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Volume 13, No. 22
ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, March 4, 2021
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Baseball Camps Wait For Albany Guidance Quarantine Rules Also Turn Off Some Families By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
H
ealth and wealth. Those are the two concepts people in government and the
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Mark and Wendy Brannigan of Richfield Springs had quite a fish dinner after spending a recent afternoon ice fishing on Otsego Lake off Public Landing Road, Town of Springfield. The frigid weather has brought ice fisherman out from Goodyear Lake to Allen Lake.
Sorin, Obama In Running For National Prize COOPERSTOWN
S
UNY Oneonta Distinguished Professor Gretchen Sullivan Sorin is a finalist for a 2021 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work/NonFiction,” for her book Sorin “Driving While Black.”. The 52nd NAACP Image Awards ceremony will air live on BET March 27 at 8 p.m. She’s in good company: Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” is competing in the same category.
Chief Pidgeon examines mementos of his retirement, including a flag carried aboard Marine One, the President’s helicopter, with a citation in his honor.
►CITY HALL EXPLORES heatpump system to serve several city properties. ►ONEONTA TOWN-GOWN taskforce convenes. ►AFTER BALMY WEEKEND winter returned. ►MAx, SQSPCA DIRECTOR swap places for day. ►WHY IS OTSEGO IGNORED? Oberacker asks Zucker. ►DELGADO VOTES IN FAVOR of debated equality act.
HAIL TO THE CHIEF!
COOPERSTOWN
O
Campaigns Off To Fast Start In ’21 Revised Calendar Requires 6-Month Campaign Season By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
E
Life’s Goal Accomplished, Pidgeon Retires By JIM KEVLIN ONEONTA
‘T
he Dark Horse fire,” Oneonta’s retiring fire chief, Pat Pidgeon, immediately responded when asked about the worst blaze he
tackled in 36 years with the OFD. Pidgeon was strapped into the jump seat of the fire engine as it arrived around 5 a.m. March, 1, 1992, at 18 Market St. “There was an explosion,” he said. He looked over his shoulder. “A beam blew out, and landed on a line of cars. I knew it was going to be a long night.”
The site was what’s now that parking lot a couple of buildings east of the Green Earth health food market. Also on fire was the attached J.J. Maloney Building, a candy distributorship at 12-14 Market. Pidgeon and Bobby Russo, his crew captain and brother of Fire Please See CHIEF, A2
NEW CCS SUPERINTENDENT ARRIVES
COOPERSTOWN
K
ismet? Focused on finishing her doctorate, Sarah Spross, an assistant commissioner in Maryland’s Department of Education, drove up last summer and closeted herself at Cooperstown’s Landmark Inn.
On Aug. 28, she turned on the TV and saw the news: Bill Crankshaw, Cooperstown Central School superintendent since 2016, had resigned to return to his hometown and the Greater Johnstown School District. It clicked, and Monday, March 1, Spross was seated at Crankshaw’s former conference table at Cooperstown Central School, being interviewed on her first day as CCS superintendent. Please See SPROSS, A2
lection Day is still six months away, but in the past few days it’s been off to the races, the local races. With Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig’s announcing his retirement last week, three candidates immediately emerged to succeed him, a Democrat and two Republicans. Leading up to Tuesday, March 2, the first day nominating petitions can be circulated, a similar outpouring occurred in races for the Otsego County Board of Representatives. Get used to it. Please See CAMPAIGNS, A2
POLICE REFORMS ON CENTER STAGE AT COUNTY BOARD
T
he county Board of Representatives planned a forum at 10 a.m. Wednesday on its review of policies in procedures in the county Sheriff’s Department. Ordered by Governor Cuomo after George Floyd’s death, plans for all local police departments are due in Albany by April 1. Cooperstown approved and sent off its plan last week, and Oneonta expects to act next Tuesday. For details of county forum, visit
TV Spot Piqued Educator’s Interest By JIM KEVLIN
Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” Offenbach’s “Songbird” (La Périchole), and the world premiere of “The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson,” a new play with music about the founder of the National Negro Opera Company. “We have re-imagined the Glimmerglass experience for the 2021 season,” said FranPlease See OPERA, A2
pera will be back on Otsego Lake’s shores this summer. The Glimmerglass Festival announced today it will build an outdoor stage on the festival grounds, where it will present four operas. The 2021 season will run July 15 through Aug. 17 with performances of
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tourist industry are using in discussing the news that the two youth-baseball camps, Dreams Park in Hartwick Seminary and All Star Village in West Oneonta, are seeking permission to open someway, somehow, in the 2021 season. “If they can conform to the state’s rePlease See CAMPS, A2
Glimmerglass Plans 4 Shows On Lawn
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
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Sarah Spross
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD