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We salute this year’s Clark Scholarship winners, page 2
VISIT www. Volume 214, No. 25
AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, June 23, 2022
Two-year-old Julia Yeske got herself all kinds of upside down and twisted around but thought it was the funniest thing of all time as she joined with her young and energetic pals at the Villiage Library of Cooperstown’s “Baby Prom,” held June 15 to mark the end of the Library’s springtime storytime sessions and get ready for a summer filled with more activities. For more ‘prom’ pictures, along with photos of other area events from the week, see page 11.
INSIDE ►Primary elections: New York’s Democrats, Republicans choosing candidates for governor, lieutenant governor; League of Women Voters guide available, page 3. ►TIME FOR ‘SUMMER DREAMS’: This week’s insert stays closer to home with a trip to the Wyeth exhibit at Fenimore Art Museum, a tour of some very fine local restaurants, and a look at the history of the Historical Association. ►A FEW THOUGHTS ON IMPORTANT THINGS: Our columnists this week look at an effective response to COVID in one Cape Cod community, reveal plans for commemorating Bassett’s legacy, get some quality thinking done while weeding, and caution against inaction when it comes to voting in primaries. Our editorial: we endorse Hochul, Delgado, Wilson. Pages 4, 5, and 6. ►a round of applause to all: Local scholars earn Dean’s List honors, page 10. ►It’s parade season!: Town of Springfield brings back its famous Fourth of July parade (on July 4th!) and the Otsego Lake Association floats into summer with its annual boat parade (on the 3rd), page 12. Follow Breaking News On
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Cooperstown Central School nearing the end of its search for new junior/senior high principal The Cooperstown Central School District is nearing the end of its search for a new junior/senior high school principal, following a process that began when ousted first-year principal Karl O’Leary was escorted from the building on the afternoon of Friday, March 18, 2022. In an e-mail to The Freeman’s Journal/ HometownOneonta,DistrictSuperintendent Sarah Spross said she updated the district’s Board of Education at its June 8 meeting, with the schools now looking to make an appointment at the Board’s July 1 or July 6 meeting. Ms. Spross said the district advertised locally, statewide, and nationally, hearing from a total of 13 candidates. From that pool, five were chosen for an initial interview and one from that group declined. The school hopes to have interviews completed by June 24, with secondary vetting completed by June 29. As had been done in the past, candidates have been interviewed by members of the faculty association, service unit association,
parent-teacher association, administration, and Board of Education. Leadership from each organization selects members to conduct the interviews; Board of Education members volunteer to participate. According to Ms. Spross’s e-mail, the process this time increases the number of panel members, and includes three panels instead of two. Candidates first meet with the faculty, service unit, and parent-teacher associations; the second panel comprises administration and Board of Education members. Those first two panels make recommendations for second interviews to be conducted by a third panel, comprising the district superintendent, business official, and Board of Education members. At the conclusion of the interviews, a final candidate will be selected and a full reference check completed. The top candidate then will be offered the position. Cooperstown Central School has come under fire from parents for its rapid turnover at the principal’s office in the past decade.
Hall of Fame leader looks back on his first year in the village
Josh Rawitch, family, dive ‘head-first’ into Cooperstown Take a look at National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum President Josh Rawitch’s Twitter account and you’ll meet a person not just embracing his profession, but also serving as a de facto ambassador for the Village of Cooperstown. He and his family — wife Erin and children Emily and Braden — relocated to the village nearly one year ago from the sprawling Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, Arizona, and they’ve embraced their new lives in a much smaller town in the northeast. “It’s been exactly what we thought it was going to be,” Mr. Rawitch said in a discussion with The Freeman’s Journal/Hometown Oneonta marking one year since the Hall announced his appointment as its eighth president. “We dove head-first into life in Cooperstown, everything from our kids getting into school activities, my wife getting involved with non-profits, starting to make friends with people who live here. All of that is like we thought it would be.” He shares with his online followers pictures of scenes like the small bridge arching over Willow Brook near Lake Street or a stop at the Cooperstown Diner on Main Street. “I’m trying to give people a little slice of what life is like with my Twitter account,” he said. “Not everybody can come here, so I try to give them a little bit of the flavor.” “You can’t really know until you live it what small-town life is going to be like,” Mr. Rawitch said. “There are so many unique things to this town that we love, from the mom-and-pop shops to the walkability of it all to the grade schools
to life on the lake. It’s such a special place. On top of it all it happens to have this unbelievable baseball mecca in the middle of it. It’s just an awesome place.” As he did one year ago upon his appointment, Mr. Rawitch spoke of his deep appreciation for his baseball career, which began at age 18 as an intern for the Los Angeles Dodgers — there for 15 years before a decade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Those jobs, he said, prepared him well for the leadership role at the Hall of Fame. “What I gained with the Diamondbacks was a vision of how to lead an organization, how to lead people,” he said. “I had the benefit of a great leader, our club president Derrick Hall, who let me sit in on things I had no business sitting in on, and I just learned from that. He wasn’t saying, “Hey, let me teach you how to lead.” He was just doing it, and I got to eat it up for a decade.” “When I left the Dodgers I was nowhere near the type of leader that I feel like I am now,” he said. “Ten years from now, I hope I’ll be even better, but I think the Diamondbacks really prepared me on how to create an organizational culture, how to lead with empathy, how to push people outside their comfort zone, and how to motivate.” Recalling the earliest days in his career, Mr. Rawitch said he enjoys working in Cooperstown with students and organizations that look to the Hall of Fame as a centerpiece in the baseball world.
Photo Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Baseball Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch
“I remember the very first time I was an intern for the Dodgers,” he said. “For whatever reason I had the guts to walk in to the general manager’s office and ask for a meeting. (Dodgers GM) Fred Claire sat down with me, asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, ‘Someday I’d like to be in your chair interviewing the 18-year-old intern.” Continued on page 10
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD