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Volume 210, No. 46
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For 210 Years
AllOTSEGO.com
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, November 22, 2018
COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
Newsstand Price $1
$2 MILLION FUND DRIVE LAUNCHED
CAMPAIGN GOAL: BUILD NEW SPCA The Freeman’s Journal
Ann Canon spruces up one of the most visible downtown lightpoles, at The Flagpole, during the 4C’s annual Christmas decorating event Sunday, Nov. 18. More photos on B8 and at
AllOTSEGO.com
HCP Architects, Albany, prepared this preliminary artist’s rendering of the new Susquehanna SPCA.
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Auction, But B&B Ranch Future In Air
Plan: Break Ground Next Spring, Move In Year Later By LIBBY CUDMORE
FLY CREEK
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HARTWICK SEMINARY
he swank but foreclosed upon B&B Ranch went up for auction Saturday, Nov. 17, but its fate is still undecided. Originally listed as $3.2 million, then put up as a “no reserve” auction, Platinum Luxury Auctions and involved realtors said that while there are buyers, the final one hasn’t been picked yet. The auction was intended to pay back the mortgage provided by the Bank of Kinderhook/SEE A7 HoF 2019 BALLOT: New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera led the 20 new candidates proposed for next year’s Baseball Hall of Fame Induction. The ballot was mailed this week to 400 voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Details at
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hen Stacie Haynes first arrived at the Susquehanna SPCA, the new executive director walked through the building and made a list of what needed work. Among the issues she found were a leaky roof and poster hiding mold in what would become the surgery room. “It’s all pressboard in there,” she said, “There’s not enough stainless steel, so you can never really disinfect every inch.” Repairs were done but, three years into her tenure, Haynes and her board of directors recognizes the
shelter has far outgrown the repurposed motorcycle shop that has served as the shelter since 1981. This week, they launched the 100-year-old Otsego County institution’s first capital campaign, hoping to raise $2 million ►TO DONATE, to build a see ad on Page state-ofA5 or follow the-art, link from 21st-cenAllOTSEGO.com tury facility a mile north of the current site. “It’s a serious number,” she said. “We have to rely on supporters that we already have, but we’ll have to make some new friends too.” Pleasse See SPCA, A3
Staffworks CEO To Match Donations Up To $10,000 By LIBBY CUDMORE
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Staffworks CEO founder Anita Vitullo, impressed by Susquehanna SPCA, has offered a boost to its fundraising.
This Thanksgiving, Wild Turkey Scarcer By LIBBY CUDMORE
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SANTA’S COMIN’: As n 2008, New York State is the tradition, St. Nick will hunters brought 598 be taking up residence at his turkeys home for the Pioneer Park cottage at 5 p.m dinner table. on the day after Thanksgiving Last year, 30. /SEE B1 “In the late ’90s and early 2000s, the rabies epidemic decimated the predator population,” said Karl Parker,
hen she was 12 years old, Anita Vitullo had an experience that changed her life. “My dad took me to the dog pound and there were these long rows of cages, with all these dogs barking and begging to go home,” she said. “I never knew that there were animals who were homeless, and I knew I wanted to grow up and help those animals.” She went home with Princess, a shepherd/collie mix that remained her faithful companion for years. “My parents worked, so she taught me so much patience and unconditional love,” she said. “A pet is a great thing for a child to have.” Now 70, the owner and founder of the Staffworks staffing agency – it has an Oneonta office – has added the Susquehanna SPCA to the 20 animal organizations throughout the state that the Staffworks Charitable Fund supports. Please See ANGEL, A3
Fond Memories Of Lady Evoked At Resting Place
DEC Region 4 senior wildlife biologist. “As a result, turkeys boomed.” By JIM KEVLIN But predators – including bobcats, coyotes, and egg-thieves like raccoons FLY CREEK and skunks – have since rebounded, and the turkey ith a few words populations have declined of appreciation steadily since. and two Psalms, DEC photo Additionally, the loss a small lady with a large Once plentiful, wild turPlease See TURKEY, A7 keys are becoming rare. personality was laid to rest
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two days before Thanksgiving amid light flurries. “She lived with one leg in this world and one in the next,” the Quaker minister, Jim Atwell, reflected on Lady Ostapeck, who in a half century of photographs recreated local folks as Please See LADY, 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