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Volume 9, No. 45
City of The Hills
HOMETOWN ONEONTA E!
E FR
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, August 18, 2017
Complimentary
OPT Director Patterson Retires – To Drive Again But never one to buck away from public service, the former Fourth Ward alderman took the job, succeedONEONTA ing Jack Snyder, and brought the OPT into a modern zenith, serving more than 700,000 riders a year. fter a Common Council meeting in 2010, Monday, Aug. 21, Patterson will retire, but he won’t Mayor John Nader approached Paul Patbe gone from the OPT long. “I put in an application to terson, then Oneonta Public Transit fleet be a driver,” he said. “I hope they put me back to work manager. “It was just about 10 p.m. and he asked the next day!” me to take over as the administrator of OPT,” said A Utica native, Patterson first became interested in HOMETOWN ONEONTA Patterson. “And at the time, I was running the garage Paul Patterson behind the wheel in buses and trucks at 15, when he worked in a pilot 2000, and as he prepares to retire. too!” Please See OPT, A3 By LIBBY CUDMORE
A Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Michele Frazier shares a laugh with City Manager George Korthauer after she was unanimously appointed Tuesday, Aug. 15, to fill a vacancy on Common Council.
Frazier Will Fill Vacancy On Council
Stars & Bars Debate Unlikely To Go Away Activists, Fair Boards Firmly In Opposition
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ichele Frazier was appointed Tuesday, Aug. 15, unanimously and without discussion, to fill the vacancy of First Ward council member. Mayor Gary Herzig made the recommendation for Fraier to fill the council seat vacated by Paul van der Sommen’s resignation at the end of July to move to Florida. Frazier, a realtor with the Benson Agency, sits on the Oneonta World of Learning board and teaches in the SUNY Delhi Liberal Arts Department. She will serve a term through Dec. 31 and has indicated that she plans to run in November for the remainder of the term. TEEN FOUND: Alyssa F. Jones, missing since Friday, July 28, was located Friday, Aug. 11, in Oneonta’s Trailways Bus Station. She was in good health, according to state police. TWO LAUDED: Husband and wife Walt and Michelle Steinburg were named as the City of Oneonta’s first Employees of the Quarter. She works in Public Safety; he is in Engineering BACK TO SCHOOL: SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College students return to the city on Thursday, Aug. 24
By LIBBY CUDMORE
W
hen Leslie Kaufman of Delhi started going to the Delaware County Fair in 2000, “I fell in love with it,” she said. “I helped with set-up and clean-up, my kids marched in the 4H parade, I was the supervisor of the rabChristina bit barn for three years. “It was a huge part of our Hunt-Wood leads Wallives.” But in 2015, after Dylann ton protest. Roof killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., Kaufman asked the fair board, out of respect for lives lost, to ask vendors not to sell Confederate flags. Kaufmann said fair director Norm Kilpatrick told her, The more, the better. “And that Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA year, more and more flags came out,” she said. Samantha Carrabba, left, Morris, with daughter Miranda, and Pat Knuth, Oneonta, “The atmosphere was ugly and disappointing, gather with signs and flags at the Charlottesville, Va., Solidarity Rally in Muller Plaza and I couldn’t be a part of it. So I quit.” on Monday, Aug. 14. Meanwhile, a related issue was being debated locally: Should Please See FLAG, A7 Confederate flags be for sale at local county fairs?
MAYOR, CITY HALL GO IT ALONE Huntington Library Seeks Freedom From City, Access To More Dollars Last Year, $7 Million. This By LIBBY CUDMORE
Year, Otsego Now Sidelined By JIM KEVLIN
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ina Winstead wants to make sure that the people of Oneonta have a voice in their public library. “Our charter doesn’t make sense,” said the Huntington Memorial Library director. “We’re charted as a municipal library, so the city elects our board and has control Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA over our budget.” The Huntington Memorial Library But as a “public district library,’ a board seeks to become a “Public District Please See LIBRARY, A3 Library.”
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hat a difference a year can make. Last December, when Governor Cuomo summoned local officials from around the state to Albany’s Egg to announce the annual economic
development grants – CFAs – Otsego County learned to its delight it would be awarded $7 million for 13 separate initiatives. When the deadline for this year’s CFAs – consolidated funding applications – passed July 28, the county’s economic development arm, Otsego Now, didn’t even get Please See CFAS, A7
HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER 2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD