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Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, December 4, 2014
Bassett To Shift 40 Jobs To Downtown Utica By JIM KEVLIN
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assett Healthcare has located a five-story building in downtown Utica, and plans to
City Hall Promises 125 Parking Spaces To New Employer move 40 “non-treatment” tech-support positions there from Cooperstown in the next year. That may expand to 125 over the next five
years, according to Bassett’s spokesperson. The 50,000-square-foot M&T Bank annex was part of a complex that includes
the landmark “Gold Dome” building, but that’s not part of the real-estate Bassett obtained, according to spokesperson Karen Huxtable.
The decision on the building was announced in recent days and heralded by Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri, who said, “This is another exciting day for the Please See BASSETT, A7
Broadband Plan Set The Freeman’s Journal
Realtor Margaret Savoie poises by the wreath her Don Olin Realty donated to the Cooperstown Art Association’s annual AdornA-Door fundraiser Saturday, Nov. 29. The wreath brought a $175 bid, the highest.
IDA May Let Contract With Telecom Firm
Santa Claus REPORTS FOR DUTY
By JIM KEVLIN
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Fight Looms On Bed-Tax Distribution
he IDA-commissioned Broadband he “BroadFeasibilband Feasbility Study has ity Study” – found a $30 and the outcome million public- of Thursday’s IDA meeting – may private highbe viewed at speed system ALLOTSEGO.COM can happen in Otsego County, and the agency is prepared to contract with a “telecom” to implement it as soon at the IDA’s Thursday, Dec. 4, monthly meeting in Oneonta. Please See BROADBAND, A7
COOPERSTOWN
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ounty Rep. Ed Lentz, D-New Lisbon, was expected to force a vote for bed-tax revenues to be shared with Cooperstown, Oneonta and Hartwick when the county Board of Representatives voted Wednesday, Dec. 3, on its $103 million budget for 2015. This edition went to press Tuesday evening, so for details, check WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM GROFF BEST: Cooperstown native Lauren Groff’s story “At Round Earth’s Imagined Corners” joins Joyce Carol Oates and Charles Baxter on the pages of the 2014 “Best American Short Stories,” edited by Jennifer Egan, author of “A Visit from the Goon Squad.” CHECK IT OUT: To mark World AIDS Day, Family Planning of South Central New York is offering free, confidential and rapid AIDS testing and counseling daily, 9 a.m-4 p.m., through Friday, at 37 Dietz St.
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Christmas About To Become Ugly – For Fun Of It By LIBBY CUDMORE Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal
Fresh off his book tour for his newly published “Santa’s Second Home,” recounting his year-’round adventures in Cooperstown, Santa and the missus arrive Friday, Nov. 28, at Pioneer Park, where they will hold court until Christmas. The Marietta sisters and their friend, Ella McGown, in top photo, react with surprise as a fire truck escorting Santa blasts its horn.
Husband Dedicates Mel’s To Wife’s Memory By LIBBY CUDMORE COOPERSTOWN
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pening Mel’s at 22 was not just a dream come true for Brian Wrubleski – it was a chance to honor his wife, MaryEllen, who died
Dec. 21, 2013, at age 53. “It had been a goal of ours for a long time,” he said as he stirred a batch of his homemade clam chowder in preparation for a Monday lunch crowd. “After she passed away, we found this location. She always said, ‘When it’s Please See MEL’S, A6
Daughter Alex and her husband Steve are participating in Brian Wrubleski’s venJim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal ture.
COOPERSTOWN
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att Hazzard still thinks fondly on the Ugly Sweater That Got Away. “It had Winnie the Pooh and Tigger in Christmas hats next to a tree,” he said. “It was Hazzard gets in fantastic.” the spirit. It didn’t survive the trip from Colorado to Cooperstown, but it is in that Please See UGLY, A6
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD