DON’T MISS A FRIGHT! INSIDE: COMPLETE HAUNTIN’
OTSEGO CALENDAR/B4-5
HOMETOWN ONEONTA !
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& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch Complimentary
Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, October 26, 2012
Volume 5, No. 6
35 YEARS AGO THIS YEAR, DADDY AL WAS ...
City of The Hills
Pipeline, Fracking Linkage Severed Gas, Oil Expert Allstadt: One Won’t Cause Other By JIM KEVLIN
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Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
The Derailin’ Darlings, Oneonta’s Roller Derby Team, coaches Jamie Dono through a play tube at Oneonta Day Nursing. The team, including, from left, Slamtrak, Shear Terror and Knocker Z. Down, promoted exercise and healthy lifestyles during a Wednesday, Oct. 17, visit to the Red Door Church facility.
WELCOME, ALUMNI: SUNY Oneonta are back in town Friday-Sunday, Oct. 26-28, for Homecoming Weekend. Check www. oneonta.edu for particulars. PROTEST DUE: Otesgo Manor residents are planning a protest at 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 26, in the parking lot. So far, 1,000 signatures have been collected on petitions opposition the sale of the county nursing home, according to Maureen Culbert, a volunteer leading the drive. FLOWER SALE: The Oneonta Kiwanis Club annual Roses & Fall Arrangements will be delivered Thursday, Nov. 15. Roses $20; fall arrangements $10. Call Michelle Catan at 4324500, ext. 208, by Friday, Nov. 9. PASTA TIME: The Sixth Ward Athletic Club’s famous Tuesday Pasta Lunches have started again: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. through next March. $7. FREE PAINT: Free fivegallon pails of remixed exterior latex paint (collected from the county Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day in mid-September) are now available, first-come, first-serve, to non-profit agencies and Otsego County residents. Call 547-4225.
Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Daddy Al, proprietor of the Chestnut Street grocery that bears his name, and wife Sue keep a memento of the Blizzard of 1977 on the wall by the deli counter, reminding them of their adventures 35 years ago. Below, 8,000 cars were buried in drifts in Buffalo alone.
Oneontans Tell Of Narrow Escape In Snowy Wilderness plant, Daddy Al – he prefers to be known just by that moniker – reflected. “I waved to him. He waved to me.” At the time, Daddy Al was a salesman for Stroehmann’s, the bread company. Truck drivers would deliver loaves on their appointed rounds overnight; the next day, salesmen would retrace their steps, making sure deliveries had arrived satisfactory, and taking refill orders. Before long, he was at a grocery store in Albion, 42 miles east. Outside, it was snowing hard. He called headquarters and was told, “Stop whatever you’re doing and come back.” Please See BLIZZARD, A8
By JIM KEVLIN
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t this time of year, most of us are looking forward to winter, with anticipation or trepidation. Daddy Al is looking back. Particularly this year, the proprietor of Daddy Al’s General Store on the city’s West End is looking back 35 years to the Blizzard of ‘77, and the morning of Friday, Jan. 28, when he drove off from Stroehmann’s Buffalo terminal, blithefully unaware of the dangers and adventures in store. “I saw one of the Stroehmann’s drivers” as he was leaving the
Humphrey’s Pioneers Gourmet Takeout In City Son Stefan, mom Roni and dad Don Marikovics are ready to serve, at Humphrey’s.
By LIBBY CUDMORE
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oni Marikovics learned to cook first with forbidden food. “I was 7 years old,” she said. “I went to a friend’s house and we made bacon. My family was Jewish, so we never Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA had bacon.”
It’s a lesson that stuck with Roni, judging by the pile of bacon in the kitchen of her new restaurant, Humphrey’s, at 437 Main St., which had it’s grand opening on Thursday, Oct. 18. “We’ve woken up every day screaming with excitement,” she said. “I’ve Please See DINING, A2
s the FERC hearing on the Constitution Pipeline was due to convene at Oneonta’s Foothills at 7 p.m. HOMETOWN ONEONTA Wednesday, Oct. Lou Allstadt 24, a key arguto ment of opponents listens Cooperstown received a blow. debate. One of Otsego County’s most prominent antifracking advocates declared that it’s “nonsense” to argue the pipeline is opening the door to allowing fracking locally. “It is perfectly legitimate to question whether this pipeline is needed,” he told the Cooperstown Village Board Monday, Oct. 22, which was about to act on a resolution opposing the Constitution. Please See ALLSTADT, A6
SUNY To Add Wrestling Coach Al Sosa To Hall By LIBBY CUDMORE
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n his senior year at SUNY Cortland, Al Sosa beat a SUNY Oneonta wrestler named Bryan Lambe. The next year, he was coaching him. Sosa, longtime SUNY Oneonta wrestling coach, phys-ed instructor, athletic director and mountain-bike instructor, will Sosa headline the 14th annual athletics Hall of Fame induction at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Alumni Field House. “I had a whole bunch of hats to wear,” he said. In 1966, Sosa was hired right out of Cortland because the Please See SOSA, A7
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, THE LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER IN OTSEGO COUNTY, 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD
FridAy, OcT. 26 • SATurdAy, OcT. 27
GHOST OURS ! T NIGHTS ONLY
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Hear spooky lantern-lit tour tales of ghostly happenings & scary hauntings. Tour Times: 5:30, 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30 & 8:00pm Tour Admission: $10.00 per person (ages 3 & up) Advance reservations required. Call (607) 547-1452.
Step Back in Time! TM
Visit FarmersMuseum.org for a complete schedule. • State Highway 80, Lake rd. • cooperstown, Ny