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Volume 9, No. 19
City of The Hills
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, February 17, 2017
Complimentary
Famed Saunders’ First Novel Published The Green Toad’s Martha Bremer examines “Lincoln in the Bardo,” which went on sale Tuesday, Feb. 14.
‘Lincoln In Bardo’ Leads NY Times Book Review ALSO THIS WEEK, Michael Lemonick’s ““The Perpetual Now,” on Lonni Sue Johnson of Middlefield’s memory loss/A7
By LIBBY CUDMORE
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hough he’d carried the idea for “Lincoln In The Bardo” around for 20 years, it was in Oneonta that George Saunders, one of the nation’s leading short-
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Regulars Sophia Ruisi and Amethyst Gardner spin and twirl to the hits of old at the Valentine’s Sock-Hop Saturday, Feb. 11, at the American Legion, to benefit the Family Resource Network/
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epair the historic barn at Robert V. Riddell State Park, county representatives are asking the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The county board’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee unanimously approved a resolution proposed Monday, Feb. 13 by county Rep. Andrew Stammell, DTown of Oneonta. The full board will now get a chance to vote. Oneonta Town Board member Trish Riddell-Kent, whose family donated the property, is asking the barn be preserved for continued public use. PUBLIC INPUT: The Oneonta Fire Department is conducting a Community Risk Assessment, and is asking the public to fill out the stakeholder portion. Follow the link to the survey at
AllOTSEGO.com
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Otego School To Go
OTHER PHOTO, A2
Repair Riddell Barn, County Will Ask State
story writers, finally sat down to write his first novel. “In late 2012, I had about
three months before the book tour for ‘Tenth of December’ started,” he said in a phone interview from San Francisco on the first day of his 20-city book tour. “I had this mercurial idea, and I thought ‘I’ve got these three months, Please See NOVEL, A7
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OIREE,
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ALA PACKED
By LIBBY CUDMORE OTEGO
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Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Oneonta’s Laurie Zimniewicz has her card at the ready as bidding was about to begin on a week’s stay in Lisbon, Portugal, one of many fabulous lots up for auction at the Friends of Bassett’s first Valentine’s Day Soiree, to benefit the John May Farm Safety Fund.
www.
PASSING SCENE: For full obituary on Tony Mongille, who lovingly depicted Oneonta’s railroad heyday in pen-and-ink drawings, SEE B6.
MOMS AND SONS: The second annual Shamrock Swing Mother-Son Dance is planned 6-9 p.m. Friday, March 10, at Foothills. $65 a couple. Tickets at www.foothillspac.org
New Friends Of Bassett Party Raises $100,000
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By LIBBY CUDMORE
COOPERSTOWN he change from New Year’s Gala to Valentine’s Soiree paid off. “We sold out,” said Friends of Bassett Executive Director Joshua Truman. “The lobby was full. There were 400 people there. It was amazing.” A New Year’s Eve staple for decades, the Friends’
Public Pleads, But Vote Ends Tense Debate
annual black-tie fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 11, brought in nearly 100 more people than attended in 2016, from Cooperstown, Oneonta and beyond. “People who normally had plans for New Year’s Eve didn’t have a conflict,” Truman said. “We knew that, after 22 years, it was time to make a change.” The Soiree guests of honor were Dr. John May, recently retired director of NYCAMH (Bassett’s New York Center of Agricultural Medicine & Health) and his wife Amanda, who as Bassett’s director of develPlease See GALA, A3
o the end, Otego parents had hope. But it was too late. After a half-hour public comment period Monday, Feb. 13, the Unatego Central school board made it official, voting 6-1 to close Otego Elementary, effective Aug. 31. “It makes more sense to move the grades 3-5 classrooms “It’s the into the junior/ wrong senior high choice,” school build- says Jim ing,” Carolee Salisbury, the sole Byrnes had argued. She “nay.” handed out packets – a map included – to school board members. “I’ve mapped out spaces that could be converted to classrooms, and pick-ups and drop-offs are much safer at Otego than at Unadilla. We have the room here,” she said. Superintendent David S. Richards was not convinced. “We did a walkthrough of every square inch,” he said. “Many of the areas identified on the maps you gave us would be inadequate for classroom space. “They’re storage and office spaces. Elementary classrooms Please See OTEGO, A6
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD