r e m m u S
INSIDE!
Dreams
►THINGS TO DO IN GREATER COOPERSTOWN
HOMETOWN E!
E FR Volume 11, No. 34
City of The Hills
ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, May 31, 2019
Visit www.
AllOTSEGO.com
For California Family, Dream Come True P.J. Mellana of La Habra, Calif, takes a self of wife Kari and kids Cooper, 7, P.J., 14, and Reagan, 11 at their Milford home.
Son Played Ball, Parents Found Retirement Home
Summer
By LIBBY CUDMORE
Dreams
COOPERSTOWN
W
COME TRUE
hen P.J. Mellana spent a post-graduation week in Cooperstown with his dad in 1997, he never imagined that, one day, he would own property in the land that baseball built.
“We love it here,” he said. “Last summer, my son P.J. was on a traveling team, and he played at All-Star Village. We just fell in love with the area.” So Mellana, who lives in La Habra, Please See HOME, A8
Up From The Ashes
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Holdyn Gallucci, 2, Oneonta, waves a flag during Oneonta’s Memorial Day Parade Monday, May 27/MORE PHOTOS, A3
SUNY Oneonta Top Foundation For Scholarship
AllOTSEGO.com
►GABRIEL TRUITT was offered a 25-to-life plea deal to seconddegree murder in the arson death of John Heller, according to District Attorney John Muehl. ►THE MAN WHO DROVE head-on into a police cruiser Tuesday, May 21, at Routes 20 and 80, Springfield Center, probably did so deliberately, officials said at a press conference in the Oneonta State Police Barracks three days later. ► ONEONTA MIDDLE SCHOOL’S Principal Coleen Moore is being promoted to district director of Curriculum & Instruction, succeeding Tom Brindley who will become superintendent July 1, School Board President Bill Gau announced at the board meeting on Wednesday, May 22.
Units Live
By LIBBY CUDMORE
By JENNIFER HILL
F
T
ON
Housing Project In Cooperstown?
COOPERSTOWN
ONEONTA he SUNY Oneonta Foundation has again received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, making it only one of two foundations for educational/scholarship support in New York State with such a distinction, and the only one in Central New York.. It is the College Foundation’s eighth consecutive four-star rating. Only four percent of charities evaluated in the U.S. received a four-star rating eight consecutive times.
‘The Grove’ RSS UNDETERRED Considered Unfunded, For Village Riverside
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Doug Hallberg, the Oneonta stained-glass designer, installs the “Christ at Gethsemane” window in the new Milford Methodist Church. The window was salvaged from the church that burned on March 12, 2017.
2 Years After Fire, Milford Methodists Anticipating ‘Starkly Beautiful’ Church Main Street. “What are we going to do?” asked Pam Dubreuil, the Moores’ daughter, an aide at Milford Central School. Her dad, the retired town justice, chaired the church’s Board of Proverbs, 3:5-6 Trustees. “We just have to By JIM KEVLIN Lola Rathbone, who chaired Mil- build another church,” ford Methodist Church’s building said Pastor Sylvia Barrett, committee, is flanked by Pastor who had been with the MILFORD Sylvia Barrett and Rathbone’s husband Tom, who volunteered as congregation since 2013. Two years and three t was about 4 a.m. clerk of the works on the job. months later, that’s on March 13, 2013. almost been accomplished. The 1930 Milford Methodist Church Pending a final building inspection and had burned down the night before in a ragCertificate of Occupancy, the congregation ing fire that was seen for miles, and tearful and forlorn congregation members gathered will soon be worshiping in a modern buildPlease See CHURCH, A7 in Bob and Glenda Moore’s kitchen on East “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
I
or Josh Edmonds, the lot at 10 Chestnut St. represents a chance to solve two problems in the village – adding housing and reducing energy consumption. “The village needs longterm rentals,” he said. “And I see a need for more energyefficient construction.” Edmonds, a passive-house consultant through, Simple Integrity, his contracting company, has proposed a two-story, 12-unit building on the lot at 10 ChestPlease See HOUSING, A8
ONEONTA
R
SS didn’t get the state funding for its controversial Riverside Apartments, but that doesn’t mean it’s giving up. The state Office of Homes & Community Renewal didn’t approve the 64-unit complex for low-income housing, but Altamont-based Rehabilitation Support Services still plans to move forward, said Ed Butz, RSS managing director. “There are many more applications than there is funding available,” he said. “It’s Please See RSS, A8
Son Returns, Succeeds Mother, MCS Mainstay That’s On School Board. Wards Also Plan Collaboration In Brewery, Catering By JENNIFER HILL MILFORD
A
Milford family dynasty is born, in both politics and business. In the political sphere, Susan Ward is retiring from 18 years on the Milford Central school HOMETOWN ONEONTA board, the past eight as the Susan Ward holds up board’s president. Tuesday, May 21, her son Will, son Will’s campaign 22, won the seat in a five-way race poster. three days after he graduated from Skidmore College with a BA in political science, becoming the youngest person in the county elected to a school board. Please See MOM, SON, A8
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD Brenton P. Dadey
Theodoros Basdekis
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