Carnival in 38:53/MORE PHOTOS, B1
►DELAWARE DEPUTIES are conferring with D.A. For updates, check:
executive director. “We’ve named them all after candy, because they’re all so sweet.” On Wednesday, Feb. 5,
Solar Farm May Bring A Bonanza
Haynes, alongside Karen Matson, Broome County Humane Society executive director, were called to the Delaware Valley Humane Society shelter in Sidney, where Director Erin Insinga, Delaware Valley Humane Society director had taken Please See DOGS, A3
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Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
CHERRY VALLEY INNKEEPER ASKS:
ID VAN BUREN SIT HERE? By LIBBY CUDMORE
At Minimum, Project Pays $875K In Taxes
CHERRY VALLEY
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By JIM KEVLIN LAURENS
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oung Ryan Storke came across as a level-headed, knowledgeable, straightforward chap. Asked by farmer Gary Lull who would clean up after the 3,000-acre solar farm Storke he is proposing in West Laurens eventually wears out, he matter-of-factly said the state Public Service Commission (PSC) requires a line of credit be maintained sufficient for the job. “All the tourists who come here to Please See STORKE, B4
Richfield Board Ponders Future Of Disputed Plan RICHFIELD SPRINGS
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neonta attorney David Merzig has determined the Town of Richfield’s new – and disputed – zoning code might not survive a court challenge. And the town board plans to meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 17, with new Town Attorney Peter Hobaica to determine whether and how to set it aside and perhaps start anew, said newly elected Town Supervisor Nick Palevsky. The plan, which envisioned the town as mainly agricultural and residential, led to the election of Palevsky and two allies, Fred Eckler and Ed Bello Jr., last Nov. 5.
Jenilee Metch, Oneonta, hugs Sweetie, left, and Snickers, two of the dogs seized last week who she agreed to foster.
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Barbara Hall shows off two-seater where President Martin Van Buren may have sat in 1839.
uring home renovations, Barbara Hall and her husband, Gary Lozier, found where President Martin Van Buren likely sat when he visited the village in 1839. Not a chair. A toilet seat. “The whole back room was garbage,” she said of Barbara Hall’s historic the former Cherry Valley tavern. Story Tavern, now her refurbished home at 171 Main St. “As we were cleaning it out, we realized the outhouses were there.” Following his election as president in 1837, Van Buren came through the village in September 1839 to meet with his constituents, following a similar reception in Cooperstown the day before. “The Village had a reception at the Story Tavern and he certainly had some nice fare and something to drink,” she said. “Certainly, he used the outhouse.” The original Story Tavern was built in 1790; an addition in the back was added in 1783. William Story, a miller Please See 2-SEATER, B3
Centers Pioneers Inhouse Childcare Center By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
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ooperstown Center wants to care for the young, to assist in helping the not-so-young. “We’ve had a lot of staffing issues because people call and they say they couldn’t get a
babysitter,” said Heather Welsh, office manager. “So we’re opening a pre-school.” Dubbed Centers Childcare of Cooperstown, the preschool is a pilot across the Centers Healthcare Network as a way to provide low-cost, fully licensed childcare, so employees can be more dependably available. “Childcare is expensive,” said Lacey Rinker, direcPlease See PRE-SCHOOL, A3
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD