! N E P O W NO
W
THE
ISDOM OF SAM NADER OUNDED
IA
founded
DG
E WIL
L
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, February 18, 2021
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
HERZIG, BLISS FRUSTRATED
By CHRYSTAL SAVAGE ONEONTA
F
or now, Otsego County is not getting the COVID-19 vaccines it should, according to Mayor Gary Herzig and county board Chairman David Bliss.
Newsstand Price $1
Bassett Recruits Seward As Liaison With Albany
County Still Awaits Vaccine
COOPERSTOWN
Both men represent the county on the Mohawk Valley Regional Control Room, which briefs local officials weekly on the state’s COVID-19 response. The county’s not getting “proportionate distribution,” the amount based on its relative population to the rest of the state, Please See VACCINE, A6
A
nticipating 36-year state Sen. Jim Seward’s retirement, Bassett President/CEO Tommy Ibrahim “asked me to join his team” when the two met for the first time last fall, the senator said.
m
AllOTSEGO.com
Bassett Allows In-Person Visits To Begin Again
EDALLION KICKS OFF
COOPERSTOWN
B
c
ARNIVAL
eginning this week, Bassett Healthcare Network is resuming partial visitation for inpatients at its hospitals: Bassett in Cooperstown, Fox in Oneonta, Cobleskill Regional, Little Falls and O’Connor in Delhi. Visitation hours are limited to 1 - 3 p.m. and 5 - 7 p.m. weekdays. On weekends, hours will be 1 - 5 p.m. One visitor at a time will be allowed, with a maximum of two patients a day – four hours total per patient.
COVID Ends Jeter-Fueled Expectations By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
C
Follow Breaking News On
►COVID APPOINTMENTS Available at BU, SUNY Poly. ►COUNTY BOARD to weigh Democratic resolution decrying Jan. 6 attack. ►January Covid deaths greatest so far. ►Governor Withheld Data on nursing home deaths. ►LISTEN TO DISCUSSION of Village Police reform. ►REVIEW SAM nADER’S CENTURY, from his 100th birthday.
Conversations continued, and Friday, Feb. 12, Ibrahim made it official: Seward has joined the hospital network as a “strategic affairs liaison,” offering advice on a parttime basis on how it can interact with Albany to obtain the best outcomes. Please See SEWARD, A6
TV-Only Induction ’21 Met With Acceptance
www.
AllOTSEGO.com
in 1808
VISIT www.AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Volume 213, No. 07
The Friends of Doubleday are selling prints of baseball shrine by six award-winning artists for $60 apiece to help continue restoring the monuments. This one’s by Graig Kreindler. For details, follow the link from
JU
Souths
•F
1808 BY
m Across fro
Cooperstown’s offiCial newspaper
R
IN
359 607-267-4 3 5001 NY-2 ide Mall
O M C O PE
FORMER MAYORS, INCLUDING SON, REFLECT ON ACHIEVEMENTS/B3
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
The 2021 Cooperstown Winter Carnival kicked off Tuesday, Feb. 16, as the O’Brien family of Hartwick – mom Beth and her six children – found the Carnival Medallion behind a bench in the village’s Badger Park. Helping their mom (dad Rob, the county 911 coordinator, was at work), were front row, from left, Bobby, 3, Connor, 7 months, Noah, 6; back row, from left, are Hannah, 8, Hunter, 6, and Lucas, 6/DETAILS, A9
RICHER, MORRIS MAN RETURNS FROM IDAHO
Treasure Hunter Claims $10K Prize By MIKE FORSTER ROTHBART ONEONTA
K
ristian House, proprietor of Oneonta’s former Monkey Barrel Toys, loves puzzles.
In fact, he’s found a way to make a living by solving them. In the decade since he moved back to the county, he’s earned income as a toy store owner, math teacher and writer of crosswords and math problems. (His crosswords show up in
newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal; the math questions appear in textbooks). Now House has a new claim to add to his list: treasure hunt winner. This month, House, who lives in Please See PRIZE, A9
all it COVID fatigue. Shocking as it may have been at another time, the Baseball Hall of Fame’s announcement last week that this year’s July 25 Induction Ceremony will be broadcast on TV by the MLB Network, that’s it, Derek Jeter has been largely accepted in Baseball Town. What was expected to be recordbreaking crowds cheering superstar Derek Jeter on the Clark Sports Center fields into the Hall of Plaques has turned into a so-far unspecified number of people in an unspecified venue. The word of the week is “disappointed,” sometimes followed by a “but.” “While the village is disappointed,” said Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch, “I think the Hall of Fame made a wise – and probably the only – decision they could make.” “To say it’s disappointing is an understatement,” added Jeff Katz, Friends of Doubleday president (and former mayor), “but not a surprise. I’d be surprised if anybody was shocked.” “I had no illusion that they were Please See INDUCTION, A6
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD