Bassett Medical Center Begins Next Phase of Construction on Campus Childcare Center
COOPERSTOWN
assett Medical Center in Cooperstown has begun the next phase of its project to construct a childcare center on the hospital’s campus. Construction is expected to be completed in spring 2026. According to a press release issued on Thursday, September 25, the facility will be called the Harrison House Childcare Center in honor of the historic Harrison
House, once the home of Dr. Francis Harrison, an internist who joined Bassett in 1928 and practiced alongside Dr. Mary Imogene Bassett.
“The Harrison House is a historic and cherished part of Bassett Medical Center and the Village of Cooperstown,” said Staci Thompson, MHA, FACMPE, president and chief executive officer of Bassett Healthcare Network. “Earlier architectural plans for the project aimed
to completely retain the building’s original structure with renovations inside. However, engineers and construction crews discovered that the original structure could not be sufficiently modified to provide a safe and healthy environment to meet children’s needs.
“The building is being demolished and rebuilt from the ground up—with an exterior that will repli-
Continued on page 13
Lt. Gov. Delgado, DNC Vice Chair Kenyatta Address Otsego Dems
By ERIC SANTOMAUROSTENZEL
More than a hundred local Democratic Party members gathered in the Hunt Union ballroom at SUNY Oneonta on the evening of Saturday, September 29 for an annual fundraiser and to hear two rising stars argue for their vision of the future of the party.
Otsego County Democrats gave a standing ovation for speeches by New York Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado, who is running a progressive primary campaign against Governor Kathy Hochul for the 2026 gubernatorial election, and Democratic National Committee Vice Chair and Pennsylvania State Representative Malcolm Kenyatta. Local party leaders, thrust into national impor-
tance by the battleground NY-19 congressional district, say they have momentum and candidates that offer their best chance of winning a majority on the Otsego County Board of Representatives in many years come this year’s November 4 elections.
“Fascism seems to be creeping insidiously from sea to shining sea,” Otsego County Democratic Committee Chair Caitlin Ogden told the crowd, “yet in this room tonight, I also see a tremendous amount of hope.”
In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s popular vote and Electoral College victory in 2024, along with losses in the Senate, many Democrats across the country have been divided—and depressed— about how to move forward.
Addressing Otsego Democrats, Delgado and Kenyatta called for a more muscular approach.
“As I sat and listened to Caitlin talking about fighting for democracy,” Delgado told the crowd, “it’s hard, being really honest, to not also ask the question: How the hell did
we get here?”
“Communities all across this country, and certainly communities all across this state, have every reason to question the effectiveness of this thing that
we call democracy, and the extent to which the will of the people is actually reflected in our government,” Delgado said. The cycle of generational
Fenimore Farm Stone Barn Featured in New Book
By BILL BELLEN COOPERSTOWN
On August 15, Acclaim Press published the latest book in its repertoire, “Stone Barns of America: Historic Icons East of the Mississippi.”
Written by Dr. Robert Kroeger, this text is the first of a two-volume series exploring the expansive history behind notable stone barns across the United States. Featuring barns and historical accounts from more than 20 states, “Stone Barns of America”
is a passion project of epic proportions.
As described in the book’s introduction, Kroeger first took interest in the history of barns in 2012 following what he described as a “supernatural message” from a barn in Ohio he refers to as “Granville Gray.” Kroeger spent an extensive period learning the craft of impasto oil painting, an art form seen in many illustrations throughout his book. “Stone Barns of America” follows in the footsteps of two previous works by Kroeger focusing on the
pioneer rural farm life of America: “Historic Barns of Ohio” and “Round Barns of America.”
During the research process for the latest chapter in Kroeger’s barn-based odyssey, he happened upon a local site of historical significance. One of two standing stone barns in New York State—and dubbed “A Treasure in Cooperstown” by Kroeger himself—the stone barn that stands as the entrance to Fenimore Farm and Country Village is proudly featured in a
Continued on page 9
Photo by Eric Santomauro-Stenzel
New York Lt. Gov. Delgado is on the stump for his race to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Continued on page 13
Photo courtesy of Fenimore Farm and Country Village
The stone barn at Cooperstown’s Fenimore Farm is featured in a new book by Dr. Robert Kroeger.
Fall Into October on the 2nd Annual Cherry Valley Art Trail
CHERRY VALLEY
Cherry Valley is the place to be this October. In addition to the 75th anniversary party at The Tepee on Saturday, October 4, visitors are invited to join businesses and artists for the 2nd Annual Cherry Valley Art Trail.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5, visitors to the village and the surrounding area can enjoy demonstrations, a gallery show of participating artists at 25 Main Collective, 21 Main Street, and studio tours.
“The trail is there so you can talk to artists about their work, buy directly from them and visit the businesses in the village,” organizers said in a press release.
This year’s Cherry Valley Art Trail is being held in conjunction with the Schoharie County Arts Trail Driveabout. For more information, visit www.schohariearts.com.
Later this month, Historic Cherry Valley Businesses will premiere Falltoberfest.” According to officials, this new,
family-friendly event on Saturday, October 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the village “will celebrate everything fall.”
The NBT Bank parking lot, 16 Main Street, will feature vendors and a pumpkin carving table with tools and free pumpkins, while supplies last.
“Or bring your own pumpkin,” officials invited. “Let us take a picture of your finished product and we will enter it in our pumpkin carving contest.”
Limestone Mansion will host a Beer Garden starting at 11:30 a.m., with Overboard Charcuterie on site to provide food options, and Cherry Valley Historian Sue Miller, of Plaide Palette, will host Ghost Tour Hay Rides throughout the day.
The Happy Haggs are set to perform and there will be live music headed up by Carl Waldman and friends at the village gazebo. Visitors can take part in seasonal games and activities including stein holding, pretzel tossing, gingerbread heart decorating, and a tug of war competition.
Organizers encourage folks to “get a team together!”
In addition, Falltoberfest will feature a Wire Wrapped Moon
Pendant Workshop from 1-3 p.m. with Amanda Trumbull at 25 Main Collective and other falland Halloween-themed events For more information, visit www.cherryvalley.com.
The Tepee Celebrates 75 Years of Americana
BUSINESS PROFILE
CHERRY VALLEY
Driving down historic U.S. Highway 20, halfway between Cherry Valley and Sharon Springs, you see it on the side of the road. It’s been there for as long as most people can remember. It may be your destination, it may be the first time you’ve ever seen it, or it may be that you drive by all the time, telling yourself, “The next time I go by I am going to stop.” It is listed in the national and state historic registries and has been in business for 75 years. You see it there, nestled in the rolling hills of Otsego County. It’s The Tepee!
That’s right, The Tepee has been in business for 75 years! And all are invited to join the festivities on Saturday, October 4 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as The Tepee celebrates its Diamond Jubilee. High on the Hog food truck will be joining in on the fun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and so will select vendors. Bug Country Radio is broadcasting live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and The Happy Haggs Dance Troupe will be making an appearance at 12:30’ish. There will be door prizes (a chance to win up to a $75.00 gift certificate) and giveaways (get your wooden nickels while supplies last). The first 75 customers will receive a Tepee tote bag with purchase (one per customer). Oh yes, and there will be cake.
The 75-year history of this classic souvenir/gift store
begins in post-World War II America, when families were hitting the road for their annual vacation, or out for a Sunday drive—the kind of roadside attraction that is a reminder of fun filled summer days of childhood. The Tepee first opened its doors in 1950, at which time it stood west of the Village of Cherry Valley. However, in the early 1950s Route 20 was rerouted to bypass the village and The Tepee. Original owners Ken and Iris Gurney had the foresight to keep their business on Route 20, which was the main thoroughfare east to west at that time. They rebuilt over the winter of 1953-54 and The Tepee has been welcoming the Route 20 traveler at its current location ever since.
Many visitors will often ask, “Why is it in the shape of a tepee?” The true reason behind the design choice may rest with Ken and Iris Gurney; however, there are two stories that the current owners have heard over the years. The first is that Ken Gurney, a WWII veteran, was the only survivor of a plane crash during the war. One of his fellow soldiers and a good friend, who did not survive the fateful crash, was Native American. Mr. Gurney built in the shape of a tepee in memory of his friend. The second tale that has been told is that Ken Gurney decided to give the shop its unforgettable appearance to remind Iris of the tepees she remembered seeing on Native American reservations while growing up in the Midwest.
The present owners of The Tepee are Donna and Dale Latella, sisters who bought the store in 2000, its 50th anniversary year. The sisters made a concerted effort to turn the shop into the kind of place that locals would enjoy just as much as tourists on their way to Cooperstown or Howe Caverns.
Donna and Dale feel honored to share the iconic store with everyone who comes through the door. People from all over the world, from every continent, have visited The Tepee. Yes, every continent, even Antarctica! As the sisters explain, a scientist, who was stationed at a scientific outpost in Antarctica, visited while on a short break. He needed a pair of comfy moccasins to bring back to stave off the cold.
When you stop at The Tepee, the first thing you do when getting out of the car is take in the beautiful view, looking north over farmlands across the Mohawk Valley
to the distant Adirondack Mountains. You will never tire of the view, as it is absolutely stunning all year round. Then you may walk over to the official roadside historic marker that is set to the side of the parking lot. The blue and yellow sign informs the curious traveler of the history of U.S. Route 20. Absent from the sign is the fact that Route 20—3,365 miles long—is the longest highway in the U.S. You can travel coast to coast, from Boston, Massachusetts to Newport, Oregon, and never leave U.S. Highway 20. The Tepee is just a tiny part of the history of Route 20, which dates to 1799, when it was charted as The Great Western Turnpike.
What’s next, after taking in the view and reading the historic marker? Most likely you will make your way over to The Tepee. If it is your first time visiting, upon entering you may say to yourself, or even out loud, “Hmmm, it’s bigger inside than it looks on the outside.”
The shelves are filled with an eclectic assortment of products from around the world—items that are Native American handcrafted, made in New York and elsewhere in the U.S., as well as fair trade and imported. There are locally-crafted pieces and classic souvenirs, all to remind you of your visit to The Tepee.
If you’re exploring the area near Cherry Valley, make it a point to visit The Tepee. It is a little piece of Americana that is often overlooked in today’s fast-paced world of electronics. And if The Tepee is not already on your bucket list, make sure you add it. There are not many places like the Tepee left for you to enjoy, and you will always be welcomed. As many customers say, “It is not just a stop on the way, it’s the destination.”
‘Men’s Shed’ Brings Older Local Craftsmen Joy, Togetherness
By ERiC SANTOMAURO-STENzEL
garage of Walt (Jim) Hogan of Cooperstown. Above tool-lined walls lay retro beer cans and model cars and trucks. Snacks sit on a table a few feet from weather vanes in need of new life and a work table where an outdoor bench will soon come into being. The sound of three men outside working a buzzsaw floats inward, followed by two halves of a wooden board. Others, inside, fix a scuffed-up 19th century table of Cherry Valley origin with cherry wood. Or, they just talk.
Men’s Shed, an international movement started in Australia, aims to create social spaces for older men. With dozens of chapters across the world, the group’s motto is “Men don’t talk face to face, we talk shoulder to shoulder.”
it’s a “safe place for men to be able to get together, because there’s issues as one ages,” said member Bud zaengle. A retired support staffer for cancer treatment, zaengle said “the need is huge” for older people to have social engagements like the shed.
Many older men—and older people in general— suffer from social isolation, which carries higher risks of cardiovascular issues and dementia. A 2023 University of Michigan study found that more than one in three people between 50 and 80 years old experience loneliness. Often out of the workforce, children gone into the world, and without regular community activities, many older men are hungry for social opportunities.
“We really wanted to make sure that it was embedded in the community in a grassroots effort,” said Tamie
Reed, director of Otsego County’s Office for the Aging. “At the end of the day, our goal was to – and our goal always is – to build community,” she said.
Women “have often been the Founders of successful local Sheds,” according to the U.S. Men’s Shed site. “Their ability to get Sheds launched and their dedication to helping men find meaning and purpose - especially after retirement - is an inspiring part of the U.S. movement’s growth,” the site reads.
The Cooperstown shed is no exception. Reed, and Carole Lachance, director of the Clark Sports Center’s Connections program, began talking about the idea in late 2024, not long after three older men in Otsego County died by suicide in a short period. When it came time to find a suitable location, Walt Hogan shared, it was his wife who
volunteered their two-door garage. initially just four men, the group has grown to about a dozen since their first gathering in February. Sometimes, men will arrange to come over outside of the scheduled hours to work on their projects.
The men want to keep improving their shed. First and foremost in his ideal world, Hogan said, is “the health and safety of the workers,” something which would be improved by better ventilation in the garage. But the second part is making sure the men “feel like they have a purpose.”
“They’re here, they’re being functional, creating, repairing, fixing for people. Mostly things that are important to people, like an heirloom,” Hogan said. The group recently took in another chair and two tables, and invites community members to bring items to see if they can fix them.
A recent project included making wooden charcuterie boards, which were then painted by a separate group of older folks at the Connections program. Lachance hopes to sew a broader social fabric with these kinds of activities. “We’re starting to get them involved in some community things, too,” said Lachance.
Though the shed has so far been a low-key gathering growing only by word of mouth, it has still generated donor interest. During the Mohawk Valley Gives drive, $6,335 was raised to support the project, according to Lachance.
Many participants and organizers hope the shed will help reverse the trend of reduced social occasions, especially as a result of the pandemic.
“They know they don’t have to sit at home and watch TV all day,” Hogan said. “They can actually go out and do something.”
AllOtsego Hires New Staff Writer, Adding To Original Reporting
COOPERSTOWN
Eric SantomauroStenzel, 24, of Long island joined AllOtsego’s team on Monday, September 15. Raised in Suffolk County, New York, SantomauroStenzel earned his undergraduate degree at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in May 2024. He immediately followed up with a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City in May 2025.
“From the shores of Fire island, to bustling Brooklyn, to the hills of Oneonta and beyond, i am a New York State patriot,” SantomauroStenzel said. “Some of the people i’ve spoken to both here and back home seem surprised, particularly as a young person, that i want to live in rural upstate New York. To that i say: take a look at Otsego Lake at about 7 o’clock, a.m. or p.m.”
Darla M. Youngs, general manager and senior editor of “The Freeman’s Journal” and “Hometown Oneonta” locally-owned newspapers and the companion AllOtsego. com website, is excited to have Santomauro-Stenzel on board.
“Since joining the staff here three years ago, i have been incredibly blessed with a number of excellent writers who have helped share the work load and kept us moving and growing at a time when small, rural newsrooms are really struggling,” Youngs said. “Eric comes to us fresh out of Columbia with a strong portfolio and real reporting chops. Our readers are going to see a big difference in the weeks and months to come.”
“We have a wonderful stable of freelance contributors and columnists. Eric is the piece of the puzzle that has been missing. i can’t wait to see where this team goes from here,” Youngs added.
Santomauro-Stenzel evolved from an interest
Photo by Tara Barnwell
ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
in politics, law, and community organizing into journalism over his time at Hamilton College. As editor-in-chief of an alternative paper there, “The Monitor,” he pursued breaking news, features, investigations, and multimedia reporting. He has also written freelance stories for papers across New York State, most locally for the Utica-Rome “Daily Sentinel.” At Columbia, he learned about all kinds of reporting from video to investigations—with ample practice covering the global news events happening right outside the classroom, as students protested for Palestine, and the federal govern-
ment pressured the university.
i chose this field because i felt it was where i could make the most positive difference,” Santomauro-Stenzel shared. “When we don’t have the facts—not just the who, what, when, where, but the critical ‘why’—we can’t make decisions that serve the public interest, whether it’s what food is safe to eat or how to use our sacred right to vote.
“The act of reporting has made me realize, even more than my high-school debate career, where i had to win both sides, that every story has many perspectives, often conflicting, often insulated in a bubble,
often coming from places equally legitimate,” Santomauro-Stenzel said.
“My job is to bridge the gap, and get as close to capital-T ‘truth’ as possible, questioning readers’ and my own assumptions along the way.”
Santomauro-Stenzel will be covering all things Otsego County, and some-
times nearby or at the state level, ranging from human interest stories like this week’s article on a new “Men’s Shed” group to local government stories like last week’s article on the retirement of the Cooperstown police chief. He will also be contributing photos and growing the online
presence of AllOtsego. Santomauro-Stenzel welcomes news tips for potential investigative stories that uncover harm at erics@allotsego.com. i’m excited to add some more first rough drafts of history to such a historic region, for such a historic paper,” Santomauro-Stenzel said.
Photo by Eric Santomauro-Stenzel
Local Men’s Shed participants gather to support each other, and the chairs they’ll make.
EDITORIaL
MHOMETOWN Views
Is Nothing Sacred?
innesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, murdered in their home by a gunman on June 14.
Clinton and Cristen Brink, fatally stabbed while hiking with their two young daughters on July 26 at Devil’s Den State Park in Arkansas.
Virginia City Councilman Lee Vogler, attacked at his workplace, doused in gasoline and set on fire on July 29, sustaining severe burns over much of his body.
Iryna Zarutska, stabbed to death from behind on a commuter train on August 22 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Two children killed and multiple people injured during a school mass at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis.
Political activist Charlie Kirk, assassinated in front of thousands of students while speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10.
Whether for political, religious, personal or ideological reasons, acts of violence committed during the savage summer of 2025—only a handful of which are noted above—make us question whether we are safe anywhere any more.
And the violence shows no sign of stopping with the change of seasons, as four people were killed and eight others injured this past Saturday, September 27, when a gunman drove his vehicle into a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Michigan, began shooting during a Sunday service and, before being neutralized by local law enforcement, set a fire that destroyed the building.
In our editorial of April 17, titled “There’s No Excuse for Violence,” we expressed concern about the growing trend of political violence and the emergence of an assassination culture here in the U.S., writing: “If you are following news reports from a variety of media sources—not just those which echo your own perspectives and beliefs—then you have been witness to violence and destruction of property not limited to any one side of the political aisle.”
We entreated readers to “ask yourself—do you really want violence and destruction to become accepted social norms? And do you really believe it’s just the ‘other’ side committing these heinous acts?”
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, millions of Americans are affected by mental illness each year, the most common of which are co-occurring substance use disorder and mental illness, and depression, each at 8%, followed by post-traumatic stress disorder (4%), bipolar disorder (3%), and borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia, each estimated at 1%.
NAMI reports that one in five U.S. adults experience mental illness, while one in 20 of all U.S. adults—or 23%—experience serious mental illness. Asian adults are at the lower end of the scale, with a 12-month prevalence of any mental illness at 16%, while the rate for lesbian, gay and bisexual adults is highest, with 50% experiencing mental illness. Falling in between are: native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander adults (18%); Black adults (21%); Hispanic or Latino adults (21%); white adults (24%); American Indian or Alaska Native adults (27%); and mixed/multiracial adults (35%).
Despite this, most of these folks—just like you—continue to work, create, laugh, love and inspire every day. In her op-ed on page 6, Christine Nealon points out that, “By definition, serious mental illness refers to any diagnosis that can disrupt daily life, such as major depression. With proper support, individuals with SMI live independently, work, and contribute fully to their communities.”
But given these statistics, and considering the daily reports of violence—at nightclubs, schools, and political events, at home and at work and at church, in public and in private—perhaps we should seriously consider what role each of us plays in either perpetuating or stopping this horrifying trend.
Isn’t it incumbent on us to tone down our rhetoric, cast aside the vitriol and stop dehumanizing those who do not share our beliefs? When almost a quarter of U.S. citizens are already struggling in these extremely difficult, polarizing times, is it not our responsibility to think long and hard before we hit “Send” or “Post”? To take a beat before publicly demonizing those with whom we disagree?
The savage summer of 2025 proves that no place is truly safe anymore. Not our homes, not our houses of worship, not our offices or our parks. Not our schools. Social media algorithms are feeding these flames, and the media is fanning them. We need to set our differences aside, come together as a nation and put these fires out.
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HOMETOWN ONEONTA
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0Vaccines: Let’s Talk
ver the last 30+ years here in our area of rural upstate New York, the prevalence of childhood infections has been reduced significantly. There has been no bacterial meningitis beyond the newborn period. There have been rare episodes of whooping cough. There have been no children sick with measles or mumps. The biggest impact on lifespan in the last 100 years is not curing cancer or fixing clogged cardiac arteries. The most important factor for the length of life has been vaccinations.
There are some retirees who may remember getting their first polio shot or sugar cube; few actually remember being vaccinated for smallpox (a disease that is now totally eliminated) since it was given during infancy. Name the infectious diseases common until World War II and today these are rare—so rare, in fact, that they make the news. We now almost never see the withered legs of polio unless it is in a foreign country and, even there, it is increasingly uncommon.
Pediatricians have worked for decades to improve the lives of their patients, the children of our community, our country, and the world. Along with clean water and promotion of breastfeeding, immunizations are the defense against many infectious diseases that could result in an early death or a lifetime of chronic illness. We who are alive today can speak with appreciation for all those childhood shots; those who did not get them, who died or who are severely impaired, may not be able to talk.
Questioning healthcare providers about vaccine schedules, shots’ contents, and the efficacy of immunizations is legitimate. But when people deny the value of very extensively studied childhood vaccines or recommended timeframes for giving these shots, it is hard for many students of science and believers in evidence-based policies to understand. Data and statistics are the basis for truth and trust amongst most practicing child healthcare providers. Without science as the foundation for how we attempt to improve the lives of children, we are nothing but “influencers,” modern day sellers of snake oil.
Vaccines have had a huge effect on the health of children in the United States. Polio went from infecting more than 50,000 Americans every year pre-1950s to a few hundred within a decade, and to zero by 1979. It was the vaccine. Mumps went from infecting 200,000 every year in the U.S. pre-vaccine to a few hundred, and just 226 so far this year. Rubella went from infecting 60,000 every year in the U.S. (and killing thousands of infants) to infecting less than 10 per year. Measles went from infecting hundreds of thousands in the U.S. every year to less than 100 in 2000, when it was declared “eliminated.” (There have now been 1,454 confirmed U.S. measles cases as of September 9 this year due to decreasing vaccination rates and loss of herd immunity.) Haemophilus flu, type b, formerly the major cause of bacterial meningitis in children, is all but eliminated. One study estimated that 150 million lives have been saved by vaccines in just the last 50 years. Smallpox, which accounted for 7-10 percent of all deaths in London every year before the vaccine, has been eliminated from the planet. Few things in medicine could be safer and avert more suffering than preventing a disease before it ever happens. Healthy kids miss less school, learn more, get betterpaying jobs, lead healthier lives with fewer chronic diseases, and contribute more to their communities.
This we believe. We are pediatricians, your children’s pediatricians and, in many cases, we were your pediatricians. We write this letter to inform you, based on what we learned, based on our training, based on what we have experienced over the decades,
Continued on page 10
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR … IN THEIR OPINION
Like Living in a Rockwell Painting
At the end of the summer season, as the town settles into fall, the community dinner is the one annual opportunity for everyone of all walks of life, all religions or no religion, all political parties or no political parties, to share food and camaraderie with each other—at least for one day—as if living in a Norman Rockwell painting.
It serves as a barometer of who has community spirit and who doesn’t. Who gives and who takes. Who enlivens and who deadens. The metaphor of the supper is clear: Are you truly alive to the community?
In Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” when one of the characters, Emily Webb, returns to the town from the dead for one day, she wonders aloud to the stage manager if any of the living realize how precious life is. “No,” he tells her. “The saints and poets, maybe.” He could have added, “And the ones that bring the best blueberry pie.”
Chip Northrup Cooperstown
Harvest Supper: It Takes a Village
On Sunday, September 28, we celebrated the 11th Cooperstown Growing Community Harvest Supper! What a wonderful gathering of our community.
Thank you to all the people who helped to make the evening so special. Special thanks to the Village of Cooperstown for all their support; the Cooperstown Fire Department and Police Department for bringing
equipment and closing the road; the Friends of the Village Library who loaned the tables; to the Cooperstown School District for loaning the chairs, and Keith Parr for and the Lions Club members who moved them.
Thank you to AshleyConnor Realty for sponsoring the posters; “The Freeman’s Journal” for spreading the word; the Clark Estates and all of the neighbors on Main Street who let us run the tables down the street for the day; to Continued on page 8
THE PaRTIaL ObSERvER DR. bRaNDON gREENE aND DR. CHRIS kJOLHEDE
Photo by Sam Ross
an estimated 400 people turned out this past Sunday, September 28 for the growing Community Harvest Supper, now in its 11th year.
Tom HeiTz/SHARoN STUART
110 YEARs AGo
Paper ballots and not voting machines must be used for submitting the proposed new state constitution to the voters at the election on November 2. The decision was rendered as an opinion by Attorney General Woodbury in response to inquiries by secretary of state Hugo. However, the voting machines may be used for voting upon the two constitutional amendments authorized by the legislature, including referendum or woman suffrage and a $27,000,000 bond issue to complete the barge canal.
Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United states, announced tonight, his engagement to Mrs. Norman Galt of Washington. No date for the wedding has been fixed. It probably will take place in December at the home of the bride-elect. Mrs. Galt is the widow of a well-known business man of Washington, who died eight years ago, leaving a jewelry business which still bears his name. she has lived in Washington since her marriage in 1896. she is 38 years old and was Miss Edith Bolling, born in Wytheville, Virginia where her girlhood was spent and where her father, William H. Bolling was a prominent lawyer.
October 1915
90 YEARs AGo
A WPA project for preservation of the archaeological history of the Upper susquehanna during the period of the Red Man has been submitted to the Works Project administration’s district office at Binghamton. Approval of the project was given by Frank Patterson of springfield Center, otsego County WPA Director, after a conference with city officials and members of the Huntington Library board. Estimated to cost $7,344, the project will provide about one year’s work for a crew of ten men, including a director, clerk and eight laborers. The estimated cost includes a truck to transport the men and materials to different sites. According to plans, the group will map the county so far as archaeological work is concerned. sites will be excavated for the purpose of uncovering artifacts.
October 1935
30 YEARs AGo
soccer Hall of Fame officials are awaiting results of a survey that will put a dollar figure on the impact of soccer-playing visitors to the oneonta area. In the end the survey should show that the soccer Hall of Fame has been and could be a great boon to the area, bringing people in who stay in motels, eat meals and visit other sights. Rob Robinson, executive director of the otsego County Chamber of Commerce, said the National soccer Hall of Fame is a “hidden jewel.”
October 1995
20 YEARs AGo
Bringing World-class Music Close to Home
Cooperstown Concerts kicked off its 2025-2026 season with a standing ovation—several of them, in fact. on a perfect fall day at the beautiful Fenimore Farm and Country Village, music lovers from across the region (and country) gathered on september 21 for an afternoon of live music, stringed instrument virtuosity, and community.
The excitement is just beginning. Cooperstown Concerts continues its 2025-2026 season with a slate of acclaimed performances that reflect its mission to bring world-class music close to home.
We want to bring people together to explore new sounds, discover emerging artists, enjoy timeless favorites, and engage with each other through live music and concert events. on sunday, october 26, the season continues with a vibrant Diwali Celebration from 3-6 p.m. at Fenimore Farm and Country Village. This welcoming, family-friendly experience is an allinclusive event that includes an uplifting afternoon of live music, an Indian food buffet, and dancing. With something for everyone, the event will be a joyful celebration of light, culture and community. often called the Festival of Lights, Diwali is celebrated across India and southeast Asia and by Hindu, Jain, sikh, and Buddhist communities worldwide. Headlining the celebration’s music is internationally acclaimed vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia, whose mesmerizing voice and genreblending compositions bridge Indian song traditions with influences from West African blues and
By MERL REAGLE
jazz. Tickets include the entire experience and are available online at cooperstownconcerts.org.
Then, on saturday, November 22, music and dance lovers can head to The otesaga Resort Hotel at 7:30 p.m. for Eloise & Co., a dynamic ensemble blending contra dance and French traditional music, and performing original compositions, with their signature high energy. The ensemble features the creative force of two of the country’s most soughtafter traditional musicians, fiddler Becky Tracy and accordionist Rachel Bell, who will appear with special guest Rachel Aucoin on piano.
And there’s much more to come in 2026. Whether you’re a long-time fan or discovering Cooperstown Concerts for the first time, this season offers something special for everyone… and it’s only just begun. Audiences can expect another exciting lineup in the year ahead that
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Reality Game Shows…
Photo by Ryan Buchanan Kiran Ahluwalia will headline the Cooperstown Concerts Diwali Celebration on sunday, october 26.
READERS WRITE
“The Partial Observer” is a column title used frequently in our publications to clearly identify an opinion piece, and/or that the author has some sort of personal or professional interest in the topic about which they are writing. These commentaries reflect on myriad current political, economic, and social situations in this county, this country, and abroad. The content of such submissions should not be construed to be representative of the views of “The Freeman’s Journal,” “Hometown Oneonta,” or AllOtsego.com. In the interests of our readers and with the right and privilege of free speech in mind, we continue to print “partial observer” pieces as we deem relevant.
THE PARTIAL OBSERVER
CHRISTInE nEALOn
Solstice Commons—a Thoughtful Step Forward for Oneonta
The standing-room-only turnout at the September 20th Planning Commission meeting shows just how deeply our neighbors care about the future of Oneonta, especially the safety and character of the Sixth Ward. At Rehabilitation Support Services, we share those same values. For more than 40 years, our mission has been to create safe, stable neighborhoods where individuals and families can thrive. Solstice Commons is another step in that direction.
What Solstice Commons Is—and Is Not Solstice Commons is a proposed 61-unit housing community at 164 River Street, on a parcel owned by RSS and zoned appropriately for this type of building. It is designed to provide both affordable and supportive housing in a way that blends with, and complements, the existing neighborhood. It is not a shelter, nor is it a treatment facility. It is highquality, professionally managed, code-compliant, and thoughtfully designed housing that will strengthen our community.
Who Will Live Here
Tenants who make 30–70 percent of the area median income and some individuals living with Serious Mental Illness will call Solstice Commons, Home. By definition, SMI refers to any diagnosis that can disrupt daily life, such as major depression. With proper support, individuals with SMI live independently, work, and contribute fully to their communities. Nationally, about 15 million adults, or 6 percent of the U.S. population, live with an SMI (NIMH). Importantly, tenants at Solstice Commons would not be strangers to Oneonta. They already work here, raise families, and contribute to our schools, businesses, and neighborhoods. With the stability of affordable housing and on-site support, they can and will maintain wellness and continue to thrive.
THE PARTIAL OBSERVER
To understand why this matters, imagine this scenario. You’re working full time and feeling on top of life. Then you lose a loved one, and grief begins to weigh you down. Slowly, relationships strain, your focus at work falters, and bills start piling up. Eventually, an eviction notice arrives on your door. Unsure where to turn, you walk into RSS’s Mountain View Wellness Center, where you’re welcomed, listened to, and supported. Over time, you discover that untreated depression was the root of your struggle. With care and a wellness plan, you regain stability. Housing that is affordable at your income gives you the foundation to recover, return to work and live in the community with purpose.
This is what supportive housing looks like: neighbors finding strength and partnering toward a thriving Oneonta.
The City of Oneonta’s 2019 Comprehensive Plan set a clear goal: “increase the variety and affordability of housing choices for all ages and incomes.” Solstice Commons directly advances this vision. It is a local solution to a local challenge.
A Transparent and Collaborative Approach
In developing this project, we have listened closely to neighbors. In response to feedback, the building was shifted to the northeast corner of the parcel to preserve natural forest buffers. Its scale reflects the surrounding neighborhood. Parking meets city standards, with banked spaces and bike racks built in. Traffic will flow safely from West Broadway rather than River Street. These changes reflect a commitment to demonstrating we are, and will continue to be, good neighbors.
The safety of both tenants and the neighborhood is a top priority. Solstice Commons will be staffed 24/7, ensuring consistent support and accountability. All tenants will be deemed eligible through rigorous screening consistent with state and federal
Fair Housing Regulations. The building will be professionally managed, with property management and supportive housing staff working side by side to maintain a stable, well-run community.
Stable housing is the foundation for so many positive outcomes: workforce retention, family stability and community health. Affordable housing does not mean the neighborhood is unsafe or that children in neighboring schools must be afraid of “those people.” On the contrary, it prevents homelessness, reduces strain on emergency systems, and facilitates full community participation for all residents.
RSS has successfully developed and managed similar communities across the state. Each is uniquely designed to fit the need and character of the respective community, and Solstice Commons is no exception. With diverse funding including the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, it will bring millions of dollars in private investment to strengthen infrastructure and create jobs. Solstice Commons will also invest in water, sewer, and other critical systems while creating housing stability for residents.
An Asset to our Community Solstice Commons is more than just bricks and mortar. It is an investment in Oneonta’s future and in the values we all hold dear: dignity, community, and mutual care. RSS has been part of this community for more than 40 years, and we are committed to being good neighbors for the next 40 and beyond.
We invite our neighbors to see Solstice Commons as a thoughtful step forward for Oneonta, built on shared values and a vision for a stronger, more inclusive community, and we look forward to working together to make this essential project a reality.
Christine M. Nealon is director of strategic partnerships for Rehabilitation Support Services Inc.
Israel’s Grip on the U.S. is the End of International Law
The picture of the world’s greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny, backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one.”
—U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, 1967
The United States has now spent two entire years paying for an apartheid state on the other side of the world to murder a city of two million. Israel, a race-based state the size of the Hudson Valley that bans interfaith marriages and provides its citizens with universal healthcare and free college on the American taxpayer’s dime, has now killed at least 60,000 civilians, at least half of whom are children. This low figure only includes bodies that were found and positively identified, a tall order in a Stalingrad-esque ex-city moonscape where childrens’ flesh is daily scraped off walls and where the world learned the acronym “WCNSF”: “wounded child, no surviving family.” Military and medical journals, as well as back-ofthe-envelope calculations based on previous urban terror bombing campaigns, put the number well north of 200,000.
Despite this slaughter, the much-vaunted IDF supersoldiers have somehow failed to drive the tactical equivalent of 13-18,000 starving Viet Cong guerillas from a single city that they have besieged since 2007 and entirely cut off from the world since March. “We” aren’t even winning the “war.” Every single day, another Israeli tank crew gets their skin burned off, another Israeli business goes under, another Israeli reservist dodges the draft, another “Israeli” illegal American settler packs up to head home, and another Israeli war criminal puts a gun in his mouth to forget the women and children he butchered . Our country has bet on the wrong horse. We are fettered to a corpse. If still less bloody than the Armenian Genocide or the Nazi Holocaust, it is not for lack of effort or racial animus. Unlike those historical cases, this genocide has been committed shamelessly in front of the entire world, with constant social media posts from victims and perpetrators alike and approximately 80-90 percent of Jewish Israelis expressing full-throated, open-eyed support for the mass cremation of starving infants. This exhibitionist genocide
is a crime unprecedented in human history. It is quite literally a crime against humanity: an assault on the dignity, freedom and sanity of every single human being who must live in a world where this can happen. I can only conclude that Israel and its western masters, primarily the U.S. and U.K., are doing this on purpose, rubbing all our faces in the fact that they can not only exterminate an entire city in front of our eyes but get many of our friends and neighbors to babble about five fictional beheaded babies and cheer for the televised starvation of half a million real ones.
I doubt any Zionist will read this far, let alone believe me, but I wish to reiterate that Zionism is not Judaism; that it bears a similar relationship to Judaism as ISIS bears to Islam or the second Ku Klux Klan bore to American Christianity; that a 150-year-old political project to build a racial purist nation-state in the Levant is hardly the same as a 2,500-year-old world faith; that a significant majority of the world’s Jews outside Israel are either ambivalent about Zionism or leading the fight against it; and that there are far more evangelical Christian Zionists than Jewish ones. It is a betrayal of the deepest-held tenets of both faiths, not to say blasphemous—does God really need your help to reclaim the Holy Land or bring on the End Times, and would He really want you to do it by slaughtering whole families? Whatever else comes out of the Gaza genocide, we are probably watching the beginning of a centuries-long schism in Judaism and the church alike.
There is no doubt that Hamas committed war crimes on October 7. Intended as a mid-scale raid to seize captives to trade for thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli torture dungeons, the al-Aqsa Flood operation was an atrocity but hardly, as President Trump said, one of the worst days in human history. Of the 1,195 victims, more than a third were active or reservist military personnel. Perhaps half were killed by indiscriminate, overwhelming friendly fire by the panicked IDF, which then clamped military censorship over the whole region and bulldozed all the evidence into holes in the ground in undisclosed locations. Even if the accusations were true and Hamas had executed 1,200 innocent civilians in cold blood, would that justify Israel murdering 50-100 civilians a day for the next two years? Joe Biden repeatedly lied about seeing photos of 40
decapitated children, even after his advisors said they couldn’t confirm the charge, then killed an average of 40 children a day for the entirety of 2024. After two years of Israeli hostages on every western street corner and news program, we still haven’t gotten one single name, age, location or even propaganda money-shot of inconsolable grandparents for the alleged bushel baskets of ritually beheaded and baked babies.
In the midst of this madness, Trump invited top Hamas leaders to a fake peace talk in Doha, Qatar and allowed an Israeli airstrike in the capital city of one of the region’s most subservient American lapdogs. After the strike killed six civilians, none of whom were the targets, Trump claimed he had no prior knowledge, despite the mission taking place entirely in U.S.-allied airspace, striking a target just a few miles from one of America’s largest airbases, and receiving midflight refueling from a British tanker craft taking off from and landing at that base. Trump is either lying through his teeth or is overseeing one of the greatest displays of either insubordination or incompetence in American military history. I cannot see any other option. At any rate, the damage to American prestige is incomprehensible. Many of our most groveling puppet regimes are openly looking for the exits: Saudi Arabia made a defense pact with Pakistan and Egypt proposed an “Arab NATO,” among other responses. This does not include the Trump and Biden administrations’ superhuman efforts to unite all of Eurasia against us, including the closest collaboration in history between Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, and even India and Brazil.
Trump’s drone-strike assassination of 11 unknown people on an unidentified boat off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast extends the Obamaera illegal drone terrorism to the Western hemisphere. I would not be surprised if it turns out to be a warning shot and test case for Israel’s upcoming murders on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, much like Ukraine’s reckless use of drones launched inside Russian territory prefigured Israel’s long-planned terrorist attacks in Iran at the beginning of the 12Day War. No matter which proxy they are using, the Anglo-American Empire can be counted on to use dirty tricks, high-tech toys and indiscriminate air terror against civilian targets.
IDF soldier and Representative Brian Mast
wRILEy nELSOn
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Mohican Farm for collecting recycling and compost; Alex Webster for photographs; MJ Harris for tablecloth paper; and to Mohican Flowers, Art Farm, and all the individuals who donated flowers.
Thank you to the Stoddard Hollow String Band for cheerfully setting a festive mood throughout the supper; the Alden, Brown, and Whyte families, who brought games for kids to share; and a very special thank you to all the kids and friends who helped roll out paper, set chairs, and arrange flowers to make it all so beautiful.
It is always a delight to see our community having a long-tabled meal together and to see so many kids enjoying hopscotch, hoops, bubbles, soccer, chalks, and good fun.
Mark your calendars (the last Sunday of September, September 27, 2026) for the next one.
See you next year.
The Growing Community team: Holly Fanion, Normandy Alden, Molly Whyte, Kristen Griger, MJ Harris, Karen Katz, Dana Leonard, Anna Meyerhoff, Kristen Leonard, Virginia Kennedy, Lynne Mebust, Maureen Murray, Rebecca Weil and Ellen Pope
NYSEG to Josh Riley
We’re disappointed with Congressman Josh Riley’s deliberate mischaracterization last week of our company and our 3,200 employees who
H. Laverne Thomas 1928-2025
ONEONTA—H. Laverne Thomas, retired professor of mathematics at the State University of
live and work in Upstate New York.
Our number one priority is powering New York’s communities, including the congressman’s district. While we understand he is preparing for a difficult election cycle in an increasingly challenging political environment, our company, union, and employees do not appreciate his increasingly intolerant and divisive rhetoric. It is unproductive and overlooks real solutions we have asked to work with him on. It is also making it harder for our employees to do their jobs safely in their communities.
As storms become stronger, communities grow, and our customers use the grid in new ways, 20th-century infrastructure is being strained by 21st-century challenges. As we have shared with the congressman, the Iberdrola Group has backed NYSEG and RG&E with more than $1 billion in financing over the last decade, provided access to global supply chains that would otherwise be out of reach, and used bulk purchasing power to help get lower prices for supplies and equipment. Those facts speak for themselves, even if the congressman chooses to ignore them.
We encourage Congressman Riley to learn more about our employees and the infrastructure sites we are urgently working to upgrade. By doing so, we believe he will see the value our company is creating for New York families, businesses, and communities, and the impact his words are having on the men and women who work at NYSEG and RG&E.
And, at a time when
New York at Oneonta, musician, and community leader, passed away peacefully at home on Monday, September 1, 2025, surrounded by his children, caregivers, and Hospice staff. Born in 1928 in Syracuse, New York, Verne was the son of Dr. Robert and Eva Thomas. He grew up in the Methodist-supported Pittman Community Center, located in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. He attended college at Syracuse University, where he earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics and mathematics education.
Dignity, Respect, Tradition
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energy prices are rising across the nation, we are surprised the congressman would propose such a radical approach [Keep the Lights Local] that would reduce competition and raise costs on New Yorkers. We need more energy investments, not less. Congressman Riley has the opportunity to affect real change at the federal level but is forsaking it for cheap shots that only serve to move us backwards.
Shelby Cohen NYSEG Director of NY Communications
Regarding Subdivision
In response to Ellen Pope’s recent letter opposing the Manocherian subdivision, I would like to offer another perspective—one grounded in facts, logic and the Town of Otsego’s own Comprehensive Plan.
1. Fairness & Precedent
Mr. Manocherian purchased this property many decades ago. His subdivision proposal is entirely compliant with existing zoning: the Town of Otsego’s RA-1 district requires a minimum of three acres, while the smallest proposed lot is approximately four acres and many are far larger, up to 100+ acres.
To deny this plan while allowing numerous prior subdivisionswouldamount to selective enforcement. Our community already includes developments such as: Sunset Ridge, Sugar Hill, Glimmerglass Condominium, Reiss Road, Glimmerhill Lane, Hadly Hill Road, Tripp Hill Road, Keys Road, Meadowood Lane, Stocking Brook, Southern County Route 28, Armstong Road, Northern
Glimmerglen Road, Hooligan Hill, Browdy Mountain Road, and Huff Road.
Each of these was approved under the same subdivision framework. It is neither consistent nor fair to create a twotiered system that blocks one landowner’s rights while having already permitted others.
2. Rural Compatibility & Environmental Protections
This proposal is not “sprawl.” With lot sizes ranging from 4 to over 100 acres, the density is far lower than many past subdivisions and remains firmly rural in character.
From the sketch plan information presented, the project team has worked with professional consultants to identify and protect sensitive features:
• Avoiding steep slopes (15%+)
• Mapping and minimizing disturbance to 43 wetlands and 39 streams
• Screening for endangered species habitat
• Conducting an archeological review for historic resources
This reflects proactive stewardship, not carelessness.
3. Septic & Health Standards
Every new home must have an engineered septic system that is designed and inspected by a New York State Licensed Engineer and permitted by Otsego County Codes. No lot can be built upon without meeting these stringent requirements. Far from being a threat to water quality, the subdivision process ensures septic systems meet modern safety and environmental standards providing a safe watershed.
4. Tax Base & Schools
The reality is that our
OBITUARIES
While a student at Syracuse University, Verne met Mary Elizabeth Dunham at Erwin Methodist Church, where they sang in the choir. They were married at EMC and began a lifelong partnership filled with love, music, and family. Together they raised five children, welcomed five grandchildren, and celebrated the joy of seven great-grandchildren. Travelling was a cherished family tradition, from tent camping as a young family to RV trips around the country and tours of Europe. Their home was also a welcoming place for foreign exchange students, many of whom became extended family. Verne began his
teaching career at Franklin Central School, where he taught highschool mathematics. In 1959, he became professor of mathematics at SUNY Oneonta (then SUCO) and later completed his PhD in mathematics education at Columbia University. Over the course of his career, Verne taught countless students, supervised future teachers, chaired the mathematics department and served on numerous college committees before retiring in 1992. He was a member of several mathematics professional organizations including the Association of Mathematics Teachers of New York State (AMTNYS), where he
Grandma loved her farm, her family, and playing her old guitar.
Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home will take the time to find out what made your loved one special. Whether it’s finding just the right flowers, or finding a musician to play her favorite tunes on her old guitar, we’ll do what’s necessary to make her service as unique as she was.
Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home 14 Grand Street, Oneonta • 607-432-6821 www.grummonsfuneralhome.com
school population is shrinking even as budgets continue to rise. The 2008 Comprehensive Plan highlights the need to “expand the local tax base to maintain quality schools, services, and infrastructure.” New homes strengthen our tax base, ensuring that education and essential services remain affordable for all residents.
5. Understanding the Comprehensive Plan
What the public doesn’t always understand is that comprehensive plans are not law. They are a guide for change and a framework for creating new land use laws. It establishes priorities for a town’s future—but in reviewing years of Otsego’s Board Minutes, many of those priorities have not been addressed by past or current town boards.
Since Otsego’s RA1 is already zoned for a minimum of three acres, it is unlikely landowners would support increasing this size requirement. Instead, the community could benefit from forward-looking changes, such as allowing multifamily dwellings in their RA-1 and RA-2 zones, similar to what is already permitted in Hamlet Residential zones. That is where a thoughtful update to the plan could provide real solutions— not by stalling projects that already comply with existing law.
6. Alignment with the Comprehensive Plan
The Town of Otsego’s Comprehensive Plan (2008) remains in effect until a new one is adopted. It clearly supports proposals like this:
• “Encourage development which is compatible with the Town’s rural character while accom-
modating growth in appropriate areas.” (p. 25)
• “Encourage a variety of housing types to meet the needs of residents, including affordable, moderate, and higherend housing.” (p. 31)
• “Expand the local tax base to maintain quality schools, services, and infrastructure.” (p. 33) This subdivision supports Otsego’s current comprehensive plan and it is highly likely that any future plan would include language similarly appropriate.
7. Moratoriums & Consistency Opponents argue that they must wait for a new Otsego Comprehensive Plan. But the truth is, their 2008 plan already provides the framework for balanced, responsible growth—and most of its priority strategies have never been implemented by Otsego Town Boards. A moratorium is nothing more than a stall tactic. It is also important to note that many who now oppose this subdivision already live on land that was once subdivided. To deny another landowner the same opportunity is inconsistent and unfair.
In conclusion, the Manocherian subdivision complies fully with existing Town of Otsego Land Use Law, safeguards environmental and health standards, expands the tax base, and directly fulfills the Town of Otsego’s Comprehensive Plan. Growth, when done responsibly, is not the enemy of rural character—it is the foundation of a sustainable, fair, and vibrant future for not just the Town of Otsego but for all of Otsego County. Michael Stuart Middlefield
held leadership roles and served as president.
Faith and service were central to Verne’s life. As a member of the First United Methodist Church of Oneonta, he was deeply involved in local church activities, at the annual conference, and on national church committees. He also served on the board, including as president, of the Family Planning Association of Oneonta. He contributed his expertise in computer programming by writing and maintaining the databases of the association.
Music was a lifelong passion. Trained in piano, voice, and violin, Verne shared his talents in many ways: he sang in the Catskill Choral Society and its select Catskill Chamber Singers, served as a board member of the Oneonta Community Concert Association, and lent his voice to the FUMC choir for more than 60 years! A proud member of the Oneonta Rotary Club since 1965, Verne was the club’s longtime pianist. His improvisational piano stylings, often paired with his warm baritone voice, brought joy to all.
Verne is survived by his children: Steven Laverne Thomas (Martha), Janice Eileen Thomas, and Sandra Lynne Thomas;
grandchildren: Sara Thomas (Josh Regan), Edward Thomas (Megan Hennessey), Christopher Thomas, Jesse Thomas (Brianna Keefe-Oates), and Hannah Frawley (Taurene Ford); sonin-law: Christopher Dranchek; daughterin-law: LeeAnn Nixon; and seven great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife, Mary D. Thomas, and daughters, Carol Elizabeth Thomas and Judith Elaine Thomas.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at First United Methodist Church, 330 Chestnut Street in Oneonta.
Memorial contributions may be made to Catskill Area Hospice, First United Methodist Church of Oneonta, or A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital Auxiliary.
Arrangements are with Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono Funeral Home, Oneonta. Condolences may be shared at www. lhpfuneralhome.com.
“Unable are the Loved to die/ For Love is Immortality.”
— Emily Dickinson, Poem 809
Funeral Home
Photo provided H. LAVERNE THOMAS
‘The Firebugs:’ A Dark Comedy About Setting Your House On Fire
The Firebugs,” directed by John McCaslinDoyle and written by Swiss author Max Frisch, comes to SUNY Oneonta’s stage this week. The show, first performed as a radio play in 1953 and then as a stage play in 1958, is a dark comedy about the ways we all can too easily look away when danger and destruction creep too close to home.
When I first heard the name of this play, it brought back one of my strongest childhood memories. I must have been 5 years old, playing with my friend Laurie behind our farmhouse in upstate New York. Her older brother, Stevie, came running to us with a treasure trove: a box of matches. He wanted to show us how to build a fire.
We collected a bunch of twigs and some hay from the barn and hid between our hedge and the house. We did think to have two plastic pails of water to douse the fire. Since the game became building bigger and bigger fires, dousing them and starting again, this experiment quickly spun out-of-control. The three of us formed a fireman’s brigade between the fire and the hose on the other side of the house, scurrying to put out the growing flames using our plastic pails. I remember when my babysitter, Sandy, came out on the porch and asked me, as I flew by with the blue
Barn
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section on the history of its importance to Otsego County.
“It’s one of two stone barns in New York and it has a marvelous story behind it,” Kroeger wrote in a recent e-mail. “My dental school roomie and I visited it in 2024. Masterful stonemasonry.
Only sad part is that the stonemasons have been forgotten—the typical case in stone barns, but not always.”
In the book, Kroeger goes on to detail the life of William Cooper, founder of “The Freeman’s Journal,” and his son, James Fenimore Cooper, as well as the latter’s wife’s little-known role in inspiring his writing career. William originally purchased the site where the barn now stands and built the mansion, then known as Otsego Hall, across the street.
The book continues to outline the long history of notable owners of the property, from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Nelson to various members of the Clark family lineage. Around 1916, Edward Severin Clark, named after his grandfather, commissioned architect Frank Whiting to design and construct the stone barn—which would be aptly nicknamed the “Cow Palace”— for his cattle. Ownership then passed to Stephen
pail of water, what was happening. “Nothing!” I assured her.
Long story short, Sandy didn’t buy it, quickly assessed the situation, and put the fire out before we burned my house down. When my father got home, among other things, I learned the term “firebug.” It was a painful lesson. So that’s why, when I opened the script for “The Firebugs,” I expected to read a story about some young scamps, or troubled teens. That’s not what this show is about.
After reading “The Firebugs” script, then watching a rehearsal in which the cast was just coming off-book, I got to spend an hour in the Green Room chatting with some of the cast and crew.
Anyone who goes out of their way to read this column about theater probably knows exactly what “off-book” and “Green Room” mean. But having just spent an hour and a half of my life on a composting webinar—purportedly for beginners/intermediates that used so many industry terms and acronyms that I was left wondering if English was really my native tongue or if I had forgotten some vital fact about my childhood—I’ll take a moment to explain.
Off-book is when an actor has his/her lines memorized and no longer uses his/her script during rehearsal, and the Green Room
C. Clark, who went on to invite the New York State Historical Association to move into the mansion and donated the Fenimore Farm itself as “an outdoor showcase of rural life, which was developed around the stone barns in the early 1940s.”
“It’s expensive to restore an old barn, most of which have outgrown their usefulness. If someone can justify the cost by giving the barn a new purpose, that’s terrific. [The Fenimore] barn and the one on the book’s cover, in
is the (usually soundproof) waiting room actors hang out in while they’re waiting to go onstage.
I began by asking the director, John, why he chose this play at this time.
“Theater is political in many ways, and it was time to do something that actually responded to the era that we’re in,” John began. “This is a play that is a retort to the Nuremberg Trial principles… So the idea [in the play] is what happens to an organized system of civilization if accountability is removed, if people in charge are not accountable for their actions, or people who take those actions and make them a reality [are not accountable]… What happens when you remove [accountability].”
With this as a background, the cast and crew talked about the challenges the actors faced as they went offbook and began to focus on aspects of their roles other than having their lines memorized.
Arlee, who plays an intimidating arsonist (Schmidt), addressed her most glaring challenge.
“Schmidt is supposed to be this big, hulking guy. I am five foot three. So, a lot of being scary comes out of just being very painfully close to everybody doing things that are relatively out of the ordinary in a normal situation. So just the eye contact, staring directly
Michigan, are two great examples. The Michigan owner restored that gigantic stone barn to the tune of $18 million,” Kroeger wrote.
This brief summary barely scratches the surface of the vast history of the Fenimore Farm barn, let alone the many other intriguing sites spanning the rest of New York and the other 19 states included in this book. Kroeger expressed his admiration for the condition and the continued role of the Fenimore barn in educating people of all ages on the importance
at you, or looking into your ear. A lot of it just comes out of odd behaviors that I choose to portray.”
“I watch a lot of Seinfeld. So, a lot of my inspiration for my character came from Cosmo Kramer,” Sean, who plays another arsonist, said. “The Biedermanns and their maid, they don’t suspect that [my character] is doing anything wrong. They’re thinking, ‘Oh, he’s just a silly guy.’ And then where I have to be more serious, I have to flip a switch and be tough.”
Ava, who plays a monkey, admitted that even though this is the second time she has been cast as a monkey, it is a challenging role to play.
“Today, in rehearsal, I’m going to play around more with being like a monkey. In the previous show, my monkey movements were blocked. But now John is giving me more creative freedom, so I’ll get to have fun with it.”
Rita talked about the difficulty in portraying two very different characters.
“One is the widow, and the other is the head of the firefighters. The widow is disempowered, kind of distraught the whole time, at the mercy of the Biedermanns, while the leader of the firefighters is issuing orders. It feels like I’m splitting, being two personalities, which is very interesting, because
of this nation’s vast rural history.
Those interested in furthering their knowledge on the Fenimore Farm and its barn’s role in Otsego County history, or just rural American history at large, can purchase a copy of the book directly through Acclaim Press, or via online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
some of the scenes are back-to-back.”
Like Rita, Lindsey was focused on her two roles, but for her there is more continuity, bringing a different kind of challenge.
“In the first act, I am a servant to the Biedermanns, and that’s where my loyalties lie. And then, after the intermission, I become the girlfriend of the devil. To an extent, I become a servant to him, so [I work on] trying to find ways of tying those two together so they still feel like the same person.”
Sophia, the stage manager, observed that due to how this play is written—including having a Greek chorus aspect—the actors really have to get their lines just right for the play to keep moving forward without anything significant being missed.
“For every show, but I feel for this one specifically, you all really rely on each other for your cues so your lines make sense, and it’s really hard for you guys to pick up and keep going if someone messes up,” Sophia said, referring to cast members.
Shane and Leah, who
play the Biedermanns— the couple who unwittingly play host to the arsonists—reflected on their characters’ inability to see what is happening right under their own roof.
“I’ve put a lot of thought into this,” Shane reflected. “I think [Gottlieb Biedermann’s] just trying to do the right thing and he’s trying to kind of stay true to himself while also losing himself throughout the whole show, and just losing his sanity.”
“I still think that Biedermann’s trying to do good. He’s trying to find the best in people. He believes in the good in man, but he’s made mistakes, and he’s done some crappy things,” Shane said.
Leah, who plays Babette Biedermann, jumped in.
“I think it’s just funny, because you ask any actor, and we’re going to justify our character a little bit, because we’re not allowed to hate him. That’s the number one rule; if you start hating your character, you can’t play him. That is my biggest problem with Babette. I’m like, ‘Girl,
Continued on page 11
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(R-Florida) recently introduced legislation authorizing the State Department to revoke the passports of “terrorist supporters.” That is, a uniformed member of a foreign military, who for some reason is allowed to serve in our Congress, has decided on behalf of Americans to make American criticism of his foreign government illegal. This is not far out of the ordi-
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Notice of formatioN of Little Red Barn Micro Bakery, LLC
Articles of Organization filed with the Secy. of State of New York (SSNY) on 8/18/25.
Office Location: Otsego County. SSNY Designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 386 East St., Oneonta, NY 13820. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
6LegalOct.2
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Notice of formatioN of
TRIA FRATRES LLC.
Filed 7/25/25. Office: Otsego Co. SSNY desig. as agent for process & shall mail to: c/o Legalinc Corporate Services Inc., 1967 Wehrle Dr., Ste. 1 #086, Buffalo, NY 14221. Purpose: General.
6LegalOct.2
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Notice of formatioN of WYN GIFF, LLC.
Articles of Organization were filed with the NY Secretary of State on 08/21/2025. The office of the LLC is to be located in Otsego County. The Secretary of State has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon it to: The LLC, 491 West Street, Oneonta, NY 13820. The purpose of the LLC is to engage in any
nary; as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) reminds us, and many other legislators have confirmed, every single member of the United States Congress has a designated handler from the unregistered, highdollar foreign influence peddling agency AIPAC. Combined with the recent designation of the all-but-nonexistent “Antifa” as a terrorist organization and the now well-established right of ICE to send American citizens to Salvadoran concentration camps in broad
lawful act.
6LegalOct.2
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Notice of formatioN of
DSJA Enterprises, LLC.
Articles of organization were filed with the NY Secretary of State on 8/25/2025. The office of the LLC is to be located in Otsego County.
The Secretary of State has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served.
The Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her to: The LLC, 142 Winney Hill Rd., Oneonta, NY 13820.
The purpose of the LLC is to engage in any lawful act or activity.
6LegalOct.9
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Notice of formatioN of Golden Swan Property LLC.
Articles of organization filed with SSNY on 8/29/2025. Office location: Otsego County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to PO Box 1469, Richfield Springs, NY 13439. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
6LegalOct.9
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Notice of formatioN of Yoga Strategy, LLC
Articles of organization filing date with the Department of State (SSNY) August 13, 2025. Office location: Otsego county. SSNY has been designated as
daylight, the American left is becoming stateless in real time. I may have written my own ticket to El Salvador in this very paper.
The horrific, idiotic assassination of the loathsome Charlie Kirk—who, by the way, was gradually turning against Israel and received multiple threats from Israeli agents in the final months of his life, and whose murder prompted Netanyahu to publicly deny involvement three days in a row—will be our Reichstag fire, Horst
the agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to: 34 West End Ave., Oneonta, NY 13820. Purpose: to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS law.
6LegalOct.9
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Notice of formatioN of a NY Limited LiabiLitY compaNY Name:
Gothicville Enterprises LLC.
Articles of organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 12 April 2025. Office location: Otsego County. SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 988 County Highway 38 Worcester, NY 12197. Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.
6LegalOct.9
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Notice of formatioN of Stepping Stones Behavioral Solutions, LLC Filed with SSNY on 8/4/2025. Office location Otsego County. SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 1511 County Rt. 39, Worcester, NY 12197. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
6LegalOct.16
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Notice of formatioN of
Wessel and Ernst vom Rath rolled into one. We are entering the final days of the America we knew. It is entirely the fault of the Democratic leaders who rolled over for our genocidal attack dog in the Levant and generally colluded in and legitimized the last 20 years of lawless, borderless, limitless imperial war across the Middle East.
Wriley Nelson is a student of international relations with a focus on Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
LEGALS
TLC ENGINEERING, PLLC
Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 9/3/25. Office in Otsego Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLC upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 8-12 Dietz St., Ste. 202, Oneonta, NY 13820, which is also the principal business location. Purpose: To practice Engineering.
6LegalOct.16
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Notice of formatioN of JDG CONTRACTING LLC,
Articles of org. filed with the SSNY on 8/22/2025. Office: Otsego County. US Corporation Agents Inc designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to US Corporation Agents Inc., 7014 13th Ave., Suite 202, Brooklyn NY 11228. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. 6LegalOct.16
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Notice of formatioN of Shove Enterprises LLC.
Arts. of org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/4/2020. Office Location: Otsego Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process: Robert A. Gouldin, Esq., 93 Main Street, Oneonta, NY 13820.
Purpose: any lawful activities.
6LegalOct.16
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Notice to Lot HoLders
Vaccines
Continued from page 4
that we have delivered the best healthcare we know. If you have questions about vaccines, we encourage you to raise them when next you see a pediatrician. When we say, “Johnny is scheduled for his shot today,” do not be afraid to say, “Could we talk about that?” Next to a child’s parents, we are among the best advocates that that child has. Talk to us! It is a privilege to care for your family and this
community. Dr. Brandon Greene is chief of pediatrics for Bassett Healthcare Network. He oversees and guides each of the pediatric providers across the network’s eight-county service area, including its hospitals, outpatient clinics, and the Bassett SchoolBased Health Program. Dr. Chris Kjolhede is a pediatrician emeritus for Bassett Healthcare Network. He was formerly co-director of the Bassett SchoolBased Health Program.
To: The last known owner or owners of the following burial lots located in the Maple Grove Cemetery, Town of Worcester, Otsego County, New York, and all persons having or claiming to have an interest in said burial lots: (Cemetery Section in parenthesis)
Dodge, Blanche (A) Andrew, Betsey (A) Helen (A) Livingston, Mrytle (A) Livingston, Levi (A) Livingston, Jacob (A) Shaw, Rev. Horatio Watson (A) Slosson, Eunice S. (A) Pierce, Martin (B) Treat, Sarah (B) Cipperly, David (B) Cipperly, Clarinda (B) Cipperly, Willis G. (B) Chesebro, Austin D. (1) Chesebro, Gipeon E. (1) Chesebro, Ausker W. (1) Henrietta (1) VanWie, John (2) McDonald, Mary (2) VanWie, Jackson (2) Stillwell, Libbie (2) VanWie, Dan (2) Stillwell, Mary (2) Partridge, Mary A. (2) Bentley, Rev. Sylvester (2) Bentley, Zilpha (2) Miller, Ann Eliza (2) Johnson, James (4) Johnson, Rose (4) Johnson, Silas (4) Johnson, Roxca (4) Johnson, Marilla (4) Johnson, Burton G. (4) Chestney, Sherman V. (5) Chestney, Mary E. (5) Cornish, Elisha (7) Jewell, Sally T. (7) Cornish, Albert W.S. (7) Cornish, Thompson E. (7) Allen, Timothy B. (7) Crippen, Claribel (V) Crippen, Florence (V) Stever, Charles W. (V) Chamberlain, Catherine M. (V) Stever, Rachel Rose (V) Stever, Mary E. (V) Stever,
►Need to publish a Notice of formatioN, public Notice,
Emma R. (V)
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE: That (1) the monuments or markers are so badly out of repair or dilapidated as to create a dangerous condition, (2) the persons to whom this notice is addressed must repair or remove said monuments or markers by December 2, 2025, and, (3) if the persons to whom this notice is addressed fail to repair or remove said monuments or markers by the previously stated deadline, the Maple Grove Cemetery Association may remove or repair said monuments without further notice to the persons to whom this notice is addressed.
Contact Maple Grove Cemetery Association at P.O. Box 164, Worcester, NY 12197 or by email at maplegrovecem12197@gmail. com by December 2, 2025.
3LegalOct.2
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Notice of formatioN of
Starview Storage LLC
Articles of organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on September 2, 2025.
Office Location: Otsego County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 271 Texas Road Springfield Center, NY 13468
Purpose: Any lawful purpose. 6LegalOct.23
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Notice of formatioN of
Bless Your Heart LLC
Articles of organization filed with SSNY on 8/5/2025 Location: Otsego County.
SSNY designated as an agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: 8 Doubleday Court, Cooperstown, NY 13326.
The purpose of the LLC is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.
6LegalOct.30
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Notice of formatioN of Limited LiabiLitY compaNY:
The name of the limited liability company is: Thorp Brook Farm, LLC (the “Company”).
The date of filing of the Articles of Organization of the Company with the Secretary of State was September 17, 2025. The county in which the principal place of business of the Company shall be located is Otsego County. The Secretary of State has been designated as agent of the Company upon whom process against it may be served.
The Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the Company to Thorp Brook Farm, LLC, 662 Rimmon Hill Road, Beacon Falls, CT 06403.
The purpose of the business of the Company is any lawful business purpose.
6LegalOct.30
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Notice of pUbLic HeariNG
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Historical Preservations and Review Board (HPARB) for the Village of Cooperstown will hold the following public hearing on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as can be heard:
• Meeting to be held in the Board Room of the Village Hall, 22 Main Street,
Cooperstown, New York.
22
Leatherstocking street – demolition of rear addition (attached wood shed).
The plans for this project are on file with the Village Clerk’s Office at the Village Office, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown, New York, and may be seen during regular office hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Public comments must be provided by email to the Zoning Officer at zoning@ cooperstownny.org or by regular mail to the address below no later than Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 at 3:30 p.m.
Jenna Utter Village Clerk Village of Cooperstown 22 Main Street Cooperstown, NY 13326 Tele: (607)5472411 Email: jutter@ cooperstownny.org
1LegalOct.2
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Notice of formatioN of a NY Limited LiabiLitY compaNY
Name: MOMMAS MARKET LLC.
Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 23 September 2025. Office location: Otsego County. SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 216 Bentley Oaks Blvd., Auburndale, FL 33823. Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.
6LegalNov.6
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Notice of formatioN of a NY Limited LiabiLitY compaNY
Name:
SACRED MEN SING LLC.
Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 29 August 2025. Office location: Otsego County. SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to PO Box 1184, Cooperstown, NY 13326. Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.
6LegalNov.6
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Notice of formatioN of a NY Limited LiabiLitY compaNY.
Name:
STERLING BUR LLC.
Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 23 September 2025. Office location: Otsego County. SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 58 Chestnut St. Apt. B, Cooperstown, NY 13326. Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.
6LegalNov.6
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Notice of formatioN of DISCO MUFFIN LLC
Arts of Org. filed with SSNY 8/26/2025 Otsego Co. SSNY design agent for process & shall mail to 41 STATE ST, # 112, ALBANY, NY, 12207 General Purpose 6LegalNov.6
New York’s Public Service Commission—Addressing the Challenges Ahead
To most New Yorkers who see their utility bills rising, it’s hard to understand why. The reasons are complex and the process too technical for most folks to want to learn and understand.
That’s why there’s a New York Public Service Commission—to balance the interests of all the participants. The commission’s job is to ensure safe and adequate service at just and reasonable rates. While the language is straight forward, it’s a very complex and difficult process to reach those goals, year in and year out.
Recently, the commission decided on rate cases from National Grid and Central Hudson Gas and Electric. It is still juggling cases from ConEd, Long Island Power Authority, New York State Electric and Gas, and Rochester Gas and Electric which, taken together, will have a sweeping impact on New York’s electric grid for decades to come. It’s a tough job.
Since I left the commission, it’s gotten even more complicated. Why?
• New laws have been passed that require reaching specific environmental goals by certain dates. Even though the governor now acknowledges that many such targets are unachievable, the laws which the commission has a hand in enforcing have not been changed to reflect this reality.
• The nuclear generation at Indian Point, providing 25 percent of New York City’s electricity, has been eliminated.
• Large AI and bitcoin miners last year used up more than 6 percent of all the electricity generated in New York State.
• New demands for electricity, such as widespread electric vehicle adoption, artificial intelligence creation, etc., have yet to fully ramp up in New York.
As always, New York’s energy landscape is changing. In addition to the changes noted above, we face storms of increasing severity and frequency and demands to increase capacity, and dependence on electricity continues to grow. Yet, even with all these added complexities, in 2024 the
On Stage
Continued from page 9
just say something!’ But I realize if I judge her, I’m not going to play her story,” Leah said. “And everyone thinks they’re right in their story. Even if they’re wrong, they’re part of this bigger story we’re telling. If you’re playing the Wicked Witch of the West and you’re in fifth grade, you’re not allowed to think she’s evil
or else you won’t play her right.”
As far as the message the cast and crew want the audience to walk away with, a full description requires far more space than I can do justice to here. I think Jaren put it most succinctly when she said, “There’s this one quote that I’ve seen when I’ve taken the bus in New York City. It says, ‘If you see something, say something.’ So that’s what I
average cost of a residential kilowatt hour in New York was roughly 30 percent less than in England.
To ensure the grid continues to serve New Yorkers with safe and reliable power, substantial investments are needed to create a resilient system. That’s a tough task for the PSC and its staff, who must balance three, often competing, priorities:
• Customer affordability
• Ensuring that utilities are healthy and capable of attracting cost-effective capital
• Obeying the well-intentioned new laws requiring achievement of renewable goals on a timetable, even if, realistically, these timetables can’t be met.
The PSC, through its staff of 500 professionals, will meticulously examine each request by a utility for new rates with a fine-tooth comb to ensure that all factors are considered. Onlookers often dismiss the need for rate cases by saying “we can’t afford it,” or rush to the media lamenting “profit-driven motives.” But often, these are the same individuals and organizations that have passed the laws which contribute increased costs to the rate case being criticized.
At the end of the day, it is the charge of the PSC to do what’s best for all New Yorkers and it’s a responsibility that commissioners and staff take incredibly seriously. The decisions they make are ultimately based on thousands of pages of records and hundreds of hours of sworn testimony. It’s a challenging job to determine the appropriate level of investment without compromising the reliability of our electric grid.
From my six years serving on the PSC and a career thereafter in electric policy with clients like New York City, I readily observe that in a healthy regulatory environment, the result should not be a choice between “state policy or the customer or the company,” but rather “state policy and the customer and the company.” In many ways, these three factors should be harmonious.
Proper capitalization allows utilities to borrow capital at lower rates and make more efficient infrastructure investments. A healthy financial structure, including predictable returns, supports
would use as a warning, because, if you see something that you know is bad, then you need to say something, so that way it doesn’t happen again in the future.”
Going back to my personal experience with almost burning my own house down, I remember how furious (or maybe scared?) my father was. When I tried to defend myself by throwing Stevie (sorry, Stevie) under the bus,
my dad made it clear that if I ever was aware of activity that I knew was wrong, I had to stop it. In “The Firebugs,” the Biedermanns aren’t lucky enough to have my father (or my babysitter, Sandy) living with them, and they pay the price for allowing denial and politeness to get in the way of what is right.
As director John put it, “This play starts with the cardinal thing you do not do in a theater—you do
credit strength, which benefits customers through improved reliability and affordability. Strong power quality attracts more businesses and residents, which spreads the costs of service across a larger customer base.
Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. When the regulatory framework is unhealthy—when regulators perceive company benefits as being in conflict with customer benefits, the consequences can be far reaching. A weakened regulatory environment can erode a utility’s credit rating, leading to higher borrowing costs, reduced investment, and ultimately, higher rates and diminished reliability for customers. When that happens, everyone loses.
The PSC has historically done well balancing the demand for affordable power, state policy requirements, and the health of its utilities. Doing a thorough job processing the many rate cases currently before the commission is the first step in the execution of that outcome.
New York’s—particularly Upstate New York’s—electricity grid is aging and in dire need of investment. This is not only for reliability and resiliency in the face of storms that hit harder and more frequently, but also to meet the increasing demands including AI-driven data centers and the electrification of buildings and transit. Simply put, people are more dependent on electricity than ever before, and as the state continues to electrify, this demand will only increase. Investment plans—and a utility’s rate request that incorporates those plans—are a necessary part of the solution.
The PSC has a great staff to manage these rate cases—the primary instrument at its disposal to regulate the energy industry—and I am confident the result, as always, will be a fair and balanced outcome that will benefit the ratepayers, the companies, and New York.
Robert E Curry Jr. was a commissioner of the New York State Public Service Commission from 2006 to 2012 and, for five years during the Obama Administration, a member of the Electricity Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Energy.
not light a match.”
So, if you want to see a dark comedy that reflects upon some of the moral and political issues we struggle with today, “The Firebugs” will be just your cup of tea. And don’t worry about that lit match John mentioned. I’ll be sure the theater has a couple of small plastic pails in case things get out of control.
“The Firebugs,” directed by John McCaslin-Doyle, plays
at SUNY Oneonta’s Hamblin Theater with shows at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, October 2 through Saturday, October 4, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 5. Tickets are free with a SUNY Oneonta student ID and $5.00 for general admission. Next up: Hartwick College presents “Ride the Cyclone,” November 7-9 and 11-13.
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CAA Exhibits Open Friday
COOPERSTOWN—Cooperstown Art Association’s fall exhibitions will be on display from October 4-31 during gallery hours, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. There will be an opening reception and meet-and-greet with the artists from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, October 3. “Lasting Impressions,” a juried show of waxworks exploring themes of memory and connection, will be displayed in Gallery A. “Water’s Edge,” in Gallery B, features Cooperstown-area landscapes by local folk painter Kara Mattice. The Central New York Watercolor Society will showcase their Signature Members Exhibition in Gallery C. Cynthia Marsh will lead a “Creating Portals and Painting Light” workshop at CAA from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 25. It is $130.00, with a $5.00 discount for CAA members and all materials included. Contact (607) 547-9777 or gallery@cooperstownart.com for more information or to register.
Equine Therapy Workshop Set
FLY CREEK—Taylortown Equine, 434 Bedbug Hill Road, will host Stable Serenity to present “Release and Receive,” an equine-assisted healing and development workshop, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 18. Inspired by the Eagala Model and Internal Family Systems, it will blend therapeutic insight and guided interaction with horses. Tickets are $225.00 until Sunday, October 12 and $250.00 thereafter, including a catered lunch and parking. The event will be held rain or shine. Tickets are available via Eventbrite or by calling (518) 386-9533.
Rawitch Headlines Series
ONEONTA—President Josh Rawitch of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will headline Hartwick College’s Meredith Sport Management Speaker Series in Anderson Hall at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 16. In his fifth year at the hall, Rawitch has more than 30 years’ experience in baseball, including a decade as senior vice president of content and communications for the Arizona Diamondbacks and 15 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ marketing and public relations teams. The talk is free and open to the public.
Barktoberfest Is Saturday
COOPERSTOWN—Susquehanna SPCA’s annual Barktoberfest and Dog Show will return to 1527 County Highway 33 from 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, October 4. There will be plenty of activities for families and dogs, food and drinks, vendors and more. Dog show classes with remaining spaces include Loveliest Lady, Most Obedient, Best Trick, Loudest Bark, Special Senior (10 years or older) and Waggiest Tail. Jason Powles of WKTV will MC. Registration is available at sqspca.org.
State Announces Grants
PREBLE, NY—The New York State Departments of Environmental Conservation and Agriculture and Markets announced $25 million in grants for agricultural water quality projects at an event in Preble on Monday, September 29. This is the largest single round of funding in the 30-year-old Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Abatement and Control Program, which has disbursed more than $275 million to New York farmers through county Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Projects include nutrient management through manure storage, vegetative buffers and cover crops.
Civil War Prisons Topic of Talk
OTEGO—The Otego Historical Society will hold its monthly meeting at the Town Hall, 3526 State Route 7, at 7 p.m. on Monday, October 20. Mark Dye will present a program on prison camps during the American Civil War. The event is free and open to the public. Contact (607) 287-4095 for more information.
CCP To Hold Open Auditions
ONEONTA—The Catskill Community Players will present Paul Slade Smith’s award-winning “Unnecessary Farce” at the Worcester Wieting Theatre on April 17-19. Open auditions will be held at The Institute for Spiritual Development, 297 River Street Service Road, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 21 and from 2-3:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, October 25-26. No previous experience is required. Most roles involve physical comedy and clothing that allows free movement is highly encouraged for the auditions. Rehearsals will be held at ISD beginning in late January and will move to the Wieting in early March. For more information or to sign up, contact the director at nancybcouch@yahoo.com.
CCE Announces Programming
COOPERSTOWN—Cornell Cooperative Extension Schoharie and Otsego Counties will host a series of webinars on cover crops and interseeding from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays from October 1 to November 5. Applications for the Dairy Farm Improvement and Modernization Grant program will be open from October 14 to December 4. The New York State Agritourism Conference will
take place at the Saratoga Springs City Center, 522 Broadway, on November 10-11. Registration is $100.00 for both days and is available at bit.ly/ nysagritourismconf. CCE also released a save-thedate for the Northeast Dairy Innovation Summit in Albany on March 10-11. For more information or to view a full event calendar, visit cceschoharieotsego.org/.
Candidates Brunch Planned
ONEONTA—The Oneonta Democratic Club will host a candidates brunch at Wise Guys Sammys, 261 Main Street, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 11. Eight Democratic and Independent candidates for city and town office will discuss issues and field audience questions. They include Dan Buttermann (mayor), Will Rivera (town supervisor), Jill Basile (county board), Michele Clapperton (county board), Eamonn Hinchey (county board), Kim Fierke (town board), Teresa DeSantis (town board) and Michael Forster Rothbart (city council). The event is open to the public, although RVSPs are requested at garymaffei@gmail.com. Questions for the candidates may be submitted in advance to the same address. Refreshments from Wise Guys will be available for purchase.
Scarecrow Contest Announced
RICHFIELD SPRINGS—The Garden Club of Richfield Springs will hold a scarecrow contest at the Richfield Springs Public Library on Saturday, October 11. Setup will begin at 2:00 p.m., followed by judging at 2:15. All ages are welcome, and pairs of scarecrows are preferred. Each must be 67 feet high, not including the post, and there is a limit of one scarecrow or pair per person or team. All submissions must be family friendly. Winning scarecrows will be displayed in the Herb Garden for the rest of the season, and there are cash prizes of $75.00, $50.00 and $25.00 for the top three entries. For more information, contact Becky at (315) 868-6599.
Annual Applefest Coming Up
GILBERTSVILLE—Christ Episcopal Church, 166 Marion Avenue in Gilbertsville, will hold its annual Applefest from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 4. It will feature baked goods, crafts, plants, garage sale items, raffles, and homemade jams and jellies. Lunch will be available for purchase, and pulled pork meals may be pre-ordered by calling (607) 783-2267. There will be games and facepainting for children. All proceeds will help local youth attend summer camps.
Next Meet, Greet Is Oct. 7th
COOPERSTOWN—Welcome Home Cooperstown will honor Fire Prevention Month by hosting the Cooperstown Fire Department at the October meet and greet on Tuesday, October 7. Held at the Village Hall, 22 Main Street, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month, the event is intended to welcome newcomers to the community, share information and make connections. CFD members will attend with their fire trucks and provide education on fire safety. There will be live music by local musician Michael Bauer and refreshments provided by real estate agent Linda Flynn.
Next History Tour Is Sunday
MIDDLEFIELD—Dr. Cindy Falk of SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program will lead her next historic preservation walking tour in the hamlet of Middlefield at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 5. The cost is $10.00 and registration is available at otsego2000.org or by calling (607) 5478881. Participants should meet at the Old District 1 Schoolhouse on County Highway 35.
OLT Protects Additional Lands
BUTTERNUTS—A new conservation partnership between Otsego Land Trust and private landowners Rick O’Keefe and John Chanik has permanently protected 19.5 acres of ecologically critical land in the Butternut Valley. Bordering on the tributary Cohoon Creek, the parcel will join a larger network of protected lands that safeguard wetlands, farmland and forests. In a release, Chanik and O’Keefe explained their commitment to ecological protection and restoration. The conservation easement ensures that this land will not be subdivided or developed in the future. OTL has similarly protected more than 1,200 acres across the county. For more information, visit otsegolandtrust.org.
Jensen To Deliver Mills Talk
ONEONTA—Author Toni Jensen will present SUNY Oneonta’s annual Mills Distinguished Lecture in the Hunt Union Ballroom at 7 p.m. on Monday, October 6. Jensen wrote this year’s Common Read choice, “Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land,” a collection of essays on gun violence, land theft and the lives of Indigenous women. It was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and a New York Times Editors’ Choice Book. Jensen teaches at the University of Arkansas and the Institute of American Indian Arts. The lecture is free and open to the public, with no registration required.
Candle Making Class Returns
COOPERSTOWN—The Smithy Gallery and Clay Studio’s ever-popular candle making workshop will return from 6-9 p.m. on Wednesday, October 29. Beacon Mercantile Founder Toni Hacker will lead the program, which includes developing custom scents. Participants should bring one or two finished ceramic vessels to fill. They should be glazed on the inside and hold about eight ounces. Some vessels may be available. The workshop is $50.00. For more information or to register, visit smithyarts.org.
Ford C. Frick Ballot Finalized
COOPERSTOWN—Ten finalists have been named for the 2026 Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor in baseball broadcasting. Nominees must demonstrate outstanding excellence, quality of broadcasting, reverence for the game, popularity with fans and recognition by peers. An active or retired broadcaster must have at least 10 years of continuous major league broadcast service. The finalists are Brian Anderson, Joe Buck, Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper, John Rooney, Dan Shulman and John Sterling. All but Caray are living. The winner will be announced at MLB’s Winter Meetings in Orlando on December 10 and honored at the July 25 Awards Presentation during Induction Weekend.
Writrix Salon, Open Mic Friday
CHERRY VALLEY—Local writing group The Writrixes will give readings at The Telegraph School’s Open Mic Night as part of the Cherry Valley First Friday on Friday, October 3. It will begin at The Limestone Mansion, 33 Main Street, beginning at 6 p.m. Laurel Carpenter, Evie Edman, Jennifer Fanning, Liz Linder, Kristen Petersen, Corinna Raznikov and others will present their recent work. Their recent publication “Writrix Volume Three: Filling in the Margins,” edited by Leslie Berliant, will be available for sale. The next Writrix virtual salon will be held on Zoom from 3-4 p.m. on Sunday, October 12, and the next round of classes will start on Tuesday, October 14.
Swimmers Set New Records
COOPERSTOWN—Cooperstown varsity girls swimming narrowly fell 90-86 to Adirondack on Tuesday, September 23 and beat Holland Patent 5340 two days later. Carleigh Williams, Leah Phillips and Violet Bong recorded personal records of 1:20.15, 1:28.22 and 1:07.09 in the 100m freestyle, respectively. Bong also set a new personal record of 6:28.46 in the 500m free. Claire Smith broke her best times in the 100m breaststroke (1:44.45) and 50m free (39.41). Siri Shanker and Skyler Brandise set new personal bests of 42.71 and 32.41 in the 50m free, respectively. Despite a broken finger, Annika Murray put up a new best time of 2:35.29 in the 200m free. The Hawkeyes moved to 2-2 for the season and will face Oneonta after press time on Tuesday, September 30.
CCS Soccer Records Shutouts
COOPERSTOWN—Cooperstown boys soccer rolled past rival Mount Markham 5-0 in a division match on Wednesday, September 24. Junior Shane Bradley scored twice. Junior Hayden Spencer, junior Gavin Grady and sophomore Emerson Hall also scored. Senior Cooper Coleman made three saves. The Hawkeyes routed Sauquoit Valley 4-0 on Friday, September 26. Grady put away two more goals and an assist. Bradley and sophomore Henry Ayers each scored, and Coleman made a save in the net. Cooperstown stands at 6-2-2 for the season and 4-1 in their division, and will host Division II leader Hamilton for the Homecoming game after press time on Tuesday, September 30.
The Cooperstown girls team romped to a 2-0 victory over Westmoreland on Thursday, September 25. Mia Pelcer and Ruby Stevenson scored for the Hawkeyes. Eighth grade keeper Emma Johnson made an outstanding 25 saves in the net, keeping a handle on Westmoreland’s 30-15 advantage in shots. Cooperstown moved to 4-5 for the season and 4-1 in their division, and will travel to Indian River for a non-league match on Saturday, September 27.
Homecoming Game Is Friday
COOPERSTOWN—Cooperstown football lost 40-20 to Sauquoit Valley on the road on Thursday, September 25. They moved to 2-2 for the season and will host West Canada Valley at Lambert Field for the Homecoming game on Friday, October 3.
Coop XC Runs E.J. Hermann
UTICA—Cooperstown’s cross country teams traveled to Utica for the 82nd E.J. Hermann Invitational, the region’s oldest, on Saturday, September 27. The boys finished seventh out of 18 complete teams, led by Jacob Johnson (18:48) in 14th place. He was followed by Owen Capozza Flannigan (19:24, 26th place), Hu Agostino (20:29, 34th), Wyatt Capozza Flannigan (21:39, 67th) and Elias MacLeish (22:27, 84th). The girls varsity team was incomplete due to illness, but Cooperstown’s Evelyn Rhodes finished first of 102 runners in 21:37. Courtney McCarthy finished fifth in 21:41, followed by Olivia Temp (24:34, 23rd) and Ada MacLeish (30:49, 83rd).
Continued from page 1
poverty continues, according to Delgado, “despite the fact that the state is governed by Democrats.”
“So yeah, I’m challenging the governor,” Delgado said. “And I’m challenging the establishment, and I’m challenging the machinery, because the status quo is broken. It’s been broken for too damn long,” he said to applause.
Delgado said the party’s fight must come “from the ground up” and is “beyond partisanship.” It “is fundamentally about morality.”
Though President Trump is “shredding the Constitution” and otherwise violating core principles of American democratic government, Delgado said, he also asked “What is it we are fighting for?”
Taxing the rich, building affordable housing, universal healthcare, increasing the minimum wage, universal childcare, and more, fell into that category for Delgado. He laced into New York State economic development funds allocations, which he said are going to private businesses by the billions of dollars per year in a “trickle down” approach that mimics Republican policies. He further condemned a proposed fracked gas pipeline in New York, supported by President Trump, which environmental advocates have said Gov. Hochul’s appointees are fast tracking.
Condemning Democratic politics of “survival” and “triangulation” versus an “uninhibited from reality” President Trump, Delgado argued for a “moral” uninhibition to fight back.
“The fire in our belly is and always will be rooted in love. Otsego County, to me, is a very, very special place.”
Pointing to Trump’s victory by several points in Otsego County in 2020, compared to his own congressional lead of 12 points in the county for the same election, Delgado encouraged the assembled Democrats not to “assume that because they support him, they don’t like X, Y, and Z.”
The more Democrats embrace speaking to “shared economic anxiety” in the face of “crony capitalism,” Delgado argued, the more successful they will be.
In a longer speech, Kenyatta hit many similar themes. The work of “rebuilding” the Democratic Party will not be done with “our heads in the sand and shoulders slumped,” Kenyatta said. “Nobody
is interested in joining a pity party, I promise you that,” he added. “Our job is to make life better. That is the job.”
“And yes, we have a president that is out of control,” Kenyatta said. “And yes, there are a lot of elections we need to win. But the Democratic Party doesn’t exist just to be in constant war with the Republican Party.”
“Every single day, you have a guy from the biggest platform in the world who is trying to convince us that we need to hate each other,” Kenyatta said. “I do not hate my neighbor, and I refuse to let some damn politician say that I have to!”
Recalling the suffragettes fighting for women’s right to vote and the Civil Rights Movement for Black equality, Kenyatta said, “They didn’t have polling on their side.” Instead, “what they had was a commitment, an understanding that this country could never be what it must be if over half the damn population couldn’t participate.”
Ogden, the county party chair, told AllOtsego the speeches were “inspirational” and “spot on.”
In August, Delgado said, if elected, he would like to replace Jay Jacobs, the chair of the New York State Democratic Party who has declined to endorse its New York City mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani. Asked by AllOtsego what he’d look for in a replacement, Delgado pointed to his recently-released plan to overhaul the party infrastructure so “that it puts people at the center of the work.” He wants a party “that actually invests year in and year out” including “offices,
staffing that is collaborative, that is committed to empowering candidates and committees all across the state, and not just being selective.”
Delgado said “that type of vision, that type of focus” was most important to him.
Delgado told AllOtsego his policy vision for Otsego County and rural New York if elected governor includes “investing directly in our communities,” starting with housing.
“Our communities are being priced out in our rural communities just as much as our urban communities,” he said.
Delgado also wants to make sure people “have a healthcare system that is affordable and doesn’t bankrupt them” and that rural main streets and small family farms “have opportunities to grow and aren’t being squeezed out by monopolies and concentrated corporate power.”
Ogden told AllOtsego the fundraiser brought $16,000 into the county party’s coffers, before expenses for the event. At an after party, Ogden said, the party raised $1,700 for the Otsego County Refugee Resettlement Coalition.
Bassett
Continued from page 1
cate and preserve the historic look of the original Harrison House while creating a state-of-the-art childcare facility inside and on the surrounding grounds,” Thompson explained.
Jane Forbes Clark, president of The Clark Foundation, announced in 2024 a grant of $6 million to underwrite the creation
of a new childcare facility on the campus of Bassett Medical Center at 1 Beaver Street. The service will initially be available to employees’ children, providing a critical benefit to caregivers in many types of roles and helping to attract new talent to the organization, officials said.
The center will provide care for infants, toddlers and pre-school children. Care will be available during clinical work hours with flexible schedule options.
The new building will contain classrooms, common and service areas, offices, and two outdoor playgrounds. The building will also have space dedicated to sick care, which officials say is a unique service for a childcare facility in New York State. Onsite sick care will ensure children have appropriate care when necessary and, as a result, employees will not have to miss work. The Harrison House Childcare Center will have space for 58 children, plus 15 addi-
tional spots for sick care. The center will employ around 18 staff members, according to the press release.
“Having access to an on-site childcare center is a game-changer that will help our employees with work-life balance,” said Thompson. “Our caregivers can take great comfort knowing their children are nearby and receiving excellent care. We are immensely grateful to The Clark Foundation for their support and vision to make this childcare center a reality—all while honoring the historic legacy of a precious part of Bassett’s history.”
“We are so excited for all that the Harrison House Childcare Center will have to offer our workforce and community,” Thompson said.
Concerts
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showcases eclectic musical excellence, close to home. Please visit cooperstownconcerts.org now and throughout the
season for performance updates and tickets. Cooperstown Concerts raised an impressive $8,000.00 during the Mohawk Valley Gives regional giving day, a powerful affirmation of community support for its mission. These donations, in support of our 2025-2026 season and beyond, will directly fund artist fees, venue costs, and helping to ensure that music lovers of all ages and backgrounds can continue to experience exceptional live performances right here in Central New York.
Founded 55 years ago, Cooperstown Concerts is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to presenting world-class musical experiences in local settings. With a focus on artist diversity, musical excellence, and community engagement, the organization continues to serve the region as a vibrant hub for live performances.
Randy Smith is the president of Cooperstown Concerts.
Photo by Eric Santomauro-Stenzel
At 8 a.m. on Tuesday, September 23, Harrison House was standing. By 11:30 a.m., it was as pictured here.
►Fri., Oct Ober 3
GARDEN “Free Soil
Testing.” Sample soil from your garden to send to the Master Gardeners. First sample is free; $1.00 for each additional sample tested. Last day to drop off is 10/15. WorcesterSchenevus Library, 170 Main Street, Worcester. (607) 397-7309.
BOOK CLUB Read
“The Only One Left” by Riley Sager, then discuss with the group at 4 p.m. on 10/23. Village Library of Cooperstown, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown. (607) 547-8344.
POTTERY
1:30-4:30 p.m. Open Studio. Experienced potters work on personal projects. No instruction provided. Fees apply. Held Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and 6-9 p.m. on Thursday. The Smithy Clay Studio, 1 Otsego Court, Cooperstown. Gallery@ SmithyArts.org.
FARMERS’ MARKET
3-6 p.m. Held Fridays at The Four Corners, Hartwick. (607) 2937530.
ART 4-6 p.m. “Artist
Reception: Ellen Starr Lyon.” Luminous oil paintings. The Gatehouse, 129 Main Street, Morris. (607) 285-4111.
OPENING RECEPTION 5-7 p.m. “Lasting Impressions: an International Encaustic Artists Exhibit,” “Water’s Edge: Paintings by Kara Mattice” and the “Central New York Watercolor Society Second Signature Exhibit.” On display through 10/31. Cooperstown Art Association, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown. (607) 547-9777.
OPENING RECEP-
TION 5-8 p.m. “Highlight.” First Friday event. Show runs through 11/2. 25 Main Collective, 21 Main Street, Cherry Valley. (607) 264-5340.
FIRE PIT FRIDAYS
6-10 p.m. Live music, food and more. Featuring music by Scattered Flurries. The Tap House,
Things To Do In and Around Otsego County
Brewery Ommegang, 656 County Highway 33, Cooperstown. (607) 5441800.
HALLOWEEN 6 p.m.
“Hyde & Shriek! Candlelight Ghost Tours.” Tickets required. Also held 10/4. Hyde Hall, 267 Glimmerglass State Park Road, Cooperstown. (607) 547-5098.
DANCE
7:30-10:30 p.m. Contradance. Presented by the Otsego Dance Society. Featuring Peter Blue, caller, and the Spare Parts band. First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown, 25 Church Street, Cooperstown. (607) 433-6613. FILM 8 p.m. Frightful Friday: “Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster” (1955). Presented by the SUNY Oneonta. A mad doctor attempts to create atomic supermen. Free. Hunt Union Red Dragon Theatre, 68 Bugbee Road, Oneonta. (607) 436-3730.
►Sat., Oct Ober 4
GARDEN 9 a.m. to noon. “Daffodill Giveaway.” Free daffodil bulbs from the Oneonta Garden Club. First come, first serve. Oneonta Farmers’ Market, Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center, 24 Market Street, Oneonta.
MUSEUM 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Historic Cooking Workshop. Fees apply; registration required. Hanford Mills Museum, 51 County Highway 12, East Meredith. (607) 2785744.
APPLE FEST 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Apple pies, crafts, raffles, games and much more. Christ Church of Gilbertsville, 166 Marion Avenue, Gilbertsville. (607) 783-2267.
BLOOD DRIVE
9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Main Street Baptist Church, Briggs Hall, 333 Main Street, Oneonta. RedCrossBlood.org
FALL CRAFT FAIR
9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Handmade treasures, local artisans and festive
Time OuT OTsegO
Things To Do In and Around Otsego County
fun. Hunt Union, SUNY Oneonta, 108 Ravine Parkway, Oneonta.
FUNDRAISER
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Hello Fall Fundraising Event.” Vendor and craft fair. Presented by Lisa’s Spark of Hope at the 6th Ward Athletic Fields, Oneonta.
FALL FESTIVAL
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. “Pumpkin Bash.” Craft vendors, food trucks, hay rides, and more. Oaks Creek Farm and Market, 4970 State Highway 28, Cooperstown.
ANNIVERSARY
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Tepee Celebrates 75 Years of Americana on Historic U.S. Route 20. The Tepee, 7632 State Highway 20, Cherry Valley. (607) 2643987.
WORKSHOP 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “From the Medicine Cabinet Workshop.” Fees apply; registration required. Fenimore Farm and County Village, 5775 State Highway 80, Cooperstown. (607) 5471450.
OPEN HOUSE
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Raptor identification workshop, trail walk and live birds of prey from Falcon Heart Rescue. Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society Sanctuary, Grange Hall Road Spur, Oneonta. (607) 3973815.
CRAFT FEST 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “5th Annual Fall Craft Fair.” Presented by the Church of Christ Uniting at the Cullen Pumpkin Farm, 587 Cullen Road, Richfield Springs. (315) 858-1451.
MUSEUM 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Woodsmen Festival.” Showcase of local woodcrafters and foresters. Hanford Mills Museum, 51 County Highway 12, East Meredith. (607) 278-5744.
ART 11 a.m. Plein Air Painting. Free; open to all. Bring your own supplies. Presented by the Butter-
nut Valley Arts and Crafts Center at 830 Pegg Road, New Lisbon. (607) 2632150.
ART TRAIL 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Cherry Valley Art Trail.” Meet the artists, open studios, demonstrations, exhibits and more. Continues 10/5. Cherry Valley.
ANNIVERSARY Noon to 3 p.m. Cooperstown Lions Club 75th Anniversary Celebration. Fees apply; registration required. The Otesaga Resort Hotel, 60 Lake Street, Cooperstown.
AUDITION 1 p.m. Try out for a part in “The Nutcracker.” Presented by the Fokine Ballet Company. Open to ages 7+ with at least one year of ballet training. 140 Main Street, 3rd Floor, Oneonta. (607) 432-6290.
DOG SHOW
1-4 p.m. “Barktoberfest and Dog Show 2025.” Food trucks, beverage tastings, visits with adoptable pets, agility demonstrations and more. Susquehanna SPCA, 1527 County Highway 33, Cooperstown. (607) 5478111.
SEWING CLASS
1:30-3 p.m. All experience levels welcome. Held every Saturday. The Green Giraffe, 179 Main Street, Unadilla. (607) 369-3234.
ART LECTURE 2 p.m.
“Activism in the Art of Romare Bearden: A Lecture with Diedra Harris-Kelley.” Presented with the Romare Bearden Foundation. Included with price of museum admission. Fenimore Art Museum, 5798 State Highway 80, Cooperstown. (607) 5471400.
TEDX ONEONTA
6 p.m.; doors open at 5 p.m. Speakers share ideas worth spreading. Tickets required. Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center, 24 Market, Street,
Oneonta. (607) 4312080.
DINNER THEATER
6:30 p.m. “Murder Café: A Wedding in Transylvania.” Tickets required. The Otesaga Resort Hotel, 60 Lake Street, Cooperstown. (845) 4757973.
LIBRARY 7 p.m.
“Movie Night: Addams Family Values.” Edmeston Free Library, 26 East Street, Edmeston. (607) 965-8280.
FILM FEST 7 p.m.
“Return of the Living Dead.” Presented by the 2025 Worcester Wieting Theatre Fall Film Festival. Free; donations appreciated. Worcester Wieting Theatre, 168 Main Street, Worcester.
FUNDRAISER 8 p.m.; doors open at 7 p.m. The “Breast” of Burlesque and Drag—Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraiser. Tickets required. Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center, 24 Market, Street, Oneonta. (607) 4312080.
MENTALIST 8 p.m.
“A Night of the Incredible with Larry and Raven.” Presented by the SUNY Oneonta. Fees apply. Hunt Union, Red Dragon Theater, 68 Bugbee Road, Oneonta. (607) 4363730.
►Sun., Oct Ober 5
COUNTRY BREAKFAST 8 a.m. to noon. Presented by the Fly Creek Area Historical Society. Fly Creek Grange, 208 Cemetery Road, Fly Creek. (802) 345-5406.
MEDITATION
11 a.m. “Sundays at Samye: The Practical Bodhisattva—How to Be a Spiritual Hero in Everyday Life.” Held Sundays through 12/21. Samye New York, 412 Glimmerglen Road, Cooperstown. (607) 547-5051.
MUSIC 1-3 p.m.
“Sunday Sessions with Dan and Faith.” The Gatehouse, 129 Main Street, Morris. (607) 285-4111.
OPERA 1 p.m. “Les Contes d ‘Hoffmann.”
Live HD broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera House. Tickets required. Lunch available for purchase. Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center, 24 Market Street, Oneonta. (607) 4312080.
WALKING TOUR
3 p.m. Middlefield Walking Tour. Led by Dr. Cindy Falk. Learn about a time when people lived, worked, shopped and worshipped within walking distance. Fees apply; registration required. Presented by Otsego 2000. Meet at the Town of Middlefield Historical Association in the Old District No. 1 Schoolhouse, County Highway 35, Middlefield. (607) 547-8881.
AWARD DINNER
3 p.m. cocktails; 4 p.m. dinner. “Unadilla Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner and Awards.” Fees apply; registration required. Far View Farm, Rod & Gun Club Road, Unadilla. unadillachamber@ yahoo.com.
MUSIC 7 p.m.
“Oneonta Kirtan: Interfaith Devotional Music Meditation.” Held each first Sunday. Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta, 12 Ford Avenue, Oneonta.
►MOn., Oct Ober 6
COOPERSTOWN
8 a.m. Meeting of the Watershed Supervisory Committee. 1st floor boardroom, Village Office Building, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown. (607) 5472411.
CONNECTIONS
10:30 a.m. “One-on-One Tech Support.” Get help using personal devices, from iPhones to tablets. Held each first Monday of the month with Debra Miller. Connections at Clark Sports Center,
124 County Highway 52, Cooperstown. connectionsatcsc@gmail.com.
BLOOD DRIVE
1-6 p.m. Worcester United Methodist Church, 111 Main Street, Worcester. RedCrossBlood.org
COOPERSTOWN
2 p.m. Meeting of the Doubleday Field Committee. 1st floor boardroom, Village Office Building, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown. (607) 5472411.
COOPERSTOWN
3 p.m. Meeting of the Parks Board. 1st floor boardroom, Village Office Building, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown. (607) 5472411.
HALL WALKERS
4-8 p.m. Open to seniors aged 60+. Fees apply. Held school days through 6/30. Presented by Adult Education of Richfield Springs Central School, 93 Main Street, Richfield Springs. (315) 858-0610 ext. 2351.
FULL MOON HIKE
6 p.m. “Full Moon Hike and Dinner—Harvest Moon.” hike, dinner, more. Fees apply. The Otesaga Resort Hotel, 60 Lake Street, Cooperstown. (607) 547-9931. WORKSHOP
6:30 p.m. “Succulent Pumpkin Workshop.” Presented by the Oneonta Garden Club. Fees apply; registration required. Held at St. James Church, 305 Main Street, Oneonta. MEETING 7 p.m. Cooperstown Fire Department Squad Meeting. Cooperstown Fire Hall, 24 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown. (607) 5472761.
LECTURE 7 p.m. Mills Distinguished Lecture. Featuring Toni Jensen, author of “Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Ground.” Free and open to the public. Hunt Union Ballroom, SUNY Oneonta. 108 Ravine Parkway, Oneonta. RAFFLE 7 p.m. “Unadilla Fire Department Gun/Cash Raffle.” Drawing held 10/13. Do not need to be present to win. Fees apply. Tickets available each Monday at 7 p.m. Unadilla Fire Department, 77 Clifton Street, Unadilla. (607) 369-9150.
►tueS., Oct Ober 7
COMMUNITY HIKE 9:45 a.m. Hike with the Susquehanna Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. Bring appropriate equipment/water and be aware of your level of fitness. This week’s hike will be at Rogers Environmental Center, 2721 State Highway 80, Sherburne. Contact hike leader Loretta Brady, (917) 4970446.
RESOURCE FAIR
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Falling Into Resources: A Season of Support.” Hosted by the Otsego County Office for the Aging. Southside Mall, 5006 State Highway 23, Oneonta. (607) 5474232.
SENIOR MEALS
11:30 a.m. Seniors are invited to enjoy a delicious meal Monday-Friday. Suggested donation is $4 for seniors, $11 for guests. Today, enjoy a lunch of ziti with meatballs, tossed salad, garlic rolls and frosted birthday cake. (607) 547-6454.
• Each Monday-Friday. Nader Towers Housing, 2 Mitchell Street, Oneonta.
• Each Tuesday and Thursday. Richfield Springs Community Center, 6 Ann Street, Richfield Springs.
COOPERSTOWN
5 p.m. Meeting of the Zoning Board of Appeals. 1st floor boardroom, Village Office Building, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown. (607) 5472411.
►
Visit allotsego.com/
otsego-county-events-calendar/ for the full calendar