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RICHFIELD SPRINGS • CHERRY VALLEY • HARTWICK • FLY CREEK • MILFORD • SPRINGFIELD • MIDDLEFIELD Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, August 30, 2012
Volume 204, No. 35
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
NEVER BECOMES NOW
Newsstand Price $1
OTSEGO ROUTE
FERC Seeks I-88 Option For Pipeline Route May Generate $5M For Local Taxing Entities
The Freeman’s Journal
Wayne Weir, the retired CCS teacher and wrestling coach, demonstrates his antique corn shucker at the Fly Creek Cider Mill’s 19th annual Antique Engine Show Saturday, Aug. 25.
Summer Over, School Begins
S
ummer’s over. K-12 students in Cooperstown Central and other school districts around Otsego Lake return Thursday, Sept. 6, for the 2012-13 academic year. The Linden Avenue construction, not due for completion until mid-October, means buses will be arriving from the south through the village’s new Gateway. FREE MUSEUMS: The Farmers’ and Fenimore Art museums will offer free admission during Celebrate Cooperstown, a villagesponsored event SaturdaySunday, Oct. 13-14. SCOFFLAWS CURBED: The village Police Department reports that, since installing a license-plate reader on a cruiser, it has collected $3,200 from people who are delinquent on parking tickets and other violations. HONK, HONK! The first V of Canada geese of the season honked its way over the village at 8:03 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23. RIGHT TURN OK: Eastbound traffic on Main Street may now turn right on red at Chestnut, village trustees decided at their August meeting.
By JIM KEVLIN
A Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
A
fter nine years, stops and starts, frequent quarrels and political dustups, Cobleskill Paving Co. crews – including Oneonta’s Maria Neer, foreground, and Kay Moyer of Van Hornesville – began rolling a blacktop surface on the Village of Cooperstown’s 320-parking-space Gateway site Monday, Aug. 27.
Simultaneously, the Binghamton contractor that installed the infrastructure under the Gateway had crews – including Jai Crandall, Mount Upton, right – ripping up Linden Avenue, where water lines and sewerage will be installed before the street is repaved. Meanwhile, another controversy erupted as the Public Works Supt. Brian Clancy clashed with the CCS administration when he announced work on a final piece of the quilt – reconstruction of the Linden-Walnut-Chestnut triangle – would begin Tuesday, Sept. 4, the first week of school. CCS refused to agree to a needed easement, and that project will be delayed until spring 2013.
Empire State Bldg. Shooting Strikes Home
O
f all the dramatic shootings of recent years, this one hit
Cooper Lane Residents: Don’t Abandon Us COOPERSTOWN
C
ooper Lane neighbors have appealed to village trustees not to end snowplowing and maintenance of the rightof-way that provides the only access of a half-dozen homes to Chestnut Street. In a letter to the Village Board, Kurt Ofer and Teresa Drerup argued that, through
the doctrine of adverse possession – where longterm usage can cause property to change hands – the village may own it anyhow. After the new Village Board took office April 1, the trustees concluded the village doesn’t own Cooper Lane or Old School Court, and told residents it would no longer maintain those streets. The status of
t the direction of federal authorities, the Constitution Pipeline developers are exploring a new route along Interstate 88 that would shift the right-of-way – 32 miles of it – into Otsego County. Study has just begun, but the new option could bring $5 million in property taxes to the county, towns and school districts along the route and create as many as 150 temporary local jobs in 2014, according to Matthew Swift, Constitution project manager. To a degree, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which asked for the alternative, was reacting to
the suggestion of state Rep. Pete Lopez, R-Schoharie, and state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, Swift said. The two Matt Swift legislators held a press conference Monday, July 17, where Lopez reportedly called an I-88 route “the most practical, expeditious and least controversial option.” The assemblyman, whose district includes the towns of Otego, Unadilla, Butternuts and Morris in Otsego County, then wrote letters to Governor Cuomo and Please See FERC, A7
Otsego Court, by Cooley’s, is also up in the air. “My feeling is we don’t want to penalize residents,” said Mayor Jeff Katz, “but we seem to take on more than our share.” Trustee Frank Capozza said perhaps residents of those streets should bring them up to certain standards, then the village may take them over.
home. Friday, Aug. 4, reports arrived that a gunman had killed his 41-year-old former boss outside the Empire State Building. It soon surfaced that the victim, Steve Ercolino, had spent four years in Otsego County in the 1990s as a business and fashion student at SUNY Oneonta, graduating in 1992. “We are saddened to learn that a member of our community was the victim of this tragic and senseless killing. Our thoughts and prayers are with Steve’s family,” said SUNY Oneonta President Nancy
SUNY Oneonta grad Steve Ercolino had feared the worst before he was shot in front of the Empire State building Friday, Aug. 24.
Kleniewski in an official statement. Ercolino went into New York City’s fashion industry soon after graduation. He was hired by Jump Apparel Please See VICTIM, A6
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD 5798 State Highway 80 x Cooperstown, NY 13326 x (607) 547-1400 x FenimoreArtMuseum.org
American Impressionism: Paintings of Light and Life Through September 16
A rare grouping of paintings and sketches from American Impressionist masters including Childe Hassam, William Merri� Chase, and Mary Cassa�.
SAVE� � ���� OFF�ADMISSION�
CLOS
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SEPTE
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BER� T H � � DON
(Detail) Child in Sunlight, 1915, Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925), oil on canvas, 25 1/8 x 21 in., Florence Griswold Museum, Gi� of Mrs. Henrie�e Metcalf
Sponsored in part by Fenimore Asset Management and Golden Artist Colors.
’T�MIS
S�IT!
K]h\ h\]g Wcidcb $2.00 off regular adult admission. Offer valid through 9/16/2012. No other discounts apply.