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COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
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Volume 207, No. 45
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1808 BY
VISIT THE
OUNDED
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Cooperstown’s Newspaper
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For 207 Years
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Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, November 12, 2015
Newsstand Price $1
26 Layoffs Balance Victory Goes To County ’16 Budget O’Brien REMEMBERING SERVICE B Hartwick Town Supervisor Race
7 Parttimers, 19 Fulltimers To Lose Jobs By DON MATHISEN
The Freeman’s Journal
COOPERSTOWN
Flashing red lights were installed at Walnut and Delaware in recent days.
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24-7 Blinkers Installed Near Village School COOPERSTOWN
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oncerns about cars running the stop sign at Cooperstown Elementary raised by crossing guard Stretch Redding have led to the installation this week of solar-powered flashing lights that will blink, blink 24-7. Trustee Cindy Falk, Streets Committee chair, said this week she, Redding and Trustee Ellen Tillapaugh had independently observed similar lights at Center and Dietz in Oneonta, and though they might keep drivers alert at the student crosswalk in the village. EXPERT ARRIVES: Consultant Kennedy Smith, former president of the National Main Street Center, was here Monday, Nov. 9, meeting with the Comprehensive Plan committee on ways to diversity retail in downtown Cooperstown. AIDING FOOD BANK: The Scriven Foundation has again provided a holiday season grant to match donations to the Cooperstown Food Pantry for up to $5,000 during November and December. Donations may be sent to the food pantry, 25 Church St., Cooperstown NY 13326.
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
58-year Vets’ Club auxiliary member Joan Clark had a place of honor in Cooperstown’s Veterans’ Day Parade Wednesday, Nov. 11, en route to 11-11-11 commemorations at the doughboy statue at the foot of Pine Boulevard. Driving is the Jeep’s owner, Joe Staruck, Schenevus; WWII veteran Bob Simmons is in the passenger seat/MORE PHOTOS, A3
he $9.2 million gap in Otsego County’s proposed 2016 budget is closed. It took the layoffs of 19 full-time and 7 part-time county employees, slashing some services and raising property taxes by about $100,000 total, the maximum allowed under the state property tax cap. The layoffs, agreed on Friday, Nov. 6, by the county board’s Budget Review Committee and county Treasurer Dan Crowell, followed six weeks of discussion. Please See BUDGET, A7
COOPERSTOWN
V Dr. Streck acknowledges applause at Pathfinder Village reception in his honor.
HARTWICK
ob O’Brien, the father of triplets, is used to surprises. Still, when Hartwick’s surpriserich election year ended Tuesday, Nov. 10, you can understand why the Hartwick O’Brien town supervisor-elect declared, “Thank God it’s over.” O’Brien learned that day that, 233 to 229, he had defeated two-term incumbent (and longtime Town Board member) David Butler after months of campaigning, legal challenges and political infighting to claim the top office in Otsego County’s fastest-growing town. A Please See O’BRIEN, A7
On-Street Parking Settled, Residential Permits Await By JIM KEVLIN
Tom Knight, left photo, plays “Taps,” as veterans Bill Tallman, right foreground, and John Orilio salute. Robert Iverson echoed Knight’s trumpet.
By JIM KEVLIN
illagers whose heads may still be spinning over on-street parking, P&D machines and downtown parking permits, now have another concept around which to wrap their brains.
Residential parking permits. The Village Board has scheduled a “workshop meeting” for 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 20. Mayor Jeff Katz anticipates a free-floating discussion to see if there is any consensus on the matter. The public is welcome, but no public comment. “The residential permit Please See PERMITS, A6
‘Second Family’ Thanks Bill Streck $1.2 Million Clinic Named In Honor Of Former Bassett CEO By LIBBY CUDMORE EDMESTON
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ill Streck had every reason to be humbled by the opening of the Dr. William F. Streck Health Center at Pathfinder Village. Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal “I was talking to a friend about it, and
he said, ‘Let me get this straight. Bassett starts a clinic in a farmhouse. Then you became president of Bassett. You retire. Dr. Vance Brown opens a clinic and they name it after you’?” he recalled during his remarks at the clinic’s opening reception Friday, Nov. 6. “When I thought about it that way, there was some humility.” Please See STRECK, A7
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD