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VISIT www.AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE Volume 213, No. 12
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, March 25, 2021
Newsstand Price $1
THE PANDEMIC YEAR • First Death On March 23, 2020
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
All Fall To Egalitarian COVID-19 By MIKE FORSTER ROTHBART COOPERSTOWN
O The Freeman’s Journal
National Guard Airman First Class Joseph Howard prepares to direct the public Thursday, March 18, into the mass-vaccine site at SUNY Oneonta.
In Five Days, SUNY Clinics Inject 3,000 ONEONTA
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n its first five days, the mass-vaccination site at SUNY Oneonta’s Dewar Arena administered 3,000 anti-COVID vaccinations, according to state Health Department spokesman Joshua Bruno. “We look forward to continuing to provide this service as long as it takes to ensure that everyone who wants one has access to a vaccine,” Bruno said. In another significant development, Govenor Cuomo Monday lowered eligibility for shots to those 50 and over. Following developments on
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
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n Monday morning, March 23, 2020, Otsego County confirmed its first case of coronavirus at a Fox clinic in Oneonta. Just three days later, the county recorded the first COVID-19 death. Now, one year later, there have been over 3,500 positive cases here; 54 county residents
have died from COVID-19 and related complications. At least eight former local residents are also known to have died from the virus. The deceased ranged in age from 55 to 103, with more women than men dying of COVID. In tribute to the lives lost, are brief profiles of the fatalities identified in public records. Other families have chosen to keep the deaths anonymous. Please See TRIBUTE, B2
COVID was indiscriminate, its victims ranging from Brenda Utter, the first, to Jem Mitrano, Mayor Sam Nader’s sister; former Otego Town Board member Earl Edwards, and former SUNY Professor Rivkah Feldman.
SUSPECT SOUGHT IN HEIST ATTEMPT This white sedan, parked near the bank, is being sought.
RACES FIRM UP FOR ’21 LOCAL ELECTIONS
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ll candidates in all contested races for local office in this fall’s local elections in Otsego County – petitions had to be filed by 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 22 – will be listed online by the time you pick up this paper. Visit
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
Pot Shops Becoming Issue Here
CHERRY VALLEY
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he suspect in the attempted robbery Monday afternoon, March 22, at NBT Bank’s branch was still at large at presstime Tuesday evening. The incident occurred at 1:56 p.m. at the 16 Main St. bank. The suspect didn’t threaten the bank’s staff or display a weapon. State police from the Richfield Springs Barracks are handling the investigation. Bank robberies, or threat of such, are rare in Otsego County. Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. said the last one he remembers was at the NBT in Edmeston on June 6, 2016, almost five years ago. Likewise, prosecutions are a rarity, said Assistant District Attorney Chris Di Donna. Attempted robbery is considered a violent felony under state law, punishable by a prison term of 16 months or more.
►SENATOR OBERACKer TAKES tour ►WATCH FOR UPDATES AT www. of futuristic shelter. ►DELGADO BRIEFS COUNTY on $1.9 trillion payout. ►TRUSTEE JAMES DEAN HAILED for 10-year job well done. ►FIRST NIGHT COMMITTEE plans “robust” Hometown Fourth of Customer as well as July in Oneonta. CEO, Tim ►COVID CASE SHUTS CCS for one Johnson, week. (Laurens, Morris also with wife closed.) Vicki, enjoy ►AUDUBON MAGAZINE FEATURES Broadband Susan Fenimore Cooper, nature at their writer. rural Edmeston home.
AllOTSEGO.com
Cooperstown Trustee Won’t Let Matter Go By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
B The suspect’s image was captured on the bank’s camera.
$7.4M Grant Fuels Broadband March By JIM KEVLIN NORTH EDMESTON
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ickling’s Fish Farm Inc. is exactly what Otsego Electric President/CEO Tim Johnson is talking about. In tanks inside four sizeJim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal able modern buildings on
Pitts Road near here, the Hicklings are growing 6570,000 trout yearlings annually, and another 20-30,000 pounds of 2-year-old bass, which – a delicacy in Thai and other cultures – are sold to Asian markets in Boston and other East Coast cities. “The big money we’re spending now is in technolPlease See BROADBAND, A6
efore reacting, the Village Board is waiting to see what the marijuanalegalization bill due to pass the state Legislature April 1 looks like. But Trustee Mac Mac Benton Benton, who brought the issue before the trustees at their monthly meeting Monday, March 22, is determined to push for pot-selling “storefronts” in Baseball’s mecca, seeing it as an economic-development opportunity too good to ignore. If the new law doesn’t give the village the authority to make the decision to sell or to manufacture marijuana products, Benton said he will Please See POT, B2
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD