HOMETOWN Views
A-4 HOMETOWN ONEONTA
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017
EDITORIAL
Take Oneonta Ford, Everyone Wins – Even Twelve Tribes
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usette Kelo lived in a little pink house in the Fort Trumbull section of New London, Conn., overlooking the Thames River. In 1998, when the New London Development Agency, using eminent domain, cleared the Fort Trumbull neighborhood to attract Pfizer’s worldwide research headquarters, Kelo in her little pink house – a heart-tugging touch – was the final holdout. She challenged the NLDA’s eminent domain powers and the case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court which, in 2005, agreed that the taking of Kelo’s property for public benefit was authorized by the Fifth Amendment. By then, however, Pfizer, lacking space to build the full campus it required, moved its headquarters somewhere else. Hold that thought. • The Twelve Tribes simply has an underwater mortgage. Since the housing crash of 2008 after decades of consistently rising home prices, Americans generally have come to understand what that means: The value of your home drops under the value of your mortgage. Yes, you’re going to take a bath if you sell it. You can strategically invest in upgrading the property seeking to close the gap between value and mortgage. But chances are you’re simply throwing good money after bad. Or you can continue to pay your mortgage, waiting for the market
The former Oneonta Ford building should be taken by eminent domain so downtown revitalization of Oneonta can proceed.
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
to rebound. In many markets across the U.S., that worked, home prices have risen and even surpassed 2008 prices. But not in Otsego County and many rural markets. So many of our neighbors can feel the Twelve Tribes’ pain. • Still, the Twelve Tribes is caught. It owns the former Oneonta Ford and says it has a $525,000 outstanding mortgage. But an appraisal conducted for Otsego Now puts the value of the deteriorated property at $150,000. The Tribes is asking $600,000 for a property that actually has a negative value. The Cuomo Administration allocated $417,000 last week simply to raze the building and prepare the site for the prospective Mohawk Valley Food
& Beverage Innovation District hub. That means Otsego Now, City Hall and the State of New York are already prepared to spend $567,000 simply to clear the site for productive use. It makes no civic sense to spend the additional $450,000 the Tribes wants, raising pre-construction costs to $1,017,000. The Tribes bought Oneonta Ford and 134 Main, now home to the thriving Yellow Deli, in combination, so it may be unclear how much of the mortgage is being allocated to each. • Let’s be blunt: The public – everyone standing to benefit from the city’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative – is under no obligation to pay more for the building
than it’s worth. If the Twelve Tribes had invested in the former car dealership as it has in 134 Main, it might have valuable property right now. Instead, the building has deteriorated even more over the past decade. Today, it truly represents “community blight” which, combined with public purpose, makes it an ideal candidate for a taking through eminent domain. The Twelve Tribes no doubt is getting its own appraisal, which may be higher than Otsego Now’s. If a middle ground can’t be reached, then Otsego Now can take the property, the Twelve Tribes can sue, and a judge will eventually decide its value. • Back to Kelo. The point is to act now. The
Kelo case blunted the New London Development Agency’s momentum, Pfizer was lost and the larger initiative collapsed. Today, the 90 acres at Fort Trumbull are largely vacant. The three-story building planned for Chestnut and Market will host a community kitchen, possibly Hartwick College’s Center For Craft Food & Beverage and two stories of market-rate apartments. It’s the first step in an initiative to redevelop all of underused Market Street, adding shops and apartments to the parking deck, rethinking Foothills in an exciting way, and funding a menu of other downtown improvements. Let’s not be Fort Trumbull. The Otsego Now directors should act with all deliberative speed, take the property and move forward with construction, perhaps as soon as this summer. • In the end, this will be a win, win, for the Tribes as much as anyone, if not more. With dozens of new apartments and stores on the Chestnut Street Extension and downtown, the Yellow Deli will certainly benefit, even expand to the second floor. The value of 134 Main will certainly rise, conceivably more than whatever the true loss on the Oneonta Ford building might turn out to be. Yes, everyone will win. And what’s the alternative? Worsening blight on the key corner of downtown’s future. If that’s allowed, everyone will lose.
LETTERS
Don’t Fear Fear, Reach Out And Befriend Moslem Today To the Editor: Today I write about Fear Fear is the most pressing thought today. Mr. Trump uses fear to create chaos and limit freedom. Fear is one of the most controlling and dangerous methods that a leader can use to limit freedom. And Mr. Trump is using it well. When fear for “National Security” is used as a reason to be afraid of another people, that fear actually limits the freedom of all citizens. People who are “fearful”, especially those who support him, can be easily manipulated and controlled. It is a means of group control and allows him to close down even basic freedoms that he says he is protecting.
If you are a true American, a true patriot, and want to protect individual freedom, the best and easiest thing to do is stand up, walk out of your home in the middle of Iowa, and introduce yourself to someone who is different from you, someone of another religion – in this case a Muslim. Extend your hand and become friends. Overcome fear by getting to know an individual. Fear is overcome not by hate, not by avoidance; fear is overcome by facing fear. Isn’t that what Americans are suppose to hold up as an American trait? The message that I want to share with anyone who voted for Mr. Trump Please See GOODY, A5
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
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assett is a much more important asset to the Clarks (and to the local residents) than is the Baseball Hall of Fame. Let’s hope they don’t squander it. ees, the Chamber of Commerce, the Clark interests and the residents to recognize that fact and make the adjustments necessary to support the changes that are required before we lose Bassett the way Schenectady has lost GE. Yes, we will always have a hospital, but not necessarily a medical center. Bassett is the elephant in the room, though the village’s new Comprehensive Plan gives scant attention to that fact. The need for affordable housing has been recognized for several years and is addressed in the Comprehensive Plan, but almost as a passing thought.
It has been said that the property required for affordable housing will not be made available in Cooperstown unless the Clark interests are supportive. Bassett is a much more important asset to the Clarks (and to the local residents) than is the Baseball Hall of Fame. Let’s hope they don’t squander it. A decade ago, I wrote to Jane Forbes Clark requesting that she consider housing a priority. She graciously replied to the effect that housing was not on their agenda at that time. There is property available. The Notre Dame study of a few years ago made some realistic suggestions. That study has been largely ignored and is sitting on a shelf collecting dust. I hope the Comprehensive Plan does not suffer the same fate. Bassett employs 2,510 people at the Cooperstown campus, while Focus employs 225. Those employees work 12 months a year. As the editorial points out, most of those Please See DORNBURGH, A6
WHERE NATURE SMILES
To the Editor: Your newspapers raised a vital issue relative to the importance of Bassett Healthcare in last week’s edition. Most of us local residents are grateful for the economic contributions that the Hall of Fame, Dreams Park, Glimmerglass Festival and The Otesaga make to our community, but they are seasonal. Bassett and Focus Rehabilitation Center & Skilled Nursing Facility are year ’round institutions and therefore deserve special consideration. Bassett has become the largest healthcare provider between Albany and Syracuse, but Cooperstown has not kept up with that growth. Though we have tried to maintain its bucolic heritage, Cooperstown is not the village of the 1950s (population 2,727) and may never be so again. The editorial rightly points out that “Cooperstown isn’t a baseball town. It isn’t a resort community. It isn’t a cultural watering hole. It is a medical center.” And that includes Focus. It is time that the village trust-
Editor & Publisher
Bassett Workers Need Affordable Housing – For The Good Of All
Tom Heitz Consultant
MEMBER OF New York Press Association • The Otsego County Chamber Published weekly by Iron String Press, Inc. 21 Railroad Ave., Cooperstown NY 13326 Telephone: (607) 547-6103. Fax: (607) 547-6080. E-mail: info@allotsego.com • www.allotsego.com
Cathe Ellsworth Revives Historic Column
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n Jan. 4, 1984, when Cooperstonians opened their copies of The Freeman’s Journal to page 2, they found themselves reading: “We thought this was an excellent time of year to take a stab at continuing a column which appeared in The Freeman’s Journal for more years than we can remember. In the first place, all those many organizations that you may from time to time connect us with tend to take a break for the holidays, leaving us with something we are not accustomed to – namely, free time. We had to find something to do. Secondly, the holidays are a good time for
finding all sorts of people going all sorts of places to do all sorts of things. We managed to take note of at least a few of them. And thirdly, arm twisting, all CATHERINE four of them, on LAKE the part of the ediELLSWORTH tor and publisher, works every time. So here we go, where nature smiles.” Little did we know when we wrote those words with our late husband Jer-
ry, we would still, all these years later, be penning a weekly column for the local paper. Over the years we have written for both The Freeman’s Journal and The Cooperstown Crier, as well as a paper which lasted about three months, the name of which we do not remember. And now we find ourselves back writing, where we started, for The Freeman’s Journal. We willingly admit that over the years the column has undergone a fair amount of change. People no longer seem to want us to share with our readers who has visited, who has dined Please See COLUMN, A5
AllOTSEGO.com • SEE LETTERS ON A5, A6
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WELCOME • E-MAIL THEM TO info@