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Volume 13, No. 30
City of The Hills Honoring Bobby Atwell
Heirloom muskets GOHS GETS historic Donation /B1
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The village of Cooperstown’s Board of Trustees has tentatively approved a permit for the Cooperstown Veterans of Foreign Wars to hold its annual Memorial Day Parade. The trustees conditionally approved the permit for Monday, May 31, providing state laws regarding the coronavirus pandemic are obeyed. INSIDE ►A GEORGIA DAWG: CCS grad Jacob Russell pursues football coaching dream at UGA. Page A3. ►TITLE PURSUIT: Cooperstown baseball team seeks Section Three title. Page A3. ►al colone TRIBUTE: Columnist, Oneonta businessman is honored by his brother. Page A4. Colone’s full obituary is featured. Page B5. ►Mill for SALE: Tourist destination the Fly Creek Cider Mill is for sale. Page B1. ►WHither the Editorial Page?: New editor discusses his mixed feelings about opinion pages in newspapers. Page A4.
AllOTSEGO.com • Your
ONLINE DAILY NEWSPAPER
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, April 29, 2021
COMPLIMENTARY
Shared garage back on Otsego’s agenda By GREG KLEIN
Otsego County’s plan for a shared transportation garage has been revived. County officials met with repInspired by the roadside resentatives from Otsego Northern dedication in honor of John Catskills BOCES in the past month Kempe Winslow on state to gage interest in another push to Route 205, the village of build a centralized, shared services Cooperstown will work with facility on county Route 35 in the the Cooperstown Veterans town of Milford, on land adjacent to Club to find an appropriate place to honor Robert “Bobby” the ONC BOCES campus. “I would not say it is full speed W. Atwell, who was killed ahead, but maybe it is half speed March 21, 1968, in Vietnam. A private first class in the ahead,” Otsego County Board of Representatives President Dave Bliss Army, Atwell, 20, was the said on Tuesday, April 27. only village resident who “It is still very much needed,” died in Vietnam. He was Bliss said. “BOCES is still interest. posthumously awarded the It is back on now that the funding is Bronze Star Medal, The coming back up and we’re hopefully Purple Heart and the Good Conduct Medal. In October, the state dedicated a section of 205 in the hamlet of Hartwick in honor of Winslow, a Marine Sgt. who was killed in Vietnam in 1969.
Parade time?
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going to be on better footing.” The county’s facilities are near Cooperstown Central School on Linden Avenue in an area where no expansion or renovation is possible. “It’s old. It’s Dave Bliss not big enough. It is functionally obsolete. It is structurally unsound. It is a terrible location. It is right in the middle of the school and the village traffic on Linden Avenue.” Bliss said. “We might be able to leave some things there, such as the salt facility and the gas facility. The village of
Cooperstown uses those, so it would be more expensive if they had to have their own facilities. Bliss said there have been ongoing discussions with county schools and other municipalities about joining BOCES and the county. He said he thinks more groups will be interested once the plans are concrete, a cost is known and the shared services begin to lead toward budget savings. “I would think any school would be interested,” Bliss said. “They are in and out of BOCES all the time. This way they could drop off the kids at BOCES and if their bus needed servicing, they could just drop it off at the garage at the same time. It is getting harder to find mechanics, too, so it might be better for the schools if they did not have to hire their own
‘He was a skater boy’
Rally Sunday to protest crimes against Asians
COOPERSTOWN — In response to the rising number of hate crimes directed at Asian Americans since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, local teens are planing a Solidarity Rally for Sunday, May 2, according to a media release. Otsego Solidarity Rally for Asian Americans will be held at 2 p.m. in front of the Otsego County Courthouse at 197 Main Street. May is Asian American and Pacific Island Heritage month, according to the release. Students involved in organizing the rally have created a window display at 149 Main Street, Cooperstown, to highlight the history and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The exhibit will be on view throughout the month of May. Cate Bohler, one of the 15-year-olds, said in the release, “I want to organize this rally to see how people come together to fight against racial injustice. My biggest goal is to help people become aware, educate them about things they might not know about. The rally is a starting point for action.” Speakers will include Otsego County Board of Supervisors Danny Lapin and Meg Kiernan and Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh.
mechanics, but could use one of the mechanics at the garage.” Although the Cooperstown location is only about 10 miles north of the BOCES location, Bliss said the Milford spot is “ideal.” “I identified that spot three or four years ago when I started (on the board),” he said. “It is not exactly, but pretty much the center of the county. There is not much around it. You can expand as needed.” Bliss said the partners are waiting for an architectural estimate from C&S of Syracuse and then they will begin to assess how to pay for the project. A mix of grants, municipal budgets and education money will likely be part of the financial package. “It is really back on schedule,” Bliss said.
Korey Rowe/The Freeman’s Journal
Oneonta skater Matthew Maloney, 23, rides his Blackout skateboard at the Oneonta Skate Park on Sunday, April 25. Maloney said he has been skating in the park since he was 16-years old.
Unatego prepares project, but won’t rush consolidation
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AllOTSEGO.com
By GREG KLEIN
►Fair GamE: New York announces the return of the state fair in August. ►Spring Sports UPDATES: Follow us online for game results beginning this weekend. Contributed
The proposed baseball field at Unatego Central School in Otego is seen in this artist’s rendition.
Unatego Central School’s proposed $27.6 million capital improvement plan comes at the perfect time to keep the needed school upgrades from raising taxes on district voters, according to Superintendent Dave Richards. “We have an opportunity with our debt where we have some debt falling off, so we can replace it
with new debt without any increase of the tax levy,” Richards said. State building aid funding will pay for 87.5% of the project, Richards said. “If we don’t do a project, then we lose that revenue, too,” Richards said. Leftover EXCEL funds and about $1.3 million in capital reserves will pay for the remainder of See UNATEGO, Page A2
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD