WALKIN’ OFF... ...THE CORONAVIUS BLAHS/SEE A3
HOMETOWN E!
E FR Volume 12, No. 27
City of The Hills
Streck Says Downstate Ventilator Grab Stalls
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ational Guard troops will not be taking ventilators from upstate hospitals for use in downstate hospitals hit hard by the coronavirus. In an executive order signed Tuesday, April 7, Gov. Andrew Cuomo back“Someone needs to practice social distancing,” read the caption on Abby Rodd’s Facebook page after Blue’s encounter with a porcupine.
Cooperstown Man’s Father Dies Of C-19 COOPERSTOWN
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rank E. Marra, 101, succumbed to complications of COVID-19 on April 5, 2020. The father of Cooperstown Distillery owner Gene Marra, he was born in New York City at the height of the deadly Spanish Influenza on Sept. 24, 1918. After World War II service in Europe, the elder Marra pursued a career in banking. For full story, visit.
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, April 9, 2020
By ELIZABETH COOPER
ONEONTA
tracked on statements made Friday about issuing an executive order to requisition medical supplies, Bill Streck including 20 percent of unused ventilators, and havPlease See STRECK, A10
Visit www.
Seward Off Ventilator, On Road To Recovery
COUNTY MAY LOSE EQUIVALENT OF 2/3 OF $12M TAX LEVY
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tsego County government stands to lose “7, 8, 9 million dollars” in sales and bed tax revenues and state reimbursements due to the coronavirus lock-down, County Treasurer Allen Ruffle has advised the county board. Type “levy” and “crisis” in the search line on
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
AllOTSEGO.com
MILFORD
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s with everything since the coronavirus arrived in Otsego County, things moved quickly. When the last edition of this newspaper went to press on Tuesday, March 31, the news was state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, and his wife, Cindy, had been stricken
They May Not Be Working At Bassett, Though
PROFILE FROM THE FRONT LINES: BRIAN POKORNY Brian Pokorny, in this photo from spring 2019, poses with his IT brain trust in the basement of 197 Main St., Cooperstown.
By ELIZABETH COOPER COOPERSTOWN
T
SEE MULTIPLE REPORTS ON
AllOTSEGO.com
with COVID-19. It was announced the day Please See SEWARD, A7
3 Healthcare Workers Ill
AllOTSEGO.com
ON
Cindy and Jim Seward
Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
In Crisis, IBM Spotlights IT Director
►3 coronavirus cases have surfaced in the City of “I got to thinking a bit,” said the 197 Main to The Meadows, laid a Oneonta, Common Council By JIM KEVLIN county’s IT director, Brian Pokorny. culvert, and a fiber optics company was told. “I knew we could put fiber optics in pulled the wire through. ►PUBLIC schools will be out COOPERSTOWN for cheaper than that, and we would Stringing wire was going to cost until at least Wednesday, have unlimited bandwidth.” $700,000; the culvert option ended up April 29, Governor Cuomo few years ago, Otsego County Instead of stringing the wire, costing $30,000. “That project paid announced. government was planning a “Why can’t we bury it?” he asked for itself in three years on just phone ►HAND SANITIZER is being producted by state Senate $1.2 million microwave loop Ron Tiderencel, the county highway lines alone,” said Pokorny. candidate Peter Oberacker’s – down Route 28, up Route 33 – to superintendent at the time. So should it be any surprise that lab, Form Tech Solutions, connect its Main Street headquarters And so it was. Tiderencel’s last week, when IBM announced in Schenevus. with The Meadows and county jail. highway crew dug the ditch from Please See POKORNY, A6 ►YOU MAY HAVE SEEN Maciej Zoltowski, the CSO’s new conductor, wandering around Oneonta; due to travel restrictions, he’s been unable to return to Poland. essential, like a felony arraignWith all cases adjourned By LIBBY CUDMORE ►ONEONTA MAYOR HERZIG, ment, we’ve got Skype set until May 15, no one’s named Judy Pangman and up in the courtroom,” said appeared virtually yet, but Mark Drnek to chair an ecomoCOOPERSTOWN District Attorney John Muehl. the courts want to be ready. nic development task force. “An email gets sent around “Arraignments are necessary ►Fracking was banned stateven the courtroom has with the information, then the proceedings,” Muehl said. wide in the 2021 state budget. gone virtual in the age judge, myself and the lawyers “For example, if we had a ►ESPN FEATURED All-Star Village of COVID-19. can all be present, but nobody domestic violence case owner Marty Patton in a story Muehl “If the arraignment is has to appear.” where an order of protection Burns on Cooperstown tourism.
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hree of the 33 incounty people who tested positive in Otsego County are healthcare workers, county PubCOVID lic Health BY THE Director NUMBERS Heidi Bond announced Total Cases for the first 33 time in her Recovered Tuesday, 9 April 7, tally. However, Deaths where they 1 worked and As of 4/7/20 how they became infected with coronavirus is, for now, unknown. Bassett spokeswoman Karen Huxtable-Hooker would not confirm or deny that the individuals were Bassett employees. She cautioned against making that assumption. If the workers are not Bassett employees, they could work for a number of other entities within the Please See CASES, A10
At Courthouse, County’s Wheels Of Justice Grind – Virtually
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had to be issued, we could arraign them.” And though a defendant is entitled to a felony hearing, time limits to do so have been suspended. But due to bail reform, Muehl said that he wasn’t seeing many Please See JUSTICE, A2
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD