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VISIT www.AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
-7 607-432
Volume 212, No. 47
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, November 19, 2020
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
Newsstand Price $1
OTSEGO COVID CASES DOUBLE; 5 DELAWARE ONES SENT HERE
CCS Outbreak Hits Herzigs By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA
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n the past week, Otsego County doubled its November COVID-19, leaving Oneonta’s mayor and his wife among the newly quarantined. With 37 new cases of the virus
The Freeman’s Journal
Santa and Mrs. Claus were spotted strolling through downtown Cooperstown the other day, planning how to adapt their usual activities for a “virtual” Christmas.
4Cs To Adjust Christmas To ‘Virtual’ Mode COOPERSTOWN
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owntown Decoration Day, a Cooperstown tradition for decades, will continue as usual this year, beginning at 1 p.m. this Sunday, Nov. 22, (although with social distancing). However, the Cooperstown Community Christmas Committee has been thinking through how to adapt the usual holiday activities to “virtual” mode/SEE PAGE B1 FULL COVID STORIES ON
AllOTSEGO.com ►COOPERSTOWN ELEMENTARY, Oneonta’s Greater Plains closed due to COVID cases. ►SUNY, HARTWICK STUDENTS invited to decorate downtown Oneonta. ►SQSPCA rescues 10 cats from Staten Island Shelter. ►2021 hall OF FAME ballot sent to Baseball Writers. ►COOPERSTOWN FIREFIGHTERS distribute 100 face masks. ►centers honors veteran isolated by coronavirus ►FIRST DOG PARK IN COUNTY opens in Milford ►unbowed by storm, Oneonta Veterans honor fallen at Legion Post. ►Otsego chamber honorees feted at Otesaga, via Zoom.
identified from Tuesday the 10th to Tuesday the 17th, the number of cases for the month rose from 46 to 83 in just seven days. Two from Otsego County were hospitalized, including a resident from a group home where 16 were infected after
a staff member tested positive. “The numbers are going in the wrong direction,” said Mayor Gary Herzig. “And unfortunately, it’s a bit random, so that’s worrisome.” Herzig himself is in “voluntary quarantine” after his wife Connie was exposed at Cooperstown Elementary School. She was deemed Please See COVID, A3
The Freeman’s Journal
Oneontas Mayor Herzig takes a COVID test when the SUNY epidemic neared its height.
SUNY-O Opening Plan Tightens C-19 Testing Report Plans To Catch Virus Before It Spreads By JIM KEVLIN ONEONTA
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draft plan on reopening SUNY Oneonta on Feb. 1 was released Monday, Nov. 16, that – among many points in the single-spaced, 22-page document – addresses a particular community concern. That is, preventing this fall’s outbreak of 700-plus on-campus cases from happening again. In an interview, SUNY Oneonta
75 Faculty Sign Petition Asking Leadership: Stop
President Dennis Craig called it “a strong plan” that includes a fivepoint prevention protocol he had outlined Nov. 9 in a video message to the campus: • One, all Craig students will be tested on arrival. • Two, all students coming in from “hotspots” will be quarantined. Please See REOPENING, B5
►THREE DOCUMENTS con-
By JIM KEVLIN ONEONTA
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he evening before SUNY Oneonta issued its Draft Reopening Plan, some faculty members posted a 25-point manifesto and petition online: They’re against it. Addressed to “Dear Acting President Dennis Craig and Provost Leamor Kahanov,” it declares, “To regain our trust and confidence in your decision-making processes,
SQSPCA Dreams Coming True
cerning COVID-19 at SUNY Oneonta were posted since Sunday, Nov. 15. • Draft Reopening Plan: Spring 2021 • Retrospective on Fall 2020 •Be Smart SUNY Oneonta petition Follow links at
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
shared governance at SUNY Oneonta must be restored.” Each of the 25 points begin with the word “stop,” and accuses the Please See PETITION, B5
Drains In, Scaffolds Rise, Completion Due In April
Campaign Underway To Keep Ioxus Here, Zakrevsky Tells City
By LIBBY CUDMORE
By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA
COOPERSTOWN
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t the Susquehanna SPCA’s new shelter, not only will you be able to see the difference, you’ll be able to smell it too. “Dogs communicate through smell,” said Andrew Schuster, principal architect with Ashley McGraw, Syracuse. “To keep stress levels down, every dog will have a separately ‘exhausted’ kennel to ensure odor privacy, so that you don’t have Please See SHELTER, A3
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
SQSPCA Executive Director Stacie Haynes discusses progress on the shelter with Lane Construction Project Manager Rick Bliss, left, and architect Andrew Schuster.
tsego Now President Jody Zakrevsky may save Ioxus. “Ioxus is in the process of being sold to XS Power Batteries,” he said, appearing Tuesday, Nov. 17, at Common Council, via Zoom. Its CEO Zakrevsky Scottie Johnson “indicated he was planning on closing Ioxus and moving the company to Knoxville, Tenn., Please See IOXUS, A3
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD