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Volume 14, No. 27
AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, April 21, 2022
COMPLIMENTARY
YMCA’s summer programming on track, but ‘different’ this year Staffing challenges notwithstanding, Oneonta’s YMCA and the City of Oneonta will partner again this year to provide summer programming and services for area youth eager for activity. “The Y’s core mission is to find solutions to community problems,” said YMCA Executive Director Frank Russo. “This summer, like every summer before it, we will work to the best of our capabilities to provide whatever services we can.” “We will offer our summer programs in some way, shape, or form,” he said. “I like to say it will be ‘similar but different.’ We intend to have the swimming pool operating. The community is very quick to be worried that there will be nothing to do this summer, but that’s not the case. That’s not to say that we don’t need employees and volunteers — we’re just like any business facing a shortage these days.” “This is not a money issue for us,” he said, noting the Oneonta Y’s competitive wages and opportunities. “We’re losing some of our past collaborative partners because their own programs have suffered. Everybody is feeling the pinch.” In his online Weekly Report for April 16, Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek addressed the need for volunteers who can keep city programs alive. “We’re all in this together,” he said, acknowledging his 2021 campaign theme. “I’m here to talk with you about ‘The Big Need,” an immediate need for volunteers willing to offer a few hours each week to the Y and City summer camp. Mayor Drnek made a pitch to city residents “from aged 18 to 80” who could help with the city’s Children’s Summer Camp program, asking them to call 607-432-0010 for information. ► WE APOLOGIZE!► The Freeman’s Journal, Hometown Oneonta and ALLOtsego.com’s offices were unfortunately among the 18,000 residences and businesses that were affected by Tuesday’s winter storm. As hard as we tried, we found we simply could not produce our quality newspapers without power and computers. This week’s papers may be a day late hitting the newstands and being delivered to our customers’ homes. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Special thanks to our printer, the post offices and our customers for their patience. Let’s all hope spring comes soon and will be here to stay!
“Let’s give our kids a memorable Oneonta summer,” he urged. Reiterating the Oneonta Y’s mission — to find solutions — Mr. Russo described the YMCA’s commitment to pushing through even during COVID’s shutdowns. “COVID forever changed every community service,” he said. “We stayed open when nobody else could open. We had lessons year-round to try to keep people safe.” Noting that drownings increased during the pandemic because people were swimming either without lessons or without lifeguards, he said the Oneonta Y wanted to work with the community as best as possible despite the conditions. “The bigger issue here is that nobody wants to commit to working,” he said. “We have lifeguard training classes throughout the summer and no one has signed up for them. We’re competing with traveling sports — there’s so much of that all summer that it pulls the kids away from being able to do things like lifeguard. The baseball camps and restaurants all need employees, too.” Mr. Russo won’t let the YMCA relax its standards for workers, however, insisting on a strict best-practices and training regimen to ensure safety for members and the community at large. He continues to work, too, on addressing the city’s child care shortage, meeting with state legislators and local officials on a problem deeply affecting Oneonta. “We’ve not been able to do full-time child care in nine years,” he said. “Even back then there were challenges to the workforce struggling to balance work and child care. The shortage in workers makes it impossible to provide everything we would want to provide.”
Just … no. Monday night’s surprise ‘Noreaster was on no one’s wish list and it left a lot of damage throughout Otsego County leaving more than 18,000 without electricity. With outages lasting up to 72 hours, the county’s Office of Emergency Services opened two emergency shelters and prepared dry ice and water distribution centers. On Chestnut Street in the Village of Cooperstown, employees had an early start to their Tuesday morning. “We came in around 4 a.m. There was so much snow and so many trees and branches down, that’s all we’ve been dealing with,” said Lloyd Stillson, left. “It looks like we will be picking up branches and moving snow for the rest of the day,” added Tylar Thayer, right.
Dedication, invention, perseverance lead to a surprising, happy ending for the Fenimore Cooper murals
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AllOTSEGO.com Photo by Charles Seton
Leaving the Trapper (from The Prairie, painted by Albert Crutcher 8’x8’ )
[Editor’s note: We’ve been following the story of the James Fenimore Cooper murals in Mamaroneck doomed to a future hidden from view or lost forever to school reconstruction. There’s good news to report this week, and we asked Carol Bradshaw Akin, Board Member and former President of the Mamaroneck Historical Society, to give us a first-person, onthe-ground report. It’s a wonderful story with a happy ending — something nice for a change — and a real connection between Otsego and Westchester counties. Thank you, Carol!] There’s good news to report, thanks to the superhuman efforts of the Co-Presidents of the Mamaroneck Historical Society, John Pritts and Gail Boyle, who turned their lives inside out for the past two-plus months to save eight murals of James Fenimore Cooper’s scenes from “Leatherstocking Tales” painted 81 years ago. Ninth grade classes at Mamaroneck Junior High fund-raised from 1936 to 1941, then hired
artists from Yale Art School, one of whom, Mimi Jennawine, was a Mamaroneck High graduate. Her other works include a painting in the Smithsonian — and most all of the other muralists went on to become prominent artists. With GoFundMe contributions, and a couple of generous large donors, the figure needed was reached, and John and Gail began. They threw themselves into this almost impossible task, researching information, and contacts, searching for mural-removal companies (found one), hired an art conservator, wrote and followed up on hundreds of emails, spent hours and days on phone calls, tried (in vain) to be in touch with the School Board and Superintendent, (eventually found the school’s Director of Facilities who was supportive and cooperative!), drove all over from Stamford, CT, to Brooklyn to pick up preservation supplies needed by the company, which also included huge 2ft x 12ft tubes on which to Continued on page 2
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD