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Volume 12, No. 10
HOMETOWN E!
E FR
ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, December 5, 2019
Visit www.
AllOTSEGO.com
‘UNILATERAL’ THREAT STIRS DEBATE
City of The Hills
COUNTY BOARD POISED TO HIRE TOP EXECUTIVE
Must County Do More To Help Zoe’s Helpers? T ►ZOE’S TUMOR is benign, doctors at Cornell reported Tuesday, Dec. 3/SEE A7
By JIM KEVLIN INDEX
I Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Maria DiMartin and Savannah Coyle, both of Oneonta, run towards the finish line of Oneonta’s Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K, to benefit Helios Care/
t all began with a helpful conversation, and erupted while the SQSPCA was doing what it does best: saving Zoe, who chewed off her leg to stop the pain of a tumor. The spark: one word, “unilateral.” The issue: Is Otsego County funding the shelter to minimum standards?
C
MORE ON A2
$20 Million Budget OK’d Unanimously ONEONTA
C
ommon Council Tuesday, Dec. 3, unanimously passed the City of Oneonta’s $20 million budget for 2020. A full-time firefighter position was cut as a costsaving measure, and a 10-percent increase in sewer rates was cut to five percent in order to get the tax rate to 1.75 percent. Additionally, a new law allows the city to levy sales tax on out-of-state Internet retailers. More at
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
ON
AllOTSEGO.com
►Democrat jim barber, a Middleburgh farmer, has announced that he will run against state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford. He plans to formally launch his campaign at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at his family farm, ►MATTHEW HULSE received his Eagle Scout award at a ceremony at Cooperstown Center, where his great-grandmother, Louise Hulse, 102, was in attendance. ►16-year-old Aiden Demorier has been declared missing from Bloomville by state police. He is believed to be a runaway and may be in the Norwich area.
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Joining the debate are, from left, SPCA Executive Stacie Haynes, Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr., county Board Chair David Bliss, and SQSPCA advocate Richard Sternberg.
Richard Sternberg, a Susquehanna SPCA supporter, Cooperstown village trustee, re-
tired surgeon and MIT graduate, stopped by the animal shelter on Route 28 for a conversation
ooperstown Welcomes
Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch welcomes Santa and Mrs. Claus to Pioneer Park Friday, Nov. 29, where $165,000 in renovations had just been completed.
with SQSPCA Executive Director Stacie Haynes. Sternberg’s “a master mathematician,” said Haynes. “He helped me calculate the actual cost.” Applying “cost accounting” to the shelter’s expenses, Sternberg determined some $70,000 of the shelter’s Please See ZOE, A7
S
anta Home
he Otsego County Board of Representatives was scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4, on a historic matter: Whether to pass its executive authority to a hired professional, a county manager. As of presstime the evening before, it appeared certain – as certain as these things can be – that a coalition of Republicans, Democrats and the sole Conservative representative would create the $150,000 a year position. For the first report on what happens, go at late morning or early afternoon – and for continuing coverage throughout the afternoon – to
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
Goodyear Lake Jump Cancelled In Crash, Organizers Look Ahead To 2021 By LIBBY CUDMORE MILFORD
T
he Goodyear Lake Polar Bears will have to wait another year for the plunge. “We regret to inform all of our loyal supporters that the 25th annual Goodyear Lake Polar Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA Bear Jump has been canat the brand-new Pioneer Park. bike repair station were built as part By LIBBY CUDMORE celed due to a “The last design I could find was of the $2 million federal grant Transrecent motor from 1965,” said Mayor Ellen Tilportation Enhancement Program. vehicle acciCOOPERSTOWN lapaugh Kuch. “There haven’t been a But because the park is considered dent involvton of changes since then.” an “urban park,” Tillapaugh said, aping Brenda hen Santa arrived at his In 2018, the Cooperstown Chamber plications for funding direct upgrades Brenda Waand Jamie Cooperstown cottage on of Commerce kiosk was updated with to the space were ignored. Waters,” she ters at the Friday, Nov. 29, he arrived a touch screen, and a bike rack and Please See PARK, A7 mic. wrote on the group’s FaceOne PIONEER MANNED ONEONTA PLOW book page Tuesday evening. tired Angela “Goody, The Waters ChristFamily and all of our dediman cated volunteers will miss the leans brave and loyal jumpers this against year.” her plow But it’s not the end – Brenat the tright, got the call she’d been By JAMES CUMMINGS da said the 25th anniversary end of waiting for: Tonight she’d jump will return next year. her first plow the streets of Oneonta. The annual event, which shift. ONEONTA And she would be the first attracts more than 200 to woman in recent memory plunge into ice-covered n the darkness of 6 p.m. – perhaps ever – to do so for Goodyear Lake every Sunday, Dec. 1, Angela the city’s Department of February, has raised over Christman, South KorPlease See STORM, A7 James Cummings/HOMETOWN ONEONTA Please See DELAY, A7
W
She Responded When Ezekiel Threatened Us
I
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD