AUTUMN Dreams
INSIDE!
►CELEBRATE FALL AROUND OTSEGO LAKE
13 Friday Sept. .com a t n o e n o x ted Volume 11, No. 47
HOMETOWN !
E RE
F
ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, August 29, 2019
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MUSICA, MAESTROS!
City of The Hills
Beginning Sept. 7, 3 Conductors Will Compete This Fall To Lead Catskill Symphony By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA
C Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Sam Campolo, a member of ZBT fraternity, remembers his friendship with Nicholas Stagnitta, 21, Patchogue, during a vigil on Tuesday, Aug. 27 in the SUNY Oneonta’s President’s Garden. The young man, who died suddenly this week, “was so full of life, and now everything feels empty,” he said.
Council Looks Into Dog Park For City Parks ONEONTA
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he city’s Operations, Planning and Evaluations Committe is again exploring the possibility of a dog park in the city. “There are a lot of dog lovers in Oneonta,” said Common Council member Michele Frazier, First Ward. OPEC asked City Manager George Korthauer, Parks and Recreation and Engineering, to explore the costs and sites. Details at
all it Oneonta’s “Next Top Conductor.” Silus Nathanial Huff, Carolyn Watson and Maciej Żółtowski will each conduct one of three concerts in the Catskill Symphony Orchestra’s search for their new conductor, following the retirement of Maestro Charles Schneider last year.
►WHO WILL HOLD BATON? YOU CAN HELP CHOOSE
T
hree conductors will perform locally this fall and you will be asked to assess how they do, as Catskill Symphony Orchestra recruits a sucessor to founding maestro Chuck Schneider, as follows: •Saturday, Sept. 7 – SILAS HUFF, music director, New York City’s Astoria Symphony, Colorado pops and other orchestras. •Saturday, Oct. 12 – CAROLYN WATSON, director, orchestral studies, University of Kansas, won international conducting competition. •Saturday, Nov. 16 – MACIEJ Żółtowski, violinist, composer, collaborator with
Huff
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►COUNTY CLERK Kathy Sinnott Gardner accused the Cuomo Administration of a “money grab” by charging drivers $25 for new plates after paint started peeling off existing ones. Want to keep your current plates? $45. ►SUNY ONEONTA and the United University Professions have reached an agreement to increase the pay and prospect for adjunct professors. ► HANZOLO, the Cooperstown band, won Albany’s Battle of the Bands and a featured spot Sept. 14 at PearlPalooza, the city’s downtown music festival ►A PROPANE TRUCK driver was found dead in his cab after the vehicle ran off the road near Hobart. Troopers suspect the man may have been stricken medically.
Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Better Exchange Thrift Store Manager Sara Lucas sets up panels showing artist’s renderings of the prospective animal shelter, on view for the first time at the Saturday, Aug. 24, groundbreaking.
ceremony on the site across Route By JIM KEVLIN 28 from Kevin’s Ford. “That’s a good thing when people make INDEX individual contributions. It’s their shelter. It’s the people’s shelter.” o far, 100 individual conAt the groundbreaking, Anita tributions have been made Vitullo of Clinton, Staffworks to the new Susquehanna president and a donor to animal ►DONATE to the causes, announced her $250,000 Animal Shelter, and more of the kind are needed to reach the new SSPCA’s “Shelter matching grant has been met Us” fund drive at fundraising goal of $3 million, by donations, netting $500,000 www. sqspca.org according to SSPCA Executive toward achieving the $2 million Director Stacie Haynes. mark. “It’s the individuals we have to count With that mark met, and a new goal of on,” said Haynes in the afterglow of Sat$3 million set, SSPCA board chair Gaylord urday, Aug. 24’s upbeat groundbreaking Please See SHELTER, A9
S
Żółtowski
Polish symphony orchestras. All concerts at 7:30 p.m., SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union Ballroom For tickets, visit: https://catskillsymphony.net/purchase-tickets/
www.
ON
Watson
“Our search for the new conductor started last September,” Laurie Zimniewicz, search committee chair. “We had 73 local, national and international candidates apply. We narrowed it down to 12, then nine, then five and then three.” Now, the Symphony is asking for audience help in choosing the next conductor. This fall, the three finalists will each spend a week in Oneonta, meeting with the board, Symphony patrons, the Please See CSO, A9
FENIMORE EXHIBIT ENDING
This Is Last Weekend For Rock, Roll Photos By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
‘H
view are costumes and instruments on loan from the Rock & Roll Hall. “The last three weeks, it’s been mobbed,” said D’Ambrosio. “People realized it’s closing, and that’s
erb Ritts: The Rock Portraits” was a game-changer for The Fenimore Art Museum. “Our admissions at The Fenimore were up 13 percent from last year,” said Paul D’Ambrosio, president. “This tells us that we need to Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA keep appealing to Fenimore President D’Ambrosio a broader, younger discusses Ritts’ iconic Madonna audience.” portrait. If you want to see it, The portraits this is your last chance. The – Monday, Sept. exhibit closes Sept. 2. 2, is the exhibit’s last day – include Madonna, increased turnout, but July David Bowie, Prince and had a lot of momentum too. other music icons. It was The symposium was comloaned by the Rock & Roll pletely packed.” Hall of Fame and the Herb While “2019 is not a Ritts Foundation. Also on Please See ROCK, A9
Despite Village Atty.’s Warning, Trustees Vote To Fly Pride Flag By JENNIFER HILL COOPERSTOWN
A
month after voting unanimously to fly the Pride Flag on the flagpole next June, village trustees once again debated and, in the end, affirmed their decision. “I gave every member of
this board every opportunity to table this motion,” said Trustee MacGuire Benton, who introduced the resolution at the board’s July meeting. “For any vote you can have a discussion. We don’t need a unique, complex way to vote on flags,” he said. The debates started when the board’s “Adhoc Committee Please See FLAG, A8
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD