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COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
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Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, July 4, 2013
Volume 205, No. 27
Drama, Humor Punctuate Firefighting History By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
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ith Cooperstown celebrating 200 years of firefighting Friday-Saturday, July 5-6, historian Doug Preston shared a little secret: His definitive history of the department happened by
happenstance. “I’ve been a railroad buff all my life,” he said. When he arrived at the Cooperstown Graduate Program in 1969, “my first thought was to write about the railroad – but somebody had already beaten me to it.” When he learned 1930s Ahren’s Fox ladder truck was just then being re-
tired and replaced by a top-of-the-line American LaFrance Aero Chief, “it made me wonder what else there was about the history of the fire department,” he said. From that question came Preston’s two-volume, Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal 560-page thesis, “The Preston holds up the 1970 Clang of the Bell, Wail of American LaFrance calenthe Whistle,” a CGP thesis dar that featured Cooperpublished in 1974, much stown’s new Aero Chief.
THE GREAT RAINS OF 2013 The Freeman’s Journal
Baseball historian Tom Heitz addresses the 140 Tauck Tour visitors at a wrap-up session Sunday, June 30, at The Farmers’ Museum.
Tour Celebrates Documentaries Of Ken Burns COOPERSTOWN
ROUTE 31 COLLAPSES, SSPCA IS SUBMERGED
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You can see how high the water rose in the SSPCA’s isolation building by the line on Sally Fullington’s jeans. The Westford woman and Edy Parisian, Oneonta, left, were among the first volunteers at the scene of flooded Susquehanna SPCA Friday, June 28.
ourism promoters have been waxing enthusiastic at a novel 140-visitor tour group that spent Thursday-Saturday, June 25-27, experiencing documentarian Ken Burns’ famed 18-hour “Baseball” on site here. The visit was one of four events high-end Tauck Tours of Norwalk, Conn., is putting together around Burns’ famed documentaries, according to Tauck events manager Brenda MacKellar. Burns met with the group in the Hall of Plaques at a Friday reception. S-O ENDORSES: Sustain-
able Otsego will introduce “several” candidates it is endorsing for the county Board of Representatives at a press conference at noon Tuesday, July 9, at 21 Railroad Ave., Cooperstown. FABULOUS NUPTIALS:
The Fabulous Beekman Boys – Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Dr. Brent Ridge – were wed Friday, June 28, on their Beekman Farm in Sharon Springs. ATV FATALITY: Town of
Richfield farmer Paul J. Szeflinski, 75, was killed when thrown from his ATV while herding cows near Walters Way, off Route 28 near the octagon barn, at 8 p.m. Sunday, June 30.
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
10.2 Inches Fell In June, Compared To 1.54 Last Year By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
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t’s been only nine months since flood damage from 2010 was repaired and East Lake Road reopened. Now, another section of the road, a quarter-mile south, is gone, washed out by the Friday, June 26, deluge. The storm that dropped as much as 3 inches overnight also pushed Oak Creek over its banks in Hartwick
Seminary, flooding the Susquehanna SPCA shelter. Five kittens in the isolation building out back drowned, and two cats were hospitalized with water in their lungs. The warm, moist front is still hanging over the region and is expected to until Friday the 5th, with isolated thunderstorms hitting and running, a downpour here, a watery battering there. In 2012, Cooperstown’s June rainfall was 1.54 inches. This June, it was 10.2 inches Please See RAIN, A7
Ted Peters Jr. of Cooperstown was among the curious who drove up East Lake Road Friday, June 28, to take a look at the latest subsidence.
written while he was working at the Fort Pitt museum in Pittsburgh, Pa. “I did what research I could and wrote questions to look up when I went back to Cooperstown,” he said. “I had at least five boxes of 4-by-6 cards.” The history of organized fire fighting in Cooperstown began in Please See HISTORY, B4
JOB-GROWTH GOALS AIRED
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embers of the county Board of Representatives and its IDA (Industrial Development Agency) planned to meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 3, to discuss privatizing the Economic Development Office, bringing it in line with Saratoga County’s muchpraised effort. For report, check WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM
Parking Suit Conference Yields Little COOPERSTOWN
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y press time, a possible resolution of the merchant lawsuit to have on-street paid parking thrown out appeared unlikely. Plaintiff Brenda Berstler and her lawyer, Jim Konstanty, had met with Mayor Jeff Katz, the Village Board and Village Attorney Martin Tillapaugh for a half-hour Friday, June 26, in Council Chambers. The trustees then conferred separately for 90 additional minutes. Katz declined to talk about particulars, but said he still favors waiting until September, when a full summer of data is in hand, before adjusting the system. Konstanty called the session “a productive meeting” and said he expected a communication from the village, “in writing – I would hope in the next day or two.” Tuesday, July 2, however, Tillapaugh said he had received no such directive from the mayor. Konstanty said the mayor required him and Berstler to sign a confidentiality agreement to give no particulars about what transpired.
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD O v e r
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