The Freeman's Journal 02-04-21

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Volume 213, No. 05

Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, February 4, 2021

COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND

in 1808

Newsstand Price $1

ONEONTA, COOP POLICE REFORM IDEAS GO PUBLIC

310th Out Of 310

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neonta and Cooperstown Community Police Advisory Boards, established by Governor Cuomo after George Floyd’s death, are nearing completion of their deliberations. The Oneonta plan will be outlined to the public at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, via Zoom. The Cooperstown plan goes to public hearing at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11. Details at

Persistence, Luck Wins Margaret Wolff Vaccination

After receiving her Moderna shot The Freeman’s Journal Saturday, The key players in the Jan. 30, creation of 10 subsidized Margaapartments in the former ret Wolff Cherry Valley School, cuts ORHA’s Timothy Peters, fabric at left, and Richard Saba, Heartstride along the new works, her Fly wooden floors. ApplicaCreek tions are being accepted store, for /SEE A3 Wendy Alley of Oneonta.

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Trump ’24 Billboard Redebated Planning Board Isn’t Proper Forum, ZEO, Town Attorney Find

With Provisos, School Sports Back In Game

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got online at 6 a.m., figuring she might find an available slot when few people were awake. She heard a rumor that the state Department of Health made appointments available at noon, so she logged in then, even though it was difficult to do so during work. Nothing was available. Last Friday evening, a friend called to say there were open appointments at SUNY Polytechnic in Utica. She got right on her computer and tried for three hours. “It said they had appointments, but the website was down Please See 310TH, A2

By MICHAEL fORSTER ROTHBART

COOPERSTOWN n a memo released Friday evening, Jan. 29, county Public Health Director Heidi Bond advised local school superintendents that sports may now resume. Effective Feb. 1, young athletes can participate in “individual Bond or distanced group training and organized no/low-contact group training,” Bond wrote. Local school boards would have to opt in, superintendents must develop a plan, parents must sign approval forms, and the athletes must be cleared by their doctors, the memo continues. Details at

By JIM KEVLIN

Michael Forster-Rothbart/The Freeman’s Journal

COOPERSTOWN

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argaret Wolff was one of the lucky ones. She was one of the first 310 members of the general public to receive their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Bassett Hospital’s first public clinic Saturday, Jan. 30, at the Clark Sports Center. For three weeks she’d tried to get a vaccine appointment. Some days she

Bassett Pharmacy Director Kelly Rudd holds a Moderna vial during the Jan. 30 clinic. Each is designed for 10 doses, but some are overfilled enough to extract an extra dose.

No Phone, No Internet Stymies So. Worcester Couple SOUTH WORCESTER

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s Margaret Wolff waited during the recommended 15-minute observation period following her inoculation Saturday afternoon, Jan. 30, Rita Tetenes was at her home here.

Tetenes was not one of the lucky ones. Although she and her husband Leo are in their 80s, they still live independently in a far, hilly corner of Otsego County. Schoharie County begins across the narrow valley from their

home, and the Delaware county line is at the bottom of the hill. “We have no computer at our home. We don’t have cell service. You need a satellite phone to make calls out here,” Tetenes said during a call from her house. Please See COUPLE, A2

MILFORD

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t’s unclear whether a Town Planning Board effort to have the Gone, Not “Trump Forgotten 2024” billboard on Route 28 removed is going anywhere. The town Planning Board was expected to take the issue up Monday, Feb. 1, but the meeting at the town hall in Portlandville was cancelled due to the snowstorm. Meanwhile, Town Zoning Officer Barbara Monroe drew a line in the sand, saying she has the sole authority to levy fines when zoning violations occur, not the Planning Board. Please See BILLBOARD, A2

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► SENATOR OBERACKER Assemblyman Salka decry Governor Cuomo’s mishandling of nursing homes. ►”New Rudy’s” Wine and Liquor opens on Main Street. ►COOPERSTOWN’S jOSH pEARLMAN completes Marine Boot Camp.

With Tests, Mandatory Masks, SUNY Takes Aim At C-19 Monday, Feb. 1, the first day of in-person classes, the SUNY Oneonta campus appeared almost deserted.

Professors Deny They Were Pressured To Return To Classroom By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE ONEONTA

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hey’re back! Monday, Feb. 1, SUNY Oneonta students began in-person, mask-to-mask learning following the start of the virtual spring semester one week prior. Last fall, the campus made national

news for its more than 700-student outbreak that happened almost immediately after undergraduates returned in August.’ With comprehensive testing, mandatory masks and a new campus president, Dennis Craig, with a track record of halting COVIDPlease See SUNY-O, A10

Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD

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THURSDAY, february 4, 2021

A-2 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Phone Rang That Morning, And Margaret Wolff Summoned To Be 310th 310TH/From A1 for maintenance,” she said. “I kept refreshing it ’til 9 o’clock and then I thought, ‘The heck with this, I’m just not going to do this,’” and went to bed. At 1 in the morning, her dog woke her, and she decided to try once more. To her delight, she was immediately able to schedule a

vaccination, for early March in Utica. Saturday morning, her good luck continued. As she opened the shop she owns in Fly Creek, Heartwork Quilts & Fabrics, her first customer of the day told her there had been many cancellations for the Bassett-organized clinic in Cooperstown. After a series of calls,

Wolff was told if she preregistered, if there was a dose available, and if she could come right away when called, she might be able to get vaccinated. Midday, the phone rang. Ten minutes later, she walked into the Clark Sports Center gym, as the clinic was wrapping up. She went through a

Congratulations! We wish to announce the sale of Rudy’s Liquor Store & Coach Room Wine Annex to Mr. Matt Denison and Mr. Joe Festa. We would be most remiss if we did not thank our loyal patrons who have supported us over the past 48 years. Without your year-round patronage, we certainly would not have survived. We are indeed grateful for your support. We opened Rudy’s in August, 1972 and have now ended our journey in December, 2020. We hope you will continue to support Rudy’s, Matt and Joe. Karen and Fred Lemister RetiReD PRoPRietoRS!

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temperature screening, registered, then got directed to a green folding chair at the back of the gym where she soon became the 310th and final person immunized that day. She described her relief: “I’ve had customers who have been in my store and called me the next day to say ‘I have COVID.’ And that’s scary.” Bassett Pharmacy Director Kelly Rudd explained why Margaret was lucky. The Moderna vaccine

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registered on a waiting list. Be persistent, Rudd advised people trying to schedule appointments. “We opened it up and in less than half an hour the initial slots were filled. But it has been changing all week. There were a number of people who booked and then cancelled, so those appointments were very fluid. Not a large number but enough,” she said. “People were still able to find appointments later on.”

Off Grid, Couple Finds Vaccine Inaccessible COUPLE/From A1 She has not used email since she retired four years ago, and does not know if her old flip phone can send text messages. “I’m going to do whatever it takes, but it has to be via the phone. I heard about the clinic at Clark but I called and all the spots were already taken. We didn’t even have a chance,” she said. “Every place that we’ve called, whoever we spoke to, they’ve all been extremely nice, but if they can’t help us, they give us another phone number,” Tetenes said. The bottom line is that “no one can help, at this point.” Her primary strategy has been to call the state vaccine hotline about four times per day, plus ask friends to phone her if they hear of openings. “The hotline is open ’til 10 p.m., so that means I have plenty of time to keep calling the 1-800 number, and that’s all we can do.” Only twice has she managed to reach an operator rather than a recording. She was “stunned” the first time someone answered the hotline. The couple was offered an appointment slot in Plattsburgh, but turned it down. “Up near the border, that’s more than a day’s trip for us. That would mean going up, staying overnight someplace, which we really would not like to do,” she said. Generally, the couple has not travelled further than Oneonta or Cobleskill since the pandemic began. “We’re willing to travel, I just don’t want to drive four hours away when that’s difficult for us.” The Tetenes’ situation is not uncommon, according to Tamie Reed, county Office of Aging director. “Our big barrier is: Everything has been designed around online access, and certainly our senior population … don’t have that access, in a rural community,” she said. “Even if you call in on the phone line, you’re

Michael Forster-Rothbart/ HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s Journal

Reed Tetenes serenades wife Rita with Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”

being asked, if you can’t get an appointment immediately, for an email address. And that just isn’t working.” According to the latest directive from the state, the local 65+ population is supposed to get vaccinated at state-operated clinics or pharmacies, not at the county Health Department offices at The Meadows. However, there are no state sites nearby and pharmacy appointments can only be made online. “It’s a huge challenge for our population,” said Reed. She’s hopeful that a proposed state vaccination site will be established soon at SUNY Oneonta, but has no definite information if that will happen. When seniors do manage to score an appointment, Reed said, her office can help coordinate transportation when needed. Those who need rides weekdays can call “Getthere,” a “mobility management program” at 855-373-4040. It’s operated by Rural Health Network of South Central New York.

Someone Wants Trump 2024 Billboard Gone BILLBOARD/From A1 “I have no intention of writing a violation on that sign,” at least for now, she said Monday. Tuesday, Town Attorney Hyde Clarke, while saying his advice to town bodies is covered by attorney-client privilege, said Monroe’s right. “It’s not really a planning issue,” he said. “The town has zoning regulations.” And Town Clerk Rosemary Aborn and Zoning Board of Appeals chairman Al Bullard both said they’re not aware the issue is on this month’s agendas of the town board or ZBA. “It sounds like a Democratic plot,” said Bullard. Events were set in motion two weeks ago, Village Mayor Brian Pokorny said, when two town Planning Board members approached

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The “Trump 2024” billboard on Route 28 is agitating some Town of Milford residents.

him, advising him to remove the billboard or face fines; no amount was specified. The billboard, across Route 28 from Wood Bull Antiques, is located in the town, but on property owned by the village, he said. It’s thought a Hartwick Seminary businessman rented the billboard, which is owned by Rome Sign Co., about a year before the

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vials are each meant to hold 10 doses, she said, “but the manufacturers usually do give you a little bit of overfill. We switched to some finer needles, and that allowed us to really maximize – to really try to get every drop out.” The FDA doesn’t allow vials to be combined, but if there is a complete extra dose, it can be disseminated. During the clinic, the Bassett pharmacists were able to squeeze out 10 extra doses, distributed to people who’d

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Nov. 3 Presidential election to promote his candidate. Someone poured white paint on it last June, but it was repaired. After the 2020 election, suddenly the billboard read, “Trump 2024,” which apparently prompted the current concern. ZEO Monroe circulated a copy of town zoning regulations, which include this reference to signs: “Political posters, signs promoting a non-commercial cause or activity or not-forprofit fundraising events shall be allowed on private property only (with property owner’s consent). Such signs shall bear the name and address of the person responsible for their removal, and shall be in place for no more than 30 (thirty) days.” Read one way, it authorizes the town to order a political sign removed. But Bullard said it refers to “those little things you put on your front lawn.” County Democratic Chairman Clark Oliver said he had seen the article on www. AllOTSEGO.com, but was unaware of any connection to Democrats in the town. For his part, Joe Marmorato of Hartwick, vice chairman of the county Republican Committee, pointed out that former President Trump hasn’t even announced he’s running in 2024. Until then, do laws regulating campaigns even apply, he asked. After being approach by the Planning Board members, Pokorny said, “I was concerned this potentially could cost the taxpayers some money if we were fined.” He reached out to Rome Sign Co.: “They said to me that their attorneys said the Trump sign was not a political sign,” and therefore not covered by the town’s sign regulation. “In this world today, no one’s going to agree on politics,” said Pokorny. “I just want to protect the rights we do have and go about it the right way.”

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OTSEGO.life

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021

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ORHA Executive Director Timothy Peters, left, looks back on the latest reincarnation of the venerable former Cherry Valley School, far left.

AllOTSEGO.life

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Jim Kevlin/

ACK to the

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in Otsego County

BEST BETS

OLD SCHOOL

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Ian Austin/

Janet Rigby serves turkey chili to Nancy Tarr and Liane Hirabayashi at the Hanford Mills Museum’s 2020 Ice Harvest Festival.

Harvest Festival Goes On(-line)

A Richard Saba, above left, with Timothy Peters, try out the offerings and, at right, confer in one of the efficiencies.

10 Rent-Subsidized Apartments Now Available For 62+ Tenants By JIM KEVLIN CHERRY VALLEY

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high point for Richard Saba was the teen café, where up to 130 young people would gather at the old Cherry Valley School to create art and play music. “It expanded their cultural landscape,” said Saba, himself

►APPLY FOR Alden Park Apartments at Cherry Valley town, village officers, by calling 607-286-7244, or visiting

otsegoruralhousing.org a noted artist, who has been involved in reinventing the 1913 former high school here since he helped co-founded Cherry Valley Community Facilities Corp. for Please See HOUSING, A7

Living Happy

Zoe plays happily with her canine pals, Sabrina and Bentley, at the farm where she was adopted. However, a cancer recurrence has been diagnosed, leaving her with an estimated 18 months to live.

Facing Breast Cancer, Zoe ‘Always Has Smile On Face’ By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE COOPERSTOWN

A AllOTSEGO.life

Ian Austin/

fter a year and some happy months on the other side of neglect, 10-year-old German Shepherd Zoe has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Zoe first captured the hearts of people across the region - and beyond - when rescued from her home on Nov. 15, 2019, after a

UPS driver spotted a dog that appeared to “have had its leg blown off.” After an X-ray showed “bones in her belly,” confirming Zoe had chewed off her own leg, it was later determined that it was not done out of hunger, but rather out of pain. Zoe had a large – fortunately benign – mass on her left shoulder that was removed at Cornell University while she was receiving Please See ZOE, A7

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL • HOMETOWN ONEONTA

nnual Ice Harvest goes online. We can’t get together this year to break ice out of the pond, or enjoy the hot soup from all your favorite restaurants at the buffet, but we can still beat the winter blues with these fun online programs. • Get the family together for workshop to discover how ice was stored before modern refrigeration. Learn LARISSA how ice houses RYAN worked and experiment with materials to figure out which ones work best. Presented by Hanford Mills Museum, East Meredith. 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6. 607-278-5744 or visit hanfordmills.org • And there’s more for the online Ice Harvest Festival! Test your knowledge of ice in the Fun Trivia game. Answer questions on anything from glaciers to the history of refrigeration to planets made of ice. Presented by the A.J. Read Science Discovery Center, SUNY Oneonta. 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5. 607-278-5744 or visit hanfordmills.org • Learn ‘Winter’s Coolest Crop: Ice Harvesting History and Culture’ with staff member Liz Callahan and Associate professor of History at Boston University Andrew Robichaud whose book-in-progress is tentatively titled ‘On Ice: Transformations In American Life,’ a history of the American Ice Trade. Presented by The Hanford Mills Museum. 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4. 607-278-5744 or visit hanfordmills.org • Protect your friends and family. Asymptomatic people can schedule an appointment for free rapid testing for COVID-19. Oneonta Health Center, 125 Main St. Oneonta. Appts. REQUIRED. 8 a.m. - Noon. Saturday, February 6. Call 607-433-6510.

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Perspectives

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021

A-4 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL EDITORIAL

‘Who Cares?’ Asks Cuomo. But COVID-19 Answers Needed

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e’ve seen it happen here. On Dec. 28, Cooperstown Center – the former Otsego Manor, now in private hands – advised its Family Council that two residents had died – not necessarily OF COVID, but WITH COVID. Officially, one died of a bleeding hernia, the other of sepsis, at Bassett Hospital, NOT at the nursing home. The Cuomo Administration’s Health Department took this kind of parsing a step further: Statewide, if a nursing home resident with COVID was transferred to a hospital and died there, he or she was counted as a hospital death, not a nursinghome death. Attorney General Letitia James blew the whistle on this slack practice in a press conference last Thursday, Jan. 28, detailing an investigation that found nursing-home deaths from COVID may actually be 50 percent higher than the Cuomo Administration has been letting on. Later that day, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker released new numbers, raising the nursing-home tally by 3,800 to a new total of 12,743. That means about a third of our state’s 40,000 COVID deaths happened in places like Cooperstown Center. So Cuomo and his health commissioner, Howard Zucker, knew. But so what? • Here’s what. On March 25, as the pandemic was just

HOMETOWN ONEONTA

You should read this article in full. Google “cuomo hospital lobbyists,” or read excerpt below.

getting underway in New York State, the governor directed nursing homes to accept residents suspected of having COVID. “Further,” Kaiser Health News reported Aug. 24, when Cuomo was crowing about his state’s success at the Democratic National Convention, “nursing homes

Blockbuster

LETTERS

Many Owe Their Lives To Muslim Immigrants To the Editor: The COVID vaccine I got today was invented by a husband and wife team of Turkish Muslim immigrants. They live modestly in an apartment and ride their bicycles to work at their company, BioNTech. They were the first to decode the C-19 virus and developed the vaccine made by Pfizer. So, like many people the world over, I owe my life to a Turk. Maybe you will too. Somehow this does not come as a complete surprise. The prescription drugs I take are made in Turkey. Turkish Muslim immigrants work in the factories that built our cars. A Turkish immigrant founded the company that makes our yogurt. Our

favorite waiter at the Mingo is a Turk. The doorman at the Harvard Club is a Turk. The steel in our boatshed was made in Turkey, as was my shotgun’s stock. The laptop I write this on was made by a company founded by the son of a Syrian Muslim immigrant, Steve Jobs. And so it goes. So much for Trump’s “travel ban on Moslems.” Something that Joe Biden, the great x3 grandson of an Irish immigrant, got rid of on Day 1. If you’re lucky enough to make it to the end of 2021, thank a Muslim. Tell them “Allahu Akbar.” It means “God is most great.” Imagine that. CHIP NORTHRUP Cooperstown

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Fear Not, Help IS On The Way

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s of 11a.m. (Monday, Feb. 1), 90 percent of first doses allocated to the state have been administered. This represents 1,393,064 first doses administered of the 1,554,450 first dose allocations received from the federal government. So far, 307,662 second doses have been administered out of 725,050 second doses received. from GOVERNOR CUOMO’s Daily COVID report

REPORT: Nursing Home Residents Poorly Served Editor’s Note: Here are the recommendations in state Attorney General Letitia James’ report, “Nursing Home Response to COVID19 Pandemic,” which also discovered nursing-home deaths may be 50 percent higher than the Cuomo Administration let on.

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►FOR COMPLETE text of “Nursing Home Response to COVID-19 Pandemic,” type “letitia james” in the search line at

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nsure public reporting by each nursing home as to the number of COVID-19 deaths of residents occurring at the facility — and those that occur during or after hospitalization of the residents — in a manner that avoids creating a double-counting of resident deaths at hospitals in reported state COVID-19 death statistics. • Enforce, without exception, New York State law requiring nursing homes to provide adequate care and treatment of nursing home residents during times of emergency. • Require nursing homes to comply with labor practices that prevent nursing homes from pressuring

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From Youtube

State Attorney General Letitia James outlines key recommendations in “Nursing Home Response to COVID-19 Pandemic,” which also discovered nursing-home deaths may be 50 percent higher than the Cuomo Administration let on.

employees to work while they have COVID-19 infection or symptoms, while ensuring nursing homes obtain and provide adequate staffing levels to care for residents’ needs. • Require direct care and supervision staffing levels that: (1) are expressed in ratios of residents to RNs, LPNs, and CNAs;

(2) require calculation of sufficiency that includes adjustment based on average resident acuity; (3) are above the current level reflected at facilities with low CMS Staffing ratings; and, (4) are sufficient to care for the facility’s residents’ needs reflected in their care plans. • Require additional and

enforceable transparency in the operation of for-profit nursing homes, including financial transactions and financial relationships between nursing home operators and related parties, and relatives of all individual owners and officers of such entities with contractual or investor relationships with the nursing home. Through a variety of related party transactions and relationships, owners and investors of for-profit nursing homes can exert control over the facility’s operations in a Please See REPORT, A5

For 212 Years

FROM WOODSIDE HALL

James C. Kevlin Editor & Publisher

were prohibited from requiring that medically stable prospective residents be tested for the virus before they arrived.” From March 25 to May 8, some 6,326 COVID-positive patients were admitted to nursing homes statewide, KHN said. When Cuomo hammered the Trump

Administration at the convention, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman responded: “Does the #DemConvention know @GovCuomo forced nursing homes to take COVIDpositive patients and planted the seeds of infection that killed thousands of grandmothers and grandfathers?” The Cuomo Administration declined to respond. • On Sept. 18, Bill Hammond of the Empire Center in Albany wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal saying that Cuomo has “a remarkably tight political alliance” with the Greater New York Hospital Association, which donated $1 million to his 2019 campaign. “It turns out,” Hammond wrote, quoting an earlier Journal article, “that this illconceived policy was the brainchild of the non-profit hospital association, which pitched it to Governor Cuomo’s office shortly before it went into effect. “In the name of easing a crisis for the association’s members, the Cuomo Administration contributed to a disaster for vulnerable nursing-home residents, who died by the thousands.” Later, the piece continues, “the hospital association successfully lobbied for a lastminute budget provision to limit sharply the ability of coronavirus victims to file Please See EDITORIAL, A5

Tara Barnwell

Advertising Director & General Manager

Chrystal Savage

Managing Editor

Larissa Ryan Business Manager

Kathleen Peters Graphics & Production

Elizabeth Cooper Correspondent

Ian Austin Photographer

Ivan Potocnik Web Architect

Tom Heitz/Sharon Stuart Consultant

IN MEMORIAM: Mary Joan Kevlin, Co-Publisher, 2006-17 OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER FOR Otsego County • Village of Cooperstown • Village of Milford Cooperstown Central School District MEMBER: National Newspaper Association, NY Press Association Subscriptions Rates: Otsego County, $69 a year. All other areas, $89 a year. First Class Subscription, $155 a year. Published Thursdays by Iron String Press, Inc. 21 Railroad Ave., Cooperstown NY 13326 Telephone: (607) 547-6103. Fax: (607) 547-6080. E-mail: info@allotsego.com • www.allotsego.com Contents © Iron String Press, Inc.

H

No Need For A Brick

ow’d it happen? Suddenly it’s 2020, I’m 82, twice a widower, living in a comfortable assisted living home. Well cared-for. But, essentially, alone. The pandemic has us 18 residents quarantined, even from one another. Lots of time alone in one’s room, even with meals JIM brought to us on trays. Just now, however, despite ATWELL prescribed aloneness, I have kept my room crowded with vividly remembered adults; ones who, because or in spite of me, shaped my life’s values. And one of those who loomed large was my Great-Aunt Mame. • In fact, you’d hardly think she could

loom large in any way. Born in the 1870s, Mame stood just short of 5 feet. She was a registered nurse, though Lord knows how she changed bed sheets and helped patients turn over. But she did. In late 1917, Aunt Mame felt a patriotic call to join an overseas nursing corps: She would cross the Atlantic and nurse the wounded boys then fighting “over there.” That dear little woman had her trunk packed and was ready to climb a gangplank when – wouldn’t you know it? – the war went and ended on her! Crestfallen, Mame ended up back in Annapolis. Because my mother had A World War I recruitment Please See ATWELL, A6 poster to attract nurses like Jim Atwell’s Aunt Mame.

AllOTSEGO.com

LETTERS TO EDITOR WELCOME • EMAIL THEM TO info@

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL A-5

BOUND VOLUMES

Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library

200 YEARS AGO

Joseph Findlay Smith of Baltimore and Adolph Lacost of New York, commanders of the schooners Plattsburgh and Science, captured in April last, on the African coast, by the U.S. ship Cyane, Capt. Trenchard, and convicted before the Circuit Court of the United States, held in Boston last November, of violations of the laws prohibiting the slave trade, were sentenced on January 26 to five years imprisonment and to pay a fine of $3,000 each. Napoleon Bonaparte, having been born on February 5, 1768, will be 53 years of age this day. True, to us Americans, it is not a matter of much moment – yet there can be no harm in the bare mention of it. February 5, 1821

175 YEARS AGO

Excerpts from a letter dated June 24, 1845, from John McClure, Representative of the District of Clatsop in the legislative committee of Oregon, requesting information on the strength, character and prospects of that part of the colony that I have the honor to represent. The situation of the land in Clatsop District differs from that of any other district now settled or occupied by whites in Oregon, owing to its situation at the mouth of the Columbia River. A considerable portion of the district may be called broken, or mountain lands, interspersed with numerous small prairies or plains, of excellent soil. The present population of white inhabitants is about 100 souls, 52 of which are males over the age of 21 years and capable

of bearing arms. There are in our infant district, not yet one year old, one saw and grist mill, and one shingle mill in operation; also two retail stores, one however being the Hudson Bay’s Company’s. A fair estimate of the present harvest may stand thus: Wheat – 2,000 bushels; potatoes, 4,000 bushels, besides oats, rye, peas, &c. The farmers are all Americans – moral, honest and industrious. The plains of Clatsop are 20 miles in length and about one and a half in width. The soil – first rate, and the grazing or pasture land sufficient for the support of several thousand cattle. The climate is exceedingly mild, and sickness unknown amongst us. John McClure February 7, 1846

150 YEARS AGO

Italians – To the Editor of the Journal: The Town of Otsego may well feel proud of its two young men, put in nomination at their respective caucuses for the heads of the tickets. Mr. Doubleday, the Democratic nominee for Highway Commissioner, is a young man of ability, and if elected will not employ outsiders to do Town work. Every laboring man who has his own interests to look after, should esteem it a privilege as well as his interest to vote for Mr. Doubleday, thereby securing to himself as many benefits at least as are and have been conferred upon Italians. A Fly Creek Republican. (Ed. Note: Italian immigrants to America increased dramatically in the 1870s, 1880s and early 1890s. Male Italian laborers, both skilled and unskilled, were instrumental in building railroads, highways and buildings in the late 19th

century in Otsego County and elsewhere. Their willingness to work for lower wages and longer hours displaced some of their predecessors from England and Ireland. Such ethnic jealousy and resentment surfaced in this letter in 1871). February 6, 1871

100 YEARS AGO

125 YEARS AGO

Local: More people in Cooperstown were last week suffering from minor illness, and many of them receiving the attention of physicians, than at any other period within our recollection. Was it a species of the grip (influenza)? Poor child – Several weeks ago, Edna Cross, stepdaughter of Ellery Hoke of Cooperstown, aged nine years, while looking for eggs in the barn of her grandfather, fell through a hole in the floor, breaking one of her arms and badly cutting and bruising herself. One day last week, as the poor child, who was just recovering from her injuries, was sitting in a chair, she fell to the floor and broke the other arm. Dr. Bassett reduced the fracture and she is now as comfortable as can be expected. February 6, 1896

75 YEARS AGO

The original copy of the Report of New York’s Temporary State Commission Against Discrimination, which resulted in the passage during the 1945 legislative session of the notable anti-discrimination law has just been presented to the New York State Historical Association’s Central Quarter’s library in this village by the Hon. Irving N. Ives,

county borders, 4,239 more than the previous record counted in the 1960 census. The final figure adds 770 to the preliminary total reported last October. The Town of Otsego would up with a 1970 total of 3,998, down 123 from the 1960 figure and the biggest decline in the Otsego County. February 3, 1971

25 YEARS AGO

Thomas A. Pearson, M.D., Ph.D., occupant of the Jane Forbes Clark Chair in Health Research and Director of the Bassett Healthcare Research Institute, has been named Pfizer Visiting Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine for 1996. Pfizer, Inc., a U.S. pharmaceutical company, supports a small number of distinguished February 2, 1921 physicians and scientists to spend three days at U.S. medical Chairman of the Commission and schools to lecture and exchange the majority leader of the New ideas. Pearson will appear at the York State Assembly. The AssociMorehouse School of Medicine ation believes it to be a document in Atlanta to present ideas about of the first importance. New York preventive cardiology. has been the first of 48 states to February 4, 1996 write such an anti-discrimination bill into law and the debate on its passage proved one of the hottest in Albany’s legislative history. It has been hailed as a “Bill of Rights” for New York’s minority groups. February 6, 1946

50 YEARS AGO

Final U.S. Census figures made public last week show that Otsego County’s population gained 8.2 percent in the last decade to reach the highest total in its 179-year history. The figures show that 56,171 people live within the

EDITORIAL: Did Politics Lead To COVID Deaths this partisan,” said Oberacker. ­EDITORIAL/From A4 “Why wouldn’t we just want to malpractice suits against hospitals, have the investigation, shed light nursing homes and other providers.” on it, and go from there? OtherHammond concludes, “In August, wise, it just breeds questions and the Greater New York Hospital concerns.” Association repaid Mr. Cuomo’s In the Assembly, a Democrat, favors by featuring him in TV ads Ron Kim, from Queens, is touting the state’s success in controlproposing companion legislation. ling the pandemic and assuring the Our assemblyman, John Salka, worried public that hospitals are Two Assembly Democrats, Jim Skoufis, safe to use again.” left, and Ron Kim, right, and a Republican R-Brookfield, supports it. senator, Jim Tedisco, center, are looking The final verdict should best be There’s much more in the for answers. delivered by the voters. It’s unclear Hammond piece worthy of reflec4 million Democratic voters; 400,000 if Cuomo is running again in 2022, tion. Google it. Republicans. In Albany, the Democrats although he says he will and is raising In a related Journal article, the control the Governor’s Office and the money. Letitia James, a Democrat, is Cuomo Administration declined to state Senate and Assembly by wide a political animal: Maybe she’s setting respond. margins. Who’s going to investigate herself up for a run for the top job. • this? • In his press conference Friday, • Of course, power corrupts, and the Jan. 29, the governor, as you might Here’s who, maybe. Democrats have a lot of power in New expect, went on the offensive: “But The state Senate has an InvestigaYork State. The best cleansing agent is who cares? Died in a hospital, died in a tions & Government Operations the ballot box. nursing home, they died.” Committee, chaired by a scrappy Republicans, of course, should field However, if Cuomo’s March 25 advisory resulted from the influence of Democrat, of course, James Skoufis of a strong contender for governor in Orange County, who has been saying 2022, someone with charisma and twoa major donor – not his much-touted all the right things. It has subpoena party reach – an Ed Cox, maybe. Or, “data” – does that bother you? More powers; Skoufis should act. as good, perhaps Democrats can field a to the point, if thousands of deaths Plus, a Temporary State Commission candidate with integrity, someone like resulted, is it criminal? on COVID-19 has been proposed by Michael Bloomberg, or maybe James. Unfortunately, New York State a Republican, Jim Tedisco, from the Easier said than done, but without is dominated by Democrats, (as it Schenectady area. Our state senator, a healthy political balance, corruption would be unfortunate for us if it were Peter Oberacker, R-Schenevus, is is inevitable, and probably rife. And, dominated by Republicans. Save us co-sponsoring the legislation. as this case may prove when explored, from single-party governance). “I don’t think any of us should make corruption can be deadly. In New York City, there are

10 YEARS AGO

Sixteen northern Otsego County students have been named to the Dean’s List for the fall 2010 semester: Cherry Valley: Joelle Nick, Wesley Nick. Cooperstown: Kristen Busse, Kamileh Demirel, Emily Hunter, John LaDuke, Patrick LaDuke, Amanda Willsey. Fly Creek: Nicholas Weir. Hartwick: Kaylan Alban, Sasha Boulay, Emily Davidson, Everett Farrell; Milford: Eliza Higgins, Chelsea Krieg. Richfield Springs: Meaghan Forbes. February 3, 2011

LIFE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

J&J Comes To The Rescue! And What About That NFL?

O

n Friday, Jan. 29, strains, some considered Janssen/Johnson & more virulent and more Johnson announced infective, competing against its vaccine had proven effec- each other and the concentive in Phase 3 studies. This tration of the disease in the brings a third vaccine on line population was lower. in the fight against COVIDThey state that given the 19 and potentially increases changing conditions in the the pace of vaccinations by world, if the Moderna and 50 percent. Pfizer vaccines were Additionally, the J&J retested now that they would protocol is for a probably have very single dose and the similar profiles to storage requirements theirs. are much less • stringent than those The negative of the two vaccines news is the outbreak already available in of new strains of the the United States, virus. These new Moderna and Pfizer. strains appear to On the other be at the same time hand, the statistics RICHARD more virulent and on efficacy for the less responsive to STERNBERG J&J vaccine are the vaccines curnot as high as those rently available. reported for the other two. We have been hearing in It is reported as 85 percent the news about a new strain effective globally against from Great Britain for about severe disease and 70 a month, but in the last week percent effective against we are also hearing about moderate to severe disease. new strains from South Many scientists consider Africa and Brazil that appear this on balance very good even worse and less affected news. by the vaccines currently If we remember back to available. of deceased residents. last year the goal for efficacy Other evidence suggests • Urge families to CMS was 70 percent which would that vaccines are effective Care Compare online have made that equivalent against severe episodes database, ask questions of to the flu vaccine. Only and the increase seen after nursing homes relating to vaccination are almost all staffing, policies, procedures, because of higher numbers with Moderna and Pfizer do mild to moderate cases. and recent and current 85 percent and 70 percent Some companies are COVID-19 infections of seem low. starting to make vaccines staff and residents, and to Furthermore, the J&J for the different strains obtain information relevant vaccine is a one-dose though it appears that it will to their current or future regimen and requires only be some time before they long-term care decisions even begin Stage II trials. for their loved ones. Where basic refrigeration to last In my opinion, we will possible, visit family mem- for weeks, making it much easier to distribute and eventually need to get mulber residents in person and complete a course of vaccine tivalent (multiple different through “window” visits and (i.e., only one shot). varieties of the virus) vacvideocalls even if resident is This should especially cinations to SARS-CoV-2 unable to communicate, to help in people hesitant to get yearly, or even more often, provide emotional support a shot at all. just like we do for the flu. and to enable observation Furthermore, as J&J • of the resident’s physical scientists point out, previous From the sports page of appearance and condition. studies were performed the Wall Street Journal (Feb. Ensure family members when the viral outbreak was 1, 2021) comes one of the know to report suspected at an earlier, simpler stage. most interesting and statistineglect or abuse to DOH There weren’t multiple Please See STERNBERG, A6 and OAG.

REPORT: Nursing Homes Need Better Funding, Staffing REPORT/From A4 manner that extracts significant profit for them, while leaving the facility with insufficient staffing and resources to provide the care that residents deserve. • Ensure that nursing homes invest sufficiently in effective training so staff can fully comply with infection control protocols. Hold operators accountable for failures to have clinically appropriate policies in place and to effectively train staff to comply with them. • Support manufacturing of PPE to facilitate sufficient supply of PPE for purchase by nursing homes. Enforce requirements that nursing homes have sufficient inventory of PPE for all staff to be able to follow infection control protocols.

• Ensure that adequate COVID-19 testing is available to nursing home residents and employees and require nursing homes to test residents and staff in accordance with CDC and DOH evidence-based guidelines. • Eliminate the recently enacted immunity provisions that can provide financial incentives to for-profit nursing home operators to put residents at risk of harm by refraining from investing public funds to obtain sufficient staffing to meet residents’ care needs, to purchase sufficient PPE for staff, and to provide effective training to staff to comply with infection control protocols during pandemics and other public health emergencies. • Formally enact and

continue to enforce regulatory requirements that nursing homes communicate with family members of residents promptly, but not later than within 24 hours, of any confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection, and of any COVID-19 confirmed or suspected death. • Increase staffing at DOH to ensure sufficient skilled resources for oversight, complaint assessment, surveys, inspections and immediate responses to information requests from state agencies in support of health care and law enforcement efforts. • Ensure that nursing homes engage in thoughtful planning regarding post-mortem care needs and implement and train staff on policies for dignified care of the remains

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STERNBERG: NFL Provides Real C-19 Data

STERNBERG/From A5 cally valid studies on the epidemiology of COVID-19. The NFL, it turns out, has a wealth of data on the transmission pattern of the disease from what they have collected from their 32 teams. It performed over 950,000 tests on more than 7,000 people and confirmed approximately 700 positive cases. The key thing it found was that previous guidelines – that staying less than 6 feet away from someone for more than 15 minutes was necessary for transmission – was completely wrong. The NFL had the resources to do excellent contact tracing and its data showed that one could catch the virus while being MORE than 6 feet away. Wearing of masks mattered more than duration of contact. If both people were wearing masks the risk of transmission went way down, regardless of contact time. • Many columns ago, I discussed the ridiculousness of the early pronouncements that 6 feet was a magic number: if you were more than 6 feet apart, you wouldn’t catch the virus. Now we have solid data based on a sample of 7,000 subjects, all of whom were required to participate on transmissibility. The data does not support those early instructions; they were too lenient. It reaffirms the importance of masks. I can’t wait to read the scientific paper or papers that come from the NFL data. Considering the number of data points and the carefully tracking of all 7,000 subjects, I suspect that a paper on this will warrant publishing in the most prestigious journals like Science or the New England Journal of Medicine. Richard Sternberg, retired Bassett Hospital orthopedic surgeon, is providing his professional perspective weekly during the COVID-19 threat. A village trustee, he resides in Cooperstown.

ATWELL: Indomitable Aunt Taught Lifelong Lessons

T

ATWELL/From A4 mailed the trunk for her, it was delivered from the train back to her home. Mame went there and unpacked it, including the stash of chocolates that she had been sure would cheer the injured doughboys. She left the trunk behind. • Donkey’s years later, after Mother’s marriage and my brother’s and my plopping onto the scene, that small green trunk became a major prop for our childhood games. We’d climb in and out of it, fire volleys at Hitler and company from behind it. You won’t believe it, but I once took down Herman Goering and Heinrich Himmler with a single shot! During those times, though still a part-time nurse, Aunt Mame was a regular visitor to our house, and she shared many meals and stories with us. Among the stories, ones about her quashed trip across the Atlantic figured strongly. And between us, Denny and I created fictions of her exploits, as if she’d actually gone there.

hose are awful memories, but by no means my strongest of that diminutive lady. Perhaps the strongest is from my teenage years when, while I helped her up onto our front porch, she took a step ahead, and brighteyed, smiling, faced me head on. When I think of our visits with Mame, we three were often together under the dining room table, propped back against the comfortable curling legs. Mame, of course, was of a size to be at ease under there, and happy in our ready acceptance of her as an equal in games. • I was grown and in the Christian Brothers as Mame grew old, deaf, and steadily more infirm. Pulling

some strings, I got her a place in a Catholic nursing home just outside Washington, D.C. Our dear mother took care of Mame’s now-empty house. She had spent a hot, humid July day at Mame’s, mowing grass and taking down dusty lace curtains to bring home and wash. Those curtains were soaking in our basement when, upstairs, she was stricken. It was a massive cerebral hemorrhage, and she stayed conscious just long enough to groan protest to Pop’s picking her up from the floor and carrying her to their bed. My brother and sister-in-law arrived at the hospital just after they brought Mother in, and after a 30-mile drive through pelting rain, alternately clearing the windshield and wiping away tears, I got to the hospital just in time to kiss my mother’s lifeless forehead. • Days later, my brother, his wife Shirley, and I went to Washington to tell Mame. She brightened at the sight of us but was looking behind

us for sight of Mother. Mame was profoundly deaf by then, and it fell to me to kneel, face inches from her ear, shouting “Mother has died! Mame, Mother is dead!” And I was just that close to Mame as it dawned on her face the terrible thing I was saying. Within days, it was the death of her. Those are awful memories, but by no means my strongest of that diminutive lady. Perhaps the strongest is from my teenage years when, while I helped her up onto our front porch, she took a step ahead, and bright-eyed, smiling, faced me head on. “Boy! You’re just growing too fast! I’m going to have to put a brick on your head!” No need for a brick, dear old girl! Especially to stop growth of my love for you! Jim Atwell, retired hospital administrator and longtime newspaper columnist, resides in Woodside Hall these days.

LETTERS

Hospitals Posting Prices? When You’re Sick, It Doesn’t Matter To the Editor: As I was driving along listening to NPR talking about hospitals now being required to post prices for services. I thought: That is all the hospital needs, more hoops to jump through for the government. I looked on the Internet to find out more details. “The Trump Administration… announced it would begin forcing hospitals to publicly disclose the discounted prices they negotiate with insurance companies, a potentially bold move to help people shop for better deals on a range of medical services, from hip replacements to brain scans,” wrote the New York Times’ Reed Abelson.

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COVID they have moved to fourth.) This fact and the issue of cost is a symptom of a deeper problem of medicine in America. What is the meaning of healthcare? The high cost of healthcare is drug companies – “BigPharma”. They donate huge sums of money to universities to teach doctors to push drugs. Doctors then have a limited perspective on what healthcare is. They are forced to think within the box and lose their ability to be creative and innovative. The knowledge should be about nurses’ and doctors’ views and experiences, not corporations. Even scientific studies would be better off if the ideas came from the nurses

and doctors, not from mice running around in cages. You can’t have a system of health based on profit without discriminating against the people with limited resources. Capitalism and healthcare can’t share the same bed. Many will cry “socialism.” My cry is: compassion, humanitarianism. Healthy citizens equal healthy society. The bottom line is: We are all in this world together and we are all going to die. Why can’t we do it with dignity and virtue? R. SCOTT DUNCAN Hartwick Forrest

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Do they really think I want to go shopping for better deals in healthcare? Can you see yourself on a shopping spree to compare prices when you are sick? Are they completely clueless? If you are sick, it’s prices be damned.. You want solutions to regain full health. Do you think a commander of a battleship has to worry about how much weapons, food and fuel cost so they can go out and kill people? Yet with healthcare in this county, it is all about prices. What kind of country is this? It is true that hospitals and doctors are the Number 3 cause of death in America. (Maybe with

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Cherry Valley School Hosts Zoe Happy With Pals On Farm, But Dangers Await encourages that each indidomestic animals. siblings: Bentley the cocker A3 10 Apartments For 62+ Folks ZOE/From spaniel and Sabrina another vidual consult their trusted SPCA Executive Director medical attention for her

HOUSING/From A3 that purpose in 1992. A number of the young café-goers became musicians and artists, a source of pride for Saba, currently CVCF president. First, the facilities corporation attracted the Post Office, which has occupied the first floor of the main building, fronting on Genesee Street, for a quarter-century. Since, tenants and concepts have come and gone – today, town and village offices are located there, and exercise space in the old high school gym. Soon, tenants age 62 and up will occupy 10 rent-subsidized units – four one-bedroom; six efficiencies – in the 1957 annex, renamed the Alden Park Apartments. Rents range from $560 to $675, adjusted depending on an applicant’s income. “They’re below market rate,” said Timothy Peters, executive director of Otsego Rural Housing Assistance (ORHA), the project’s developer since 2016. What was old is now new, as the former classrooms – and, for a decade, the Little Lambs Daycare Center – have been smartly outfitted with up-to-date kitchens and bathrooms, wall-to-wall carpet and vertical blinds that open up on woodland views or fields and hills. Everything’s bright, from the newly installed wood floors leading from the entry hall – yes, that blackboard dates back to school days – to the washers and dryers in the laundry room at the far end, Saba and Peters pointed out during a tour of the site the other day. The old school also hosts the senior meal site: How convenient is that? At the outset, the idea was championed by ORHA board secretary Susan Miller of Cherry Valley, and Tony Scalici, Tim’s predecessor, but many steps have been taken in the past five years. Jim Jordan, the Richfield Springs architect, obtained $19,000 from the New York State Main Street program. (His dad, James M. Jordan Sr., designed the annex, as well as Richfield Springs and Schenevus’ Andrew S. Draper central schools, and many others.) The breakthrough was a construction grant – $1,483,102 (Peters knows the number by heart) – from the state’s Small Rental Development Initiative, with retired state Sen. Jim Seward’s support. Murnane Construction’s Utica office began construction about a year ago, “and they’ve done a great job overall,” said Peters, “even in the pandemic.” With local hires, too, including Mike Domion of Richfield Springs, the lead carpenter. Because of the government grants, Tim can tell a few horror stories. One regulation required ORHA to map every propane tank within five miles. Since the annex is more than 50 years old, it fell under SHPO, the state Historic Preservation Office, which prohibited the main hallway from being narrowed to allow larger apartments, or the windows to be reduced in size. The housing also falls under the U.S. Fair Housing Act, which requires ORHA to advertise in Hispanic and black publications in Utica and Syracuse, to ensure minority communities are aware of the project.

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Applications – now available at otsegoruralhousing. org and onsite in the town and village offices – will be reviewed, first come, first serve, so Peters encourages local people interested in the housing to submit applications now. The rehab, it must seem to Richard Saba, is never done. The upper floors of the main building – ideal for market-rate apartments – would require an elevator that opens as both ends to provide handicapped access, an obstacle not yet overcome. And he fondly remembers an early project: a collaboration with CV-S School Superintendent Mike Marcelli and ONC BOCES Superintendent John Mills to install a regional School for the Arts in the 1913 Arts & Crafts style front building – “a fine example,” said Historic Preservationist Jessie Ravage. He remembers outlining the project at the state Education Department in Albany. “They love the idea,” he said, and offered $1.6 million to make the idea happen. “Then Pataki was elected,” Saba said, “and he froze all BOCES funding.” Like Sisyphus, Saba will continue to push this boulder uphill.

missing leg. A local farmer, who wishes to remain anonymous, fostered Zoe right away before later adopting her, explaining he was lucky to get her as she was inquired about as far away as Texas in the continental United States and Israel globally. “I don’t know what your definition of foster is, but when they come to the farm, they stay on the farm,” the man said. “Because she wasn’t spayed, I couldn’t technically adopt her,” he said, as the medical procedures relating to the removal of the mass and amputation of her leg neglected the reproductive surgery as the staff was unsure if Zoe would “make it.” “So we fostered her until she had the surgery and could be adopted,” he said. That said, Zoe went into heat almost immediately – a function believed to be the result of her new and improved living conditions. When her heat was over, Zoe was spayed in February. Zoe healed from the various operations and has enjoyed life on the farm. “She’s a happy girl; always has a smile on her face,” her owner said. Some of Zoe’s favorite things include playing with balls and cats, her two canine

German shepherd - both rescues; she also enjoys curling up on the couch, road trips and more, according to her new owner. Sabrina can be found taking left turns while they play to purposely throw off Zoe. The cats can be found instigating Zoe to chew on their heads while they purr, he added. In November of this past year, Zoe’s owner noticed a lump to the left of her groin. Fortunately, it was not attached to any veins. Still, he opted to have a biopsy done at the expense of $135. Sadly, the results came back positive for the mammary tumor. The senior is expected to survive eight to 18 more months, but Zoe’s owner feels she “deserves so much more than that.” Although the SPCA

veterinarian to advise them on the proper time to spay. She suggests there are some variable opinions as it relates to the reaction to the procedure by different breeds, and even sizes, of dogs and other

Stacie Haynes believes Zoe is on the 18-month end of the spectrum and Zoe’s friends and family are hopeful for the future and look forward to every moment they enjoy with her.

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A-8 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

IN MEMORIAM

Karen Elizabeth Johnson Rury Nov. 30, 1949 - Jan. 28, 2021

CHERRY VALLEY – Karen Elizabeth Johnson Rury died peacefully in her home on January 28, 2021. She was born in Fulton on Nov 30, 1949, to her parents, Rod and Jean Johnson. She lived in Oswego County until her family moved to Middlefield in 1963. Karen graduated from Cherry Valley Central School in 1967. She attended SUNY Cobleskill and obtained a degree in Nursery Education. She then went to SUNY Cortland and received a degree in Elementary Education.

Legal

Karen and Edward Rury were married on Aug. 19, 1970. They celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in 2020. Edward was the love of her life. They had three children: Sarah, Jessica, and Jonathan, of whom they are very proud. They have five grandchildren: Cameran Flint, Elliot and Aidan Heilig-Rury, Nathan and Abigail Rury, who are their pride and joy. Karen was predeceased by her parents and by two siblings, Kevin and Kittie Johnson. She is survived by

Legal

Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of Some Pup Films LLC. Filed with the SSNY on 11/19/20. Office: Otsego County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to 189 Winney Hill Rd., Oneonta NY 13820. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. 6LegalMar.11 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of Jim Jam’s Pizza and More LLC Filed 1/8/2021 Office : Otsego County Secretary State of New York designated as agent to process & shall mail to 95 Main Street East Worcester NY 12064 Purpose: All lawful business activities permitted under NYS 6 Legal. 6LegalMar.11 Legal nOtice SUPPLEMENTAL SUMMONS SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF OTSEGO INDEX NO. EF2019-301 Plaintiff designates OTSEGO as the place of trial situs of the real property Mortgaged Premises: 17 RIVER STREET RICHFIELD SPRINGS, NY 13439 District: Section: 13.20 Block: 3 Lot: 46.00 NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC D/B/A MR. COOPER, Plaintiff, vs. PHYLLIS LUCILE TODD A/K/A LUCILE P. TODD, AS HEIR AND DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF DAVID BENNETT; JOHN A. BENNETT, AS HEIR AND DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF DAVID BENNETT; ROBERT J. GILMORE, AS HEIR AND DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF DAVID BENNETT; CHAD BENNETT, AS HEIR AND DISTRIBUTEE OF

THE ESTATE OF DAVID BENNETT AS WELL AS HEIR AND DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF ROBERT A. BENNETT; REBECCA BENNETT, AS HEIR AND DISTRIBUTEE OF THE ESTATE OF ROBERT A. BENNETT; UNKNOWN HEIRS AND DISTRIBUTEES OF THE ESTATE OF DAVID BENNETT; any and all persons unknown to plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or general or specific lien upon the real property described in this action; such unknown persons being herein generally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the wife, widow, husband, widower, heirs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors, and assignees of such deceased, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to said real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their respective wives, widows, husbands, widowers, heirs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors and assigns, all of whom and whose names, except as stated, are unknown to plaintiff; UNKNOWN HEIRS AND DISTRIBUTEES OF THE ESTATE OF ROBERT A. BENNETT; any and all persons unknown to plaintiff, claiming, or who may claim to have an interest in, or general or specific lien upon the real property described in this action; such unknown persons being herein generally described and intended to be included in the following designation, namely: the wife, widow, husband, widower, heirs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees, committees, lienors, and assignees of such deceased, any and all persons deriving interest in or lien upon, or title to said real property by, through or under them, or either of them, and their respective wives, widows, husbands, widowers, heirs at law, next of kin, descendants, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, creditors, trustees,

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committees, lienors and assigns, all of whom and whose names, except as stated, are unknown to plaintiff; NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE; THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK; ‘’JOHN DOE #1’’ through ‘’JOHN DOE #12,’’ the last twelve names being fictitious and unknown to plaintiff, the persons or parties intended being the tenants, occupants, persons or corporations, if any, having or claiming an interest in or lien upon the premises, described in the complaint, Defendants. To the above named Defendants YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED to answer the complaint in this action and to serve a copy of your answer, or, if the complaint is not served with this summons, to serve a notice of appearance on the Plaintiff’s Attorney within 20 days after the service of this summons, exclusive of the day of service (or within 30 days after the service is complete if this summons is not personally delivered to you within the State of New York) in the event the United States of America is made a party defendant, the time to answer for the said United States of America shall not expire until (60) days after service of the Summons; and in case of your failure to appear or answer, judgment will be taken against you by default for the relief demanded in the complaint. NOTICE OF NATURE OF ACTION AND RELIEF SOUGHT THE OBJECT of the above caption action is to foreclose a Mortgage to secure the sum of $92,080.00 and interest, recorded on December 5, 2017, at Instrument number 2017-5984, of the Public Records of OTSEGO County, New York, covering premises known as 17 RIVER STREET RICHFIELD SPRINGS, NY 13439. The relief sought in the within action is a final judgment directing the sale

two brothers, Mark and Seth (Doreen) Johnson, of Middlefield, along with many nieces and nephews. Karen taught elementary education at Cherry Valley Central School, and later, at Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School. School was her second home; she was known for the ways she transformed her classroom for the joy of her young students. She was a mentor to many students, both inside and outside of the classroom, and was remembered for years

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after they had graduated. Karen was active in the Presbyterian Church. She served on the boards of the Presbyterian church, the Cherry Valley Memorial Library, and the Cherry ValleySpringfield PTO. After retirement, she was very active, along with her friend Claudia Lusk, in running the 1,000 Book Program at school. Family and friends were very supportive throughout her illness, providing cards, visits, meals, and encouragement. The community support

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of the premises described above to satisfy the debt secured by the Mortgage described above. OTSEGO County is designated as the place of trial because the real property affected by this action is located in said county. THIS SPACE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK NOTICE YOU ARE IN DANGER OF LOSING YOUR HOME If you do not respond to this summons and complaint by serving a copy of the answer on the attorney for the mortgage company who filed this foreclosure proceeding against you and filing the answer with the court, a default judgment may be entered and you can lose your home. Speak to an attorney or go to the court where your case is pending for further information on how to answer the summons and protect your property. Sending a payment to the mortgage company will not stop the foreclosure action. YOU MUST RESPOND BY SERVING A COPY OF THE ANSWER ON THE ATTORNEY FOR THE PLAINTIFF (MORTGAGE COMPANY) AND FILING THE ANSWER WITH THE COURT. Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid, Crane & Partners, PLLC, Attorney for Plaintiff BY: Corey Robson, Esq. 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310 Westbury, NY 11590 516-280-7675 4LegalFeb.25 Legal nOtice Notice of LLC Formation of Purcell Brickhouse Farm, LLC, a NY limited liability company (LLC). Arts. of Org. filed with NY Sec. of State (NYSS) on 01/05/2021. Office: Otsego County. NYSS designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be

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served. NYSS shall mail process to: 139 Brickhouse Road, Richfield Springs, New York 13439. Purpose: Any lawful purpose. 6LegalMar.11 Legal nOtice NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY The name of the limited liability company is: BQT Consultants, LLC (the “Company”). The date of filing of the Articles of Organization of the Company with the Secretary of State was January 29, 2021. 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 Hinman, Howard & Kattell, LLP, Attn: Christopher L. Roma, 80 Exchange Street, Ste. 700, Binghamton, NY 13901. The purpose of the business of the Company is any lawful business purpose. 6LegalMar.11 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of The Holscher Team LLC. Filed 12/21/20. Office: Otsego Co. SSNY desig. as agent for process & shall mail to: 155 Peebles Hill Rd, Oneonta, NY 13820. Purpose: General. 6LegalMar.11 Legal nOtice NOTICE OF HEARING TO HEAR COMPLAINTS IN RELATION TO ASSESSMENT ROLL Notice is hereby given that the Village of Cooperstown, County of Otsego has completed the tentative assessment roll for the current year. Effective the date of this notice through February 16, 2021 the assessment roll may be seen at the Village Clerk’s Office during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:00

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pm. The Board of Assessment Review will meet on Tuesday, February 16, 2021 at the Village Office Building, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown, New York between the hours of 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm, for the purpose of hearing and determining complaints in relation to assessments on the application of any person believing himself to be aggrieved. Complaints with respect to assessments must be filed with the Village Clerk on or before the day of the hearing on a form prescribed by the State. These forms are available at the Village Office. The Assessor will be available through February 16, 2021, Monday through Friday, from 8am – 2 pm, Thursday, February 4 from 6 pm – 8 pm, Saturday, February 6 from 9 am to 1 pm, or at a mutually convenient time by appointment, (607) 547-6057. Dated this 1st day of February, 2021 Albert Keck Assessor Village of Cooperstown 22 Main Street Cooperstown, NY 13326 1LegalFeb.4 Legal nOtice NOTICE TO BIDDERS Sealed bids will be received as set forth in Instructions to Bidders (https://www.dot. ny.gov/bids-and-lettings/constructioncontractors/important-info) until 10:30 A.M. on Thursday, February 18, 2021 at the NYSDOT, Office of Contract Management, 50 Wolf Rd, 1st Floor, Suite 1CM, Albany, NY 12232 and will be publicly opened and read. Maps, Plans and Specifications may be seen at Electronic documents and Amendments which are posted to www.dot. ny.gov/doing-business/opportunities/ const-notices. The New York State Department of Transportation, in accordance with the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 252, 42 U.S.C. 2000d to 2000d-4 and Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Department of Transportation, Subtitle A, Office the Secretary, Part

received is a testimony to her active role in the town she called home. There will be no service at this time due to Covid. The family anticipates a Celebration of Life in the springtime. Burial will be at the convenience of the family. If you wish to make a memorial donation in her memory, contributions should be sent to the Cherry ValleySpringfield Central School Endowment Foundation to further academic excellence and opportunities. Attn: Sue

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21, Nondiscrimination in Federallyassisted programs of the Department of Transportation and Title 23 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 200, Title IV Program and Related Statutes, as amended, issued pursuant to such Act, hereby notifies all who respond to a written Department solicitation, request for proposal or invitation for bid that it will affirmatively insure that in any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprises will be afforded full opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability/handicap and income status in consideration for an award. BIDDERS SHOULD BE ADVISED THAT AWARD OF THESE CONTRACTS MAY BE CONTINGENT UPON THE PASSAGE OF A BUDGET APPROPRIATION BILL BY THE LEGISLATURE AND GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Please call (518)457-2124 if a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the letting. Region 02: New York State Department of Transportation 207 Genesee Street, Utica, NY, 13501 D264453, PIN S12420, Albany, Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chemung, Chenango, Clinton, Columbia, Cortland, Delaware, Dutchess, Erie, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Genesee, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Livingston, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Nassau, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Orleans, Oswego, Otsego, Putnam, Rensselaer, Rockland, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Schuyler, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Steuben, Suffolk, Sullivan, Tioga, Tompkins, Ulster, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westchester, Wyoming, Yates Cos., 2021 -- 2024 Statewide Emergency Bridge Contract Regions 1 - 10, Bid Deposit: 5% of Bid (~ $75,000.00),

Drake, 105 John Deere Rd. Cherry Valley, NY 13320. To send online condolences visit www.ottmanfuneralhome.com In the lyrics of Sir Paul McCartney, one of Karen’s favorite musicians, “At the end of the end Is the start of a journey To a much better place And this wasn’t bad. So a much better place Would have to be special No need to be sad. No reason to cry.” We love you Karen.

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Goals: MBE: 0.00%, WBE: 0.00%, SDVOB: 6.00% 2LegalFeb.4 Legal nOtice NOTICE OF FORMATION OF LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY UNDER NEW YORK LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY LAW 1. The name of the limited liability company (“LLC”) is Farm View Farm LLC. 2. The date of filing of the Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State is January 12, 2021. 3. The County within the State of New York in which the principal office of the LLC is located is Otsego. 4. The Secretary of State of the State of New York is hereby designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The post office address to which the Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him or her is: 175 Rod and Gun Club Road, Unadilla, NY 13849. 5. The character or purpose of the business of the LLC is any purpose allowed by law. 6LegalFeb.18 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of Hwy28 LLC

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were on October 8, 2020. Office location is Otsego County. SSNY has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to 585 Richfield Hill Road, Richfield Springs, N.Y. 13439. Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws. 6LegalFeb.18 Legal nOtice Notice of Formation of ZAED Properties, LLC, a Limited Liability Company (LLC) filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on January 4, 2021. NY office Location: OTSEGO County. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process served upon him/her to: C/O ZAED Properties, LLC, 6106 State Highway 28, Fly Creek, NY 13337. General Purposes. 6LegalFeb.18 Legal nOtice Notice of formation of a Limited Liability Company (LLC) Name: AutoTech Mobile Specialties, LLC

Arts. of Org. filed with the Sec’y. of State of N.Y. (SSNY) on 01/07/2021. 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 Nicholas Mangano PO Box 183 4285 State Hwy 28 Milford, NY 138071143 Purpose: Any lawful activity. 6LegalFeb.18

Articles of Organization filed by the Department of the State on: 01/01/2021 Office location: Otsego County The Secretary of the State has been designated as the agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to P.O. Box 754 East Worcester NY 12064. Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws. 6LegalFeb.11

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NOTICE OF FORMATION OF A NY LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (LLC)

Notice of Formation of

Name:

Filed 11/23/20. Office: Otsego Co. SSNY desig. as agent for process & shall mail to: 2291 Rt 23, Po Box 204, Morris, NY 13808. Purpose: General. 6LegalFeb.4

Maplelane Consulting LLC Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State (SSNY)

Johnston Trucking LLC.

►Need to publish a Notice of Formation, Public Notice, Supplemental Summons, or Notice to Bidders? Contact Larissa at 607-547-6103 or ads@allotsego.com and she can get you started.

THURSDAY, february 4, 2021

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-9

IN MEMORIAM

Allan J. Ahearne, D.V.M. May 31, 1932 – Jan. 10, 2021

COOPERSTOWN – Dr. Allan J. Ahearne, born May 31, 1932, passed away at home in Warwick on Jan. 10, 2021. Allan was raised by his beloved mother Helen McCauley Ahearne, his Aunt Virginia Anglescy, and his grandparents Michael and Ellen McCauley in a tight-knit Irish Catholic community in Jersey City, N.J. His childhood made a lasting imprint and infused in him a loving dedication to family, a tenacious will, an honor of commitments, and a singular style that was rich with mischievous humor. Allan attended St. Aloysius Elementary School in Jersey

City and Xavier High School in Manhattan where, lore has it, he was personally and perhaps frequently a recipient of JUG (Justice Under God) at the hands of his Jesuit educators. He earned his Bachelor of Science at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City and continued on to New York State Veterinary College at Cornell University, where he developed lifelong friendships and graduated with the Class of 1957. Allan began his career as a veterinarian at a farm animal practice in Cumberland, Md. In 1959, he moved to Long Island, where he established

his own practice, the OceanPolitical Action Committee. side Animal Hospital. Allan also worked as a Allan’s professional state veterinarian for the accomplishments state Racing & and contributions Wagering Board, were many. He served as the exserved as president ecutive dean at Ross of the Long Island University School of Veterinary Medical Veterinary Medicine, Society, a member and was a regular of the Executive guest commentator Board of the New on “The Warren York State VeteriEckstein Pet Show,” nary Medical Socia nationally syndiDr. Allan ety, president of J. Ahearne cated weekly radio the New York State program. Veterinary Medical Board of While he took great pride Examiners, and founder and in his work, Allan’s greatest first chairman of the New love was his wife of 57 years, York State Veterinary Medical Kathryn M. Ahearne of

Henry Raymond ‘Ray’ Armitage June 12, 1927 - Dec. 26, 2020

COOPERSTOWN – Henry Raymond “Ray” Armitage died Dec. 26, 2020, of COVID-19 at Bassett Hospital. Born June 12, 1927, in Irvington, N.J., he was the son of Henry Raymond Armitage Sr. and Madelyn Montigel Armitage. Ray was a member of the Cooperstown High School graduating class of 1944 and Colgate University, Class of 1949. After his freshman year at Colgate, Ray was called to the Navy in 1945 for one year of service before returning to finish his studies. Ray served his first stint in the Navy on destroyer escort USS Loeser. He picked up ship in San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point Naval Yard, and was at the helm during passage through the Panama Canal and continued sailing up the Atlantic coast to New London, Conn. After completing studies at Colgate, Ray was called back into service in 1950 and assigned to and boarded the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt

(CVA-42) aircraft carrier in quality control at Pfizer manuNorfolk, Va. facturing in the U.S. Ray lived He was quartermaster in NYC for his entire profes(QMQ2) and navigator in the sional career on the East side conning tower and, on occain Tudor City. He loved New sion, took the helm. York and all that it offered; They made one cruise to Ray especially loved Broadthe Mediterranean and he way and Ranger games at was discharged at Lido Beach Madison Square Garden. on Long Island. While in the For many years Ray set Mediterranean he aside Saturday was able to do some evenings to listen sightseeing: Rome; to Garrison Keillor where he had an on the radio, relataudience with the ing to the small Pope, skiing in the town nature of the Italian Alps, the programming, and Acropolis in Greece, seeing the “Prairie Paris, Oran, Home Companion” “Algeria, where he live on Broadway saw the French every year at Ray Foreign Legion post Christmas. He Armitage there, and sailed retired in 1997 through the Dardaafter enjoying a nelles to Istanbul. 45-year career with the same On the return to the U.S., organization. the Roosevelt passed the Ray grew up in Cooperstown Rock of Gibraltar; he wrote his and shared stories of a parents to say there was not a boyhood filled with antics “Prudential” sign on it. and fun; building a sleep-out Ray joined the staff at camp along with Dirck Pfizer in 1952 in New York Harrison on the Susquehanna City, and worked overseeing with lumber appropriated from the Iroquois Sawmill, summertime spent painting the barns and haying at Red Creek Farm, bicycling into town for milkshakes at the soda fountain. His childhood friends remained lifelong friends. More even than sharing stories, Ray loved to hear Grandma loved her farm, her family, what his friends, family and and playing her old guitar. acquaintances were up to; he was a great listener. People Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home will take the time will remember Ray in the to find out what made your loved one special. community as always having Whether it’s finding just the right flowers, or finding the time for a hello, a joke, a story, words of encouragea musician to play her favorite tunes on her old guitar, ment and always willing to we’ll do what’s necessary to make her service as lend an ear. unique as she was. Ray was generous with his time and that encourageLester R. Grummons Funeral Home ment; a common phrase of 14 Grand Street, Oneonta • 607-432-6821 his was, “Don’t be afraid, go www.grummonsfuneralhome.com ahead and try it; what’s the worst thing that could happen? You’ll learn something.” In that same vein Ray relished meeting new people and you knew by how he listened that he was genuinely interested and that you had made a new friend. Ray was a lifelong Bridge player and an enthusiastic sportsman; ski club at Mount Otsego and regularly skiing Vermont, squash at the ACC Gym and at the Colgate Club in New York City, crew for Sam Smith Jr., racing Star Class sailing vessels in the Northeast, Fla., and Cuba and golfing at Leatherstocking Golf Club and Otsego Golf Club. Many young golfers learned the rules and the etiquette of the game through caddying for Ray at Leatherstocking, which always included a milkshake from Mrs. Watts in between the 12th green and the 13th tee. Even while working in NYC Ray always met his regular

foursome at Leatherstocking Golf Club for their 7 a.m. Saturday tee time after breakfast at the Short Stop. In his later years Ray golfed at and supported the Otsego Golf Club where he was often seen with the club dogs, Frankie and BB, riding shotgun in the golf cart. Along with Bobby Clark, Ray was a founding partner in the Cooperstown Batting Range, which provided a community ice rink for recreational skating and was the home ice for the Cooperstown Coopers. Ray was always a big hockey fan and was so pleased to have been able to help provide this to the community. Countless local kids had summer jobs at the batting range and, under its current owners, that tradition continues to this day. Ray loved keeping current with his family and friends; he took special joy in seeing photos and hearing about their travels and experiences. He was a born adventurer and relished his travels and knowing that his family continued in that spirit; he was so happy to hear of the adventures and travels of his niece Marcie and her family and his honorary nephew Bobby Amore, with whom he shared many a road trip. Ray always felt fortunate and thrilled to have taken a flight on the Concorde from London for work. Ray kept a map with pins indicating the places he had travelled and that map was stuck full of holes. He loved and appreciated his travels but always returned home to Cooperstown. Having lived in NYC and Cooperstown, Ray thoroughly enjoyed his recent residence at the Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home in Cooperstown. The community of staff and residents became a whole new group of friends and Ray enjoyed their company every day. After Ray’s passing a staff member noted, “What a life well lived. Ray touched many in his quiet, private way.” He certainly did. Ray is survived by his niece, Marcie Wallace Ritter, her husband Steve Ritter and their children Melinda and Aaron Ritter, all in Pittsburgh. Ray’s honorary nephew Bobby Amore, New York City and Cooperstown, his wife Sarah Stewart and her son, Noble Mattson. He was predeceased by his parents, Henry Raymond Armitage, Sr. and Madelyn Montigel as well as his sister, Constance Armitage Wallace and her husband, Lavinder A. Wallace all from Cooperstown. The family would like to thank the staffs of Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, Cooperstown Center for Rehab, and especially the staff of the Thanksgiving Home where Ray lived for the last four years. Ray loved the family dogs, each of them over more recent years, rescues all of them: Frankie and BB, Pip and Angel. Very lucky dogs. In that spirit the family asks that in lieu of flowers, please donate to or adopt an animal from the Susquehanna SPCA. Please wear a mask and observe other COVID precautions. Someone’s life may depend on it. Arrangements are under the care of Tillapaugh Funeral Service, Cooperstown.

Greenwood Lake, Orange County. Kathryn had been widowed, and when she and Allan married, Allan adopted Kathryn’s two children, John and Kathleen Connolly. The family settled in Garden City, and Allan and Kathryn had three additional children: James Martin Ahearne, Allan J. Ahearne, Jr., and Maura Kathryn Ahearne. Allan and Kathryn gave the family a wonderful life in Garden City, where they lived and thrived until Allan’s retirement in 1997, when they fulfilled Allan’s long-term dream to settle in Cooperstown. Allan quickly docked his 18foot Catalina Just Right at the Cooperstown Country Club, dropped his golf clubs at his Leatherstocking Golf Course locker, and made fast friends throughout the community. Allan had a so-so golf swing, a disarming wit, and an endearing twinkle in his eye. Known around town as “Doc” and “Al,” he was a man of genuine charm who easily connected with people from all walks of life. He lived his own life aware of his blessings — he knew where he started and was forever grateful to be where he was. Allan spoke often of the sacrifices his mother and her family made for him, and he never forgot their love and care. He cherished his remarkable wife Kathryn, his

children and their spouses, his grandchildren, and his friends. One would have been hard pressed to find a happier man when he was reclined on the couch in the family house in Greenwood Lake or Cooperstown with a fire roaring in the fireplace and family gathered around sharing stories and laughter with each other. Allan is predeceased by his son, John James Ahearne of Chicago, Ill. Allan is survived by his loving wife, Kathryn M. Ahearne of Warwick; his daughter Kathleen Quain of Greenwood Lake; his daughter-in-law Betsy Horne Ahearne and her daughters Marion and Caroline Ahearne of Chicago, Ill.; his son James Ahearne and wife, Lucy Birkett of Freeport, Maine, and their daughters Fiona and Louise Ahearne; his son Allan J. Ahearne, Jr. and his wife Amber Ahearne of Warwick; his daughter and son-in-law Maura Ahearne and John Bregar of Bainbridge Island, Wash., and their sons Tobias and Jameson Bregar; and many friends. Cards of condolences may be sent to Mrs. Kathryn M. Ahearne, c/o The Ahearne Law Firm, 25 Railroad Ave., Warwick, NY 10990. The world is a better place thanks to Allan J. Ahearne, DVM. Forever missed. We love you, Dad.

Lynn Richards Jones, 77 April 10, 1943 - Jan. 22, 2021

COOPERSTOWN – Lynn as an adult. She was encourRichards Jones, a folk artist aged by her husband, family, well-known for her intricate friends, and her husband’s scissor cuttings, passed away students and developed as an peacefully Friday evening, Jan. artist through their support. 22, 2021, at Bassett Medical Through the years her work Center in Cooperstown. She was displayed in museums, was 77. including the American Folk Like many loving couples Art Museum in New York City, who have spent their lives and she was commissioned together, it might be said that by Creative Playthings to Lynn died of a broken heart design a Christmas store following the death of her window and shopping bag. husband of 53 years, David Lynn truly enjoyed Jones, less than six months Cooperstown and often ago on July 28, 2020. recalled fond memories of Lynn Meredith Richards growing up in the Village. was born April 10, 1943, in For a time she followed in Baltimore, Maryland, a daugh- her mother’s footsteps and ter of Cooperstown natives served as a guide at the William “Will” George RichFenimore House and also ards and the former demonstrated Wanda Olmstead. spinning and weavAt the time she ing at The Farmers’ was born the Museum. family was living in Her love of history Baltimore where her and genealogy led father was employed her to be active in by Martin Aircraft. the Otsego Chapter Following his military of the National service, the family Society Daughters moved back to of the American Lynn Cooperstown, where Revolution (the Richards Lynn was raised DAR), which was Jones and graduated from realized through a Cooperstown High School descendant who served durwith the Class of 1961. ing the American Revolution. She furthered her educaIn a 2010 interview for tion by attending SUNY New the Cooperstown Graduate Paltz, Hartwick College, and Program Community Stories graduated with honors from program she said, “I love SUNY Cobleskill from the being here. It’s a small town, Nursery Education program. and it’s very true: you can While living in Cooperstown, take the girl to the city, but Lynn met David Jones, whose you can’t take the small town family had moved to out of her.” Cooperstown in 1947, not Lynn is survived by two long after his father, Louis sons and daughters-in-law, Clark Jones, Ph.D., was Matthew William Richards named director of the New Jones, M.D., and Cora Vegafria York State Historical AssociaJones of Cooperstown, and tion. On Aug. 27, 1966, Lynn Jeremy Louis Clark Jones and David were married at and Katherine Janiec Jones, The Cornwallville Church at Ph.D. of Boiling Springs, S.C.; The Farmers’ Museum. four grandchildren, Phoebe Following the ceremony, Lynn Emerson Jones, Isabella they rode by oxcart to Bump Grace Richards Jones, William Tavern for the reception. David Maxwell Jones, and In 1971, Lynn and David Molly Foard Jones; a sister, and their family moved to the Elisabeth Richards Jerson and Millbrook School in Millbrook husband, Robert L. Jerson of where David taught English. Springfield Center; a sister-inIn 1976 the family moved to law, Carol Loomis of Winthrop, Boca Raton, Fla., where David Mass.; and several nieces taught at St. Andrew’s School. and nephews. They both loved being dorm Later this year, Lynn and parents, and Lynn served in David will be laid to rest in several other capacities at the Pickens Family plot the school. in Lakewood Cemetery, Following a tragic bicycle Cooperstown. accident in 2001 that seriously Lynn loved animals and injured David, the couple gave a home to many throughreturned to Cooperstown in out her life. As a way of 2004 and made their home remembering Lynn, please on Elm Street. consider a memorial gift A largely self-taught artist, to the Susquehanna SPCA, Lynn was accomplished in the 4841 State Highway 28, paper art of Scherenschnitte. Cooperstown, NY 13326. When she was a girl, her Arrangements are under the care of Connell, Dow & paternal grandfather taught Deysenroth Funeral Home in her the skills that she would Cooperstown. develop into “scissor cutting”

A-10 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

THURSDAY, february 4, 2021

At SUNY-O, Goal Is To Prevent Repeat Of Fall 2020

SUNY-O/From A1 19 at SUNY Purchase, the hope is things will go much better. “Of the 64 SUNY schools, 61 did not test students for the virus as they came back to campus,” Assistant Director of Business Services Graig Eichler said. Not testing is not a good idea, this campus has learned, Eichler said, and a full testing regimen is being applied this semester. So far, 99.22 percent of tests have been negative, he said. “A tremendous amount of time and energy has been put in by faculty, staff and the administration to ensure we have a safe semester,” he said. “When we all work together, I’m confident we’ll be successful.” Despite a 735-signature petition faculty and staff began circulating in November, as of 10 a.m. on Jan. 29, several faculty members interviewed said they always believed they could decide for themselves

whether to teach or not. There was never any mandate, said English professor Richard Lee. “That is not to say,” he added, “that people may not have felt pressure - and that’s not from the administration - it could be that they are new or not tenured. Regardless, people’s fears and concerns are real.” Lee is among those who decided to teach in “dual-modality” – face-to-face with a camera in the back of the room for students not present – with the help of a classroom production assistant, a paid student trained to handle the streaming technology. Art Professor Rhea Nowak, who is not teaching in a classroom this semester, and Kimberly Fierke, a Sports & Exercise Sciences assistant professor who is, agreed with Lee. “I want us to get back to some level of normal, no matter what that might look like,” said Fierke, adding that dualmodality will help that happen.

“I’m tired of teaching to a camera,” she said. “Students are not only disconnected from me, but from one another and the material also.” The college has issued a notice of “Consequences for Unsafe Behavior,” that explains: “SUNY Oneonta and the City of Oneonta have taken a clear, fair and strict stance against behaviors that jeopardize the health of the community,” including joint “party patrol” efforts between the city and university police. “Students alleged to have violated city ordinances may be cited or arrested, which could lead to fines or other punishments (and those) found in violation… will be subject to sanctions up to and including full suspension or dismissal,” the notice continues. “All of us need to stay strong and encourage those around us to continue to make the right choices. This will be critical in the days ahead,” the notice concludes.

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