R
EJOINING THE
n IvISIo D S m te n SyS o I t a m Infor oGy
HOMETOWN
ter anww.isdtech u p m Co 7090 • w
E!
E FR
2607-43
Volume 13, No. 28
www.
W
T
he Community Foundation of Otsego County announced it distributed $50,000 in smallbusiness assistance through its COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Fund throughout the county in 2020. The CFOC supported economic development through specific awards to nonprofits, which then distributed the funds to local small businesses, many of whom faced extreme financial difficulties due to the pandemic. For full list, see
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
Follow Breaking News On
AllOTSEGO.com ►COOPERSTOWN’S bobby walker has stepped down as chairman of the state’s College Republicans after two years at the helm. ►eyewitness accounts of Oneonta’s River Street shooting involving a police offer are “innacurate,” DA Muehl cautioned. ►Dreams park requires vaccinating 12 year olds, upsetting some parents. But an FDA ruling may ease concerns. ►Oneonta’s laurie zimniewicz among 3 new Bassett Healthcare Network directors. She has chaired the Fox Hospital board. ►ONEONTA’S “Red Door” Presbyterian Church tower is under repair after five years.
ONLINE DAILY NEWSPAPER
As Oneonta Waits, AG To Investigate
ith 39.5 percent, or 23,588 of our Otsego County neighbors, having received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, the focus is turning to people who are adamant about doing without. About 25 percent of us, 16,242, have completed the two shot-cycle. (Tuesday, April 13, Governor Cuomo suspended use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson option.) “Anybody who’s refusing to get a vaccine is perpetuating the pandemic,” county Public Please See COVID, B2
COOPERSTOWN
COMPLIMENTARY
PUBLIC WEIGHS MEANING OF KILLING, MAYOR SAYS
Still, Many Won’t Take Vaccination COOPERSTOWN
New Foundation Gave Out $50M In COVID Relief
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
AllOTSEGO.com • Your
By JIM KEVLIN & MIKE FORSTER ROTHBART
With temperatures shooting into the 70s on Saturday, April 10, these magnolias burst into bloom on Route 28 south of Cooperstown. Can lilacs be far behind?
ONEONTA
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, April 15, 2021
SUBSCRIBE TO
hometown oenonta
ORLD
TEARS OF JOY AT COOPERSTOWN CENTER AS FAMILIES REUNITE/B1
oL teCHn rCInG oU oUtS d IT Service.snet
City of The Hills
W
cident in which the death of a person, whether in custody or not, is caused by an act or omission.” ONEONTA Five days later, on Tuesday, April 6, Tyler Green, 23, (also identiot only has a police fied as Tyler Johnson in early shooting made history reports), was shot twice after in Oneonta, it’s makpulling a knife in a domestic ing statewide history, too. dispute at 48 River St., by A new department in the Sgt. Ralph Pajerski, an state Attorney General’s 18-year veteran of the Office, the Office of Special Oneonta Police Department. Investigations, created by “This is the first in the state Pajerski Executive Order 147 after for our new department,” said George Floyd’s death last May Quintanar. 25, opened its door on April 1, Both officers remain on the job, according to Sofia Quintanar, the with Sergeant Pajerski on desk duty AG’s deputy press secretary. while the investigation is in progress, The office is empowered to “invesand his partner in responding to the tigate and, if warranted, prosecute … 48 River situation, Officer Kristen a police officer … concerning any inPlease See SHOOTING, A3 By JIM KEVLIN
N In addition to Sergeant Pajerski’s body cam, at least two videos of the scene are circulating on the Internet.
Raging Fire Has Oneonta Lanes’ Future In Doubt ONEONTA
A
vid bowlers may be pursuing their sports in Sidney, Norwich or even Van Hornesville after a raging fire gutted the Holiday Lanes on Oneonta’s Southside in the early morning hours of Friday, April 9. The Oneonta Fire Department received the call at 1:30 a.m., and fought the blaze with the help of multiple fire departments until BVA’s Graham Stroh and daughter Asher, 8, examine a “riparian buffer” off Route 23 east of the Village of Morris.
5 a.m., Fire Chief Mike Mancini reported. With the Town of Oneonta’s water system not expected to be completed until later this year, the big challenge was feeding water to aerial trucks from Stamford, Sidney and the OFDs, Mancini said. One station was set up near the Susquehanna River’s Southside dam, and another at a pond on Henderson’s Farm, across from Lowe’s. Please See FIRE, B2
Special to hometown oenonta
Inside Oneonta’s Holiday Lanes, the beams survived, but not the alleys.
GOALS: SAVE LOCAL FARMLAND, CHESAPEAKE
‘Mysterious Tubes’ Explained By JIM KEVLIN MORRIS
P
eople entering Morris on Route 23 from Oneonta Inside “mystekept asking Bob Thom- rious tubes,” plants grow. as, town historian and a Butternut Valley Alliance board member, “What are those tubes across Jim Kevlin/hometown oenonta
from the cemetery?” With his nudging, a couple of weeks ago an enticingly titled Zoom presentation, “Mysterious Tubes Along Butternut Creek,” provided the answer to 27 participants, some landowners who may sign up to host mysterious tubes of Please See MYSTERY, B6
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD