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COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
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Volume 206, No. 34
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Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, August 21, 2014
Gunplay, Homicide Cases End In 2 Pleas
60 LISTEN TO LAWYER’S ADVICE
Landowners: How Can We Fight DOT Lakefront Claims?
Renert Given 15 Years, Buck 20 In Prison Cell By LIBBY CUDMORE
The Freeman’s Journal
Lloyd Stilson, a village crew member, removes cones around one of 50 “sharrows” painted on Cooperstown streets in recent days. ORCA, the pro-biking group has been advocating the “share the road’ signs.
COOPERSTOWN
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Pygmy Goats To Eat Weeds At Doubleday COOPERSTOWN
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oubleday Field is looking for a few good pygmy goats – 8-10 of them. “We’ve got weed issues underneath the bleachers” along the first-base line, said groundskeeper Quinton Hasak. “Goats would consume the vegetation.” It’s part of Doubleday Field’s commitment to Cornell’s Integrated Pest Management plan, which favors natural weed controls. The pygmy goats weigh up to 75 pounds and grow to 2 feet tall at the withers. Got goats? Call Hasak at 547-2270. HOPS MINI-TOUR: For those closed out of NEHA’s Aug. 2 hops field day, a mini version, from Oneonta’s Northern Eagle Beverages to Hager Hops’ yard in Pierstown, is planned 9 a.m.-noon Friday, Sept. 19. RSVP by Friday, Aug. 22, at ans74@cornell.edu. FIGHT INVASIVES: OCCA needs volunteers to hand-pull invasive water chestnuts from the north end of Goodyear Lake at 9 a.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 22-23, at the state boat
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
Lee Stockwell, unable to repair her property since the 2006 flood due to state DOT resistance, will abandon her camp (photo at top) at summer’s end.
Meanwhile, 1st Camp Owner Abandons ‘Million-Dollar View’ By LIBBY CUDMORE & JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
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t the end of the summer, Lee Stockwell will pack her bags and say goodbye to the camp with a panoramic view of The Sleeping Lion and Hyde Bay that she’s called her summer home since 2002.
NICOLETTA RETIRES AS CFO AT BASSETT
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icholas Nicoletta of Richfield Springs is retiring at the end of the year as CFO of Bassett Hospital and also its eight-county healthcare network corporation. He has worked for Bassett for 38 years. The hospital CFO position will be filled by Sue Andrews, President/CEO Vance Brown announced Tuesday, Aug. 19. She has been with Bassett for 34 years. A search will be launched for corporate CFO, Brown said.
It’s not a “see-you-next-summer” farewell. Looking out at her “million dollar view,” she’s preparing to walk away for the last time as the bank forecloses on her lakefront property. “I’m a prisoner of the Department of Transportation,” she said. “It’s a bully system.” Stockwell is the first landowner forced to abandon her property due to the state DOT’s effort at patchwork repairs to Route 80 – West Lake Road Please See CAMPS, A3
istrict Attorney John Muehl was ready. On the first day of jury selection in the Barry Renert trial, Renert’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender James Ferrari, approached Muehl and requested a plea bargain. “He wanted less time than the 15 years I’d initially offered,” said Muehl. “I said no.” Renert, 63, of Richfield Springs and D.A. Muehl Florida, was about to go on trial for the Dec. 23 incident at Seventh Inning Stretch, which he allegedly entered with a 9 mm Glock. But Owner Vincent Carfagno drew his own pistol and shot first, missing his former employee, who, with alleged accomplice Stephen Janiszeski, fled, setting off a statewide manhunt two days before Christmas. He was arrested in Virginia later that evening, and Janiszeski was arrested in Florida this past June. Ferrari consulted with Renert, who then agreed to serve the 15 years after pleading guilty to one charge of Please See PLEAS, A7
Fun Park Land Will Be Wildlife Preserve Son Pursues Project In Father’s Memory
As bulldozers from the Upper Susquehanna Coalition roar by, Bob Hickey Jr., right, shows state Sen. Jim Seward, center, the site of future wildlife preserve.
HARTWICK SEMINARY
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ight years ago, Cooperstown Fun Park proprietor Bob Hickey Jr. planned to build a baseball diamond, Dreams Park style, in the 20 acres that stretch to the Susquehanna River from his miniature golf course and go-kart track on Route 28. He struck a drainage trench and the Army Corps of EnPlease See PONDS, A7
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD