WILLIAM
COOPER’S CHRONICLER •F
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Volume 207, No. 19
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OUNDED
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Cooperstown’s Newspaper
O M C O PE
ALAN TAYLOR’S CLASSIC HAILED AFTER 20 YEARS/SEE B1
For 207 Years
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Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, May 14, 2015
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Common Core ‘Whack-A-Mole’ At Candidate Forum Few Encouraging Words Surface On Now-Controversial Testing POLLS OPEN 5/19
By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
C The Freeman’s Journal
ommon Core was the Whack-A-Mole at the League of Women Voters’ forum Monday, May 11, for Cooperstown Central school board candidates: Other
The dilatory honey locusts started budding Monday, May 11, to Trustee Falk’s relief.
Nail-Biting Over As Locusts Join Blooming Trees COOPERSTOWN
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f the 17 new downtown trees, 11 began to bud about a week ago. But the other six remained bare. People were asking, Had they died in the recordcold winter? Even Village Trustee Cindy Falk, architect of the downtown redo, wondered. Then, as the mercury topped 80 Monday, May 11, the six trees budded. It turned out they were flowering honey locusts, which bud later than the rest, a relieved Falk said. TIN TOP DONE: A ribbon-cutting Saturday, May 19, marked the completion of a $250,000 welcome center in that Hyde Hall landmark/SEE A4
issues were addressed, but Topic One kept popping up. It began in the opening
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
COMPETITION FOR EC-DEV FUNDING
‘HUNGER GAMES’ MAY YIELD $500m
Otsego Joins ‘MV500’ Bid
Hanging Stoplight Survives
By JIM KEVLIN
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By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
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verything in the artistic renderings presented by Barton & Loguidice MORE SNIPPING: Engineering’s Jeff Nudge The day before, a cerand Mark Budosh looked emonial ribbon-cutting at good to the Village Board Pathfinder Village marked – permanent crosswalks, construction of the Wila lighted flagpole, bike liam F. Streck Community Health Center there/SEE A2 racks and enhanced signage. But the trustees balked TIRRELL RETIRING: when they suggested Patients have been receivreplacing the hanging ing notification that Dr. Paul stoplight with signals on Tirrell, longtime Bassett each corner. “We are not physician, will be retiring in September. BIKE TO WORK; OCCA’s annual Bike to Work Day is coming up Wednesday, May 20. You can record your mileage electronically for the National Bike Challenge.
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olls will be open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 19, at the high school to vote on 2015-6 budget and fill three school board vacancies.
remarks, with incumbent 20-year board member Tony Scalici calling Common Core testing “excessive and poorly designed … It wasn’t designed by teachers. It’s being used as a punitive tool and not an educational tool.” Others stuck to their credentials and reasons Please See CORE, A6
CCS board candidates are, from left, Tony Scalici, Marcy Birch, Tabetha Rathbone, Laurie Williams and Mary Bonderoff.
Grace Cotten/The Freeman’s Journal
The crowd turns to hear Village Trustee Cindy Falk question the consultant at the Monday, May 11, informational meeting.
going to do that,” said Mayor Jeff Katz. “Hugh McDougall found that traffic light was installed in 1927,”
said Trustee Cindy Falk. “It appears in photos, and keeping that helps maintain the character of the village. People feel
strongly about it.” “We’re proud of our one traffic light,” said resident Bill Waller. Please See PLAN, A3
Hotel Developer Donates $500 For Trees COOPERSTOWN
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s plans for a deluxe downtown hotel inch forward, BTP Partners’ Perry Ferrara has donated $500 to the village to put
H-PARB Awaits ‘Complete’ Application a tree-cutting episode at the back of the site at 124 Main St. behind him. Ferrara also wrote a letter “saying, ‘I’m sorry,’” said Mayor Jeff
Katz. “$500 will go into the tree-planting budget. To some degree, that’s a better solution.” The village planned to ticket the developers, but
this avoids the possibility of a blot on their record. Village Attorney Martin Tillapaugh, who had pushed for a court solution, has signed off on the alternative, Katz said. Please See HOTEL, A7
or the past month, four delegates from Otsego County have been part of a sixcounty task force seeking to win $1/2 billion in state funding, and to do so must out-compete at least four other regions of Upstate New York. The four representatives on what’s being called “MV500” are county Rep. Craig Gelbsman, R-Oneonta, who as owner of First Choice Cleaners is also representing small business; Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz, representing municipalities; Otsego Now President Sandy Mathes, representing economic development efforts, and Dan Robinson, president/CEO of New York Central Mutual, representing the county’s larger enterprises. “This is a deal changer if we are selected,” said Mathes. The task force is participating in Governor Cuomo’s version of “The Hunger Games” – as the Wall Street Journal put it – for part of a three-way split of the governor’s $1.5 billion Upstate Please See MV500, 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