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Otsego County’s Newspaper
Volume 210, No. 44
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ON VETERANS’ DAY, SUNDAY, NOV. 11, PAUSE, REFLECT
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Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, November 8, 2018
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
For 210 Years
Newsstand Price $1 Happy in their new Toddsville home are, from left, Dylan, Hugh, Rodney, William, Jess and Melissa Abrams, and Bob Orlando holding Yipsie.
THANK YOU! House Gutted In Oct. 21 Fire, Family In New Home, Grateful To Everyone By LIBBY CUDMORE
a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Nov 10, Abrams house, 555 Greenough Road, Toddsville
TODDSVILLE
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or the first time since the fire gutted her family’s Hartwick Seminary home in the earlymorning hours of Sunday, Oct. 21,
The Freeman’s Journal
Scott Foster of Upstate Companies, Mount Upton, works on the trench for a future Pioneer Park bike rack.
Pioneer Park Redo Begins In Downtown COOPERSTOWN
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illage Trustee Cindy Falk foresees a “pocket oasis in the downtown” when the work now underway in Pioneer Park is done. The trench now being dug will be a foundation for a bike rack and bike repair station, and a final plan is now being prepared by landscape architect Michael Haas of Delta Engineering, Endwell. But, part of the $2 million federal grant to be implemented next year, the final park should include a space for gatherings and performances, a drinking fountain, a cobblestone surface and new plantings. Further details at
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
HONOR VETERANS: The Veterans’ Day parade will leave the Vets’ Club at 10:50 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, and march to the Doughboy Statue at the foot of Pine Boulevard for the annual commemoration. HOLIDAY DINNER: Cooperstown High School is again planning a Senior Citizen Turkey Dinner 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, in the cafeteria. For reservations, call Maria Senk, 607547-2401, by Friday, Nov. 9.
►IF YOU GO: Open house, 11
Melissa Abrams got a good night’s sleep. “I’ve slept well for the last two Please See FAMILY, B8
Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
DEVLIN DECLARES VICTORY • FERNANDEZ HOLDS OUT
SHERIFF UP IN AIR
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WWII Vet Survived D-Day, But German Labor Camp Awaited
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By LIBBY CUDMORE, CATHY NARDI & JIM KEVLIN
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By LIBBY CUDMORE ITHACA
tsego County Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. declared himself the winner. His opponent, retired state MIDTERMS trooper Bob Fernandez, declared he’s not the loser. It’s a stand-off. ►IT’S NOT Also Midterm OVER YET: Election Day, Follow develDemocratic oping political newcomer story on Antonio DelALLOTSEGO.COM gado defeated first-term U.S. Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, and favorite son and state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, swamped Democratic challenger Joyce St. George. In the sheriff’s standoff, “I’m not conceding anything,” Fernandez declared when the count was complete. “I feel pretty good right now. We didn’t leave anything on the field. I did well by my team and my people.” “We are very confident and we are declaring victory,” Devlin said on hearing his rival’s declaration. “We’re very pleased with the results. It’s nice to know the public trusts me.” With 100 percent of precincts Please See STANDOFF, A7
2019
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ou can still see the coal dust on the four letters from Robert Nobles’ wife, Bette. He credits them with keeping his spirits up during an 11-month stint as a POW in a Nazi camp. “I don’t know how they never found them,” he said in an interview the other day at his Ithaca home. “I would read them every night by the little light of my coal-miner helmet.” Nobles, 98, father of Christine Heller, Cooperstown, the well-known Otsego County artist, was a member of Company C of the 508th Paratroop Infantry Regiment, who were tasked with jumping into Normandy in the early morning hours of D-Day, June 6, 1944. The goal: to secure a crossG.I. Nobles with a roads and prevent the Gerfull pack. man soldiers from reaching the Normandy beaches. Jumping with him was First Sgt. Leonard Alfred Funk Jr., who later received Please See VETERAN, A3
Devlin 1,000 Votes Ahead In Balloting
Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
Bette, and six decades of a happy marriage, awaited, but the POW poring over her letters didn’t know that at the time.
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD