HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA Young Madison Collman, Oneonta, tries her hand at steering a carnival truck ride under the watchful eye of Caroline Stilson as the 2016 Otsego County Fair got under way Tuesday, Aug. 2, in Morris/MORE PHOTOS, A3
Coalition May Prepare City For Refugees
The Oneonta Refugee Resettlement Coalition, led by the Rev. Teressa Sivers, First United Methodist Church pastor, has formed to examine possibility of hosting refugees, Council Member Michelle Osterhoudt, Fourth Ward, told Common Council Tuesday, Aug. 2. The coalition will look into a two-year plan to bring refugees here, similar to what Utica has done, she said.
The task force is part of the Commission on Community Relations & Human Rights, which meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25, in Council Chambers. The public is invited to attend.
DECK PAINTING: Parking will be limited on the downtown deck’s top and middle floors through Friday the 5th as city crews complete a painting job there.
IN MEMORIAM: Mark Zimmerman, 43, the general sales manager of Royal Chrysler and related auto dealerships, died suddenly Wednesday, July 27/SEE OBITUARY, B6
SEASON ENDER: The Mohawks topped the Outlaws 8-1 at Amsterdam Tuesday, Aug. 2, keeping the Oneontan team out of PGCBL playoffs this year.
TBy LIBBY CUDMORE
his may become a case of sellers’ remorse. Four employees of the Focus Otsego Nursing Home were
MERRY MERCHANT
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA Elizabeth Raphaelson
Customers Fund Store Expansion
By LIBBY CUDMORE
Elizabeth Raphaelson, owner of the Underground Attic Vintage Clothing store, might have a fairy godmother.
“We had set up a GoFundMe campaign to help us with moving expenses,” she said. “We wanted to expand, but we needed money for a deposit on a new place, as well as new fixtures.”
On the advice of her interns Toni Shea and Tamara Sines, she made a video and set up a GoFundMe page, hoping to crowdsource her expenses.
“The theme was ‘Make Your Own Big Break’,” she said. “It’s about taking whatever tools you have, whether it’s a trowel or a spoon, and digging until you break through.”
Please See STORE, A7
arrested and charged with endangerment after an investigation by the state Attorney General’s office revealed that they left a 94-year-old woman in a recliner for nearly two days.
“It’s tragic,” said county Rep. Kay
Stuligross, D-Oneonta, who chairs the board’s Health & Education Committee. “We are concerned people, but there is nothing the county can do. It’s out of our hands.”
Attorney General Eric SchneiderPlease See FOCUS, A6
Animal Shelter, raising fees to pay for seized dogs, and making it easier for City Hall to raise fees further in the future. For full article, go to www.AllOTSEGO.com
EVERYBODY ♥ PARIS
Ricky Parisian’s Namesake Due At 2016 Pit Run
By LIBBY CUDMORE
The day after five police officers were tragically killed in Dallas, Texas, Erin Moussa, director of the annual Pit Run, checked her voice mail to find a message that had accidentally gone unchecked.
Trooper Frank Valetta of Troop A, Batavia, was calling to say that he had recently acquired a K9 partner, a 15-monthold bloodhound named Paris in honor of fallen Trooper Ricky Parisian. “He had left the message on May 20 – the anniversary of Ricky’s death,” said Moussa. “I ran to Deb Parisian’s house and said ‘Ricky says hi!’ It’s like he’s still watching out for us.”
Valetta, a 12-year veteran, was inspired to become a K9 trooper after dogs were used to track inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt after their escape from the Clinton CorrPlease See PARIS, A7
With planters, Downtown Blooms
Oneonta Garden Club’s Green Thumbs Create Multi-Colored Delight
By LIBBY CUDMORE
It’s a Main Street morality fable: Near the OPT annex are two crumbling grey cement planters filled with dust and weeds.
But half a block up, bright Dragonwings and hearty grasses bloom from cheerful terracotta colored pots.
The Streetscape Project is now in full bloom, thanks to the Oneonta Garden Club’s Please See BLOOMS, A2
Paris, seen her with her handler, Trooper Frank Valetta, plans to attend the Pit Run in her namesake’s honor.
His hometown honors Trooper Parisian at the annual Pit Run.
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Mary Ball and Phyllis Gunther of the Oneonta Garden Club
admire the new plantings.
HOMETOWN Views
A-4 HOMETOWN ONEONTA
EDITORIAL
There’s A Place For Community In Induction Weekends
Acouple of sticky situations surfaced in the past few weeks, giving Otsego County a tiny taste of the nation’s and even world’s current Number One concern, close and personal.
Leading up to the Hometown Fourth of July celebration in Oneonta, a psychic from Georgia posted on Facebook about a vision he’d had of an explosion during the Neahwa Park fireworks.
You never know. City police treated the matter with all seriousness, alerting the FBI, which concluded the threat was insufficient to cancel any of the celebrations. Events bore them out. Nothing happened.
Leading up to the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, word circulated in Cooperstown that plainclothes Homeland Security personnel were everywhere, questioning innkeepers and gun owners in particular. Trauma docs were going to be on call over the weekend, it was said; (that turned out to be the case.)
There was so much chatter,
&
you’d think some specific threat might have surfaced but, it turned out after the fact, these were just precautions (in the Cooperstown case) and nuttiness (in the Oneonta one). Still, we’re going to have to live with much of this until the current tide of international terrorism subsides.
• Because of the heightened alert we all live under these days, there’s a tendency to leave everything to the security experts. That’s as it should be in that one area of expertise. But it doesn’t mean that, as communities, we should forgo planning for particularly big Inductions like the Griffey Jr.-Piazza one we just experienced.
A good model to build on would be former Cooperstown mayor Carol B. Waller’s from 2007, the Ripken-Gwynn year, where – it is now estimated – a record 82,000 fans were in Baseball’s Mecca.
That spring, Mayor Waller convened a meeting and invited a wide range of attendees to partici-
pate – from law enforcement, for sure, but also from the Hall, and fire departments and emergency squads, plus town officials, county reps, anyone who had a stake in the weekend’s success and relative tranquility. That’s gone by the wayside.
This year, the village public works superintendent, Brian Clancy, and – no doubt – village Police Chief Mike Covert participated in the planning, but the mayor, trustees and general public did not.
Induction Weekend, of course, is a Hall of Fame event. But, given that 50,000, or 60,000, or during the upcoming Derek Jeter year, who knows, will come to a 1,900-person village in 61,000person Otsego County, Inductions impact everyone.
• The other evening, Mickey’s Place proprietor Vin Russo, dean of the downtown merchants, attended the July Village Board meeting and suggested an “entity” – a committee, or delegation, or the like – be formed to do a postmortem of Hall of Fame Weekend 2016 now, while it’s fresh in everyone’s minds.
This makes a lot of sense, and Mayor Jeff Katz designated Cindy Falk, the able trustee who chairs the board’s Economic Development Committee, to take the lead.
Certainly, the law-enforcement initiative is well-grounded, but – looking forward – key civic leaders should be in the loop and in a position to provide inputs. Much is in play beyond the lawenforcement purview.
For instance, the tightly packed crowd behind the iron barricades during the Legends of Baseball parade is worrisome.
The way the downtown, including the post office, is barricaded off beginning at noon Friday is certainly an inconvenience. Is it a necessary one? After all, Friday is a day of business.
Russo observed that people with concerns don’t know where to raise them. The Hall? Village Hall? Village police, or deputies, or troopers or who?
The Waller Model led to a major initiative: The satellite parking lots in Fly Creek and around. If there hadn’t been discussion, that need wouldn’t have even been identified. If the planning is as closely held as it now seems to be, who knows what might be missed.
Cooperstown Village Hall’s Architect Made NYC Tenements Livable
Editor’s Note: With the renovation of Cooperstown Village Hall’s front façade, here is an excerpt from Village Historian Hugh MacDougall’s 2009 “Ernest Flagg, Architect Extraordinary,” on the landmark at 22 Main.
By HUGH MacDOUGALL
In 1894 Ernest Flagg published an article in Scribner’s Magazine called “The New York Tenement-House Evil and its Cure.” Ernest had lived in lower West Side tenement buildings when he was selling codfish at Fulton Fish Market years before, and he never forgot the experience.
uptown, and their original homes had been chopped up into tenement apartments, often paired with so-called rear tenements at the back of the lot, with windows only in those few rooms at the front or rear.
The long rectangular blocks that cover most of Manhattan had been laid out in standardized lots 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep. On them New Yorkers built their town houses side by side, with gardens at the back. By the mid-19th century, however, wealthier New Yorkers had moved
In 1879 the Board of Health made what Flagg called “feeble efforts at reform,” and launched the creation of so-called dumbbell houses, 90 feet long, which were built in great numbers throughout the City. Each floor was divided into two or four “railroad style” apartments of three to seven rooms, reached by un-lit interior stairways, and with narrow halls on each floor with communal toilets and washing tubs. They were called “dumbbell houses” because a four- by 40-foot airwell was placed between each pair of buildings. This created, in Flagg’s words, “wells or shafts of stagnant air at the sides, acting as conductors of noise, odors, and disease from one apartment to another.”
…This, Flagg contin-
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch
Jim Kevlin Editor & Publisher
Tara Barnwell Mary Joan Kevlin
Advertising Director Business Manager
Thom Rhodes • Allison Green Kathleen Peters • Christine Scales
Advertising Consultants Graphics
Libby Cudmore • Sam Aldridge Ian Austin Reporters Photographer
Judith Bartow Tom Heitz Billing Consultant
ued, was as uneconomical as it was terrible: “Great sums of money are yearly squandered upon making the structures unfit to live in.” …Instead, Ernest Flagg designed a new kind of building, built around an open court on a 100 foot square lot, and two years later Elizabeth Scriven Clark (Jane Forbes Clark’s great-grandmother) gave him the opportunity to build it. The Alfred Corning Clark Buildings on West 69th
LETTERS
The recently renovated facade of Cooperstown’s Village Hall, 22 Main St. HOMETOWN ONEONTA
raphy around the turn of the 20th century did more than anything else to awaken America to the plight of
then our urban poor. In 1899, he visited the completed project, and wrote -- in an Atlantic Monthly article on “The Tenement: Curing its Blight”, as follows: “…The houses are built around central courts, with light and air in abundance, with fireproof stairs and steam-heated halls. There is not a dark passage anywhere. Within there is entire privacy for the tenant; the partitions are deadened, Please See FLAGG, A6
‘Lovingly Speaking Truth’ Is Not ‘Hateful Speech’
To the Editor:
In response to my letter to the editor, Andrew Stammel in his July 15 letter does nothing to foster a civil debate. He shamefully tries to discredit what is true and recites the worn-out phrase of the left against those who disagree with them: We are engaging in “hateful speech.” Frankly, I am tired of defending what should not need to be defended. Lovingly speaking the truth is not hateful. When I warn others to avoid homosexual behavior, it is out of love, not hate.
I found the rest of his letter humorous although I’m sure he didn’t mean it to be. He seems to be saying two things: First, if only everyone
Editor’s Note: Letters agreeing or disagreeing with Pastor Kabat will be accepted until noon Monday, Aug. 15. All will be published in the editions of Aug. 18-19, and we’ll close the door on the topic for now.
would agree with him we would live in harmony. “We’ll be one big happy family. Just agree with me.” Second, even more funny, he indicated that if we voice our disagreement with homosexual behavior, as I did, the local economy is going to tank. We won’t be able to keep and attract new business. Never mind that New York is the
most regulated and one of the highesttax states in the country. Upstate must be in a perpetual recession because we oppose homosexuality. Ha, ha. Linda Randall was equally humorous in her July 15 response when she accused me of being sexist, while backhanding men in the first part of her letter. But more importantly her letter repeated the New Big Lie. The Big Lie theory was originally cited by Adolf Hitler and later used successfully by the Nazis. It goes that if you tell a lie big enough and repeat it continuously the people will believe it. Her lie (which I’m sure she believes since it’s been repeated ad nauseum) is that Please See KABAT, A6
County Should Reimburse Animal Shelter, Then Dependably Fund It Going Forward
To the Editor:
What’s with the representatives on the Otsego County Board?
