Bears Boldly Go WHERE FARMLAND, MANKIND RETREAT/SEE B1
HOMETOWN ONEONTA E!
E FR Volume 9, No. 37
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch Complimentary
Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, June 23, 2017
City of The Hills
Quick thinking and sharp skills are needed to navigate the course’s twists, turns, lane changes and more.
GOVERNANCE EXPERT SAYS:
Think Before Acting
CRUiSERS CaROM T
By JIM KEVLIN
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Wendy Burton, Oneonta, stands with tears in her eyes at the Vigil for Trans Lives at First United Methodist Church Monday evening, June 22, in memory of Kendra Adams, a trans woman who was found murdered at a construction site in Ithaca the week before.
Unanimously, Council Names ‘Finn Terminal’
C
ommon Council Tuesday, June 20, unanimously agreed to the name “Finn Terminal” for the terminal at Oneonta Municipal Airport. The room burst into applause, and City Clerk Nancy Powell teared up. “He was a friend of the city,” Mayor Gary Herzig said of Dennis Finn, whose memorial service is at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 24, at the terminal. COUNTY BOUND: Former Common Council member Liz Shannon has announced she will run to succeed Kay Stuligross, D-14, to represent Wards 7 and 8 on the county Board of Representatives. Stuligross is retiring. NOT ON THE 4TH: The next Common Council meeting has been moved to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, due to the Fourth of July Holiday. HURRAY FOR GRADS! High schools across Otsego County are graduating seniors this weekend. For a two-page tribute, SEE A2-3 WHAT DO TO: This week, AllOTSEGO. dining&entertainment ads begin on A7
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Oneonta Police Sgt. Chris Capatano navigates more than two miles of cones at nearly 30 mph as part of EVOC training at the New York Safety Track in Harpersfield.
OPD Officers Sharpen Driving Skills At Harpersfield Track By LIBBY CUDMORE HARPERSFIELD
I
t’s not quite the fast and the furious, but even at 25 miles per hour, navigating a quick lane change
and then dodging cones set in a serpentine can feel like you’re a stunt driver. “More law enforcement lives are lost to vehicle accidents than to gunfire,” said Oneonta Police Sgt. Chris Capatano. “In the police academy, recruits take 40 hours of emergency-ve-
hicle operations courses (EVOC), but they’re not expected to train again.” But because of a deal with the New York Safety Track in Harpersfield, Oneonta officers are able to refresh their skills every year. “Most police forces don’t have a resource like Please See TRACK, A6
Mary Joan Kevlin, 59; Co-Publisher As Hometown Oneonta Flourished COOPERSTOWN
M
ary Joan “MJ” Kevlin, co-publisher of The Freeman’s Journal, Hometown Oneonta and www.AllOTSEGO.com for the past 11 years, passed away Friday, June 16, 2017, at Bassett Hospital. She was 59, and had been struggling with cancer since October 2014. MJ was born on April 19, 1958, in Endwell, to Joseph W. and Joan (Gaffney) Simmons, and was raised in Lafayette Hill, Pa. She graduated from La Salle University in 1979 and received a
MJ Kevlin
master’s in historic preservation planning from Cornell University in 1981. As a planner for Jefferson County in Watertown, she met her future husband, Jim, who was an editor at The Watertown Daily Times. They married on June 25, 1983, at Our Mother of Consolation Church in Chestnut Hill, Pa. She soon became Watertown’s first city planner, and administered the process that led to construction of 800 units of military housing in the city during the expansion of Fort Please See MJ, A7
here’s no magic wand in hiring a county manager vs. electing a county executive to run a county like Otsego. The key is to make Benjamin the system fit the circumstances, said Gerald Benjamin, namesake director of SUNY New Paltz’s Benjamin Center for the study of local government and himself a past chairman of the Ulster County Legislature. For instance, he continued, in a county that’s fairly homogeneous – people with the same general characteristics and political outlook pursuing similar professions – a hired manager working for an elected board like Otsego County’s 14-person Board of ReprePlease See MANAGER, A6
HERZIG, KATZ ACT
Trump Punts, Mayors Grab Climate Ball By LIBBY CUDMORE
O
neonta and Cooperstown may not be as big as New York or Los Angeles, but both the village and the city have made their commitment to fighting climate change as clear as a sunny day. “We’re focused on what we can do locally,” said Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig. “We’re taking initiatives to be more climatefriendly.” “I’d been seeing stuff about the Climate Mayors, and although it’s mostly Please See MAYORS, A7
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD