Healthy v. Hellthy •F
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COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, April 23, 2015
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Common Core Falters F
By JIM KEVLIN
or outcome of the Wednesday, April 22, CCS 2015-15 budget unveiling, visit
COOPERSTOWN
B Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
For 207 Years
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State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, announces a $300,000 grant for Glimmerglass Festival renovations. Behind him is festival General & Artistic Director Francesca Zambello/
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ONEONTA CHEFS HOPE TO TURN HEALTHY JUNK FOOD INTO GOLD/B1
uoyed by an apparent collapse in support for the Common Core in the Cooperstown Central School District, local opt-out leaders are turning their focus on the May 20 school board elections. “My feeling is that Cooperstown doesn’t want to see business as usual,
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Executive Principal Expected To Go By JIM KEVLIN
COOPERSTOWN
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he leader of the optout movement in the and wants to see people who support Cooperstown Central the test-refusal movement and people School District expects Executive interested in considering faculty conPrincipal Lynn Strang, hired to cerns and faculty working-place enspearhead the successful implevironment,” said local opt-out leader mentation of the Common Core Kim Jastremski, “to help serve locally, will be gone at the end of Please See NEXT, B6 the school year. www.
“That is my understanding,” said Kim Jastremski, a leader of a group of eight that earlier this month presented a 200-signature petition to the administration Strang seeking Strang’s departure and the elimination of her job. “I don’t think they will tell you that. That Please See STRANG, B6
DETAILS, A3
Village Eyes Adjustments On Hydrants COOPERSTOWN
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he Village Board’s Fire Safety Committee is considering two steps after firefighters experienced hydrant problems fighting the April 8 Mohican Flowers blaze: • One, making long-handled vice grips part of standard equipment, in case operating nuts snap, said Deputy Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, who chairs the committee. • Two, color coding hydrants so firefighters immediately know how much water pressure will be delivered. HYDRANTS FLUSHED: Meanwhile, the six-month flushing of hydrants is underway in the village. FOR THE RECORD: Regarding the article in April 2 Freeman’s Journal headlined, “Ommegang To Go Completely Solar.” General Manager Bill Wetmore clarified that while there is on-going interest in using solar energy at the brewery to the degree feasible and intriguing possibilities are being explored, there are no concrete plans nor deadlines at this point in time to make such a transition.
John Sovocool luxuriates on the soft padding created by all the Tshirts and ribbons he’s collected in 92 marathons run around the world. This Saturday, the 25, he’ll be in Fly Creek. Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
John Sovocool’s Run 92 Marathons And, Now, Fly Creek’s By LIBBY CUDMORE FLY CREEK
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alfway through the Lake Lowell Marathon April 11 in Nampa, Idaho, John Sovo-
cool stopped to pick up two pebbles. And at the finish line, he picked up two more. “They were mementos,” he said. Mementos, he said, of crossing the last finish line in his quest to run marathons in all 50 states. “It was pretty sweet when I crossed that fin-
ish line,” he said. “These things are not easy.” Sovocool ran his first marathon in 1985, when he was 29 years old. “It was the Marine Corps marathon in Washington D.C.,” he said. “Thirteen years later, I ran it again, my second marathon, and I qualified for
the Boston Marathon.” He had no plans to run in Boston, but his cousin changed his mind. “He told me, ‘You can’t qualify and not run’!” said Sovocool. “So in 1999, I ran the Boston marathon.” He ran a few more races before Please See SOVOCOOL, B6
Hotel Developer: Height Limits Deal Breaker By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
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alet parking being proposed for a downtown hotel simply isn’t allowed under village The Freeman’s Journal law, the Planning Board concluded Planning Board chair Gene Tuesday, April 21, in the fourth reBerman listens intently to view so far of a proposed $4 million the hotel presentation.
downtown hotel. “I don’t think we have the legal authority to approve this,” said Planning Board chair Gene Berman. A motion by Paul Kuhn, seconded by Richard Sternberg, put that conclusion in the form of a motion to the Village Board, which must issue a “special permit” for any hotel in the downtown Business District. But Tom Lagan, one of the
partners in BTP Cooperstown, the development company, who was at the meeting, said afterwards that, if valet parking is rejected, the necessary parking spots will simply be leased off-site, as is allowed by village law under revisions approved by the Village Board earlier this year. However, if BTP fails to get a Please See HOTEL, A7
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD