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IN OTSEGO COUNTY, THAT’S ALWAYS ON MARQUEE/B1
HOMETOWN E!
E FR Volume 12, No. 21
ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, February 27, 2020
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Emmons’ Mystery
City of The Hills
At One-Year-Old, Candidate Unsure She’ll Make Debate
4 Horses Saved, Homeowner’s Body Found By LIBBY CUDMORE EMMONS
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he Otsego County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the death of a well-known Oneonta area hairdresser who was found in his rural home alongside Robb Polley’s Emmons the Susquehanna River in home burned Feb. 26.
HOMETOWN ONEONTAl
With plastic bags prohibited in New York State as of Sunday, March 1, Dean Madonia, Cooperstown Commons’ Tops Friendly Market assistant manager, adjusts a display of reusable bags that were on special this week for 69 cents/MORE PHOTOS, A6
response to a report of a house on fire. “He didn’t die before the fire started,” said Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. “And the fire didn’t kill him.” Though Devlin declined to give the man’s name or cause of death, friends on Facebook confirmed that the deceased man was Robb Please See POLLEY, A7
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day, March 5 at 22 Main. “I lost my heart last year,” said the heart-transplant survivor, “and got a new one. Robbins So I will be one-year old.” On the first year anniversary, heart-transplant Please See DEBATE, A7
By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
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uesday, March 3 is “my first birthday,” Republican Village Board candidate Mary Margaret Robbins Sohns explained, when asked why she couldn’t yet commit to the League of Women Voters’ debate 7-9 p.m. Thurs-
BEFORE & AFTER
Joe Grigoli, left photo, shows one of his four apartments that will be renovated with $65,000 in city funds. In right photo, he shows off one apartment where the renovations are almost done.
Mom Accused In Twin Deaths Headed To Trial COOPERSTOWN
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he trial for Kimberly Steeley, the Decatur woman accused in the 2018 smothering deaths of her twin infant children, Liam and Bonde Steeley, will begin with Jury selection on Thursday, Feb. 27. Opening remarks could begin as early as Friday morning. She was charged with with two counts of second-degree manslaughter after the twins were found dead in their bassinettes, 16 days apart.
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►SENATOR SEWARD JOINED fellow Republicans in unanimously voting Tuesday, Feb. 25, to repeal the “Green Light” Law. Majority Democrats blocked the measure. ►meanwhile, a siena poll finds New Yorkers’ for bail reform has plummeted from 55 percent last summer to 33 percent today. ►2020 INDUCTEE Larry Walker, only the second Canadian to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame, was in Coopertown Tuesday, Feb. 25, for his orientation. ►ONEONTA CITY POLICE have arrested a 26-year-old for painting “demonic” symbols on a Main Street church.
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
With 4 Grants, Plus Lofts, 100 Apartments Coming On Line Downtown By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA
A
t New York Conference of Mayors’ Winter Legislative Meeting Feb. 7-9 in Albany, Mayor Gary Herzig heard one refrain
from the mayors of successful cities. “The biggest factor in downtown revitalization is creating new options for downtown living space,” he said. “It’s all about people. Stores open when there are enough customers to shop there.” Back home on Wednesday, Feb. 19, Herzig announced that four
Main Street building owners will receive $2.3 million to upgrade and create upper-floor housing. In all, 32 new apartments would be created, and another eight upgraded with new fixtures and electric. The proposed Arts On Dietz lot will add 64 units, for a total of 96 new apartments.
PROJECT COULD REVIVE EAST END, SUPERVISOR SAYS
Brooks BBQ Courted For Oneonta Plaza By JIM KEVLIN ONEONTA
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rooks BBQ may be solicited to put its long-awaited new bottling plant in the former Oneonta Plaza – now home to Towne Flooring, Scholet Furniture’s Outlet and PDQ
Services, the copier company, according to Town Supervisor Bob Wood. If that resulted in the City of Oneonta running sewer lines into the town along Route 7 east of the city, it would open up the whole East End of Greater Oneonta – Route 7 east of HOMETOWN ONEONTA the city line – to a new era Oneonta Plaza has been rezoned for a Please See WOOD, A7 project like Brooks’ bottling plant.
“That’s at least 100 people added to our downtown,” said Herzig. “Just imagine the impact that will have.” And the winners are: • Springbrook, $600,000 for 22 apartments at 186-212 Main St., above Key Bank. • Peter Clark, $275,000 for 10 Please See 100 UNITS, A7
PIPELINE COMPANY WRITES OFF CONSTITUTION, BUT IS IT OVER?
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n tax filings this week, Tulsa-based Williams Companies, provider of pipe for the Constitution Pipeline, wrote off $41 million associated with the 125-mile project just south of Otsego County. Stop the Pipeline heralded that as the end of the project, but Williams declined to answer questions seeking clarification: If a U.S. Supreme Court decision favors the project, or the Albany administration changes, would their interest revive? Details at
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HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD