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Volume 9, No. 35
City of The Hills
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
NY
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, June 9, 2017
Complimentary
Victim ‘Stomped To Death’ In New Lisbon The body of Arthur Bellinger, 63, was found on the front lawn of this compound on 393 Wheat Road, New Lisbon.
3 Men Lived On Site With No Water, Electricity By LIBBY CUDMORE NEW LISBON
A
rthur R. Bellinger, 63, was allegedly “stomped to death” Friday night, June 2, at a ramshackle camp in the hills of New Lisbon during a fight that left him dead and a secJim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
While sons Jake, 5, and Mac, 1, participate in comfort, mom Erin O’Leary of Oneonta provides the woman-power to complete the 15th annual Girls On The Run in Cooperstown Sunday, June 4. Some 800 girls from five counties participated in the self-esteem-building program.
Perry Webb
ond man injured. Perry J. Webb, 59, who lived at the 393 Wheat Road site, was arrested and charged with seconddegree murder and assault. The second victim was identified as Scott Littlewood. “It looks like these three friends got in a brawl,” Please See MURDER, A6
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
marietta: End Chaos, Hire County Manager
Terminal May Be Named For Chairman Finn
Whither Housing?
4 Of 5 Oneontans Said To Back Idea
ONEONTA
By JIM KEVLIN
T
he terminal at Oneonta Municipal Airport may be named in honor of Dennis Finn, former Airport Commission chairman who died suddenly on May 18, the morning after a commission meeting. Jeff Back, a colleague on the commission, proposed the idea to Common Council Tuesday, June 6. “It’s a fantastic idea,” said Council member David Rissberger, whose committee will recommend action. STATUES OK’D: Common Council has approved acquisition of two statues from Dale Rogers’ “Spring Awakening” series for Miller Park. BRENNER IN TOP 3: Acting Police Chief Doug Brenner scored third in the police chief test. The top three candidates will be interviewed. SUNY HOST HELPED: For a second year, state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Oneonta, has obtained “impact aid” for the City of Oneonta for costs incurred for police costs associated with hosting SUNY Oneonta.. This year, it is $194,000.
BOLD MOVE
COOPERSTOWN
A
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
At the first meeting of the steering committee updating the city’s Comprehensive Master Plan, Professor Alex Thomas, left, Seth Clark of Peter Clark Student Rentals, and Realtor Joan Fox agreed: There is too little affordable, quality housing in Oneonta.
Shortage, Poor Quality Is Driving People Away, Keeping Them From Moving Here By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA
H
ousing in Oneonta is so inadequate, said Alex Thomas, SUNY Oneonta Sociology Department chair, that he has known professors who would rather commute from Vestal and New Hartford than settle in
the City of the Hills. “These people want to live in suburbs,” he told the city’s Comprehensive Plan Update Steering Committee during its first meeting on Tuesday, June 5. “We don’t have the kind of housing they want. They want apartments on side streets, not Main Street.” With both housing and parking studies planned as part of the comp plan update,
at the get-go housing arose as one of the largest and most complex issues the city is facing. Guided by Elan Planning consultants Nicolette Wagoner and Susan Caruvana, who led Cooperstown’s successful comp-plan update, the steering committee met for the first time to begin charting the year-long comprehensive Please See HOUSING, A6
back-burner issue for a decade – whether Otsego County needs a county manager – was headed to the front burner Wednesday, June 7. Whether it gets there remained an open question earlier this ►See Marietweek. ta’s statement County Rep. Andrew Marietta, to the board/A4 D-Cooperstown/Town of Otsego, ►For update, planned to introduced a resolucheck tion at the county board’s June www.AllOTSEGO.com meeting asking his colleagues to establish a committee to draft a job description and hire a county manager for the Please See MANAGER, A7
Northern Eagle Opens ‘Hub’ In Lake George By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA
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orthern Eagle Beverages was brewing so much Cooperstown Brewing Co. beer at the Glens Falls Brewing Co., it might as well have owned it. Now, it does, and a few days ago launched the Lake George Beer Hub after $1 million in renovations. Please See HUB, B4
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD