Hometown Oneonta 10-21-21

HOMETOWN

CUS ATION APPRECI

ING IS H T Y R E EV !

ON SALE

CSO to hold fall concert Saturday The Catskill Symphony Orchestra will be performing string arrangements from Pachelbel, Mozart and others in Archissimo in the first Fall concert, which will be held at the Foothills Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Oct. 23.

There will be pre-show entertainment and a cash bar.

The concert is an hour long with no intermission and is the first of two concerts by CSO this fall.

Go to www.catskillsymphonyorchestra.org for more information.

08 - 2021

ONEONTA

AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE

Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, October 21, 2021

COMPLIMENTARY

Oneonta won’t opt out on marijuana

By KEVIN LIMITI The city of Oneonta has no plans to opt out of recreational sales of marijuana, according to local politicians.

In New York’s legal marijuana bill, which passed April 30, municipalities are able to decide to opt out on marijuana dispenaries by Dec. 31.

However, there is no movement to opt out in Oneonta. According to Mayor Gary Herzig, no one on the Common Council has advocated for the city to opt out.

Herzig said he is in favor of the city taking no action and allowing itself to be a candidate for dispensary licensees to operate in the city.

“It’s not much different than what the country

went through with alcohol,” Herzig said. “Cannabis has been used regularly for over 50 years.”

Herzig’s term expires at the end of the year, which is at least a year before any dispensary would open. However, the mayoral candidates running are both Common Council members and neither plans to request an opt-out vote this year.

Len Carson, R-Fifth Ward, said he hasn’t heard anyone in the council say they want to opt out.

Carson said while he can definitely “smell it more,” it’s the users’ “legal right.”

“I think it’s going to take our community time to get used to the smell and the use,” Carson said, but expressed how local government would have a say in the time and manner where sales can take place.

“There are options for the general public to

An Uncas farewell

Area codes now required in 607 All phones in the 607 area code must dial the area code for local calls beginning Oct. 24. Any phone or machine programmed without an area code must be updated

raise concerns,” Carson said. “They shouldn’t think there are no options.”

Councilmember and mayoral candidate Mark Drnek, D-Eighth Ward, said the logistics of opting out aren’t clear.

“You’d be accurate if you were to say it may be complicated,” Drnek said.

Drnek also said the value of revenue from the sale of marijuana in the City of Oneonta “would be considerable. If the city has one more revenue stream then that revenue stream is going to provide options to produce more things,” Drnek said. “That’s a really positive thing.”

Drnek said cannabis use is “not an issue of contention anymore.”

See MARIJUANA, Page A2

Zambello to leave Glimmerglass at end of 2022 season STAFF REPORT

INSIDE ►Police Promotion: Oneonta police chief talks about job, civic engagement. Page A3. ►‘The 57 bus’: SUNY Oneonta lecture features author of book about an infamous hate crime.

Page A3. ►UNDEFEATED REGULAR SEASON: Cooperstown boys win division, finish soccer season 15-0.

Page A7. ►LEAGUE TITLES: Unatego, Schenevus girls, Franklin -Unatego boys win title games Saturday at WNSC. Page A7. ►Marathon moments: CCS junior, sports columnist complete marathon feats.

Page A9. ►ARBOR DAY: Cooperstown dedicates a tree in a belated Arbor Day tribute to Dennis Tallman. Page A12. ►FILM dAYS: Glimmerglass Film Days announces virtual schedule. Page A13.

Follow Breaking News On

AllOTSEGO.com ►Mayoral DEBATE: LWV holds forum with candidates for Oneonta Mayor. ►Common Council: City begins 2022 budget process. ►District FIVE DEBATE: LWV holds forum with candidates for county board spot from Hartwick, Milford, New Lisbon. ►Sports UPDATES: Get playoff updates daily. ►ART in THE DARK: The Fenimore Art Museum to host Halloween events.

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Otsego Area Rowing to compete in regional events. See Page A11

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Paul Nevin, director for the Zimmerman Center for Heritage, looks on as the Chief Uncas is loaded onto a flatbed Wednesday, Oct. 13, at Sam Smith’s Boatyard in the town of Otsego.

The Uncas is moving to Lake Clarke, Pennsylvania, so it can give boat tours on the Susquehanna River for the Susquehanna National Heritage Area.

Glimmerglass Festival Artistic and General Director Francesca Zambello announced the 2022 festival will be her 12th and final season in her leadership role with the company.

“My years with The Glimmerglass Festival have been the best of my life,” Zambello said. “I got married and built a home here with Faith and our son, Jackson, and the Cooperstown community has become an integral part of our lives. I am so proud of this company and all we have accomplished over the last decade. This is not goodbye; it is a time of transition and excitement for this company I adore. I am excited to witness and support the beginning for the next era of the ever-evolving Glimmerglass Festival.”

Marc Horn “Francesca has revolutionized Glimmerglass by creating a festival Zambello like none other,” said Robert Nelson, Board of Trustees chairperson. “The Board of Trustees remains forever grateful for her vision, planning, artistic and financial leadership.”

Zambello will remain in her position through the conclusion of the 2022 festival, when her contract with the company comes to an end.

She will continue in her role as artistic director at Washington National Opera and as an independent opera and theater director.

“I can’t wait to welcome our audiences back to the theater we all love this summer,” Zambello said. “We are bringing it home.”

The Glimmerglass Festival, the summer opera and musical theater festival, will return to its theater for its 2022 season after presenting this past summer’s performances completely outdoors in the aptly named festival, “Glimmerglass on the Grass.”

The 2022 Festival will feature productions of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music,” originally slated for the summer of 2020. Bizet’s “Carmen” takes the stage in a new production directed by 2022 Artist in Residence Denyce Graves, followed by the new work “Tenor Overboard,” weaving some of Rossini’s most spectacular music together in a new comic opera with a book by the famed playwright Ken Ludwig. The next installment of “Common Ground,” the Festival’s multi-year initiative of new, commissioned works, is a double bill of Kamala Sankaram and Jerre Dye’s “Taking Up Serpents,” paired with the world premiere one-act “Holy Ground,” by Damien Geter and Lila Palmer.

Glimmerglass Festival 2020 package buyers will have the first opportunity to purchase the 2022 ticket package beginning Oct. 25.

Ticket packages become available to the general public Nov. 15.

All tickets go on sale Jan. 24. For more information, visit www. glimmerglass.org/2022.

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD

A-2 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

City unlikely to opt out on pot MARIJUANA/from Page A1 “Do we want Massachusetts to make more money or should we?” Drnek asked, speaking of the ease of driving to a place where the municipality didn’t opt out.

Herzig said since marijuana was legalized, he had not heard from OPD that there was a significant spike in incidents.

OPD Police Chief, Christopher Witzenberg, said he was less concerned about marijuana use and more concerned about dispensaries being robbed, because it is currently a cash-only business since it is still federally illegal.

Herzig said it was a sign of changing times.

He related how a friend said if someone told him years ago that marijuana would be legal and plastic bags illegal, he would have told them he was crazy.

A new revenue stream would come from the sale and taxing of marijuana, which he said was all for the good.

“There are many things we can’t afford,” Herzig said. “The only thing that can change that without raising taxes is new revenue.”

Under the law, 4% of taxes from the sale of marijuana will go to New York, with 3% going to municipalities, including Oneonta, and 1% going to the county.

If Oneonta, or any municipality, decided to opt out, they could have a “permissive referendum” which would only need 10% of the number of votes cast. But the municipality retains the rights to control the time, place and manner of sales for marijuana, a lot of which would be subject to zoning laws and would establish hours and would have to go through review for a special-use permit.

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

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THURSDAY, oCTObER 21, 2021

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-3

New Oneonta police chief ‘humbled’ by role Art Garage opens show of local works

BY KEVIN LIMITI

The Oneonta Police Department has a new chief of police, Christopher Witzenberg, who has a long history of serving in leadership roles.

Witzenberg was previously an OPD lieutenant and became acting chief after Doug Brenner retired last winter.

“It’s humbling,” Witzenberg said. “I’ve been pretty pensive the last week about the things I’ve done to get here.”

Witzenberg, who also served as the Oneonta PBA president, said he was “fortunate to have worked in different capacities in the police department” including working on criminal interdiction, which involves gang investigations or serial criminals, and working as a patrol sergeant, which Witzenberg said was the “most rewarding position I’ve had in my career, because I had the most direct contact with officers.”

OriginallyfromSmithtown, Long Island, Witzenberg moved to the area while attending SUNY Oneonta.

Witzenberg

He became an on-call firefighter while in school and drove a concrete truck at the same time.

“I kind of realized the fire service wasn’t for me. I’d taken a few police tests and Oneonta called me first,” Witzenberg said.

Working as a police officer here presents different challenges, he said.

“It’s a very different perspective,”Witzenberg said.

“We get called to emergencies and deal with a broad section of emergency responses.”

Witzenberg called being a police officer a “very interesting career.”

One of the things Witzenberg said he wants to push for is more use of data-driven police work in order to make sure the police are “using our resources in the most efficient way possible.”

“When you say community police it’s really about getting into the community,” Witzenberg said.

The highest volume of calls concern mental health in the area which, he said, are people who are “fairly local” and might be here because of the services provided in the area.

Witzenberg said Oneonta used to be much worse when it came to fighting in bars but it had “gotten much better over the past 20 years.”

The reason for this, Witzenberg believes, is the OPD decided to change the approach when dealing with underage drinking and over-serving, putting the emphasis on approaching bar owners rather than patrons.

He also said the police make sure people who throw house parties are warned in advance, because sometimes

there were “over 150” people and in other towns, floors have collapsed.

“We don’t want to see that happen in this community so we try to stay ahead of it,” Witzenberg said.

Witzenberg’s appointment has raised some concerns from the community regarding comments he made in respect to pretext stops, which is when you pull someone over in order to investigate something else. Oneonta resident Daniel Dreier said, during Common Council on Tuesday, Oct. 5, Witzenberg would use pretext stops under a different name.

“This is obviously unacceptable,” Dreier said.

In response, Witzenberg said pretext stops are “incredibly complex” and “very valuable” under certain circumstances. He said abuse by them is a topic of national conversation, and different than how he would use them.

Witzenberg said now that he is police chief, he is looking forward to getting a lieutenant as a second-in-command.

SUNY lecture looks at ‘The 57 Bus’ incident

BY MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART ONEONTA — At 18, Sasha Fleischman was lit on fire while riding the bus home from school in Oakland.

Fleischmann is gender non-binary and uses they/ them pronouns. They fell asleep, and another teen, Richard Thomas, lit their skirt as a prank. Thomas was arrested at school; Fleischmann was hospitalized for weeks with severe third-degree burns.

Dashka Slater, a journalist who lives close to the bus route, began covering the story. She spent three years following both instigator and victim.

Slater’s book “The 57 Bus” tells both their stories, and in doing so, explores the difficult collisions of gender identity, race (Thomas is Black, Fleischmann white), class, crime, punishment and forgiveness.

“The 57 Bus” was selected as SUNY Oneonta’s 2021 Common Read, with 1,200 free copies distributed to students. Slater came to Oneonta on Tuesday, Oct. 18, to give the annual Mills Distinguished Lecture.

Within days of the fire, community members were trying to balance contradictory feelings, Slater told a crowd of 225 at the Alumni Field House.

“Concern … for Sasha who

was the victim … and at the exact same time, this sense of condemnation and dismissal for Richard.” There were public calls to try the 16year-old as an adult. Slater rejected the idea that she could only have compassion for one of the two parties, and set out to understand root causes. “Curiosity is how a conversation begins.

Opinions are what ends it,” she said.

The final chapters tell how this incident changed both their lives: medical procedures for one, imprisonment for the other, and then, eventual rehabilitation for both.

“We think about hate crimes in a legalistic fashion, as opposed to being a social problem,” Slater said. People tend to see these crimes as a violation, “rather than as a manifestation of the wounds in our own community fabric,” she said.

“I was open to the possibility that the truth would remain murky, that I would have to hold two things in my head at the same time: the fact that Richard did something horrible and cruel, and that he was more than the sum of his worst actions,” Slater said.

In opening remarks, Presi-

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dent Alberto Cardelle welcomed the public, the first public event on campus since COVID began.

“We weren’t sure we’d be able to do this until ten days ago, but the (COVID) numbers are really good now,” said Bill Harcleroad, director of campus activities. “We cancelled alumni weekend because we weren’t ready. We’ve got to be safe.”

The next large event, a delayed commencement celebration for the class of 2020, is scheduled for Oct. 30, with graduates limited to two guests each.

STAFF REPORT Local artists who are exhibited regularly on a national stage have taken over the space at the Art Garage in the town of Middlefield.

Ashley Norwood Cooper and Tracy Helgeson unveiled their most recent artworks in a show that opened Thursday, Oct. 14. Marcie Schwartzman, who has been working her unique ceramic/fiber art form for nearly two decades, will offer pieces created this year for brief “elements” group shows at the Smithy.

Ashley Cooper creates super-charged intimate scenes that reflect the drama or mundane episodes of domestic life, with, sometimes, insects like fireflies and, in her new works, bees.

Helgeson is presenting a series of new smaller more intimate works for the current show.

In each of Schwartzman’s unique ceramics, a specific textile choice is finely worked to meld with the stoneware form and that also suggests one of the elements: air, fire, rain. An accomplished seamstress, she is combining two seemingly incongruous elements into a harmonious whole.

See ArtGarageCooperstown on Facebook for selected images.

Kenyan artist Adam Masava’s one-man show occupies the middle bay. His art includes pictures outside Nairobi in what he calls “an infamous slum.”

The gallery is open most Saturdays from 11a.m. to 2 p.m. and always daily with a text or phone call to 315-9419607 (text) or 607-547-5327 (telephone). It is located at 689 Beaver Meadow Road, a mile from Cooperstown.

WINTER CARNIVAL 2022 Help make the 2022 Winter Carnival in Cooperstown happen!

Volunteers are needed NOW in all aspects of planning and execution for the next fabulous Winter Carnival (Feb. 2022) Grab your friends and come aboard our volunteer team. For more information, send an email to: Peter Deysenroth • peterdeysenroth@hotmail.com

A-4 HOMETOWN ONEONTA

HOMETOWN Views

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

The OLD BADGER

editorial

Local owners /local news

Hometown Oneonta has chronicled the workings of our city and the opinions of our residents for a decade.

Like its sister publication, The Freeman’s Journal, Hometown Oneonta is our newspaper of record, printing legal notices, death notices, opinions, letters, events, culture, and all matter of news and amusements along with the comings and goings of its people. In fact, the newspaper is a true and unbiased document that reveals — and archives — the fascinating and varied story of our county. Not every municipality can boast of this.

Although for the most part we have taken our gallant newspaper for granted as it appears on our doorsteps and in our mailboxes week after week, we need to take a hard look at its accomplishments, and an even harder look at its challenges. For starters, a newspaper should be a watchdog, keeping an eye on the activities of its politicians and businesses and surrounding social media to prevent the overstepping of rules and boundaries such as fraud, corruption, the propagation of rumors and untruths and the spreading of misinformation. A newspaper should be as well a reliable reporter, filling its pages with solid local information – on schools and school boards, jobs, sports, businesses, zoning and planning boards, tag sales, real estate, police matters, social and cultural events, town meetings and political activities – the connective tissue of the community. It should drive the economy and the progress of the surrounding area, and it should make its residents feel like they, and their city, matter. It should not have typos and misspellings, but it often does.

Since 2004 roughly one in four newspapers in the US has closed, and many of the survivors have had their staffs and circulation slashed to shreds. Three million people live in cities, towns and rural counties with no local news coverage. These 1,300 communities have no local reporters telling their stories and keeping an eye on the issues most critical to their local democracy and quality of life. There are no advertisers to offer household goods, culinary delights, jobs, pets, land, houses, boats and wood for sale. And there is no newspaper of record, printing all the legal and tax notices, a repository of community knowledge – births, deaths, families, businesses and letters to the editor.

These now struggling newspapers have been, and are being, taken over by hedge funds, poorly regulated off-shore financial institutions that control a third of the papers in the country, all three of the largest local newspaper chains — Tribune, McClatchy and Gannett — and their own information. These funds have debts to pay and investors to please, and therefore no interest in sustaining their purchases; they cut the staffs, bring in articles and columns from far-away sister newspapers on far-away national subjects, and ignore the growing and sustainable digital presence, claiming it a waste of money.

When a newspaper disappears, its readers become less connected. They tend to participate less often in municipal elections; elections are less competitive; political polarization increases; corruption goes unchecked; government costs go up; disinformation becomes the norm. We must not let this happen, and to this effect there are a number of organizations starting up to help stop the takeover of our local news. The National Trust for Local News is dedicated to keeping local news in local hands; and LION (Local Independent Online News) Publishers encourages independent ownership and editorial control to ensure that more voices in a community are heard, more original journalism is produced and there is no undue influence by corporate, religious or partisan interests.

Hometown Oneonta is here to keep local news in local hands and to continue recording the growth and change of the city and its occupants.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Hometown Oneonta welcomes letters to the editor that reflect the writer’s thoughts on an article or other item appearing in the paper. They must include the writer’s name, address, email and telephone/mobile number; the opinions expressed must be the writer’s own. Hostile, offensive, factually incorrect or excessively inflammatory content will not be published. The length must be no more than 250 words.

The editors reserve the right to accept, reject or edit letters for clarity and space. Please send letters to: info@allotsego.com.

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ONEONTA

& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch

Tara Barnwell Publisher Greg Klein Editor

Larissa Ryan Business Manager

Kathleen Peters Graphics & Production

Kevin Limiti Staff Writer

Danielle Crocco Marketing Consultant

Ivan Potocnik Web Architect

Tom Heitz/Sharon Stuart Historian

Editorial Board Elinor Vincent, Michael Moffat, Tara Barnwell, Greg Klein MEMBER OF National Newspaper Association, New York Press Association The Otsego County Chamber Published weekly by Iron String Press, Inc. 21 Railroad Avenue, Cooperstown, NY 13326 Telephone: 607-547-6103. Fax: 607-547-6080.

E-mail: info@allotsego.com • www.allotsego.com

Behind the Badger Front First published in The Freeman’s Journal January 4, 1984 “Just a minute!” I said, pushing my chair away from the table, “Just a minute, I have the answer right here” and leaving the room precipitously I also left the seated couple blinking and bemused. One of them had asked me why I used the name Badger, assuming, not illogically, that it was a pseudonym. If it’s anything, it is a mesonym.

Badger is my middle name.

Really!

I returned to the room and plopped a glossy reprint of an 1865 catalogue onto the table in front of them. The title was clear, “Badger’s Illustrated Catalogue of Castiron Architecture by Daniel D. Badger (The Architectural Iron Works of the City of New York)”.

“Daniel D. Badger was my great-great-grandfather,” I said and then quoted a line from his 1884 obituary, “He was a man of commanding presence and remarkable energy.” I flipped open the catalogue introduction and read aloud, “The first person who practically used Iron as a building material for the exterior was Daniel D. Badger, the president of the Architectural Iron Works. In the year 1842, Mr. Badger erected in the city of Boston, the first structure of Iron ever seen in America. All the Iron Buildings in this country have been erected since that period, and owe their existence to that humble introduction.”

Then I skipped over to, “During the following year A.L. Johnson of Baltimore brought to the notice of Mr. Badger his invention of Rolling Iron Shutters. For the purpose of using

these shutters it became necessary to construct the first stories of Iron pillars and hollow posts. At once the superiority of the “Badger Fronts” (as they were then called) was immediately conceded…”

There could be a bit of puffery in there but who am I to argue? Another thing that, if not actually conceded must certainly be apparent, is that behind all Badger fronts lie strength, wisdom and durability.

Daniel Badger moved his business from Boston to New York and was responsible for hundreds of iron-fronted buildings all over North America, including the original Singer Building in lower Manhattan, parts of Ford’s Theatre in D.C., Tiffany’s first New York store, the great arching train shed of the first Grand Central Railroad Depot, the Halsey Building in Brooklyn, the Cooper Union arcade, both the Fulton and the South Ferry Terminals, the Watervliet Arsenal Storage Building in Troy and many more.

A new introduction to the catalogue gives the following description of a unique Badger building quite close to home, “In 1860 a large resort hotel had been built near the popular mineral springs in Sharon, N.Y., for H.J. Bangs of New York City. Three years later he had a cast iron pavilion designed by architect Lawrence Burgher and shipped in pieces from theArchitectural Iron Works for assembly in the hotel’s lovely grounds, to shade Magnesia Springs. There it remains, its tall Italianate arches invaded by the lush trees and flowering shrubs that were planted around it so many years ago. Above its low pediment rises an octagonal drum surmounted by a dome which has a balustraded lookout and a finial at its very top. The hotel burned in 1873. The pavilion has survived, but for how much longer?”

The author of these words is Margot Gayle who is currently president of the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture and a member of the Art Commission of the city of New York. Ms. Gayle goes on to point out that there are two contenders for the reputation of being first in the cast iron building field, Daniel D. Badger and James Bogardus (it was Bogardus who created Cooperstown’s iron front, the first floor of which is now occupied

by Withey’s and Clark’s). She resolves this contention by pointing out that “Bogardus himself never operated a foundry. Styling himself architect, or engineer, or eccentric mill maker, he contracted out the iron work he required. Thus he was not a foundry man and as such, as some claim, a rival of Badger.”

All of which, of course, leaves the Badger unrivalled. Doesn’t it?

RICHARD DEROSA up on hawthorn hill

A few modest proposals ...

A few modest proposals to get off my chest, fully aware of their never seeing the light of day.

I seem to start off every morning, usually in response to something I hear on the radio, with a remedy for whatever comment or issue has incited my pique.

My wife Sandy, the unfortunate recipient of these early morning rants, has suggested on a number of occasions that I air these suggestions in one of my essays. I suspect she feels such a public airing might do the trick, the trick being that once aired I might just keep quiet for a while, at least until bumping into new material that prompts my pique anew.

So, here goes.

I am a sports fan. Truth be told, I spend more time watching sports than I should. Among my favorite sports to watch are tennis, basketball, soccer and tennis. Having stumbled on volleyball during the Olympics and consequently become thoroughly mesmerized by the athleticism and skills displayed, it is now on the list.

However, I have two proposals to make that I feel would improve both basketball and tennis. At least from this spectator’s point of view.

The grunts and primal screams are irritating enough. They should be prohibited, but never will be. However, the game would be far more interesting — and entertaining — to watch if there were a speed limit placed on the first serve. Having watched too many matches where all the players do is ace one another, there is very little actual tennis played. Few players ever bother to come to the net, where a lot of the best skills are called upon.

Most are content to straddle the base line and hammer the ball back and forth. Gets to be downright boring. If there were a first serve limit perhaps the ball would be in play far more and then ardent fans like me would watch

more. As it stands now, I tape most matches that interest me. If after a fair spell it appears that service aces will dominate, I fast forward just to see who might have won. Not much fun in that. The antidote to this for me has been to watch more doubles — more interesting, more varied play, lots of nifty net play, and few doubles players offer up unreturnable serves by virtue of their mph.

Now for basketball: I suspect I am one of a slim minority who abhors the dunk, as well as the chest pounding that often accompanies it. Frankly, there are far more self-congratulatory antics displayed in many sports than should be allowed. Seems as if humility is a lost moral art form. I like the three-point shot as well as the traditional two-pointer. Why should a dunk be worth more than one point?

It would be a fair spread of value attributed to a physical act.

A friend suggests that some thought be given to raising the basket. I doubt if that will ever happen, as there is too much hoopla associated with dunking.

For me, it remains an opportunity for a heartfelt yawn.

Now for politics, which used to be characterized, at least by some, as the art of getting things done together for the common good. Scrap that notion! I never used to be in favor of term limits; I am now. Aside from the embarrassing shenanigans both parties have displayed of late, both houses of Congress resemble gladiatorial contests rather than the mutually respectful houses of honest and open-minded deliberation on all of our behalves that they should be. I suggest that House terms be limited to two consecutive four-year terms.

Senate terms should be limited to two consecutive six-year terms. That is it.

Plenty of time to acclimate to rules, procedures, etc. Then, go home and get your haircut at the local barber, work

out at the local gym, send your mail at the local post office, bowl at the local alley and, just maybe, relearn what it is like to live among the “working people” whose virtues you extoll at a comfy, abstracted distance.

Next thing I would suggest is that they sit together, mix it up a bit.

Battle lines are drawn by virtue of how members of both parties are seated, both during deliberations and committee hearings. It is a designated standoff right from the start.

Therefore, nothing at all resembling actual discussion or an honest sharing of views ever takes place. A country is not served well at all by a system that fosters enmity and sees the other as the enemy.

I doubt any of these modest proposals will ever come about.

Thought I would throw them out and see how they might be caught. Were she here right now, Gabby would agree that some things are worth taking a shot at, no matter the consequences.

LETTERS

Election letters due by Monday, October 25 Editor’s Note: All election endorsement letters must be submitted by Monday, Oct. 25, in order to run in The Freeman’s Journal and Hometown Oneonta before election day.

Letters will be run on a first-submitted, first-printed basis and not all endorsement letters can be guaranteed to be printed.

Therefore early submission is vital.

Submit letters of no more than 250 words to info@allotsego.com.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WELCOME • EMAIL THEM TO info@

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-5 RICHARD STERNBERG, M.D.

Gen. Colin Powell: An American Hero

Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART with resources courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library

135 Years Ago

David Wilber’s public life has been marked by precisely those traits and by precisely that success which his private life would lead us to expect. Industrious always, largehearted, charitable, plain-spoken, with honest purposes and straightforward methods stamped on his very countenance and bearing, he has never taken a position which he has not filled with marked fidelity and with distinguished honor. When in Congress he was often familiarly called “Hops” by reason of his persistent efforts to increase the duty on hops to eight cents per pound, and when at last successful, he had performed a work of incalculable value to the farmers and laborers of Central New York.

His congressional career was one of high honors conceded to him because of his incorruptible honesty and his indefatigable industry. David Wilber was deprived of the advantages of school and college, which were luxuries far beyond his reach. But he had what is often a better legacy, a thoughtful, studious mind thirsting for knowledge; a sound, practical common sense judgment which, as by intuition, taught him what books often fail to teach.

October 1886

110 Years Ago

Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and National Security Advisor died Monday, Oct. 18. He had served the United States for more than four decades. He was 84. He truly was an American hero. He died of complications of COVID-19.

He had been fully vaccinated and was scheduled to be given a booster last week when he became acutely ill.

He was susceptible to COVID even though vaccinated because he was immunosuppressed.

At one time Gen. Powell was the most admired person in the United States. Both political parties wanted to draft him to run for president. He had followed the best traditions of our military such that no one actually knew what his political positions and party identification was or if he even was enrolled in a party. He turned both parties down saying he felt that campaigning wasn’t for him.

Powell is an American success story. Born the son of immigrants, he took advantage of opportunities open to him to attend City College of New York where he joined ROTC and his leadership skills were first recognized.

Upon graduation he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam and received the Purple Heart for injuries sustained. He was multiply decorated including for valor.

He was appointed National Security Advisor to president Ronald Reagan. After serving as NSA, he returned to active duty and was ultimately appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, jumping over many more senior officers to be placed in that position. He served both presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. After retiring from the Army, he was George W. Bush’s first Secretary of State.

My favorite Colin Powell story is a minor one and probably apocryphal. When meeting the Israeli Prime

Minister in Jerusalem, the PM asked him what language they should use. Should they try to use English, which the PM spoke imperfectly, or should they just go with each of their native languages and use their translators.

Powell responded perfectly with “Why don’t we speak Yiddish” in Yiddish. The PM’s jaw dropped.

While a teenager in the South Bronx he worked in a children’s furniture and toy store and learned the language from the owner and the customers. He would hear customers discussing merchandise and possible purchases to each other. They thought he couldn’t possibly understand him, but he did. He relayed what he heard to the owner of the store who then was able to close the sale.

So, what does this really have to do with COVID? Powell died even though he was fully vaccinated. I am concerned some people will capitalize on this by saying, “See, he was vaccinated and he still died. The vaccine doesn’t protect you and it probably can hurt you. I’m not getting it and you shouldn’t either.”

This is absolutely not the message one should take from this tragedy.

Powell was immunosuppressed both from having multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, and from the treatment for it. A better lesson is how did he get COVID in the first place. Somebody he came in contact with had to be actively infectious. It even could have been at the hospital where he was being treated for multiple myeloma.

If fewer people have the disease the risk to people who are immunosuppressed would be decreased. Just another reason why everybody should be immunized as a way of beating back this disease and allowing our society to get back to normal.

ERNA MCREYNOLDS

Rediscovering Mom’s story decades later

October 1911

90 Years Ago

An enlarged program of physical education has been inaugurated at Hartwick College this year under the leadership of Benedict R. DeAngelo, instructor in physical education, the ultimate goal of which is the establishment of an athletic field on the campus in the future. Boxing and wrestling have been added to the physical education curriculum for upper class men this year while swimming and archery have been added for the coeds. Already enrolled in the boxing and wrestling course are 121 upperclassmen where they will learn the manly arts of self defense. Mr. DeAngelo revealed that he “hoped the day will come when Hartwick has an athletic field on the campus in order that outdoor physical education classes can be held.

October 1931

70 Years Ago

First Lieutenant Brownell Baker, Jr., holder of the Bronze Star awarded posthumously for heroism leading to his death in Korea in July, 1950, was buried yesterday in Glenwood Cemetery. Funeral rites at Bookhout Funeral Home were conducted by the Rev. Harold C. Buckingham, pastor of the First Methodist Church. Bearers were Herbert Schulze, John J. Steidle, Jr., Emerick Everett and Howard G. Tucker.

October 1951

50 Years Ago

John C. York, general manager of Eastern Milk Producers Cooperative, stated his views on the current American dilemma at the organization’s headquarters in Syracuse recently. “Work is a word and an activity which is apparently becoming obsolete in our society, as well as respect, cleanliness, and the real pride in being an American citizen. What is happening to the fiber and backbone of this great nation? Something for nothing is the attitude which has become increasingly apparent with the blessing of too many of our federal and state legislators along with some members of the U.S. Supreme Court. Our welfare programs, which are designed to milk hundreds of thousands of votes from urban areas to fill the buckets of greed for politicians, are choking the life blood from our once prosperous economy.”

October 1971

40 Years Ago

There is a real problem with the Social Security system, and it won’t go away. Products of the post World War II baby boom are now in their 30s. By the year 2010, they will begin turning 65. If the current birth rate continues to slumber and people continue to live longer, generation after generation, it is estimated by 2035 that more than a fifth of the population will be of retirement age, twice the percentage today. That means workers will be forced to carry a heavier burden of financing retirements than they do today. It could cause serious problems if the percentage coming out of paychecks doubles or triples. Current retirees need not worry. However, the baby boomers need to start worrying.

October 1981

We knew she had been born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island — when potatoes still grew in Floral Park and Hempstead where she lived. Mom had some stories but there were lots of black holes.

She told us her father was tough and could be (sometimes) mean. My own Dad was hard of hearing in one ear. Mom blamed her father. She said her father got mad and threw a tea cup at Dad, which broke his eardrum.

But there was more to that story.

Dad met Mom when her father brought him home for a meal. She was 13 and my Dad 26. Mom’s family befriended Dad. He was an immigrant, single, on his own.

He went to plenty of meals at Mom’s house. As time went by Mom and Dad became more to each other. They eloped, they told us, to Pennsylvania where they got married, three days after her 18th birthday.

Thinking about Dad’s hearing loss — either of my parents would have thrown more than a tea cup at any suitor who stole one of their girls away like that.

Mom quit school to marry Dad. Dad was forced to quit school at 12 because his father couldn’t work on their farm anymore.

When Mom got stuck working in a factory after Dad became too ill to work, her litany became “you girls get a good education so you won’t have to work like this.”

Mom was kicked out of her family for marrying my Dad, a Gentile.

That was her most guarded secret.

Such a secret that I can barely write it — almost too big a secret to share. Mom tried to keep it from us forever. She wouldn’t admit it. We only found out when I overheard her talking to our Jewish neighbor. Mom vowed to Mrs. Sobel her girls would never know. She didn’t want anyone to know. Mrs. Sobel was sworn to keep the secret. Mom was a tigress protecting us.

She grew up in the Depression and was a young woman during World War II. Many of her family in Europe had been slaughtered in concentration camps. She was afraid for us.

In that era in Upstate New York no one had heard of lox and bagels. The first time the city near us even had a physical synagogue was in the 50s, when we were born. And since it was a secret we didn’t know about that anyway.

‘Seventy years later and after Mom died we uncovered more of our family story at the Museum for the Resistance and Holocaust in Lyon, France.’

Seventy years later and after Mom died we uncovered more of our family story at the Museum for the Resistance and Holocaust in Lyon, France. Growing up Mom told us that her relatives were French but we never believed her. We thought that was part of the web of stories she had created to guard her secret.

With a maiden name like Alexander, it seemed to us that her family must have come from Poland or Russia.

And as they arrived at Ellis Island, some official dropped the last syllable or two. Maybe that was true of some her relatives, but not all.

The museum in Lyon filled in one gap in Mom’s story. During a visit there, I stood in a room with a train car that had been used to deport Jews to German concentration camps. There were bound volumes of deportations from France, the carriage numbers of the trains, the dates, the names and the destinations. All handwritten.

Flipping through these books while I waited for my husband, I saw dozens of Rapaports, with one P., sent to Auschwitz and Dachau and those death camps whose names are part of our lexicon.

Late in her life Mom shared her secret, her Jewishness, with us so we could help her. She wanted to try to find any of her still living relatives.

She was among the youngest of the cousins and didn’t hold out much

hope but wanted to try. To do that she had to tell us her Mom’s maiden name — Rapaport. Not with the usual spelling with two P’s — but one. That grain of knowledge led to more.

Mom gave me a handful of dogeared, crumbling papers. A prayer book from when my Grandmother died led me to a funeral home. After a search, I found a phone number and spoke to the grandson of the man who had handled the arrangements. He told me the next day he would have closed on the sale of the business to a chain of funeral homes. After that day, no one would have known or been able to track down the answer which he gave me — the cemetery where my grandmother was buried.

You can’t really call a cemetery.

So I wrote to see if there was a contact. The return letter told me the information was confidential. After I sent more information and a postage paid return envelope, they passed my name on and the story continued.

Eventually, I spoke to my Mom’s 93-year old cousin.

He told me what I had suspected — and more. Dozens of Rapaports were sent to death camps from France. And he explained why his family had only contacted Mom once — for a reading of a will in the late 50s. He said the family was ashamed not only because Mom married a Gentile, they were ashamed of themselves, too. “We should have helped them,” he told me. The Rapaports were well off. They owned businesses like a pharmacy in Brooklyn.

Had doctors and lawyers in the family. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad were impoverished. In my quest, I had reached one of his nephews who was curt, disinterested.

He told me they had been worried I needed or wanted money from them. They never thought that I was looking for answers.

While I have paused in my search, the connection continues. Each year I get a bill for maintenance of the family plot at the cemetery that gave me the scrap of information linking me to Mom’s past.

LETTERS

Ashli Babbitt: Trump’s Horst Wessel Among the ubiquitous statements pumped-out recently by exPresident Trump are ones attempting to elevate Ashli Babbitt to martyr status. Babbitt was the female insurrectionist who was shot and killed by police as she attempted to climb through the broken glass portion of one of the entrance doors to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In 1930, Horst Wessel, a Nazi storm trooper, was killed in a brawl with Nazi opponents. A song celebrating his “martyrdom” was performed at all Nazi party rallies and functions. On the basis of those rallies and other anti-government

actions, Adolf Hitler came to power as chancellor of Germany in January 1933, despite he and his Nazi Party having been defeated in the German presidential election of 1932.

Historians have attributed the fecklessness of the German opposition parties and the complicity of members of the German business establishment — who thought they could control him — as significant contributing factors making Hitler’s ascension possible. In 1945, after the elimination of democracy in Germany and the worldwide devastation caused by Hitler and his Nazi regime, those 1933 political and

business leaders had to explain to their children and grandchildren how they allowed this to happen.

As they join in glorifying insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt’s “martyrdom” at future Trump rallies and functions, today’s feckless political and business leaders ought to ponder what they may have to tell their children and grandchildren as to why they allowed what happened in Germany to happen here. One thing is certain: They will not be able to base their answer on lack of a guiding precedent.

John A. Rudy Cooperstown

A-6 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

OBITUARIES Inge Otten Roemer, 100

OTEGO – Inge Otten Roemer, 100, passed away Saturday night, October 16, 2021, at her home in Otego.

A native of Germany, Inge was born February 1, 1921, in Hamburg, a daughter of Ernest and Elizabeth (Bartels) Bondiek. When she was 2½ she and her parents moved from Germany to Fairview, N.J., to live with an uncle who paid their way to the States. One of her earliest memories was the opening of the George Washington Bridge in 1931.

As a teenager she worked in the summer as kitchen help for a wealthy family, and also on a farm that had summer boarders. After graduating in 1938 from Cliffside High

School, she traveled to Germany to live with relatives still in the old country, and began her training as a school teacher, studying the methods of kindergarten founder Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel at the Froebel School in Hamburg.

Her training was interrupted in August 1939, when the American Consulate sent a message to “leave immediately” because the German borders were closing at midnight. With the help of friends and strangers, Inge was able to take a ferry to Sweden, then drive through the night to Oslo, Norway.

As her German Reichsmarks were suddenly worthless, it was only through the kind-

February 1, 1921 – October 16, 2021

ness of an American then married Martin Otten in 1941. The — who happened to live near where her two of them worked parents were living successfully toward in New Jersey — their dream of that she was able having a farm and a to book passage on family, and in 1945 the Norwegian SS they bought a dairy Bergensfjord. farm on Sand Hill, While on board Unadilla, and moved Inge O. she spent time there with their two Roemer with the von Trapp children, Helga and family, who were also Martin. Shortly thereafter escaping the Nazi regime. daughters Bettie and Melanie Inge once recalled, “They were born, and over the next would give concerts for us! 20 years they raised their We didn’t make that big a four children there. For the deal of it. I didn’t know they first several years they also were famous! They were had summer boarders. In just a nice, wealthy family, 1955, with the support of staying in a big cabin up her family, Inge was able to front.” return to her studies. She was A year later, Inge met and passionate about completing

Byron O. Crowson, 68 July 4, 1953 – October 12, 2021

FLY CREEK – In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, Byron O’Neal Crowson passed away unexpectedly. He bravely and optimistically confronted failing health in the past six months.

Byron was born on July 4, 1953, in Dayton, Ohio. He was a son of the late Joseph and Beatrice (Hendrickson) Crowson. He graduated from Tecumseh High School in New Carlisle, Ohio, received his associate degree in nursing at Sinclair Community College in

Dayton, Ohio, and his bachelor’s degree in Nursing at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Byron was a registered nurse for more than 40 years and was employed at Ohio State University and the Dayton VA Hospital, prior to relocating to Fly Creek. It was while he was working as a nursing supervisor that he met his future wife, Joanne Weidel.

They were wed on May 5, 2002, in Niagara-on-theLake, Ontario, Canada.

After relocating to Fly Creek, he took on his new

and favorite job as a stayat-home dad, learning to cook family meals and juggling busy schedules. He returned to nursing and was most recently employed at Cooperstown Center, Foltsbrook Center, and Chestnut Park Nursing Home.

Byron is survived by his wife, Joanne, son Grant F.J. Crowson, and daughter Rose Elizabeth Crowson, all of Fly Creek. He is also survived by his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Weidel of Glenmont, N.Y., several brothers and sistersin-law, and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents and siblings and his father-in-law

John Weidel.

Byron was an avid reader and never left home without a book in his hand. He was a history buff and patriotic, enjoying celebrating his birthday on the 4th of July with fireworks every year.

He never knew a stranger and, in his memory, take the time to say “hi” to someone you don’t know and maybe even bring up a random topic of your choosing.

His family is grateful and proud that he made his wishes known in advance to be an organ donor, and to have his body donated to The Albany Medical College for medical education and research.

Grandma loved her farm, her family, and playing her old guitar.

Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home will take the time to find out what made your loved one special.

Whether it’s finding just the right flowers, or finding a musician to play her favorite tunes on her old guitar, we’ll do what’s necessary to make her service as unique as she was.

Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home 14 Grand Street, Oneonta • 607-432-6821 www.grummonsfuneralhome.com

Legal

Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of EX MACHINA NY LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 9/10/21.

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Soraya Victory, 425 E 58th St, Apt 31E, NY, NY 10022.

Purpose: any lawful activity.

6LegalNov.18 Legal nOtice D&A PROPERTY HOLDINGS, LLC Notice of Formation of Limited Liability Company Arts. of Org. of D&A Property Holdings, LLC (“LLC”) filed with Dept. of State of NY on September 30, 2021.

Office location: Otsego County.

Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be

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served and shall mail process to: 297 Dutch Hill Road, Oneonta, NY 13820, principal business address. LLC does not have a specific date of dissolution.

Purpose: All legal purposes. Amy L. Earing: Lavelle & Finn, LLP, 29 British American Bl., Latham, NY 12110.

6LegalNov.18 Legal nOtice NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Board of Trustees of the Village of Cooperstown will hold the following public hearing in the Village Office Building, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown, New York on Monday, October 25, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as can be heard, to discuss the following Proposed Law No. 3 of 2021 - Amend Traffic and Vehicle regulations § 270-12 Parking prohibited in designated locations, section A. to include on-street parking on Fenimore Lane (north, south, east and west sides

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and north end).

Any resident of the Village of Cooperstown is entitled to be heard upon said local law at such public hearing. Disabled citizens, who require assistance in attending said public hearing, or in furnishing comments or suggestions, should contact the Village Clerk to request assistance. A copy of the proposed law is available for inspection at the Village Clerk’s office, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown, New York during normal business hours Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Dated: October 4, 2021 By order of the Village Board Village of Cooperstown Jenna L. Utter Village Clerk Village of Cooperstown 22 Main Street Cooperstown, NY 13326 (607) 547-2411 (phone) jutter@cooperstownnny.org (email) 2LegalOct.21

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LEGALS

Legal nOtice NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR AUTHORITY HUBBELL HOLLOW HAVEN,LLC App. for Auth. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 9/29/21.

LLC was organized in PA on 3/28/2011.

Office in Otsego Co. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC process may be served. SSNY to mail process to 4599 Applebutter Rd., Perkasie, PA 18944, which is also the required office. Cert of Org filed with: SSPA,302 North St., Harrisburg, PA 17120.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

6LegalNov.11 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of a NY Limited Liability Company Name: AHRENS BUILT LLC. Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 24 September 2021.

Office location:

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Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 659 Cty Hwy 59, Cooperstown, NY 13326.

Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.

6LegalNov.11 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of a NY Limited Liability Company Name: COOPERSTOWN COZY YURT LLC. Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 24 September 2021.

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to PO Box 418, Cherry Valley, NY 13320.

Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under

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NYS laws.

6LegalNov.11 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of a NY Limited Liability Company Name: 26 GENESEE ST CV LLC. Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 24 September 2021.

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to PO Box 418, Cherry Valley, NY 13320.

Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.

6LegalNov.11 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of a Limited Liability Company (LLC) The name of the LLC is: Tego Spring Water Company LLC

her education, and making sure her children would go to college as well. She received her bachelor’s degree from SUNY Oneonta in 1959, and taught third and fourth grade at Mount Upton Elementary School for 22 years. Her four children all completed bachelor’s degrees. In 1967 Inge and Martin moved from their farm to Otego.

Traveling was part of Inge and Martin’s lives.

There were countless trips “across the pond” to visit Inge and Martin’s relatives and friends in Germany, later joined by their 4 children. In the 1960s there were family trips to Florida during spring break, and after the children were grown, Inge and Martin drove down the eastern seaboard and out west to visit friends and relatives, particularly her sister, Maren in Utah where they explored the state’s natural beauty.

Inge’s adventurous spirit drew her many times to other travel experiences and destinations. She and a girlfriend made an Elder Hostel trip to the southwest in the 1990s, and later took a tour of Hawaii together. There were trips to South Germany and Austria, road trips exploring the coast of Maine, she saw the huge tides in the Bay of Fundy, and in 2002 at 81, she went sailing for 10 days with Martin, Bettie, and their families on a 50-foot yacht in Tortolla, BVI. She made a land/sea tour of Alaska and Glacier Bay with Melanie in 2014. Once she was asked for her secret to growing older.

Just like George Burns said, “you have to have younger friends!”

After Martin’s death in 1996, Inge met Carl Roemer, a widower in the German reading group in Cooperstown. They married in 1998 and lived in Otego as well as in his home in Fly Creek for the next 15 years. She and Carl were active in the German reading group and traveled abroad via bus and boat tours in Germany, Italy and Austria. After Carl’s death in 2013, Inge moved to The Plains at Parish Homestead in Oneonta.

Music was an important part of Inge’s life and she

recognized the joy it brought to others. She played piano, recorder and autoharp, sang in the Women’s Glee Club at SUNY Oneonta during the 1950s, and taught her elementary school students to play tonette. Family road trips often included threepart rounds and folk tunes in German or English. Inge went on to learn accordion in her 60s, and at 95 took up harmonica to play in a band after moving to The Plains.

She played for her own enjoyment, for family and friends, and for members of retirement communities, often as a sing-along. At 99 she bought a Chromebook and used it to connect with relatives.

She celebrated her 100th birthday on Feb. 1, 2021, with a dinner party in her honor at her apartment in Otego and an international Zoom party with friends and family from Europe and the U.S. Inge is survived by her children: Helga (Klaus) Kahrs, Martin (Carol) Otten, Bettie (Bob) Bennett and Melanie (Jack) Manis; as well as 7 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren, and numerous relatives in Germany.

A private graveside service will be held at the convenience of the family in Sand Hill Cemetery, Unadilla.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the First Christian Church of Otego, Otsdawa Road, Otego, NY 13825; The Otego Emergency Squad, PO Box 79, Otego, NY 13825; The Sand Hill Cemetery Association, c/o Gloria Hall, Secretary, 1497 Covered Bridge Road, Unadilla, NY 13849; Helios Care (Hospice), 297 River Street Service Road, Suite 1, Oneonta, NY 13820; or the Carl and Inge Otten Roemer ’59 Scholarship, c/o The College at Oneonta Foundation, SUNY Oneonta, 308 Netzer Administration Building, Oneonta, NY 13820 in memory of Inge Ottem Roemer.

Arrangements are under the care and guidance of the Connell, Dow & Deysenroth Funeral Home in Cooperstown.

Legal

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Articles of Organization were filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) office on: August 17, 2021 The County in which the Office is to be located: Ostego The SSNY is designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC is: 283 County Highway 6, Otego, NY 13825 Purpose: any lawful activity.

6LegalNov.11

the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail a copy of process to PO Box 75, Oneonta, New York 13820.

Purpose is to engage in any lawful act or activity under the LLC Law of New York.

6LegalOct.28

Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of a Limited Liability Company Name: DK ENTERPRISES OF ONEONTA, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with NYS Department of State on September 7, 2021.

Office location: Otsego County.

NYS Department of State has been designated as agent of

Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of Upstate Lubricants, LLC Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on August 28th, 2021.

Office Location: Otsego County.

SSNY Designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of the process to PO BOX 203 Cherry Valley, NY 13320 Purpose: to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.

6LegalOct.28 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of a NY Limited

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Liability Company.

Name: SCHLATHER & BIRCH PLLC. Certificate of Conversion filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 16 September 2021.

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to192 Main St, Cooperstown, NY 13326.

Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.

6LegalOct.28 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of Pure Pixels LLC. Filed with SSNY on 9/8/2021.

Cty: Otsego.

SSNY desig. as agent for process & shall mail to: 708 Beaver Meadow Rd, Cooperstown, NY 13326.

Purpose: any lawful 6LegalOct.28

All

OTSEGO.sports

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-7

Spartan, Dragon girls, Franklin/Unatego boys win league titles STAFF REPORT ONEONTA — Franklin won its first Tri-Valley League boys soccer title, with Unatego sharing the glory; the Schenevus girls won another pre-merger title; and Unatego continued its dominance in Midstate Athletic Conference girls soccer play in championship game action Saturday, Oct. 16, at Wright National Soccer Campus.

The morning games were played in balmy weather but by afternoon, the games were taking place in a downfall.

MAC GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP Unatego 4, Oxford 0 Bailey McCoy scored twice as Unatego won its third MAC girls soccer title in four years with a shutout of Oxford in one of the morning games.

Tatum Coddington and Anabel Rommer also scored for Untag, which also got two assists from Kylie Mussaw and Lilyanna Barnes.

The Spartans have won 11 league titles since 2001, including titles in 2018, 2019 and 2021. There was no title game in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Unatego (14-2) is a three seed in the Section IV Class C playoffs and is scheduled to host No. 14 Watkins Glen after deadline Wednesday.

TVL BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP Franklin/Unatego 2, Milford/Laurens 1 Matthew Serrao had both goals as Franklin/Unatego won its first TVL boys soccer title with a win over M/L. Serrao scored the first goal on an assist from David Lamb, just seven minutes into the game.

Just before half, as the rain came in waves, Brock Mann tied the game on a pass from Adam Peddie.

However, Serrao struck again four minutes into the second Cheryl Clough half to give Franklin/Unatego the winning goal.

Milford/Laurens’s Brock Mann controls the ball Saturday in a storm as Franklin/Unatego’s Brayden TVL GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP Nichols runs to defend. Mann scored but M/L was nipped, 2-1, in the Tri-Valley League boys final.

Schenevus 4, Franklin 1 Franklin struck first, but Schenevus made it last as the Dragons won another title in what could be the final seasons Taylor Knapp made it 3-1 just two minutes into the second and No. 7 Milford, in Milford at 3:30 p.m. pre-merger. half and then made it 4-1 on an assist from Shawna Whiteman Franklin (12-2-2) is the four seed and will host No. 13 Valentina Temple scored for the Purple Devils with five with 20 left in the game.

South Kortright on Wednesday. minutes gone in the first half, but Hannah Sulas got her team Schenevus (16-0) is the second seed in there Section IV See www.allotsego.com for section playoff updates. even just three minutes later.

Class D girls playoffs and will get a first-round bye. The Angie Competiello gave the Dragons a 2-1 advantage on a Dragons will play Saturday, Oct. 23, when they host the WCDO Sports Director Nate Lull and photographer pass from Sulas with three minutes left in the half. winner of Wednesday’s showdown between No 10 Laurens Cheryl Clough contributed to this report.

Coop boys finish regular season undefeated, earn playoff bye STAFF REPORT Cooperstown’s boys soccer team finished the regular season 15-0 and will get a No. 2 seed and first-round bye in the Section III Class C tournament.

The Hawkeyes will host a game at the end of the week, likely Friday, Oct. 22, or Saturday, Oct. 23, at a date and time to be announced later.

Cooperstown will play the winner of No. 7 Tully and No. 10 Bishop Ludden, who are scheduled to play a first-round game at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 20, in Tully.

The complete Section III Class C boys soccer seedings are: 1. Fabius-Pompey (13-1) 2. Cooperstown (15-0) 3. Utica Academy of Science (12-2) 4. Sauquoit Valley (13-2-1) 5. Frankfort-Schuyler (10-5) 6. Herkimer (8-8) 7. Tully (5-8) 8. Waterville (6-8-1) 9. Thousand Islands (8-8) 10. Bishop Ludden (5-7-2) 11. Mount Markham (6-9-1) 12. Faith Heritage (5-8-1) 13. Stockbridge Valley/MorrisvilleEaton (7-4-2) 14. Beaver River (3-13) Cooperstown 3, F-S 0 Colby Diamond scored twice and Greg Klein/The Freeman’s Journal Luca Gardner-Olesen had a goal and an assist as Cooperstown finished the season Cooperstown senior Liam Spencer dribbles upfield Thursday, Oct. 14, as he is trailed by Mount Markham’s Ben Lohmann. Cooperstown shut out the Mustangs, with a 3-0 senior-night win over visiting Frankfort-Schuyler on Friday, Oct. 15, in 8-0, to finish division play undefeated.

a Center State Conference non-division match.

Aidan Spencer and Ollie Wasson had assists for the Hawkeyes, which out shot F-S, 35-5, and had a 5-2 advantage in corner kicks.

Cooperstown paid tribute to seniors Dillon Burns, Gardner-Olesen, Finn Holohan, Gavin Lesko, Max Porto, Reisen Sheldon, Liam Spencer and Declan White.

Cooperstown’s last scheduled regularseason game, Saturday, Oct. 16, at Division II champ Utica Academy of Science, was canceled because of bad weather.

Cooperstown 8, Mount Markham 0 Aidan Spencer had a hat trick and Colby Diamond had two goals and two assists as Cooperstown finished Center State Conference Division III play undefeated with an 8-0 win over Mount Markham in West Winfield in a boys soccer match Thursday, Oct. 14.

Liam Spencer scored a goal and had an assist for the Hawkeyes, which also got goals from Ollie Wasson and Declan White, as well as two assists from Luca Garnder-Olesen and one assist from Ben Agostino.

Cooperstown 3, SV 1 Liam Spencer, Colby Diamond and Aidan Spencer scored goals as Cooperstown clinched the Center State Conference Division III title with a 3-1 win over SV on Tuesday, Oct. 12.

Although each team had two corner kicks, Cooperstown outshot SV, 24 to 3.

Sports Roundup: Oneonta girls win STAC East meet STAFF REPORT Jordan Forbes took first place and Oneonta’s girls cross county team topped the field at the Southern Tier Athletic Conference East Divison meet Tuesday, Oct. 12, at Fortin Park in Oneonta.

Kiera Smith of Windsor placed second in 25:44 and Annie Boland of Norwich took third in 26:29.

Fumi Yatsuhashi took fourth for Oneonta and Anya Sloth placed eighth.

The Yellowjacket boys placed second behind Windsor, with Korbin Jones finishing third in 18:21.30. Jackson Forbes placed sixth for the Yellowjackets, which also had Brandon Gardner, Gabriel Rissberger, Nicholas Kahl, Jacob Forster-Rothbart and Tyler Shaughnessy finish in eighth through 12th place.

Oneonta will host the STAC championship meet Saturday, Oct. 23.

BOYS SOCCER Friday, Oct. 15 Sharon Springs 2, Richfield Springs 0 In Sharon Springs, Brady Law and Thomas Reynolds scored as No. 7 Sharon beat No. 9 Richfield in the TVL playoffs. Luke Enyart had an assist for the Spartans.

CV-S 3, Schenevus 3 In Cherry Valley, the No. 3 seeded Patriots and No. 4 seeded Dragons played even in the TVL playoffs.

Will Heinrich scored twice for Cherry Valley-Springfield (7-4-1), which also got a goal from Oskar Webster and 15 saves from keeper Gavin Valenta.

Mehki Regg, Wyndham Spooner and Trevor Schneider all scored for Schenevus (8-6-1), which got 17 saves from Ryan Spranger.

Edmeston 3, Worcester 0 In Edmeston, Landon Wust scored twice See ROUNDUP, Page A8

Cheryl Clough

Riley Stevens and Zach Brown celebrate Stevens’ game-tying goal against CV-S in the TVL playoffs Wednesday, Oct. 13.

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

A-8 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Roundup: Milford girls top Morris to win place third in TVL playoffs Morris 4, Edmeston 3 In Edmeston, Scott Murphy scored twice as No. 8 Morris upset the host Panthers, the five seed in the TVL playoffs.

Ethan Franklin and Christian Valentine also scored for Morris.

Kyle Ough, Preston Graham and Caleb Zinger all scored for Edmeston.

Worcester 3, Sharon Springs 1 In Worcester, Connor Fancher scored two goals as the six seeded Wolverines beat visiting Sharon Springs, the seven seed, in the TVL playoffs.

Ben Ballard had a goal and an assist for Worcester GIRLS SOCCER Friday, Oct. 15 G-MU 3, Richfield Springs 3 In Gilbertsville, No. 10 seeded GilbertsvilleMount Upton and No. 11 seeded Richfield Springs tied in the TVL playoffs.

Hannah Bonczkowski and Madeline Pain each had one goal and one assist for G-MU, which also got a goal from Kaitlyn Finch and an assist from Alyssa Sorochinsky.

Riley Francis, Maggie Worobey and Anna Hawkes scored for Richfield.

Thursday, Oct. 14 Milford 5, Morris 0 Milford secured third place in the TriValley League with a playoff win over

ROUNDUP/Continued from Page A7 to lead the No. 5 seeded Panthers over the No. 6 seeded Wolverines in the TVL playoffs.

Ronnie Hickling scored the other goal, on a penalty kick, for Edmeston, which got a clean sheet from Bryce Bolton.

Tyler Head made 13 saves for Worcester.

Wednesday, Oct. 13 Milford/Laurens 5, CV-S 0 In Milford, No. 2 seeded M/L topped Cherry Valley-Springfield on a golden goal

by Brock Mann on a throw-in by Martin Thorsland in overtime to win, 3-2.

Adam Peddie and Riley Stevens also scored for Milford/Laurens.

Kris Cade and Allan Parker scored for Cherry Valley-Springfield, which got 12 saves form Gavin Valenta.

Franklin/Unatego 5, Schenevus 1 In Franklin, Matthew Serrao had a hat trick to help top-seeded Franklin/Unatego to a win over visiting Schenevus, the four seed.

Connor Kulp and Wyatt Beers also scored for Franklin/Unatego, which got assists from Henry Barnes and Chase Birdsall.

Mehki Regg scored for Schenevus.

Maine-Endwell 9, Oneonta 2 In Ednwell, Finlay Oliver and Matthew Rubin scored for the Yellowjackets, who fell on the road in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference playoffs.

visiting Morris.

Lexi Sutphin got the Wildcats on the board early as she headed in a cross from Grace Cohn three minutes into the match.

About seven minutes into the second half, Kara Mertz sent a ball into the box that was misplayed by two Morris defenders resulting in a goal for Milford. Mertz made it 3-0 off an assist from Leeanna West two minutes later, when her shot beat Morris keeper Maddie Coleman.

The Wildcats went up 4-0 with 16 minutes to go as seventh grader Bella Garlick scored her first varsity goal. Laney Price capped the Milford scoring with four minutes to go.

Danika Stanford also had an assist in the game.

Wildcat goalies Leeanna West and Bella Saggese each played a half to combine for the shut out.

Edmeston 3, Worcester 1 In Edmeston, the No. 7 seed Panthers got goals from Arissa Bolton, Avery Bolton and Molly Rifanburg to win over No. 8 Worcester in the TVL playoffs.

Brianna Kelly scored off an assist from Sophia Adams for Worcester, which also got 15 saves from goalie Maci Milavec.

Laurens 3, CV-S 1 In Laurens, Eowyn Chickerell, Kya McNicol and Gabriella Andrades scored to

help fifth-seeded Laurens top No. 6 Cherry Valley-Springfield in the TVL playoffs.

Brooke Mann and Emersen Allen had assists from the Leopards.

Joleen Lusk scored for CV-S. Wednesday, Oct. 13 Corning-Painted Post 1, Oneonta 0, OT In Corning, class AA Corning-Painted Post needed overtime to subdue the visiting Yellowjackets in the STAC playoffs.

Jacket keeper Liz Bradley had a good game in the box to send the game into overtime for Oneonta (9-5, 8-3).

FOOTBALL Thursday, Oct. 14 Moravia 50, Unatego 42 In Otego, the Spartans came back from a 38-20 deficit, but could not top visiting Moravia.

Shea Barber had 220 yards rushing and two touchdown on 16 carries for Unatego, as well as six receptions for 75 yards and another touchdown. Jared Thayer rushed for 156 yards and two scored and quarterback Logan Utter rushed for one score the threw the one touchdown pass to Barber.

WCDO Sports Director Nate Lull and photographer Cheryl Clough contributed to this report.

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The 2021 Cooperstown Hawkeyes celebrate their Chic Walshe title Sept. 25. In the front row, from left, are: Creighton Williams, Conrad Erway, Ben Agostino, Declan White, Dillon Burns, Riley Diamond, Cooper Bradley and Reisen Sheldon. In the back row, from left, are: Liam Spencer, Max Porto, Gavin Lesko, Wyatt Montana, P.J. Kiuber, Ollie Wasson, Colby Diamond, Finn Holohan, Aidan Spencer, Ethan Kukenberger, Charlie Lambert and Aidan Klein.

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THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-9

Cooperstown junior reaches goal of marathon finish before 16th birthday

By GREG KLEIN A Cooperstown Central School junior achieved his goal of running a marathon before his 16th birthday.

Fred Hodgson, who turns 16 Friday, Oct. 22, finished the Syracuse Marathon on Sunday, Oct. 17, in 3 hours, 55 minutes and 13 seconds. His time placed Hodgson 58th out of 178 runners. He placed first in his age bracket, but that was expected, he said.

“I was the youngest person in the race by about four years,” he said Monday.

Hodgson said he was inspired by his parents, John Hodgson and Sariya Sharp, who ran the New York Marathon together in 2019. He ran a half marathon a year ago with a similar mindset, completing the challenge before he turned 15 -- and said he started preparing for Syracuse in early 2020.

“The marathon was for 2021, but I started planning this in March 2020,” he said.

A reserve on Cooperstown’s undefeated boys soccer team, Hodgson said he was grateful to his coaches and teammates for allowing him to participate in soccer despite

his personal challenge.

“I am grateful to Coach Frank Miosek and Coach Lucas Spencer,” he said. “At first, I was not going to play soccer. Then Coach Miosek said I could participate just as my scheduled allowed, so I decided to do both.”

Hodgson did not miss any games until the past week, but he would trade some practices for long runs as he kept to a 20-week prep for the marathon. He said he peaked his training about three weeks ago and made sure to carbo-load going into the event.

“It was actually easier than I expected for the first 18 miles,” he said. “I did everything you were supposed to do — I had tapered legs, I had carbo-loading, I did all the stretching — and it got me off to a good start.

“The end, 18 to 26, that was the most challenging experience of my life,” he continued.

“I cried. I think I started crying at 18 and did not stop until I finished.”

Contributed Hodgson gutted out the final miles and met his goal of a sub-four-hour marathon.

Cooperstown junior Fred Hodgson “(At the finish line) I was shouting ‘woo runs in the Syracuse Marathon on

hoo’ and ‘let’s go’ and giving (my family) high fives,” he said. “It was so exciting. I couldn’t believe it. I did everything in my power to make it to the end.”

Hodgson accomplished the feat despite a major soccer injury he suffered in sixth grade, when he tore his right meniscus and required surgery. However, he has shown no long-term effects from the injury.

Goal met, Hodgson said his first marathon may be his last.

“I think if I had not finished in under four hours, I would have run another marathon,” he said. “Now, since I acheived my goal, I don’t think I am going to run another marathon.”

After a couple of days to recover, Hodgson will rejoin the Hawkeyes on their sectiontitle quest. In the winter, he will swim and in the spring he will run track.

His future goals include hiking with his family and perhaps some increased weight lifting, he said.

Sunday, Oct. 17.

NATE LULL

Two marathons in a week? One reporter’s crazy running dream

I know it sounds cliché but I don’t often like to talk about my personal life. That might seem strange for someone who has a job that is in the public eye, but it has just always felt odd to me to talk about myself.

I would much rather write a story about someone else and give them time in the spotlight.

Nevertheless, occasionally I’m involved in something that enough people want to know more about, they twist my arm, and I end up telling the story. In this case, my story is running two marathons in seven days.

Now I know some of you are thinking, “So how far is a marathon?” A marathon is 26.2 miles and is one of the longest distances for road races. It is a distance that can humble you and tear you down to your lowest level.

It is also a distance that, if conquered, can give you one heck of a “runners high,” and that is why I keep going back for more.

I have now completed 17 marathons.

I have run big races, including Boston, London and Chicago, and I have also

done smaller races in places like Albany, Syracuse, Scranton, Erie and Corning. Some have been amazing, some have been average and some have been downright awful. Each time I step on that starting line I know I am going to learn something about myself that day, and I absolutely love that about running marathons. Even on those awful days I feel like I am pushing myself to be better in all aspects of my life. I often think, if you can do this, you can do anything.

So why run two in seven days? The marathon is physically and mentally demanding.

Experts often say it takes the body months to get over the trauma the race puts on your body.

I guess that is a big reason why I wanted to try it. How much can my body handle?

Can I really do this? What is the science behind the recovery in those days between the races and how can I bounce back fast enough? Basically, I wanted to know if I could do it. In my job I constantly see athletes pushing themselves to the limit,

and sometimes I like to know that I can still do that, too.

The first marathon in this double marathon challenge was the Wineglass Marathon in Corning. I trained hard for this race and worked with a coach for the first time in many years. I wanted to run a good time and possibly get a Boston Marathon qualifying time (3:05:00) for the first time since 2018. My training went well and I felt both ready and nervous on race day. I knew I would have a chance to break three hours, but questioned “can I still do this?” It had been a few years since I had run that fast so my confidence wasn’t that high. I decided I just had to go for it and trust my training. It was raining on race day (I seem to be cursed with this) but the temperature was good and I knew I was going to have a chance. I had a nice group of runners to work with for most of the race, but the pack broke up around mile 17. I was solo for the next three miles, but I stayed mentally strong even when some doubt started to creep in. I caught up

to another group and felt so good during the last six miles that I even surprised myself.

As I turned onto the homestretch I could see the race clock change from 2:59 to 3:00. I wasn’t going to crack three hours, but I was going to be darn close. I crossed the line in 3:00:52 and was congratulated by professional runner (and a hero of mine), Meb Keflezighi. He was there greeting runners as they finished.

He said “awesome job, that is a great run!” A high five from Meb made my day.

I needed at least 3:05 to have a chance at going back to Boston so it felt good to get that and be so close to the three-hour mark.

With the rainy, soggy conditions I had to say that this first race was a great success.

I spent the next week doing everything I could to recover. Ice baths, massages, walking, stretching, light jogs and getting as much sleep as I could. By the end of the week my legs were feeling surprisingly good and I felt like I was going to have a See NATE, Page A10

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

A-10 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Fifty two miles in seven days leaves columnist with incredible runner’s high NATE/from Page A9 real chance at pulling this off.

My next race was in Chicago and as it got closer to race day, I kept checking the weather. I thought, this can’t be right, almost 80 degrees in Chicago? That would not be fun. The last time I ran there it was 38 degrees (and raining). But I would just have to wait and see what this year would bring.

On Friday, I flew to Chicago with my wife, Amanda. She is amazingly supportive on all of my crazy endurance adventures.

We arrived in the city, went to the marathon expo and explored over the next two days. We took a boat tour through the middle of the city that talked about all the historic architecture and it was fascinating. I would highly recommend it.

Sunday was race day and I was feeling great, but it was 73 degrees and humid before the sun even came up. In a situation like this, you just have to adjust your goals. I felt it was wise to stick with the 3:15-pace group, drink at every water station and keep fueling the best I could.

I followed my plan religiously and it was working well. I felt strong and as we made our way through the windy city. The farther we got in the race, the more runners I saw falling victim to the heat and humidity. I saw many runners heading to the medical tent, being hauled off in ambulances or just sitting on the curb head in hands. I did not want be that person. Around mile 23, I could feel that something was changing. The heat was getting to me. My heart rate was getting higher and I

could feel some cumulative fatigue hitting me. I decided to back off a bit and let the 3:15 group go. As an athlete, it kills you to let your goal go like that, but it was the smart decision. I finished in 3:19:35 and had a big smile on my face. I knew I had to be wise and the smart decision was to cross that line safe and sound.

So I had done it, two marathons in seven days. We took some celebratory photos,

The

went out for a big dinner and searched for some late night ice cream. The best part after a marathon is getting to eat everything in sight! I even got to end the night watching the Bills beat the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football as I drifted off to sleep in our hotel room. Go Bills!

I am now just over a week removed from completing this journey. I am 99% satisfied with how it all went. I am amazed at the human body

and what it can do and what it can bounce back from.

It truly makes me wonder what our limits are. I like to think of people in my life who might be sick or struggling and I like to run for them. It inspires me to keep searching for what is around the next corner. So what is the 1% I am upset about? I wanted that 3:15 in Chicago and now I feel like I have to go back there again and get it! Running always seems to

find a way to give you that next challenge.

So what is next? I am hopeful my 3:00:52 time will get me into the 2022 Boston Marathon. I should know in November. It will mean a cold winter of training, but it will be well worth it. I have run Boston three times and to be able to run one of the most prestigious races in the world is pretty cool for a kid from tiny Gilbertsville. Let me end by saying we have

job scene

several local runners who are faster than me or have run more marathons than me.

Those people and everyone I see out running and giving their best inspire me to keep training and working hard.

I hope maybe my story will make them want to do the same.

Thanks for reading!

Nate Lull is the sports director for WCDO in Sidney.

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THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-11

Otsego Area Rowing to compete in two regional events

BY TED POTRIKUS Four members of Otsego Area Rowing (OAR) will go to Boston, Massachusetts this weekend to race in the world’s biggest twoday rowing event, the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Lang Keith, Laura Kilty, Joe Novitski, and OAR founder and coach Andrea Thies, a two-time Olympian, compete with international rowers in mixed-double and single-rower events taking place on the city’s famed Charles River.

One week later, OAR sends more rowers, including youth members Creighton Williams, Charlotte Feury and Isabel Dudek to the Head of the Fish event on the Fish River, a few miles outside Saratoga Springs.

Thies, Alison Lord, Faith Gay and Abby Rodd will race in the Women’s Contributed Masters Quad.

The club, a not-for-profit organiCharlotte Feury and Isabelle Dudek train on Otsego Lake zation founded in 2017 to introduce under the guidance of Olympic rower Andrea Thies.

local residents to the sport, is based at Brookwood Point on Otsego Lake.

OAR is open to rowers of all ages and any level of experience. This year, OAR hosted more than a dozen adults new to rowing and a similar number of youth rowers during weeklong summer camps. OAR racers come from Cooperstown, Oneonta, Cherry Valley, Richfield Springs and West Winfield.

“We try to find a way to make rowing more approachable,” Thies said. “A big part of our mission is to give access to the equipment, to knock down the barriers and work with people who might not think about rowing as a lifetime sport they can enjoy.”

OAR stresses a safety-first regimen focused on rowing basics, steering, proper procedure and navigation.

The club’s leaders, Thies and Steve Bohler, are certified U.S. Rowing Level 2 coaches.

“When you’re out racing, it can get

pretty intense,” Thies said. “It’s not necessarily a Zen-like experience.

You’re going to pass or be passed by other rowers. You’ve got buoys, bridges, and other boats. On the lake, we coach our rowers to be aware of motorboats, swimmers, sailboats.”

Thies said she and the board members guiding OAR hope to expand outreach to area schools, and revisit adaptive programs with revamped equipment for rowers who might require additional assistance.

“Rowing really is for anyone who loves to be outdoors,” she said, recounting her own experience as a Paralympic coach.

“People here had been rowing on their own for years,” Theis continued.

“OAR tries to bring them all together in an organized way. Little by little it’s starting to happen. So many people are pulling up their sleeves to literally build this club from the bottom up, and they make my own experience of rowing a joy.”

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A-12 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Journalist with local ties details work at southern border

BY KEVIN LIMITI RICHFIELD SPRINGS — Jim McKeever, an independent journalist, spoke about his experience volunteering at the southern border to a small group at the Richfield Springs Food Coop on Friday, Oct. 15.

McKeever, who went to the border in Texas and Tijuana, among other places, spoke of the Kafkaesque process asylum seekers needed to go through in order to enter the United States.

“Asylum is non-existent right now,” McKeever said, who volunteered at shelters and legal rights organizations, trying to prepare migrants for asylum, as well as doing water drops in the desert.

“Asylum approval rates are horrible.”

McKeever said there is a “90% to 95%” chance of rejection for asylum seekers, but those seeking asylum are in desperate and dangerous situations.

According to McKeever’s word-

press page, he is a professional journalist who has more than 30 years as a newspaper reporter and uses his skills to advocate for the oppressed.

McKeever told the story of a Guatemalan woman who was assaulted and raped twice and had to pay extortion to a gang until she couldn’t paid anymore. Then, she was threatened to be raped and killed if she didn’t pay extortion, which prompted her to seek asylum.

“Gangs are the de facto government,” McKeever said. “Violence and fear are part of their everyday lives. These are good people who need our help.”

McKeever said attitudes toward immigrants have gotten worse in the past decade, but that has also spurred him to continue his missions.

“It’s infuriating here in Central New York, which has its own cruelty,” McKeever said.

He said after he went on a recent trip, he linked up with the

Border Angels, a non-profit group which does advocacy at the border including education, water drops and day laborer outreach.

McKeever said ICE agents treated border volunteers with “polite disdain.”

“Humanity has been completely erased from most of them,” McKeever said. “Migrants are a revenue stream, not human beings.

They keep our family fed.”

McKeever admitted he wouldn’t want to do the job of a border agent.

“Migrants are disposable,” McKeever said. “There are probably people I met in 2019 who are still there. They might be dead tomorrow.”

McKeever passed around a picture of a huge parking area which used to have street vendors but now thousands of migrants are living in tents together.

“There’s no space,” McKeever said. “They are just sitting there waiting for the asylum process to happen.”

Kevin Limiti/The Freeman’s Journal

Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, left, dedicates a tree in memory of Dennis Tallman while his son, Kyle Tallman, and widow, Nancy Tallman, watch.

Village dedicates tree to late tree lover, Tallman, in delayed Arbor Day event

BY KEVIN LIMITI COOPERSTOWN — Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh dedicated a tree on Brooklyn Avenue in Cooperstown in honor of Dennis Tallman, Friday, Oct. 15.

Family members of Dennis Tallman were present at the ceremony for Arbor Day, which normally runs on the last Friday of April but was delayed because of COVID. “Dennis was an invaluable member of our Village who volunteered his time and service to make our Village a better place,” Tillapaugh said.

Dennis Tallman, who served on the village tree committee, worked to enhance “the natural beauty of our community and ensured that generations can benefit from and enjoy

the trees he planted and nurtured.”

A catalpa tree was planted in his honor which Tillapaugh said are “beautiful trees with large white flowers in Spring.”

Nancy Tallman, Dennis Tallman’s wife, said she felt loved by her community.

“Dennis loved those trees,” Nancy Tallman said, who had framed one of the leaves of the tree and gave it to him prior to his death.

Kyle Tallman, the son of Dennis Tallman, said he liked the ceremony and said it was “not too much and not too little.”

Deputy Mayor Cindy Falk, who is also the chair of the Tree Committee, called Dennis Tallman a “critical member of the tree committee” and that planting a tree was an “especially fitting way of honoring him.”

The land of giants

Greg Klein/The Freeman’s Journal

The fall haul was enormous as usual at the Mount Vision Garden Center in Mount Vision on Saturday, Oct. 16. In addition to giant pumpkins, there are giant gourds and watermelons.

Contributed

Jim McKeever’s picture of a border wall in Tijuana was one of the photos he showed during his lecture Friday, Oct. 15, in Richfield. This section of the wall is dedicated with the names of U.S. military veterans who have been deported, he said.

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-13

Tom SHELBY T he D O G C H A R M E R

How do I stop nipping when I encouraged the behavior?

Dear Tom, We have a two-year old, 17-pound Cavapoo with a bad owner: me!

Since she was a pup, we have played rough, wrestling and playing “dodge the nips” with my sleeves and forearms. We both have had a blast. Because of social distancing during the worst of the pandemic, this aggressive play at home was not a problem. But, predictably, as our socializing has increased she wants to play dodge the nips with friends and strangers approaching to pet her. However well intentioned this behavior it is not welcomed by most!

What can we do?

Concerned pet owner Dear Concerned, This being America, land of litigation, I’d be more concerned if “Cavagirl” was an 80-pound Lab wanting to play “stop my nips if you can”. Nonetheless, this is a game that needs to be stopped NOW. First thing I’d suggest is

substituting “dodge the nip” with “tug of war” with one of her toys. It will have similar playful growling and violence without teeth chasing flesh. It also affords you a great time to teach her “drop it!” on a very positive basis. Without letting go of the toy you’re both tugging on, with your other hand put a treat next to her nose as you stop tugging and say “Drop it”. If a milk bone isn’t worth her while to let go of the contested toy, ratchet up to a piece of hot dog.

I might also suggest that when Cavagirl meets new people you ask them to tell Cavagirl to sit for the treat, that you supplied.

Your tug of war play will give you the rough housing you both enjoy, minus the concern. Give her a kiss for me.

Dog Charmer Tom Cooperstown author Tom Shelby will answer pet owner questions on dog training.

Email your questions to dogsrshelby@msn.com.

Film Days to go virtual again

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Glimmerglass Film Days, a program of Otsego 2000, will present a virtual film festival, plus five in-person events Nov. 4 to 11.

Curated by Artistic Director Margaret Parsons and Programmer Joey Katz, the slate of independent documentaries and narrative features and shorts reflects the theme “Rise.”

“Rise” is a word of elastic meanings, and we were first inspired by the term at the start of 2021, hearing Amanda Gorman’s use of it in her poem, ‘The Hill We Climb,’” said Parsons. “The films in this year’s program

all reflect some note of ‘rising up,’ but these notes also are beautifully whimsical.”

Based on a survey, Otsego 2000 decided to hold the full festival online for the second year in a row. However, there will be five films shown at the Grandstand Theater at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and at Templeton Hall in Cooperstown. The five films also will be online.

“The theme ‘Rise’ captures this duality, as it serves as a beacon of hope and new beginnings but also a word of warning in terms of sea levels and global temperatures,” said Ellen Pope, executive director of Otsego 2000. The films include

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selections from 15 different countries as well as works by indigenous filmmakers.

A Glimmerglass Pass costs $75 and provides online access to 26 featurelength films and two shorts programs, plus online filmmaker talks. All films will be able to be viewed beginning at 7 p.m., Nov. 4. Tickets to individual online films are $5. Both the Glimmerglass Pass and online film tickets are good for a household.

Tickets to the in-person screenings are $10 per person and not included with the Glimmerglass Pass. To attend in-person events, proof of vaccination (NY Excelsior Pass or CDC vaccination card) and photo ID are required. Face masks will be required while watching films.

Passes, tickets, descriptions of each film, and trailers are available at glimmerglassfilmdays.org.

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A-14 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

THURSDAY, oCTOBER 21, 2021