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Cooperstown’s Newspaper
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VISIT www.AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE Volume 211, No. 20
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, May 16, 2019
‘OLYMPICS OF ART’ INCLUDES UNALAM PIECE
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
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sculpture that uses Glulam, Unalam of Unadilla’s extrastrong layered plywood product, was used in “Swallowed Sun,” which adorns the U.S. pavilion at La Biennale Arte in Venice, Italy, considered “the Olympics of Art.” Details, type “unalam” in search line at www. OTSEGO.com
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Newsstand Price $1
NEWBORNS DIED LAST SUMMER
Twins’ Mom Indicted By LIBBY CUDMORE DECATUR
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n Saturday, May 4, Kimberly Nicole Steeley wrote a poem on her Facebook page, titled, “If I knew x Two,” “If I knew it was the last time I would hold you x2,
Steeley
If I knew it would be the last time I kissed you x2... If I knew love that Deeply x2, If I knew I would Have tried to save you x2,” she wrote. On Wednesday, May 8, Steeley, 27, Decatur, was arrested and charged with two counts of seconddegree manslaughter in the 2018 deaths of her twin infant children, Liam and Bonde Steeley, barely a month old whey they were found dead in their basPlease See TWINS, B6
2 OPEN SEATS IN 5/21 VOTE
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TRADITION
During a rare tornado watch Friday, May 10, Jill Poulson, New York City, visiting parents Bob and Peggy Poulson’s home alongside Otsego Lake, snapped this image from the backyard. The storm passed without damage.
SUNY ONEONTA’S NEW PRESIDENT, BARBARA JEAN MORRIS, PRESIDED AT HER FIRST, AND THE COLLEGE’S 130TH GRADUATION SATURDAY, MAY 11, AND CONTINUED TO SIGNAL SHE’S BRINGING NEW APPROACHES TO THE 6,000-STUDENT INSTITUTION.
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VOTE NEAR
ith “hundreds of thousands” more in required spending on health insurance next year, Cooperstown Central Crankshaw School Superinten► VOTE ON dent Bill Crankshaw and the school board CCS budget, didn’t need to look for school board places to spend more. vote 7 a.m-8 Besides, he said in p.m.Tuesday, May 21, Room an interview about 305 at high the 2019-20 budget, school. which goes up for a public vote 7 a.m-8 p.m., next Tuesday, May 21, at the high school, the school district already offers a “rich curriculum” – the goal is to Please See BUDGET, B6
PITTSFIELD
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widower and his three children fled their burning home on County Route 13 at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 14. Pittsfield, Morris and New Berlin firefighters responded, but the home was destroyed. Richard Morris’ wife Sharron had succumbed to cancer in February. His sister-in-law, Shannon, is seeking clothing for the family. Details at
AllOTSEGO.com
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AllOTSEGO.com
‘Rich Curriculum’ Preserved In Plan, Superintendent Says By JIM KEVLIN
Father, 3 Kids Homeless After Pittsfield Blaze
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Kindergarten, Vaping Targets In CCS Budget
Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
The week she released a new 13-word student-focused mission statement, SUNY Oneonta’s new president Barbara Jean Morris, top, continues to signal she plans to take a fresh look at how the campus is doing things, choosing not to deliver the traditional President’s Message at the 131st Commencement Saturday, May 11. The commencement also featured two alumni speaking on hot-button issues, Crystal Williams ’77, American Immigration Lawyers Association CEO, and James Zachos, ’81, a geologist reconstructing the Earth’s climate history. Above, Cooperstown’s former mayor Jeff Katz poses with son Robbie, a CGP master’s graduate, and wife Karen. At right are CGP Director Gretchen Sorin and CGP grad Mary Katherine Kenney, Robbie’s girlfriend/MORE PHOTOS, A3
► TEEL CONCRETE, Richfield Springs, puts the final touches on the new Bank of Cooperstown wall at Chestnut and Glen Saturday, May 11, including the new sign. ►BASSETT PRESIDENT Bill Streck, Chris Kjolhede and Sue Smith are on Congressman Delgado’s new health advisory committee. ► OTSEGO COUNTY has a By LIBBY CUDMORE redesigned website, where you can read about board Chair Dave Bliss and Sheriff Devlin HARTWICK SEMINARY in Japanese – and 90 other languages. t was a scene Stacie
Task Force’s First Case: Pigs In Pittsfield
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Haynes has seen played out before. Two pigs, skinny and without food, water or hay, trying
to eat the corpses of two dead pigs in a trash pile at a farm on County Route 18, Town of Pittsfield. “They were shivering and cold,” she said. “We got called out there at night in a rainstorm, and we seized them.” Now playfully dubbed Please See PETS, B6
Jennifer Hill/The Freeman’s Journal
Sonny, right, and Cher feast at the SSPCA after they were found, starving, in Pittsfield.
Fly Creek UM Composes Letter Voicing ‘Dismay’ But Pastor Doesn’t Sign On By JENNIFER HILL FLY CREEK
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ome members of the Fly Creek United Methodist Church have allied with their Oneonta colleagues, penning a letter expressing “disappointment and dismay” that the international church has affirmed bans on gay pastors and gay marriage. Thirty-seven regular attendees also Please See METHODISTS, B6
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD