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VISIT www.AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Volume 212, No. 18
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, April 30, 2020
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
Newsstand Price $1
MAY 15, CONSTRUCTION, FACTORIES RESTART
USA TODAY COLUMN:
NO JETER INDUCTION UNTIL 2021
BEGINNING OF THE END?
By LIBBY CUDMORE & JIM KEVLIN
three of the state’s economic development regions, including the Mohawk Valley, which y May 18, Greg Ward includes Otsego County. hopes that Burt Rigid For a region to reopen, The Freeman’s Journal Box in the Town of hospitals need to be operating “Bassett Heroes” Katie Oneonta can bring its 44 at less than 70 percent capacKraham, Cherry Valley, employees back to work. ity, and infection rates must be and Veronica Davis, “We’re in the process of putdeclining below 1.1 percent Canajoharie, brought ting plans in place,” said Ward, 14 days in a row. a poster to thank the plant’s operations manager. In the meantime, the govCooperstown area fire companies that staged “We’ve got a crew in there ernor said, businesses should Governor Cuomo announcing a parade in healthdeep cleaning now, and we’re prepare plans, using social Sunday, April 26, that Otsego and care workers’ honor constructing Plexiglas barriers other rural counties may reopen. distancing, masks and other Wednesday, April, 22, for when people can’t exercise measures to ensure their at the hospital campus. social distancing.” employees can work safely. More photos on During his daily briefing Sunday, April 26, “Essential services” not open now and businesses Governor Cuomo announced Upstate construction that don’t present a high risk of COVID-19 infectwww. OTSEGO.com firms and factories can “un-PAUSE” on May 15 in Please See THE END, A9 By LIBBY CUDMORE
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‘Bad Batch’ May Cause 4 Oneonta ODs ONEONTA
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AllOTSEGO.com
►UPDATES ON www.
Week 1, Donors Give Foundation $127,000 Seward: Prayers Pulled Me Through
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possible, Ruffles tells towns, villages. ►billboard magazine says SUNY-O music program tops. ►2 men arrested in Oneonta, Otego robbery spree that hit 4 gas stations, 2 stores. ►HELIOS, OFO top community grant recipients. ►oneonta wendy’s sign declares “Enough is Enough.” ►cooperstown trustees keep funding for Fairy Spring. ►democrat, republican primaries to be held here. ►work begins on new Susquehanna SPCA shelter in Hartwick Seminary.
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s many as 90,000 fans were anticipated in Cooperstown for this year’s July 26 Induction of Yankees’ superstar Derek Jeter. But instead of a potential recordbreaking crowd, USA Today revealed this week, the Clark Sports Center field may be empty. “With the COVID-19 pandemic raging across the country – with 292,000 Please See INDUCTION, A9
SENATOR RECOUNTS HIS COVID-19 ORDEAL
neonta Police were called to the scene of First Beneficiaries Will four heroin overdoses in 48 hours, according to COOPERSTOWN Police Chief Doug Brenner, prompting fears that drugs n less than a week, the tainted with fentanyl may be fledgling Community on the streets. Foundation of Otsego County raised $127,000 www. OTSEGO.com towards its “COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Fund for SEE MULTIPLE REPORTS ON Otsego County.” The original $30,000 OTSEGO.com challenge grant, announced Tuesday, April 21, was ►TREATED FOR COVID, Assemmatched in 72 hours. A blyman Brian Miller out of second $20,000 challenge, intensive care. announced Friday the 24th, ►20-percent state aid cut was met over the weekend.
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COOPERSTOWN
By JIM KEVLIN
Be Announced Soon ►TO join donors to the Community Foundation of Otsego County, visit www.cfotsego.com
MILFORD
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he coronavirus came on bit by bit. “In late March, I got a cough, a hacking cough,” said “The community is really state Sen. Jim Seward, Rcoming on like gangbusters Milford, now recuperating at to support their neighbors home from a narrow escape and fellow community mem- from COVID-19. “I didn’t bers,” said Harry Levine, think a lot about it.” CFOC board chairman. Then, “I started feeling quite Encouraged by public fatigued and lethargic.” support, several donors gave Also suffering from a second more than once, according to a press release.
The Freeman’s Journal
The senator at an April 18 parade in his honor in Milford.
cancer bout – the first was in 2016 – he went to Albany Medical Center Thursday, March 26, for routine chemotherapy. “They always take your vital signs before: I was running a high fever,” he said in an interview Monday, April 27. He was tested for the coronavirus: “The next day, midday, it came back positive. They knew what it was.” Other members of the state Senate and Assembly have acquired the virus, including state Rep. Brian Miller, R-New Please See SEWARD, A9
From Edmeston, NYC Angel Of Mercy
With Elective Surgery, Bassett Is Normalizing By ELIZABETH COOPER COOPERSTOWN
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s COVID-19 cases slow and the virus appears more contained, Bassett Hospital is beginning to start the process of returning to a new version of normalcy. “We realized that things
that could be put off for a few weeks can no longer be deferred,” said Dr. William LeCates, hospital president. “What was elective for a week or two is often not for two to three months.” All elective surgeries had been canceled by state order to make those beds available for COVID-19 patients and out of fear Please See NORMAL, A10
By LIBBY CUDMORE EDMESTON
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he family, David Delker said, was desperate. “They were calling from Florida, but their mom was in The Bronx,” he said. “She wasn’t a COVID-19 death, but the funeral homes in the city had a month and half backlog, and they were just calling further and further upstate. “They were panicking, they had seen the horror stories and were thinking the worst. But as soon as I started talking to them, you could hear that fear dissipating.” Delker, owner of Delker & Terry Funeral
Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal Funeral Director David Delker discusses his missions to New York City.
Home in Edmeston, has begun serving families from New York City and downstate. Please See DELKER, A9
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD