WALKIN’ OFF... •F
OUNDED
IA
1808 BY
JU
R
IN
DG
E WIL
Cooperstown’s Newspaper
O M C O PE
...THE CORONAVIUS BLAHS/SEE A3 For 212 Years
L
VISIT www.AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE Volume 212, No. 15
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, April 9, 2020
Streck Says Downstate Ventilator Grab Stalls By ELIZABETH COOPER
N
ational Guard troops will not be taking ventilators from upstate hospitals for use in downstate hospitals hit hard by the coronavirus. In an executive order signed Tuesday, April 7, Gov. Andrew Cuomo back“Someone needs to practice social distancing,” read the caption on Abby Rodd’s Facebook page after Blue’s encounter with a porcupine.
Cooperstown Man’s Father Dies Of C-19 COOPERSTOWN
F
rank E. Marra, 101, succumbed to complications of COVID-19 on April 5, 2020. The father of Cooperstown Distillery owner Gene Marra, he was born in New York City at the height of the deadly Spanish Influenza on Sept. 24, 1918. After World War II service in Europe, the elder Marra pursued a career in banking.
tracked on statements made Friday about issuing an executive order to requisition medical supplies, Bill Streck including 20 percent of unused ventilators, and havPlease See STRECK, A10
Newsstand Price $1
Seward Off Ventilator, On Road To Recovery
COUNTY MAY LOSE EQUIVALENT OF 2/3 OF $12M TAX LEVY
O
tsego County government stands to lose “7, 8, 9 million dollars” in sales and bed tax revenues and state reimbursements due to the coronavirus lock-down, County Treasurer Allen Ruffle has advised the county board. Type “levy” and “crisis” in the search line on
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
MILFORD
A
s with everything since the coronavirus arrived in Otsego County, things moved quickly. When the last edition of this newspaper went to press on Tuesday, March 31, the news was state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, and his wife, Cindy, had been
stricken with COVID-19. It was announced the day Please See SEWARD, A7
3 Healthcare Workers Ill They May Not Be Working At Bassett, Though
PROFILE FROM THE FRONT LINES: BRIAN POKORNY Brian Pokorny, in this photo from spring 2019, poses with his IT brain trust in the basement of 197 Main St., Cooperstown.
By ELIZABETH COOPER COOPERSTOWN
T
MORE DETAILS, A9
SEE MULTIPLE REPORTS ON
ON
Cindy and Jim Seward
AllOTSEGO.com
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
In Crisis, IBM Spotlights IT Director
►3 coronavirus cases have surfaced in the City of Oneonta, Common Council “I got to thinking a bit,” said the was told. By JIM KEVLIN county’s IT director, Brian Pokorny. ►PUBLIC schools will be out “I knew we could put fiber optics in until at least Wednesday, April COOPERSTOWN for cheaper than that, and we would 29, Gov. Cuomo announced. have unlimited bandwidth.” ►HAND SANITIZER is being produced by state Senate few years ago, Otsego County Instead of stringing the wire, candidate Peter Oberacker’s government was planning a “Why can’t we bury it?” he asked lab, Form Tech Solutions, $1.2 million microwave loop Ron Tiderencel, the county highway in Schenevus. – down Route 28, up Route 33 – to superintendent at the time. ►ONEONTA MAYOR HERZIG, connect its Main Street headquarters And so it was. Tiderencel’s named Judy Pangman and with The Meadows and county jail. highway crew dug the ditch from Mark Drnek to chair an economic development task force. ►Fracking was banned statewide in the 2021 state budget. ►ESPN FEATURED All-Star Village owner Marty Patton in a story essential, like a felony arraignon Cooperstown tourism. By LIBBY CUDMORE ment, we’ve got Skype set ►A WOMAN WAS ARRESTED for up in the courtroom,” said allegedly spitting on Bassett COOPERSTOWN District Attorney John Muehl. Hospital employees.
A
197 Main to The Meadows, laid a culvert, and a fiber optics company pulled the wire through. Stringing wire was going to cost $700,000; the culvert option ended up costing $30,000. “That project paid for itself in three years on just phone lines alone,” said Pokorny. So should it be any surprise that last week, when IBM announced Please See POKORNY, A6
hree of the 33 incounty people who tested positive in Otsego County are healthcare workers, county PubCOVID lic Health BY THE Director NUMBERS Heidi Bond announced Total Cases for the first 33 time in her Recovered Tuesday, 9 April 7, tally. However, Deaths where they 1 worked and As of 4/7/20 how they became infected with coronavirus is, for now, unknown. Bassett spokeswoman Karen Huxtable-Hooker would not confirm or deny that the individuals were Bassett employees. She cautioned against making that assumption. If the workers are not Bassett employees, they could work for a number of other entities within the Please See CASES, A10
At Courthouse, County’s Wheels Of Justice Grind – Virtually
E
ven the courtroom has gone virtual in the age of COVID-19. “If the arraignment is
“An email gets sent around with the information, then the judge, myself and the lawyers can all be present, but nobody has to appear.”
Muehl
Burns
With all cases adjourned until May 15, no one’s appeared virtually yet, but the courts want to be ready. “Arraignments are necessary proceedings,” Muehl said. “For example, if we had a domestic violence case where an order of protection
had to be issued, we could arraign them.” And though a defendant is entitled to a felony hearing, time limits to do so have been suspended. But due to bail reform, Muehl said that he wasn’t seeing many Please See JUSTICE, A2
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD