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Cooperstown’s Newspaper
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For 205 Years
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VISIT WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM Volume 205, No. 39
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, September 26, 2013
Father Dead, Son Jailed After Gunplay In Home Murder Count First In County Since ’05 Case
The Freeman’s Journal
Cooperstown Brewery proprietor Gene Marra, left, shows off his CARL still to state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, during a tour of the 11 Railroad Ave. facility Monday, Sept. 23. Marra hopes to open by month’s end.
By LIBBY CUDMORE MIDDLEFIELD
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Mats To Smooth Rocky Car Ride Over Rail Tracks COOPERSTOWN
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illage Hall is taking charge of the filling-shaking railroad tracks at Walnut and Chestnut. As a finishing touch on this summer’s $1 million street repair there, village trustees Monday, Sept. 23, authorized a $400 expenditure with Tractor Supply for rubber mats to fit between and around the Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley’s tracks to smooth the transit. The railroad will then be billed, the trustees decided. LIGHTS, ACTION: A Hollywood movie, “The Automatic Hate,” had scheduled all-day filming Wednesday, Sept. 25, at Nicoletta’s. HICKORY INN LIVES: Joe Galati has advised the village Watershed Advisory Committee he plans to install a 27-bedroom hotel and 68seat restaurant at the former Hickory Grove Inn on West Lake Road. SIDEWALKS A GO: The state Environmental Facilities Corp. has approved a plan to repair and upgrade the sidewalk on the north side of Main Street,. Bids may now be let and work can begin in the spring.
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Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
Hadley Marcalus, 17 months, daughter of Ned and Brittany of Cooperstown, was in pumpkin heaven at Lakefront Park during PumpkinFest Sunday, Sept. 22.
Giant Pumpkin Crisis Avoided, Paddles Fly Weigh-In, Regatta Brings Crowds Here By JIM KEVLIN
COOPERSTOWN
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offered $150 and even $200 for big pumpkins, and the night before this year’s Sunday, Sept. 22, regatta the chamber had acquired only three. Crisis. Happily, Gary Adams of LaFayette, a perennial contender and former local champ, rushed back Please See PUMPKIN, B5
all it Pumpkin Crisis 2013. Heretofore, the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, which organizes PumpkinFest, has bought enough of the big gourds at the end of the Saturday weighin for paddlers in the Sunday regatta at Lakefront Park. “Year after year, it’s been no problem,” said chamber Executive Director Pat Szarpa, who planned to pay $100 apiece. “We thought, pretty con- Calmly, smoothly, Mary Grose, fidently, we could Carbone Automotive, paddles to Todd Brownell’s son, Porter, was get seven or eight of a victory in the Pumpkin Regatta. them.” all pumpkined out by the time Behind her are Wende Ebberts, his dad’s 1,548.5-pound won the But others Community Bank, and Chad $2,000 Giant Pumpkin category. swooped in and Welch, Smith Ford.
ven if she had heard gunshots in the night, Darlene Madison, who lives on a rural Town of Middlefield mountaintop, wouldn’t have paid A bullet from a second gun much attention. “It’s not unusual to hear gun- pierced the lips of Michael fire around here,” she said, even as one shot, Buck, accused then another echoed in in the fatal shooting of his the distance Monday father. morning, Sept. 23. “It’s county land; people use it for hunting and target practice.” In the early morning hours of Saturday Sept. 21, multiple gunshots had been fired from two handguns a half-mile down Indian Please See SHOOTING, A3
SUSPECT IN COURT 9/30 For details of Michael Buck’s next court appearance Monday, Sept. 30, check
WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM
Eldridge’s Bid Shines National Spotlight Here Democrat Has Fortune To Spend By JIM KEVLIN
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emocrat Sean Eldridge’s announcement he is running for Congress in the 19th District will put Otsego County in the national limelight over the next 13 months, and local party chairs are girding for battle. “Sean was full of energy,” said county Democratic Chair Richard Abbate, Cooperstown, as Eldridge’s Sunday, Sept. 22, announcement had him harkening back to the weekend before. At the party’s annual Jedediah Peck Dinner at the Country Inn & Suites on Please See ELDRIDGE, B5
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD