COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND CCS gym vote is December 14 A reminder to voters in the Cooperstown Central School District of the ballot to decide on a $2.5 million capital project referendum to renovate the elementary school gym. Voting is open from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. on December 14 in the Auditorium of the Cooperstown High School. School officials say the capital project referendum will result in no change in tax impact.
County urges COVID caution Otsego County Public Health Director Heidi Bond said Tuesday that the county is “currently experiencing the highest surge in COVID19 cases since the pandemic started almost two years ago.” “We are doing our best to keep up with the high number of new cases,” Ms. Bond said. She cautioned that it “may take several days for you to be contacted once you receive a positive test,” adding that county residents should cooperate with contact tracers if the call comes and “complete the interview honestly and accurately.”
O M C O PE
IA L
Volume 213, No. 49
E WIL
09 607-432-7
DG
nd IT Setrech.net a r e t u p Com .isd 0 • www
JU
rIty I.t. SeCU G In ConSULt vices
1808 BY
Ion mS DIvIS e t S y S atIon Inform
OUNDED IN
Cooperstown’s offiCial newspaper
R
•F
founded
in 1808
State shuts down elective surgeries at A.O. Fox Hospital. Page 3 VISIT www.
AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, December 9, 2021
Newsstand Price $1
Board weighs opt out, referendum County’s farmers as state’s deadline approaches push back on overtime Some two dozen Cooperstown residents were almost evenly divided in comments during a public hearing Monday, December 6, to address a pending Board of Trustees vote that would find the Village opting out of allowing the retail sale of marijuana within Cooperstown’s borders. New York legalized the sale of marijuana in April, and allowed local governments to choose whether they want dispensaries and lounges where customers could smoke on-site. To opt out, however, that same state law requires a local government to pass a local law no later than December 31, 2021. Failure to do so automatically opens the locality to dispensaries and lounges; those local governments that vote to opt out prior to the year-end deadline may repeal that local law through permissive referendum at a later date to allow for retail sale. “We can do a permissive referendum only if we opt out of the state law before December 31,” Mayor Tillapaugh said. “It’s a procedure that lets us keep our options open. If we don’t do something by the end of the year, we’re stuck; if we opt out now, we can opt back in at a later date.” Mayor Tillapaugh said the Village Board of Trustees plans to vote on its opt-out resolution at its December 20 meeting. “We have a motion on the Floor now to allow for a permissive referendum in our March elections,” the Mayor said. “Had we done this any earlier, we would have
had to hold a special election.” “I’m not closing the public comment on this,” she said at the close of the December 6 hearing. “We want to know your opinions. We welcome your e-mail, phone calls, letters, whatever right up until our vote on the 20th.” Residents supporting the opt-out law – and keeping pot stores out of the Village – cited tourism implications, Cooperstown’s reputation as a family-friendly destination, public health implications, and overarching fear of making pot more readily available as their chief concerns. “My primary concern is how it will affect Cooperstown and how families see the village,” said Jim Dean. “Our tourists in the summer are, mostly, families with children. They visit the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Farmers’ Museum, and the Fenimore House.” “I can’t imagine people coming to Cooperstown to visit dispensaries will stick around afterward to go to the museums,” he said, eliciting chuckles from attendees. “I don’t know. Perhaps I’m wrong.” Like others who spoke at the meeting, Mr. Dean said he favored the opt-out resolution so that Village residents could vote later on a public referendum to either allow or disallow dispensaries and lounges. “Let the residents come out and vote and that will be the end of it, one way or the other,” he said.
Farmers across New York State, including Otsego County, are speaking out in opposition as a New York State Department of Labor Farm Laborers’ Wage Board considers lowering the threshold at which farm workers earn overtime pay from 60 hours per week to 40, a move farmers say will devastate their businesses. Farmers went to Albany Wednesday, December 1, to deliver letters to Governor Kathy Hochul opposing the move and urging the Wage Board to keep the 60-hour overtime week. Otsego County Farm Bureau The Farm Laborers Vice President Darin Fair Practice Act, Hickling, calls the overtime signed into law by proposal a “nail in the coffin” former New York State for New York’s farmers. Governor Andrew Cuomo, statutorily reduced the weekly overtime threshold from 80 hours to 60 beginning January 1, 2020. The law also included workers’ compensation, one day of rest during the calendar week, unemployment insurance, disability, and the right to organize. A provision included in the law authorizes the Department of Labor to convene a Wage Board to revisit lowering the required hours for overtime periodically. Citing concern
Continued on page 9
Continued on page 9
By Kevin Limiti
INSIDE ►FOX AMONG LIMITED LIST: State’s Department of Health imposes new standards. PAGE A3 ►A CENTURY AND COUNTING; Cooperstown’s Main Street ‘Diner’ marks 100th birthday. PAGE A10 ►THE MET IS BACK IN THE ARIA. Opera fans can ride out the winter doldrums with Hi-Def simulcasts at Oneonta’s Foothills PAC. PAGE A12. Follow Breaking News On
AllOTSEGO.com ►COVID UPDATES: Daily updates as nation, state, county grapple with Omnicron and Delta upticks. ►HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS : Stay up to date on local holiday get-togethers (and maybe some new rules) as the season rolls on. ►fire in oneonta: Monser Brothers Tire Service loses second floor in December 3 blaze.
Bassett chief reflects on a busy first year at helm [Editor’s note: We invited Dr. Tommy Ibrahim, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bassett Healthcare Network, to reflect on his first year at the helm of our regional healthcare facilities. He provided to The Freeman’s Journal and Hometown Oneonta the following as a firstperson, open letter to the Dr. Tommy communities the network Ibrahim serves.] Dear Friends, Neighbors and Colleagues, By many measures, 2021 was challenging and transformative for our community and Bassett Healthcare Network. When I began my tenure as President and CEO of Bassett, we were in the early stages of a pandemic that we hoped would last weeks or months, but became the largest global pandemic in a century. This crisis has been daunting and has tested our resolve in ways we could not have imagined. Through it all, our caregivers and practitioners did what they do best — cared selflessly for our patients
and community. Though Covid-19 has certainly been the headline of the last year and a half, it is not the whole story, especially not here at Bassett. Over the last year, our leaders have focused on strengthening our network’s foundation, improving patient care, and ensuring that Bassett remains an independent health system serving our communities for decades to come. I have high aspirations for our network that continue to build on the beautiful legacy of excellent care Bassett and its caregivers and practitioners have provided for generations. We strive to be an example of outstanding rural care and employer of choice — a source of pride for our employees, our region, and beyond. This year, we made significant progress toward becoming an integrated health delivery system, operating as one unified network rather than as loosely affiliated hospitals, clinics, offices, and services. We have developed, for the first time, a single network-wide strategic plan that strengthens core operations and positions Bassett for a promising future. We are also creating standards across the system, sharing best practices, and benefiting from increased efficiencies. I have said many times that our people are
Bassett’s most important asset. This year, we invested significantly in our workforce. Bassett raised the minimum wage for all employees, offered bonuses, and we are currently analyzing compensation and benefits across the network. We are taking important steps to address workplace safety and to be leaders in diversity, equity, and inclusion. I’m especially proud of our efforts to combat clinician burnout, which were recognized nationally by the American Medical Association. While some of the important internal changes we have made to improve communications, decision-making and employee engagement may not be immediately visible to our patients, they make a major difference in the way that we provide safe, quality, affordable care. We are already seeing positive results, with reductions in hospital acquired conditions and improvements in other safety and quality measures. For the first time in several years, we have balanced our budget. This financial stability makes it possible for us to once again re-invest in our health system, employees, and community. We have plans to add services, increase access, Continued on page 12
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD