GHOST TOWN! 1913 FLOODS KNOCKED OUT BRIDGE, CLINTONVILLE DRIED UP/SEE B1
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
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Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, April 19, 2013
Volume 5, No. 30
City of The Hills
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Hartwick College English Department chair Tom Travisano has added a Guggenheim to his list of honors.
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Complimentary see possibilities full of promise: Today we dedicate; tomorrow we change possibility into reality.’ James N. Milne, SUNY Oneonta’s first president at Oneonta Normal School’s 1889 dedication
For 125th, SUNY Starts $12.5 Million Campaign
drive’s co-chairs, Yvonne Cummings, ‘72, senior director, revenue manageTom Travisano ment, at the New $12.5 million York City Healthy Wins Coveted fund drive – the & Hospital Corp., Guggenheim largest in SUNY and Jeff Strauss, Oneonta’s history – has ‘71, a Goldman r. Thomas J. Travisabeen launched and aimed Sachs retiree who no, Hartwick College completion in time for is president of both professor of English, the college’s 125th birthButterfield Fulhas received a prestigious day celebration in the fall crum, a hedge fund, Guggenheim Fellowship in of 2014. and the College at the category, “Creative Arts The “Possibilities Full Oneonta Founda– Biography.” of Promise” drive – the President Kletion. It is the first Guggenheim niewski reviews title is a quote from a The $16.5 milever to a Hartwick faculty the “Possispeech by the college’s lion will be devoted member. first president, James N. bilities Full of to firming up “six Travisano, whose “Words Promise” proMilne, at the 1889 dedipillars” of the uniIn Air” (2008) was reviewed spectus. cation – was announced versity identified in on the front cover of the Monday, April 15, at a Hunt the broad-based strategic-planNew York Times Book ReUnion reception, by Nancy Kle- ning process Kleniewski identiview, plans to take a leave in fied in taking office in 2008. the spring of 2014 to comJim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA niewski, the college’s seventh president. That would include plete a biography of the poet SUNY Oneonta juniors Zack Trill, Binghamton, and Heather Lewis, Marathon, listen to President Kleniewski’s announcement. And she introduced the Please See CAMPAIGN, A7 Elizabeth Bishop. By JIM KEVLIN & LIBBY CUDMORE
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TOP ALUM: Sal Paolantonio, SUNY Oneonta grad and ESPN national correspondent, will deliver the commencement address at the college’s May 18 graduation Paolantonio ceremony and receive an honorary doctorate in humane letters. 2 TRAILBLAZERS: A City Hall reception Tuesday, April 16, honored Sarah Patterson and Charlotte McKane, recipients of the city Human Rights Commission’s 2013 Trailblazer Awards/PHOTO, A2 CANCER FIGHTIN’:
SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College students teamed up to raise $50,000 for the American Cancer Society during a Relay for Life Friday-Saturday, April 12-13, and donations are still coming in.
Fledgling College Overcame Old Main Fire, Firing By JIM KEVLIN
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UNY Oneonta began in the community’s heyday decade – the 1880s – when the D&H arrived, the population doubled from 3,000 to more than 6,000 citizens, downtown business blocks began to rise and today’s Victorianera neighborhoods began to spread. It grew out of the determination of an ambitious and canny young merchant class, combined with a growing national consensus on the need for trained teachers, and burgeoning community pride focused
on punctuating the then-Village of Oneonta’s new prominence with a major state institution. Established, the college’s first decade brought a major setback – Old (then brand-new) Main, the Richardsonian Romanesque college campus at the top of Maple Street, completed in 1889, burned to the ground in 1894. And by a leadership crisis: The first president, the charismatic and nationally prominent James Milne, HOMETOWN ONEONTA was forced out of office in 1898, Barely launched five years earlier, Oneonta Normal School sufapparently over a political dispute fered a body blow in February 1894 when Old Main burned. with community kingpin David I. With the help of student and faculty labor, it was rebuilt. Please See HISTORY, A3
COOP STARTS RIGHTING A WRONG
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Common Council Appears To Be Behind Miller On Hilltop Commons Project
ud Fowler, the first black to play professional baseball before the curtain of segregation fell in 1887, will be celebrated this weekend in Cooperstown, where he was raised: A street will be named “Fowler Way.” Schedule of Weekend Activities, A3 See links on WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM
Mayor, Deputy Tilt On Newman Tax Breaks By JIM KEVLIN & IAN AUSTIN
S Fowler
hould 325-student Hilltop Commons get a tax break? That question is splitting Mayor Miller and his deputy
mayor, Mike Lynch, who issued warring memos in the days leading up to the Tuesday, April 16, Common Council session. Before 70 people in the Oneonta Middle School cafeteria, Lynch said the project seemed to be “coming together”
and environmental concerns met. “My position against it is solely based on the corporation not getting tax cuts. I think the project is fine.” Miller restated his support for the project, and council memPlease See MEMOS, A7
HOMETOWN ONEONTA HAS LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION IN OTSEGO COUNTY 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD
COME HELP US CELEBRATE OUR…
After The Open House, enjoy dinner at The Hawkeye from 5:30PM-9:30PM. Please call Maitre d’ Lori Patryn at 544-2524 for reservations. Over 100 Years of Gracious Hospitality ®
OPEN HOUSE Friday, April 19th 4:00PM – 6:00PM
• Popular piano stylings in the Main Lobby • Complimentary light refreshments No reservations are required and there is no charge.
THE OTESAGA RESORT HOTEL, 60 LAKE STREET, COOPERSTOWN, NY •
WWW.OTESAGA.COM