First, they claim they can’t afford to own and operate the Otsego Manor nursing home, and then sell it to a private company for about $18 million, as was reported.
Next, they say they can’t afford to repair the county highways, such as County 47, from Emmons south, and then explain they are waiting to have the repairs paid for by the Constitution Pipeline Co., should the pipeline ever get approved.
Now, in March this year, the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department rescued seven dogs because of neglect inflicted upon them by their owner, and turned these dogs over to the Susquehanna Animal Shelter in Hartwick Seminary, the only animal shelter in Otsego County. The shelter willingly accepted possession of these dogs, all in extremely poor health, but wanted the Sheriff’s Department to reimburse them for expenses incurred in caring for these dogs, about $6,000.
The Sheriff’s Department claimed it had no authority to reimburse the shelter. Then the Sheriff’s Department presented the issue to the county Board of Representatives so it would consider reimbursing the shelter. Apparently the county board claimed it had no budget provisions to do that, and questioned who was legally liable for those expenses.
Can one imagine that the county wouldn’t authorize an emergency payment of only $6,000? The shelter is now waiting for the county board to deliberate and approve an appropriate reimbursement. This has been going on for about four months!
So, I ask, why can’t county residents, many being dog owners, prevail on the county to do the right thing and promptly reimburse the shelter, and, more important, to establish regular future funding for the shelter? Wouldn’t one agree that’s a reasonable and honorable thing to do? Please give your support.
MARTIN WEISSMAN
Oneonta
To the Editor: I would just like to take a moment and thank the Town of Oneonta Board and specifically the Department of Highway, Water and Sewer: Jim Hurtubise and his coworkers did a fantastic job making a new path by the pump house in Morningside Heights. It may be a short cutthrough path, but it’s very well appreciated by the residents who use it, and there are many who do. You all did a fantastic job at making it a reality with very little pain to the resident(s) who live adjacent to it
Thank you for opening back up the path!
DAVID M. BRANDT
HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Mayor Waller on the job in 2007 ~ planning wasn’t the half of it.
Oneonta
Town Of Oneonta’s New Pathway Well Done, Serves Public
Ernest Flagg
Street opened in 1898. Many of you will recall the name of Jacob Riis, whose writing and photog-
HOMETOWN History
Compiled by Tom HeiTz with resources courtesy of The New York State Historical Association Library
125 YEarS aGO
Case of Elopement reported in the albany Express – Last Thursday afternoon a telegram was received at police headquarters from one Jacob Winne of Oneonta, requesting the arrest and detention of his wife Sally Winne and Lemuel Higgins, who had eloped together, and would arrive in this city on the afternoon train. Detectives Hale and Bradt proceeded to the Susquehanna depot, and upon the arrival of the train arrested the runaway couple, and took them before Justice Parsons. Mrs. Winne, who, by the way, is rather prepossessing in appearance, stated that she did not elope with Higgins; that they accidentally met each other on the train; that she was going to Catskill while Higgins was bound for New York. She had a valise which contained a quantity of clothing. She gave as a reason for leaving home that her husband had treated her badly. She said that she had been married ten years and had three children. Higgins is a stage driver and has a wife living at Delhi. as the parties had committed no criminal offense on which the magistrate would be justified in holding them, they were set at liberty. We learn that they left together on the 4:40 p.m. train for New York.
August 1866
100 YEarS aGO
George W. Fairchild, representative in Congress from the Thirty-fourth District, is President of the International Time recording Company and chief stockholder in the Computing-Tabulating-recording Company of which the I.T.r. is a unit or subsidiary company. He vigorously opposes any plan to move the plant from Binghamton. The company plans to increase the size and capacity of the Endicott plant by one-third and employ hundreds of new and skilled workmen. He declares his natural interests are in the business growth of Binghamton and its vicinity and insists that, so far as the manufacturing development of time recording appliances is concerned, the company must select Endicott as its chief plant and gradually centralize the time recording industry in Greater Binghamton. Congressman Fairchild points out that the Endicott site is an ideal one. The present plant is a model manufactory, unexcelled anywhere with plenty of room to grow, good railroad shipping facilities and all other advantages. The growth of the I.T.r. business has been due chiefly to the financial backing and business insight and ability of George W. Fairchild, who has been President of the company for many years. Due credit must be given, however, to the capable management of the company by the late Harlow E. Bundy, a man of strong business purpose and capacity; also to a. Ward Ford and in the earlier years to George E. Green.
August 1916
40 YEarS aGO
August 1976
80 YEarS aGO
Besides issuing books and helping patrons find the reading matter they wish, members of the Huntington Memorial Library staff often are called on to pick up lost articles and try to locate the owners who have left them in the library. Property ranging from pet dogs and cats to spectacles, combs, snapshots and letters have been forgotten by readers and left in the building. Sometimes a dog or cat will follow its master or mistress into the library and will be deserted when the owner leaves, forgetting that the animal is there. Occasionally pets have stayed several days and have been reluctant to return home. a passerby once picked up a dog that had been hit by a passing car and not knowing where else to take the victim, took it to the library and laid it in a corner of the hall. Help was secured from a veterinary surgeon who took the animal to his home, and a day or two later the owner was located.
August 1936
60 YEarS aGO
Preliminary plans for a Kindergarten building at Center Street School have been approved by the State Department of Education. The building, to be constructed on the former Coy property at the corner of Center Street and Ivy Court, will house about 100 children. Completion of the new school building is expected next spring. The Kindergarten will consist of an indoor play room, a general purpose classroom, a quiet reading and rest area and project work areas. The Center Street side of the building is to be blacktopped as an outdoor play area. Two teachers will be employed in the Kindergarten. It is expected that half-day sessions will be offered with 25 students under each teacher.
August 1956
20 YEarS aGO
The city’s parking garage will turn into a party space featuring music, food and festivities from 5 p.m. to midnight on Saturday. The Downtown Oneonta Improvement Taskforce (DOIT) has lined up three bands to play at “Up on the roof.” The event is geared to promoting awareness of the parking garage and its convenience to downtown businesses, DOIT Coordinator Mark Drnek said. More than two dozen vendors will offer a range of eats, treats and merchandise for sale. Other activities include an antique car show at the bottom level of the parking garage from 5-8 p.m. with a “peoples’ choice” award ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Participants are encouraged to bring lawn chairs. No beverages may be taken into the event. admission is free but donations will be accepted. DOIT estimates the cost of the event at $2,700 but officials expect to break even.
August 1996
10 YEarS aGO
a longtime supporter of the Springbrook agency for the disabled has left a $2 million living trust to the institution. robert Kraemer of Esperance in Schoharie County died last fall, but not before his living trust of IBM stock had accumulated $2 million. a longtime barber in his hometown, Kraemer worked in his earlier days as a custodian at IBM. While there, he purchased 40 shares of IBM stock. Using the original 40 shares, Kraemer reinvested all of his stock dividends, year after year. He placed the portfolio in a Wilber Bank living trust in the 1980s. Income from the trust will benefit Springbrook in perpetuity. Springbrook Executive Director Patricia Kennedy said it was a wonderful, heartwarming, amazing story. Plans are underway to memorialize Kraemer’s generosity on the Springbrook campus near Oneonta.
August 2006
KABAT: Sexual Orientation is A Choice
KABAT/from A4
sexual orientation is not a choice. This is based on flawed research by Simon Le Vay, a homosexual (do you think he might have researcher bias?), done in 1993 on a grand total of 35 cadavers in which he noticed different brain sizes between alleged gays and straights. Ergo, it must be in the genes. The research was never replicated, leading experts to believe that the study was not valid. Other legitimate questions were raised as well. However, that didn’t stop Gay inc. from promoting the New Big Lie. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control came out with credible evidence that sexual orientation is due to personal history, including sexual abuse and violence. in other words, it is learned behavior. Learned behavior, as most social scientists will tell you, can be unlearned.
The New Big Lie also flies in the face of basic Christian doctrine. We are all born into sin. The human experience includes sin at its very core. But through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ we can be freed from our sinful nature. But in a way, Ms. Randall is correct. for many, many homosexuals the behavior is not a
choice in that it is compulsive. it is compulsive like drinking is to an alcoholic or smoking is to a smoker. However, there are millions of alcoholics who have conquered their drinking as have thousands of former homosexuals who conquered their homosexuality. Christians including myself believe that we cannot conquer the enslavement of sin without Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have no choice in our sinning until we are freed by Christ. With God, what seems to be impossible becomes possible. Does this offer a glimmer of hope to those in the snare of sin? Definitely, YES! if there is anyone out there who might be questioning their homosexuality, look me up. i would be more than happy to engage with you in pursuing the straight alternative. No condemnation. No pressure. Only acceptance and compassion in walking alongside of you.
JERRY KABAT Oneonta
Kabat is director of the Calvary Hill Retreat Center, Oneonta
famed Architect Built Cooperstown Village Hall
FLAGG/From A4
so the sound is not transmitted from one apartment to another. Without, the houses have none of the discouraging barrack look. The architecture is distinctly pleasing.” And, Riis might have added, each apartment had its own private toilet -- and the buildings paid their owners a five percent dividend.
More important, flagg’s scheme became the model for other similar buildings all over Manhattan, and eventually prompted significant changes in New York City’s Zoning Laws.
Ernest flagg’s connection with the Clark family would last for many years. He designed a series of commercial buildings and homes for frederick Bourne, who from 1889 to 1905 was president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company – as well as a luxurious New York City mansion for Elizabeth Scriven Clark herself. in 1896 flagg designed the 10-story Singer headquarters at 149 Broadway. And in 1897 he planned the Library building which we know today. The Cooperstown site, at the corner of Main and fair Streets, had once been occupied by the Otsego Hotel, which had burned in the great fire of 1862. from 1868 to 1889, it was occupied by a huge, unfinished, decaying building known popularly as the Skeleton Hotel. Parts of it were used to store hops until its remains were bought by Alfred Corning Clark and the haunted monstrosity was demolished.
After Alfred’s death in 1896, his widow Elizabeth Scriven Clark engaged Ernest flagg to design a building for the local Young Men’s Christian Association, a library, and a museum. The YMCA, in those days, was primarily a club; the squash courts behind the Library, now the Cooperstown Art Association, were not added until 1914. flagg wanted his building to be beautiful and indeed striking, but at the same time to blend in with its historical and visual surroundings. He used the same local stone
from which many other Cooperstown buildings are built, adding a Greek-revival facade of columns that reflect those on the 1830 Otsego County Bank Building across the street. The viewer’s eyes were also directed upwards by the balustrade that originally decorated the roof on all sides – and that i for one hope may one day be restored.
Excavations began on April 13, 1897. Local papers record at least two visits to the site by Ernest flagg – in July and October. As autumn ended, the giant wooden columns, produced by Cooperstown’s Pioneer Mills on Grove Street, were being erected. The following spring, in May 1898, the scaffolding came down, and on Aug. 17, 1898, Elizabeth Scriven Clark held a lavish ball on the upper floor, officially opening the building and celebrating the 21st birthday of her son, Robert Sterling Clark. As originally laid out, the room to the right of the entrance was a library; that on the left had the YMCA Pool Tables. Behind were rooms for playing cards, and for the building manager. in 1932
Robert Sterling Clark presented the building to the Village of Cooperstown. it was not one of Ernest flagg’s largest projects, but surely one of his finest.
4 focus Employees face Charges
FOCUS/From A1
man’s Office posted a press release Tuesday, Aug. 2, reporting the arrests of LPN Lorraine Caldwell, 54, Holland Patient; LPN Amanda Gus, 30, Hartwick; Sarah Schuyler, certified nurse assistant (CNA), 29, and CNA Donna Gray, 48, Sidney.
Each of the four face charges they failed to provide care to a 94-year-old resident over the Memorial Day weekend this year.
According to the press release, surveillance camera footage shows a resident, identified only as “M.P.,” was left in a recliner for 41 hours, receiving only one meal, one round of her medications and one change of her briefs. At the end of the 41-hour period, the resident was removed from the recliner, returned to her room and diagnosed with a pressure sore measuring slightly less than one by 2 inches.
“This is just beyond terrible,” said Stuligross. “it’s hard work, the pay is low and finding dedicated people is
crucial. People need good care in our county. it’s shocking.”
Calls to county board Chair Kathy Clark, R-Otego, and focus Executive Director Jeff Emhoff were not returned by deadline. in 2014, the county board sold Otsego Manor to focus for $18.5 million in a 4-3 vote, following informational meetings held around the county over the previous winter. Due to changes in state and federal reimbursement rates, the Manor was costing the county $5 million a year, half the total raise by local taxes.
“We didn’t want to sell it,” said Stuligross. “But financially, we couldn’t keep it.”
Three employees were charged with the felonies of falsifying business records, endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person in the first degree, as well as the misdemeanor charge of willful violation of
health laws. Gray was arraigned on the misdemeanor charge of willful violation of health laws. They appeared Aug. 2 before Otsego Town Justice Gary Kuch in fly Creek. The defendants were released on their own recognizance. “Our healthcare workers have a basic duty to care for their patients, to provide required care, keep them safe and not to injure them,” Schneiderman said in the release. “My office will bring to justice caregivers who hurt and neglect patients, who ignore the law and safety protocols, and who falsify records to cover up their crimes.”
The investigation was conducted by investigators from the state Medicaid fraud Control Unit.
The facility has a one-star rating from Medicaid in its five-star quality rating system.
All
PARIS/From A1
ectional Facility in Dannemora last June. “I was up there on the last day,” he said. “They had two bloodhounds in service, but with one getting ready to retire, they decided they wanted to get two more.”
So Valetta applied to be a handler. “I have always wanted a bloodhound for deer hunting,” he said. “It was another step for my ca-
reer, and I thought I should take it.”
K9 are always named for fallen Troopers, and previously, Parisian has been honored with dogs named Ricky and Pit, his Oneonta nickname.
Paris was brought up from a breeder in Louisiana, along with her sister, who is serving a trooper in the Adirondacks.
The two trained for three
months at the K9 school on Chicken Farm Hill, outside Cooperstown. “We’d track eight or nine miles a day,” he said. “We’d send someone into town, into the woods and she would find them.”
Bloodhounds are used for live tracking of criminals and missing persons. And already, Trooper Paris is showing Ricky’s dedicated spirit, helping to find an injured, intoxicated woman
and bring her safely home.
“Earlier this month, we had a suicidal woman who jumped out of a bathroom window,” he said. “She ran into the woods without shoes, and was hiding in a pit by an abandoned house. It was so overgrown that the troopers couldn’t see her, but Paris went right to her. She was face-down. I thought she was dead. But we got her in the ambulance and she was OK.”
Paris still has a lot of puppy in her, the handler says. “She thinks she’s a 75-pound lap dog!” he said. “She’s super-friendly, everybody loves her. When I take her to schools, she lays down for belly rubs. She isn’t aggressive at all.”
And although she’s proven her talent at finding missing persons, she still gets a little excited when she’s working. “She chases squirrels, butterflies and
We welcome Dr. Gregory Lewis, DDS
Dr. Lewis gruduated in the top 10% of his class and attended the North Shore-LIJ in Long Island. A member of the American Dental Association and New York State Dental Association, Dr. Lewis has provided free dental care to children and adults in Nicaragua, Nepal and in other areas where there is no access to dental care.
He spent spring breaks during his time on college traveling to New Orleans helping to rebuild communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
He is committed to providing the best care for his patients and is looking forward to serving the community of Oneonta for all its dental needs.
8 Grand St., Oneonta
607-432-1010 • www.americanmobiledental.com
Cosmetic Dentistry • Sleep Apnea Appliances • Whitening
Great looks! Visit the
Bassett
Eyewear Center
birds,” said Valetta. “It’s not a great thing to do when we’re trying to work!” Valetta plans to attend the Pit Run on Sunday, Oct. 2, and bring Paris with him. “I want to meet Ricky’s family,” he said. And Paris might even be up for a run, possibly joining him for the 5K. “We always say it never rains on race day,” said Moussa. “That’s just one more way Ricky watches over us.”
Crowd Funding, And Bit Of Luck, Underwrites Expansion
STORE/From A1
Little donations came in from the community, and then donations started coming from strangers. “One day, we had 600 shares on Facebook,” she said.
And then, $1,000 from the crowd-funding site, announcing Raphaelson as the winner of their monthly Giveback contest.
“GoFundMe’s IT Manager, Jay Siller, nominated me,” she said. “He said he was inspired by the passion we showed in our video and that helping small businesses was why they started GoFundMe. I started freaking out. I was crying.”
In all, she raised $5,620, just over the $5,500 goal she set. “I’ll also be using my savings to move,” she said. “Everyone has been so generous.”
Among the prizes she had set up for donors were a copy of her Lookbook, a personal-
• Eye exams
• Fashion frames & contact lenses
• Eyewear repairs
Clinic Building, Cooperstown Mon-Fri 8am to 5pm (607) 547-3142
Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTa Elizabeth Raphaelson has learned a lesson in merchandising: Take care of your customers, and they’ll take care of you.
ized thank-you video and, for the $1,000 donor, a chance to be Gatsby at their grand opening.
“I asked Jay if he wanted to come and make a speech and
HOMES FOR RENT
House for Rent, Cherry Valley Village. 4 br, 2.5 ba. Totally Renovated. Large private Yard. $1400/mo + security. Available 9-1-16. Call for details. Cedar Ridge Realty, 607-435-5439
3ClassAug19
Home for rent: 2 bedroom. $800/mo. plus utilities and security, year lease firm. No pets. No smoking. Attractive mobile home convenient to Bassett and Focus. Washer, dryer, dishwasher. Now available. References, please. (607) 238-9873.
3Class Aug.19
Available April, Spacious 3 or 4 BR, 2 Bath, Kitchen w/Island, Den, LivRm w/Fireplace, Dining & FamRm w/Pellet Stove, Enclosed Porch, Garage, 15 Acres, Located 3 Miles From Cooperstown. $1900. Mo. + utilities. Call Kathy Fistrowicz @ (607) 267-2683 (cell) bedroom parking no pets/smoking $950 heat/elec.included. Lease /references; First/ last/ security. Call Dave LaDuke, 435-2405 or 547-8551.
APARTMENTS FOR RENT
Apartments: Cooperstown
give a champagne toast,” she said. “He said he’s going to try and make it!”
The store started as an Etsy shop, evolving into a small “pop-up” during Christmas
2014 and opening as a full store above Roots Brewing Company in January 2015.
She’s using the funds to relocate the store to the former Rose and Laurel bookstore.
“Peter Clark is redoing it to look like an old-fashioned dress shop, with a fireplace and stained glass,” she said. “He actually approached me and asked if I wanted to move in there.”
In addition to twice the space as her current location, she’ll have access to basement storage, as well as an office to continue the online portion of her business. “I’ll actually have four interns next semester, so they’ll be able to work out of there,” she said. Though she hasn’t started moving yet, she hopes to open the new store in late September. “I’ve had unbelievable help through this whole thing,” she said. “And we were able to break through.”
2 bedroom parking no pets/ smoking $950 heat/elec. included. Lease /references; First/last/security. Call Dave LaDuke, 435-2405 or 547-8551.
Hartwick Studio. All new, $475 plus utilities. Call Dave LaDuke, 435-2405 or 547-8551.
One Bedroom. First floor, 575 plus. No pets/smoking. References. First/last/security. Lots of parking. Call Dave LaDuke, 435-2405 or 547-8551.
4 Bdrm, partially furnished, full kitchen & bath, large common areas. Close to park and colleges. $1,400 mo. Available 8/1. (607) 287-0332.
OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT
Cooperstown multi-use commercial /w Main St. & Doubleday lot access. Optional 1st floor double retail space, outdoor courtyard. 2nd floor: 4 private rooms/offices. Restrooms/central air/alarm/phone. Call to discuss ideas/options. Kathy Fistrowicz 607-267-2683
Oneonta Retail Space For Lease! Over 8,000 square feet of space featuring loading dock with overhead door and warehouse area, plus a light and bright retail space second to none in the downtown lower hub of the city. $2950 per month. Call Benson Agency Real Estate, LLC for details at 607-432-4391.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
TURN-KEY BUSINESS! Estab-
