The Freeman's Journal 12-19-19

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Cooperstown’s Newspaper

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MERRY CHRISTMAS! For 211 Years

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VISIT www.AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE Volume 211, No. 50

COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND

Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, December 19, 2019

Will Impeachment Vote Sink Delgado’s Future?

GOP: Freshman Voted Against Constituents; Democrats: He Was Following Conscience Delgado, D-19, endangering his chances of reelection?

COOPERSTOWN Yes, said Otsego County Republican mpeachment is Chairman Vince part of the issue.

Casale: “He’s going The other part against the majority is: By voting for Delgado of the will of his conPresident Trump’s stituents, against how impeachment, is freshman they voted in 2016.”

Congressman Anthony Please See DELGADO, A3

Newsstand Price $1

GOVERNOR CUOMO ‘FORCED’ IT ON HER, SHE SAYS

‘Green Law’ Will Open The Door For Voting Mischief, Clerk States

By JIM KEVLIN

By JIM KEVLIN

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COOPERSTOWN

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he state’s “Green Light” Law that went into effect over the weekend is all about registering potential Democratic voters, Otsego County Clerk Kathy Sinnott Gardner said in an interview.

“They are making a mockery of our votJim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal County Clerk Kathy Sinnott Gardner ing system,” said Sinnott Gardner Tuesday, reviews new “Green Light” regs.

Please See LICENSES, A3

THERE WAS A BLESS’D MESSIAH BORN

The Freeman’s Journal

Glenn Linsenbardt of Hartwick qualifies: for the 2019 Rockin’ Around Cooperstown Ugly Sweater Run/Walk Saturday, Dec. 14, around the downtown.

More photos at

AllOTSEGO.com

www.

In Referendum, CCS Voters OK $5M In Bonds COOPERSTOWN

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ooperstown Central School District voters on Tuesday, Dec. 17, approved $5 million in capital improvements by a 236-24 vote.

Rehabbed gymnasiums, new LED lighting, enhanced security and enhanced drainage at the baseball field are among the items planned.

Superintendent of Schools Bill Crankshaw said the projects must be completed by 2022, but work should be underway by next summer.

ON

AllOTSEGO.com

►TOM LAGAN, the Cooperstownbased investor, was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison for embezzling $12 million from the Bruggeman estate. ►JIM BARBER, a fifth-generation farmer and son of a former state Ag & Markets commissioner, announced he’s seeking the Democratic nomination to run for state Senate in the 10-county 51st District, which includes Otsego County.

He is challenging state Sen. Jim Seward, R-MIlford. ►A 3-YEAR-OLD AMISH CHILD fell out of a minibus Sunday afternoon on I-81 southbound near Kirkwood. The boy suffered cuts, bumps and bruises, but was alert and crying at the scene.

Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal

Crowds escaping the rains at The Farmers’ Museum annual Candlelight Evening in Cooperstown Saturday, Dec. 14, were delighted by Oneonta’s Women of the Chamber Singers in the Cornwallville Church, singing Medieval to modern carols, from “The Wexford Carol” to John Rutter’s “Blow, Blow, the Winter Winds.” The evening featured multiple choirs, from the Community Bible Chapel, Toddsville, to Herkimer 4Hers. From left are Emma Kirsch, Katy Bridgers, Sarah Patterson, Jean Fleck, Leah Bridgers, Tracy Verma, Peg Twasutyn, Anne Dewell and Suzy Beddoe.

NEW FACES AT 197 MAIN ST.

Outdoormans Rick Brockway Brings Sportman’s Sensibility

By JAMES CUMMINGS LAURENS

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n avowed conservative and lover of the outdoors, Rick Brockway hopes to bring that outlook to the Otsego County Board of Representatives.

For instance, as a long-time gun owner, the new District 3 (Laurens-Otego) rep sees a possibility of making the county an example of good practice when it The Freeman’s Journal comes to firearms.

Rick Brockway will Please see BROCKWAY, A7 represent District 3.

ANDELA PRODUCTS EXPANSION LEADS COUNTY WISH LIST

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$420,000 grant so Andela Products Inc. can expand into the Richfield Springs Industrial Park leads off the list of grants Otsego Now is hoping to receive Thursday, Dec. 19, in this year’s round of state economic development funding.

Other projects include: ►$1 million to renovate upper floors of Oneonta’s Ford Block. ►$50,000 for a county energy study.

Complete results Thursday on

AllOTSEGO.com

www.

Time Of Transition At Salvation Army Key Retirement, And 2 New Commanders

By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA

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here comes a time when even Christmas Elves have to retire.

“I’ve handled the Angel Tree toys for over 50 years,” said Salvation Army Maj. (ret.) Mary Smith. “I was an officer for 44 years, then a major, then after I retired, I kept volunteering.”

This is Smith’s last Christ-

mas handling the hundreds of toys donated to the Salvation Army as part of the annual Angel Tree program, which invites community members to either adopt and buy gifts for a family, or take an individual tag off any of the 20 “Angel Trees” at businesses throughout Otsego County.

“We have 1,500 tags out there,” she said. “Some of those Angel Trees have 25 tags, others have 200.”

Please See ARMY, 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

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

A-2 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL

LOCALS Timber! 100-Year-Old Tree Taken Down On Pine Boulevard

In a religion that was born in a barn, an open door goes without saying.

James Cummings/The Freeman’s Journal

Nathan Waterfield, Cherry Valley, cuts through a 100-year-old blue spruce Tree at 8 Pine Boulevard on Tuesday, Dec 17. The tree, which was nearing power lines, was considered to be a hazard by homeowner Gayle Smith, who runs the Overlook Bed and Breakfast.

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SELL IN CHORUS: Joseph Sell, Hartwick, was named to Bob Jones University’s 2019 Concert Choir.

Sell is a Junior majoring in Fashion Design.

MEBUST LAUDED: Ted Mebust, Cooperstown, a sophomore at Bowdin College, took home NESCAC Swimmer of the Week honors on Dec. 6.

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2019

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-3

Will Impeachment Vote Sink Delgado?

First Presbyterian Church of Cooperstown At Elm & Pioneer Streets

Cooperstown 607-547-8401

“For unto us a child is born...”

Elm Park United Methodist Church 401 Chestnut St., Oneonta elmparkumconeonta.org (607) 432-6552

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Christmas Eve Candlelight & Communion Services at 4:30 pm, 7:30 pm & 11 pm

The “Red Door” Church (First United Presbyterian) Welcomes You Join us for Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 7 pm - Tuesday, December 24 Main Street and Walling Avenue, Oneonta Church Office: 607-432-7520 • Like us on facebook The Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Walton-Leavitt

4th Sunday of Advent Sunday, December 22

10 am - Worship “God in Flesh Appearing” The Rev. Elsie A. Rhodes, preaching

Christmas Eve

Tuesday, December 24

3:45 pm - Carol Sing 4 pm - Worship and Annual Christmas Pageant Joined by members of First Baptist Church of Cooperstown

10 pm - Candlelight Worship with Celebration of Communion “Lo...and Behold” The Rev. Elsie A. Rhodes, preaching

All are Welcome!

DELGADO/From A1 Regardless, Delgado had to do what he believes, said Otsego County Democratic Chairman Aimee Swan: “Regarding impeachment, we think that Congressman Delgado is doing a great job communicating his reasoning to the voters and we believe that he will continue to have the kind of broad support that got him elected.”

The U.S. House of Representatives was scheduled to vote Wednesday, Dec. 18 – this edition went to press the night before – on two articles of impeachment against Trump, and Delgado announced Sunday the 15th that he would vote for both articles.

His colleague to the north, U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi of Utica, D-22, reached the same conclusion, but it was a tougher one: In 2018, he had very narrowly beaten the incumbent, Republican Claudia Tenney, 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent, and she’s challenging him in 2020.

Delgado has a little more breathing space: He beat incumbent Republican John Faso by a lesser margin, 50.4 percent, but Faso’s margin was winnowed to 46.2 percent by Green and Independent candidates also running in the 19th.

So far, Delgado is facing a Republican challenge from Maj. Gen. (ret.) Tony German of Oneonta, former commander of the state National Guard.

And perhaps a more formidable one: Dutchess County

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A Blessed Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas!

Executive Marc Molinaro, who ran for governor last year.

Casale said to expect news about formidable entries “after the first of the year.”

Hartwick College Poly-Sci Professor Laurel Elder agreed with Casale and Swan’s formulations, summing it up as follows: “We know it’s a very divided district; there’s no way he can please everybody.”

Harkening back to 2018, however, she recalled that several Democrats in the Congressional primary were significantly to the left of Delgado. If he hadn’t stepped forward on impeachment, he might have provoked a primary next June.

“There’s energy in the wings of the party,” she observed.

Regardless, Delgado (and Brindisi) fall into a category that is generating a lot of interest: Democratic congressmen elected in 2018 to districts – some, like the 19th, are being called “purple districts” – that supported Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Trump won the 19th by 6.8 percentile points, to Delgado’s 4.2. (In Otsego County, Trump’s margin was greater, 51.85 percent to Clinton’s 40.72 percent, or 11.13 percentile points. In 2018, Delgado won 48.97 percent of Otsego’s votes; Faso, 48.47 percent, or 0.5 percentile points.)

Since, statistically, members of Congress are most vulnerable when running for reelection

after one term, a counter-sweep next November could put Congress back in Republicans hands just in time for the 2021 reapportionment that will follow the 2020 Census.

An indication of that significance: Both national newspapers, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, had reporters shadowing Delgado the week leading up to his announcment that he’ll support impeachment.

The Journal’s Natalie Andrews reported Delgado being greeted by “vote no on impeachment cries” and a single “yes on impeachment” cry on arriving at a Town Hall meeting in Highland, Ulster County. She spoke to voters similarly split on the congressman, although they all seemed to like him.

Echoing what Aimee Swan said, The Times’ Emily Cochrane said voting for impeachment “had made it all the more important for Mr. Delgado and Democrats like him to find ways to show voters they are getting things done in Congress, which is why he is crisscrossing his district through flurries, working on local issues and connecting with constituents.”

And why Speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled Wednesday’s impeachment vote between votes on muscular legislation, one to fund the government, the other on the new NAFTA. Delgado’s job could depend on it; and Pelosi’s.

‘Green Light’ Law Arrives LICENSES/From A1 Dec. 17, as she was organizing her staff to administer a law she disagrees with.

As of press time, only one undocumented resident had shown up locally – Monday, at the Oneonta office – and was told the office was not yet prepared to issue licenses under the new law.

Before the “Green Light” was turned on, a U.S. citizen applying for a driver’s license would present documentation that would be scanned and sent to state Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters in Albany, where it would be part of that driver’s file. The processing clerk would also make a notation on the application.

Under the new law, Sinnott Gardner’s clerks must accept a valid foreign passport or driver’s license on faith. “If we can’t read their birth certificate, they can translate it themselves and tell us what it is,” said DMV Clerk Lynn Blessin. The document may not be scanned as has been standard practice to date, nor is any notation on the application permitted.

When an applicant then approaches the pay window, a question on a screen asks, “Are you a citizen of the U.S.?”

According to guidelines from the state DMV, “If a customer answers ‘yes,’ our computer system is required by law to transmit the application to the applicable board of elections for processing.”

It continues, “Under the Green Light Law, DMV staff are expressly precluded from asking a standard license applicant about their citizenship or lawful presence … Importantly, staff … may not use their perceptions of the customer, or anything else, as the basis to interfere with the customer’s voter application.”

Vince Foti

Sinnott Gardner, who has been among a core of 26 county clerks opposing the new legislation, has developed a system that will allow her eight-person DMV staff to process the undocumented residents, also called illegal immigrants.

Following the Niagara County clerk and others, three of the eight will be trained to process “Green Light” applications, which will be scheduled 9:30-11:30 a.m. only Wednesdays and Thursdays, and only in the main local DMV office in Cooperstown.

The applications will be accepted, beginning Thursday, Jan. 2.

“We are being forced to do this by Governor Cuomo,” said Sinnott Gardner. “We have to follow the law.”

In recent months, several county clerks went to court to object to the law, which was passed last summer by the newly Democratic-dominated state Legislature. But the final one pending, by Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola, was dismissed Friday, Dec. 13.

Another, filed by Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns, also lost in U.S. District Court, but he is appealing, Sinnott Gardner said.

“The Green Light law is legal and enforceable,” Attorney General Letitia James, whose office defended the measure, said after the Merola decision, “federal courts have now already dismissed the meritless claims of two county clerks.

“Beginning Monday, the law will help make our roads safer, our economy stronger, and will allow immigrants to come out of the shadows to sign up as legal drivers in our state,” she said. “We expect all public officials to comply with the law, and, as the state’s attorney and chief law enforcement officer, I will defend it.”

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Christmas Eve – tuesday, December 24

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Perspectives

A-4 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL EDITORIAL

Nostalgia? Why Not Live

By Enduring Values Today?

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s Christmas nears, it was comforting news: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – for years, youngsters from around Otsego County rode the mechanical Christmas legend at Bresee’s Department Store in Oneonta – is in good hands.

The venerable four-story emporium at 155 Main St. – now Klugo’s Parkview Apartments – closed in 1994. And when the building changed hands almost a decade later, the Lettis Auction House auctioned off the remaining contents on Dec. 11, 2003.

The Freeman’s Journal That included all of the ChristBresee’s Rudolph at mas objects and decorations, and Cooperstown Price Rudolph passed into the hands of Chopper in 2016.

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nd she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

“Madonna & Child” And the angel Giovanni Salvi, 1609-1685 said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

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Cooperstown’s Newspaper

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Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2 King James Version

For 211 Years

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James C. Kevlin Editor & Publisher

Tara Barnwell

Advertising Director & General Manager

Libby Cudmore

Greg Noonan, Cherry Valley, who would make it available at Christmas for current-day youngsters to ride at various venues around the county – one year, Danny’s Main Street Market in Cooperstown; another, at the Cherry Branch Gallery in Cherry Valley.

Greg held a big auction earlier this year at his farm outside Cherry Valley, and he reports how, providentially, a local individual, so far unnamed, who is a big Rudolph fan, acquired Bresee’s mechanized reindeer.

This person, as Greg tells it, is both a collector of books and ephemera about the most famous Please See EDITORIAL, A5

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Larissa Ryan Business Manager

Thom Rhodes Advertising Consultant

James Cummings Reporter

Ian Austin Photographer

Ivan Potocnik Web Architect

Kathleen Peters Graphics & Production

Tom Heitz Consultant

Amanda Wilsey Consultant

IN MEMORIAM: Mary Joan Kevlin, Co-Publisher, 2006-17 OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER FOR Otsego County • Village of Milford • Town of Middlefield Cooperstown Central School District Subscriptions Rates: Otsego County, $48 a year. All other areas, $65 a year.

First Class Subscription, $130 a year.

Published Thursdays by Iron String Press, Inc. 21 Railroad Ave., Cooperstown NY 13326 Telephone: (607) 547-6103. Fax: (607) 547-6080.

E-mail: info@allotsego.com • www.allotsego.com Contents © Iron String Press, Inc.

ANTA CLAUS BORN HERE?

Under contract with International Art Publishing Co. in New York City, Richfield Springs’ Ellen Clapsaddle (1865-1934) created postcards that were among the most widely distributed in the nation, helping popularize what today is the popular image of Santa Claus.

Yes, Virginia...

There IS A Santa Claus, Editor Wrote 8-Year-Old Editor’s Note: The New York Sun’s Francis Pharcellus Church penned this famous response to 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon in 1897.

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e take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun: Dear Editor— I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon 115 West Ninety Fifth Street Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.

All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to

there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there.

Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there The Freeman’s Journal is a veil covering She was a little shy at first, but Jordyn Trask, 5, the unseen world eventually did warm up and share her Christmas which not the wishes with Santa Claus in his cottage in strongest man, Cooperstown’s Pioneer Park during a Friday, nor even the unitDec. 13, visit. Her brother Harrison, 1, sat ed strength of all on Santa’s lap for the first time. They are the the strongest men children of Issac and Samantha Trask, Oneonta. that ever lived could tear apart. make tolerable this existence.

Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory light with which childhood fills the beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in world would be extinguished. all this world there is nothing else real Not believe in Santa Claus! You and abiding. might as well not believe in fairies.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! He You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if times 10,000 years from now, he will you did not see Santa Claus coming continue to make glad the heart of down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that childhood.

MANAGING EDITOR MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY

Libby Found Love, Work, Heartache, Home Editor’s Note: What a decade! Her friends and colleagues celebrated Manager Editor Libby Cudmore’s 10th anniversary among us on production day, Tuesday, Dec. 10, and she agreed to write this memoir.

Managing Editor

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

T

By LIBBY CUDMORE

here’s a lot for Ian and I to celebrate in December. Our families do Christmas, Yule and Hanukkah, our original anniversary; then New Year’s Eve to cap it all off.

But this December, I realized that I had another anniversary to celebrate – 10 years with the Hometown Oneonta, The Freeman’s Journal and, most recently, AllOTSEGO.com.

It’s the longest I’ve ever stayed with a job, but in 10 years, I’ve realized that it’s more than than a job – it’s a way to give back to a community that has The Freeman’s Journal welcomed me so graciously.

Libby Cudmore with Mascot • Goodie at the 2013 Goodyear When I moved to Oneonta in May Lake Polar Bear Jump.

2007, I wasn’t sure if I would stay. This was my husband’s hometown, after all, but I wasn’t sure that there was a place for me. But that changed when Jim Kevlin hired me as a freelance reporter in April 2009.

My first story was about a bridal fashion show at SUNY. My second was an interview with Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, who was playing at the now-defunct Oneonta Theatre, then re-opened and full of promise.

I was hired full-time that December, given a desk and the business cards I’ve been passing out ever since. If you look in your drawer, chances are Please See LIBBY, A6

AllOTSEGO.com

LETTERS TO EDITOR WELCOME • EMAIL THEM TO info@

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL A-5

BOUND VOLUMES Compiled by Tom Heitz and SHARON STUART, with resources courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library

200 YEARS AGO

Excerpts from a letter from the pen of John Jay, then a former Attorney General of New York State, since retired: “Little can be added to what has been said and written on the subject of Slavery. I concur in the opinion that it ought not to be introduced, nor permitted, in any of the new States, and that it ought to be gradually diminished and finally abolished in all of them. To me the constitutional authority of the Congress, to prohibit the migration and importation of Slaves, into any of the States, does not appear questionable. The first article of the Constitution specifies the legislative powers committed to the Congress. The ninth section of that article has these words; “The migration or importation of such persons as any of the now existing states shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation not exceeding ten dollars for each person.” It will, I presume be admitted, that slaves were the persons intended. The word slaves was avoided, probably on account of the existing toleration of slavery, and its discordancy with the principles of the Revolution, and from a consciousness of its being repugnant to the following position in the Declaration of Independence.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights – that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

December 20, 1819

100 YEARS AGO

the losses. It is demoralizing and ought to be abandoned.”

Very true. But, that is not the whole story, briefly told. It drives away not a few cash customers, who insist that they are entitled to better terms than those who get a credit of six to twelve months. It leads to extravagance in many families – it is too easy to say “charge it,” and often so hard to pay later on. Many an upright man has been driven to suicide, to drunkenness, or some other crime, by being run into debt unnecessarily and heedlessly by his family.

December 20, 1894

75 YEARS AGO

Despite the highest population of all states New York is coming into its own as one of the greatest deer-producing regions in the nation. Such was indicated by the still incomplete tabulation of the 1944 take which soared to a new record of 26,305 deer, of which nearly 19,000 were taken in the nineteen Southern Tier and Western counties where damage to agriculture has become serious. With unusually poor hunting conditions this year, 3,756 bucks were taken, a drop from 1943 when 4,515 bucks were reported. In the Catskills, Sullivan County exceeded the previous year’s take of 667 deer by nearly 100.

December 20, 1944

50 YEARS AGO

For the third season, the Mt. Otsego Ski Area in Pierstown has been leased from Lester Hanson of Cooperstown

by Harry Peplinski, Theodore Lamb and Robert Pierro. The Cooperstown Ski Club has been making improvements on the hill. They have expanded the main hill on the top. The club has also been working on the lighting for night skiing.

The ski area will be open weekends and on school holidays.

There are 200 acres of slopes and trails, a T-bar and three rope tows, a ski shop, ski school and snack bar. A ski patrol, under the direction of George Ehrmann, is on duty.

December 17, 1969 December 17, 1919

175 YEARS AGO

Honor to whom Honor is due – A Ball, given in honor of James K. Polk, commemorating the joyful event of his election to the Presidency and the triumph of Democratic Principles came off at Middlefield Centre on Friday, November 29, and in a manner creditably to all concerned.

The Ball Room was beautifully decorated with Democratic Banners, Devices and Mottos, together with the pictures and portraits of the several Presidents of the United Sates, among which a full-length portrait of the President-Elect attracted particular attention. Such a galaxy of wit and beauty from Middlefield, Springfield and Cooperstown never before assembled in this place; which, together with the exhilarating music, rendered it a scene of peculiar enjoyment. The rooms were thronged with young democrats more than usually gallant, and it was only regretted, not that the company was so numerous, but that the place was not more commodious. The sumptuous entertainment prepared

by Mr. Wickwire was characterized by his usual hospitality.

A Looker-on. Middlefield, December 3, 1844.

December 16, 1844

150 YEARS AGO

Local: Judge Nelson is now at his home in this village,

and is in most excellent health. Hard work at Washington seems to agree with him.

We are requested by some of our best citizens again to call the attention of the Trustees of this village to the rowdyism and street fights which so frequently occur in and near the Main Street of this village, and to urge them to appoint at least for a brief period, an efficient and active Police, that will put a prompt and effectual stop to this growing evil.

December 23, 1869

125 YEARS AGO

Editorial: “The curse of the retail credit business,” said a dealer here the other day, “is seen more and more. If it does not bankrupt those who pursue it, their profits are cut down to a low figure, or others are charged too much to make up

25 YEARS AGO

The untimely death of a senior at Cooperstown Central School has wrought grief among students and faculty alike.

Carey Ann Thayer, 18, died suddenly at her home Monday morning. “We got word today,” said Middle School Principal David Pearlman Monday evening, “about what happened that a senior girl had died. I was called out of class at about 1 p.m. and I went into a meeting with Doug Bradshaw, Barry Gould,” members of the crisis team. The senior class had just returned from its senior trip to New York City to see a play, getting back at 2 a.m. Sunday. “We were all shocked,” Pearlman added, “especially in light of the senior trip. She’s with friends one day, and a few days later you hear that she’s gone.”

December 14, 1994

EDITORIAL: Nostalgia? Simple Values It Yearns For Are At Hand

EDITORIAL/From A4 member of the team that bears Santa’s sleigh across the sky, we’re told, each Christmas Eve. He’s sprucing up Rudolph, even creating a new saddle to replace the one that’s had so much use.

No Rudolph feature story this year – but maybe next.

• Meanwhile, relics of Bresee’s Christmas displays are still part of community life, and stories about them resurface year after year.

This year, for instance, John Pontius, Excelsior College vice president (and one of the Albany Business Review’s 10 CFOs of

the Year in 2014), now retired to Oneonta, arranged for Bresee elves and doe-like seamstresses from St. James Manor & Retirement Community to be displayed in the windows of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society at Dietz and Main. (Pontius is the new GOHS president.)

You should have seen the rubbernecking.

That led to an article about Carla and Wayne Balnis, who have obtained a Bresee’s display of mechanized skaters that Jim and Katherine Catella set up for years on the lawn of their Belmont Circle home in Oneonta. The

Balnises, maybe next year, maybe beyond, plan to revive the display on their Gilbert Street front lawn in the city’s Sixth Ward.

To watch passersby’s delight at Dietz and Main as the display went up, or to hear the Balnises’ enthusiasm, you have to ask yourself, what’s going on here?

• There was a good piece a couple of years ago in the Atlantic, “Americans’ Quest for the Christmas of Their Childhoods,” that argues: With the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, merchants discovered city dwellers had an “appetite for remembering rural

life, whether or not they’d actually experienced it themselves.”

“What is today a $600 billion season industry, rooted in the anxiety about change and a yearning for a simpler world, was born,” Catherine Woodiwiss wrote.

She continued: “The nostalgia for Christmas is in part a way to subsume fears of the future” – she ticks off a number of the front-page crises of three years ago; many haven’t changed – “in a yearning for the past.”

Yet, isn’t that life – moving from simplicity to complexity?

And maybe instead of nostalgia, the Christmas spirit can reconnect

us, not with traditional values, but enduring ones.

Here’s one list: kindness, patience, humility, honor, loyalty, wisdom, respect, trustworthiness, generosity, compassion, temperance, bravery, diligence, justice, frugality, fidelity and charity.

Let’s add love and friendship.

And let’s replace “traditional” with “enduring.”

There’s nothing on that list that would do any of us any harm, and none we couldn’t immediately embrace and begin to pursue.

Nostalgia? Maybe. But it doesn’t have to be.

Merry Christmas.

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

MONEY TALK

The Only Constant Is Change

That’s It: ‘He Lied Under Oath’

O

nce we are born, every moment of every day brings change. We are born biologically complete, yet with little else to our beings. We can’t speak, walk, or talk.

As a baby, then in our youth, in our teens, maybe even through our twenties, we live through endless and often tumultuous changes. Every day LARRY offers fresh knowl- BENNETT edge and new experiences.

• Our parents first teach us.

Then other teachers bring more ideas. New ideas and feelings bring hope, fear, desire, doubt. New relationships bring new views of the world.

We develop knowledge and self-awareness. We experience gains and losses, ups and downs, and come to accept ongoing change as part of our lives.

Yet by our thirties most of us have established a reasonably well-defined life

– a life with work we chose, a partner we chose, friends we chose, a place to live we chose, religious beliefs or non-beliefs we chose.

We chose preferred literary, music, and movie genres.

We have probably chosen to belong to certain groups: civic organizations, trade organizations, recreational organizations, and others.

We have reached a point where we don’t have to keep changing – we have chosen our place in the world.

We have likely even chosen political affiliations.

Even if we don’t actively join in partisan political activities, if we want to vote we must describe ourselves to the voting registrar as a Democrat, Republican, or as a member of some other party. If we want no formal party attachment, we still have to write down Independent or Unaffiliated, even as we lean one way or the other.

Ongoing polls of American voters since 1974 show consistently and significantly lower voter turnout in younger people and higher turnout in older people.

Since elections are extolled as the best means to peaceful change, and since the older we get the less receptive we are to change, it seems we could expect voting to be more appealing to younger voters. But the reverse is true.

• Why do more older folks vote than younger folks?

Is it a tradition the older generation upholds? Do older folks have more time on their hands? Do young people move so often they are effectively disenfranchised, or don’t stay long enough to establish a voting habit? Or is the fact that they are often renters make them feel less connected to a community and therefore feel less of a need to vote?

Or are they simply absorbed in getting their lives off to a good start?

What if the idea of votPlease See BENNETT, A6

T

he bloodbath-cum-circus to business to government. in Washington these days?

His dinner parties were It awakens memories. often bedlam. That was the Of how a notorious American case with parties during the Clinton impeachment. ambassador handled a similar brouhaha – the Clinton impeachThat is, until he daubed a ment. four-foot sign and draped it He over his television for all the combatants to see. HE LIED deployed UNDER OATH! a simple “HE”, of course was device. With President Clinton. And clearly, it, he brought a certain he lied to a judge in a federal order to the court case. He committed Ambassador G. mayhem of perjury.

McMurtrie Godley Case closed. To Mac this the thinking of his friends. – “Mac” – retired to ended all discussion of the Clinton impeachment. He In one stroke Gilbertsville.

TOM he turned believed there was nothing MORGAN their murky more to consider. thinking to crystal Our president had taken an oath to preclarity. I am certain he would use the serve, protect and defend our laws. He was device today. the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

G. McMurtrie Godley – “Mac” – retired He had violated one of our most sacred to Gilbertsville from his distinguished career laws. He had lied to a federal judge after in our diplomatic corps. The Clinton imswearing to tell the truth.

Mac’s sign hit me like a bucket of ice peachment proceedings had saturated the nation’s air, airwaves and print with debate water. It had the same impact on his other and downright wrangling: He said this. No friends. It sobered us to a reality we all he didn’t. He did this. No. It is not imporknew. A reality we had overlooked in our tant. It is vitally important. He broke the debates. The reality that truth before a judge law! Rubbish! is utterly essential. As essential to the runThe arguments raged in offices, bars, ning of our country as gas is to our car’s coffee shops and millions of homes. They engine. To perjure is to dump sand into the certainly raged in Mac’s home. Where he fuel tank. entertained retired diplomats galore. Along Please See MORGAN, A6 with great and lively minds from academia

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2019

A-6 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

In 10 Years On The Beat, She Went From Oklahoman, Upstater, To Oneontan LIBBY/From A4 you have one. If it was before 2017, it said “Reporter.â€? Since then, it has said “Managing Editor.â€? • Our new reporter, James Cummings, asked me: What’s the favorite story you’ve ever written?

How do you even pick?

But a few come to mind: getting to travel to Oneonta, Ala., and see the similarities (and a few differences) between our cities, and declaring actor Cuyle Carvin “Oneonta’s Heartthrob.� As an obsessive music fan, I still get giddy knowing that, at any time, I can pick up the phone and call Greg Harris, president of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, for comment.

I love being able to support the good deeds at the Susquehanna SPCA, see the rise and revitalization of the Milford Methodist Church, to be a first-hand witness to all of the change in Oneonta as the DRI gets underway.

I absolute agree that we’re “Onta Something.â€? • Of course, there has been plenty of heartache too. The sudden death of Mayor Dick Miller was when I felt it the most profoundly. I was tasked with not only covering the tragedy, but also processing my

On their honeymoon in September 2015, Libby and Ian made a point of stopping in Oneonta, Ala., where they were feted by city fathers and given a VIP tour. The City of the Hills’ Alabama namesake also includes the longest covered bridge in existence, included in their report in this newspaper’s AllOTSEGO.life feature section when they got home.

own grief privately. I had seen Dick that Thursday evening at the Future for Oneonta Foundation reception. He gave me one of those sideways handshakes I knew so well, the quick “how ya’ doin’� in passing. We’d had our disagreements over the years – par for the course in both our professions – but I respected and enjoyed him

Heavy Equipment Operators Motor Equipment Operators The City of Oneonta is currently accepting applications for Heavy Equipment Operators and Motor Equimpent Operators to fill four vacancies in the Department of Public Service. The positions include competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package. Candidates must have a NYS Commercial Driver’s License.

Applications and a job description are available at www.oneonta.ny.us/personnel or at the personnel office in City Hall, 258 Main Street.

EOE

immensely, and still miss him.

The murder of 11-year-old Jacelyn O’Connor still haunts me.

I’ve written about far too many brutal deaths in our county, but in some ways, I’m honored to do so, because I task myself not with writing about the killer, but letting my readers know who the victim was to their family, their friends,

their community. They’re stories I wish that I didn’t have to write, but I am always honored when I get to speak with survivors like Jennifer Kirkpatrick and Erika Heller, to be trusted with their loved ones’ legacies. • I am always in awe of the support that the people of Otsego County continue to bless me with.

From the packed house at the Green Toad for the launch of my debut novel, “The Big Rewind,� to the votes that came in for my guest conductor bid at the Catskill Symphony Orchestra’s cabaret concert. Many of you were there to cheer when Ian proposed to me in the 2013 Halloween parade, and some of you came to our wedding in 2015.

But you have also been with me in the darkest times to. In 2017, we lost MJ Kevlin, my dear friend and mentor. The outpouring of love and support from all of you was overwhelming, and if I didn’t thank you then, consider this a much delayed appreciation for the kindness you showed me, the grief we shared. • Recently someone asked me where I was from. For the first time in my life, I didn’t reply “Oklahoma City,â€? where I was born, or generic “Upstate New

York� to compensate for a hometown I don’t particularly associate myself with. “Oneonta,�

I answered without hesitation.

I didn’t grow up here. But if home is where you hang your hat (and, as you know, I wear many of them) then it stands to reason that your hometown is the town where your home is located – and thus, your hat hangs.

Writing for the Hometown Oneonta, The Freeman’s Journal and AllOTSEGO.com has made me feel more a part of this community here than any career I thought I would have. Every week you welcome me into your home and your lives, you call me with good stories about graduations and curious collections and upcoming meetings, you allow me to lament with you when you send in obituaries and when we stand at the scenes of loss. It’s a position I do not take lightly, and I pledge to continue to my best to tell your stories accurately and honestly.

I’ve lived in a lot of places and I’ve traveled internationally and cross-country. But when I come off I-88 and turn onto the Lettis Highway, whether after a few days or a few weeks away, I always get the same feeling as the lights of Main Street greet me.

Welcome home.

BENNETT: What Adults Will MAGA Kids Grow Into?

BENNETT/From A5 ing no longer signifies a gilded avenue to desired change for young people, but instead offers a burning roadblock to unwanted change for older people? It can be argued this is where we are and where we appear to be heading.

The voting cry to “Make America Great Again� is clearly about repealing the changes of the last 50 years – be they women’s equal rights, voting rights,

LBGTQ rights, or many other rights.

While those who proclaim MAGA are of all ages, it turns out that those who actually vote MAGA also skew older, just as voters do on the other side of the political chasm.

What does this mean for our futures? Will more and better education turn those young MAGA-prone kids into liberal voters as they get older? Will the continuing flight from rural

to urban areas by young people of all backgrounds offer opportunities to liberalize their attitudes?

Or will they progress from nonvoting MAGAchanting youths to older MAGA folks who will habitually vote against any kind of progressive change?

Or will the eventual disappearance of Trump put out all their fires?

Based on the state of our politics, the future of our nation seems unknowable.

The

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The old ironic curse, “May you live in interesting times,� seems to apply.

Still, there are dozens of theories about our destination – pick one and see where it goes. If you find you can deduce and predict the voting patterns of the next decade or two, you can rule our politics.

Larry Bennett, recently retired Brewery Ommegang creative director who is active in local causes, lives in East Merideth.

Godley Found Simple Answer: ‘Tell The Truth’ MORGAN/From A5 Mac, by the way, had voted for Clinton. He contributed to his campaign.

That did not matter. Once he learned Clinton lied under oath the president became a pariah to the old ambassador.

For me, Mac’s sign floats above today’s debate concerning the intel agencies and their spying mess. This was criminal. No, it was an innocent mistake. They did this. Nah, that’s an exaggeration. I read the IG report and it said this. Well, I read it and got exactly the opposite impression.

Whenever I see Comey, Clapper or Brennan on my television, the sign flashes: HE LIED UNDER OATH. Each lied. That much is clear. People can argue over a hundred other issues. They cannot argue that these guys did not lie under oath.

Not important? It shouldn’t matter? After all, everybody lies. It’s only politics. It was an attempted coup. Rubbish!

People said the equivalent during the Clinton impeachment. Hey, it was only sex. It didn’t affect his job performance, did it?

Mac devoted his working years to serving this country.

To him, oaths were sacred.

To violate an oath was unthinkable to him. Anyone who did so instantly sullied his own character. A person who lied under oath no longer deserved to be trusted.

Every other of his or her activities would be under a cloud, in Mac’s view.

Tom Morgan, the retired Oneonta investment counselor whose “Money Talk� column is nationally syndicated, lives in Franklin.

AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE TO www.

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-7

Retired Major Departs; 2 New Commanders In Charge At Salvation Army ARMY/From A1 The Salvation Army also identifies families – 32 this year, about as many as 2018 – and invited the public to buy gifts for them or a single child.

“Families come and apply,” she said. “And we select them by the stories they tell us.”

Many of the families are held up by single mothers.

“One woman came in, she’s got cancer, and she’s got two children,” she said. “She had never reached out for help before, so we made sure her family got adopted.”

Another was worried she would go into debt buying Christmas presents, and

others just don’t have the resources. “People have hardships,” she said. “We don’t ask too many questions. If you want help, you get help.”

And in her workshop – the gymnasium of the River Street headquarters – there are more than 100 dolls, ranging from baby dolls to Barbie and Disney Princesses. There are 200 LEGO sets, and 13 bikes.

“Last year, we gave away 40 bikes,” she said. “I think the reason we have so few this year is that those bikes are still in use, they’re handed down to the younger siblings.”

And although the Angel

Tree is for children up to 12, Smith doesn’t want the older children to go without. “We get makeup and jewelry for the older girls,” she said.

“And one woman asked us for help with some school supplies for her daughter, and we were able to get her everything she needed.”

In addition to toys, she makes sure every child gets a new outfit and, when necessary, a new coat.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “I’m a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother, so I know what toys the kids will like, and I make it my mission to see that they get stuff they asked for.”

And it isn’t Christmas

without a feast. “We have 220 food baskets this year, not as many as previous years,” said Smith. “We give them everything for a Christmas dinner; a turkey, stuffing, gravy, real potatoes and sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and butter.”

This Christmas is the first for the new commanders, Majs. Cheryl and Roger

Compton, who had previously served in the Bahamas.

“Christmas is our most important fundraiser,” said Roger. “It takes us into the new year, when not a lot is happening, but people still need to eat.”

With Thanksgiving starting late this year, the kick-off started the week before. And new on the

kettles this year was Apple and Google Pay codes, allowing donors who don’t have cash on hand to still put money in the kettle.

The annual kettle drive has a $50,000 goal and continues through Christmas Eve. And Lettis Auctions once again auctioned off a gold coin to benefit the Salvation Army, fetching $500.

Brockway Brings Sportsman’s Sensibility BROCKWAY/From A1 “My dad was an avid hunter,” he said in an interview. “From the moment I could hold a gun he took me along, but we always respected the game. I was raised that way.”

With all the local knowledge, is there a way to showcase Otsego County “as a possible sanctuary for the Second Amendment.”

“We’re a rural county,” he said. “We’re hunters who’ve been raised with guns and know how to use them safely. It’s something I’m going to address. It’s important to me,” he said.

After taking his oath of office Jan. 2, he’ll have his opportunity. “I’m not one to sit back quietly; I’m a man of a lot of words,” he said.

The Brockway family first moved to Otsego County in 1802, farming in the vicinity of what is now Oneonta City Hall.

“In 1870, my great-greatgrandfather Jesse Brockway acquired 260 acres in Laurens. My family has lived here for 149 years,” he said.

The new representative was born in Oneonta, raised in Laurens and graduated

Editor’s Note: This is the second of three profiles of newcomers who will be joining the Otsego County Board of Representatives Jan. 1. Next week: Clark Oliver. from Laurens High School.

He went on to SUNY Oneonta, obtaining an English Literature degree, then taught middle school English and Social Studies for 10 years before realizing that it wasn’t for him.

“My brother had horses out here, and his farrier, Lloyd Watson, asked me if I wanted a summer job. I’ve been a farrier ever since,” he said.

The next 40 years as a farrier connected him with people around the region.

“I used to shoe horses seven days a week. Horses are very popular in this area. From Margaretville to Cobleskill to Binghamton, everyone knows me from the horse business,” he said.

And his family’s history made getting involved “a natural step.”

“The Brockways have been in local politics for over 70 years,” he said. “My dad was either town councilman or supervisor for 50

years. He urged me to run for the councilman position and I ended up being town councilman for eight years.”

His wife Pat was a town justice for eight years, and is finishing up two terms as Laurens town supervisor at the end of the year.

“A few years ago, I decided I wanted to do something more. I wanted to give back to the community,” he said, and the county board seat seemed like a natural.

When county Rep. Kathy Clark, R-Otego, “decided not to run, I said to myself, this is my time.”

And with his first county board meeting coming up, Brockway is ready to tackle the issues of rural living.

“One thing that is important to me is the rural ambulance service. In late August I was in Jefferson trimming horses. Three kids got one of the horses tangled and it trampled their grandmother.

“It took 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. I witnessed the whole thing.

There’s no excuse for an ambulance to be 45 minutes away. It’s one of the things I’m deeply committed to.

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CAPTURING CHRISTMAS PAGE B-1

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

2019 EGO

.life

OC OU YEA NTY Y RBO EAR OK BOO 12.26 Call K .19 6075476103 to ad verti se!

what’s fun

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Scrooge (Mike Henrici) has to contend with three ghosts on Christmas Eve, including The Ghost of Christmas Present (Tom Pullyblank) in The Farmers’ Museum’s 2018 production of “A Christmas Carol.”

AllOTSEGO.life

‘Christmas Carol,’ Actual Caroling, And Santa Finale

Ian Austin/

With some of Professor Mullen’s students, making Christmas cards stuck.

Here are two, including a “sublime” card, at right, by Oneonta artist Elaine Downing.

SUNY Oneonta Retired Professor Jim Mullen, Former Students, Still Churn Out Good Cheer

T

here’s still time for tradition as The Farmers’ Museum presents Charles Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol.” 7 p.m. FridaySaturday, Dec. 20-21, 3 p.m. matinee Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 21-22. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown.

(607) 547-1453.

• Have holiday elves & Santa’s helpers from the Catskill Symphony Orchestra wrap your LIBBY presents for the holiCUDMORE days. 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Saturday – Sunday, Dec. 21-22. Southside Mall, Oneonta. Call Kathy Paranya at (607) 441-3206.

• The Voices of Cooperstown present a holiday concert of works by Mozart including “Missa Brevis,” more. 4 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 21, Christ Episcopal Church, 46 River St., Cooperstown.

(607) 547-9555.

• Enjoy a performance of sacred and secular music this Christmas season by Catskill Brass. Includes selections by Beethoven, Handel, more. 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21, St. Paul’s Episcopal, 307 Main St., Franklin. (607) 434-5762.

• There’s still time to see Santa to ask for a few last-minute gifts before he takes off on his Christmas flight. In Oneonta, you can see him 9 a.m. – Noon Dec. 24, Southside Mall, Oneonta.

In Cooperstown, 1 - 3 p.m. at Santa’s Cottage, Pioneer Park, Cooperstown.

• It’s a Christmas dinner and all are invited to the table. Enjoy a hearty dinner with pies,sides, and more! Free, takeout & transportation available. 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 25, First United Methodist Church, 66 Chestnut St., Cooperstown. (607) 435-7188.

By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA

T Mullen in his studio at Good Shepherd Village, Endicott, where he retired.

here’s something special, James Mullen believes, about a Christmas card.

“Because there’s an exchange at the same time of the year, they’re a lot of fun to receive as well as to give,” he said.

And Mullen would know – the former dean of SUNY Oneonta’s Fine Arts Department, he has been making cards for 64 years. “I made 200 this year,” he Please See CARDS, B3

The Star Rose, this year’s Mullen card.

SONS CARRY ON TRADITION DAD BEGAN

After 50 Years, Filors Still Cutting Christmas Trees

By JIM KEVLIN HARTWICK SEMINARY

I

n 1969, Ned Filor heard about a state Ag & Markets program that encouraged farmers to grow Christmas trees on vacant land as a cash crop.

That was 50 years ago this year, and sons Ken and Frank are still at it on the Filor Farm, just south of Dreams Park, intending to sell 400-500 trees before their market inevitably dries up the day before Dec. 25.

“He planted Scotch pine, white spruce,” said son Frank, who was born the following year. “3,000,” from the state’s

AllOTSEGO.life

Jim Kevlin/

Sons Frank, left, and Ken Filor carry on the Christmas tree enterprise their father launched 50 years ago.

Saratoga Tree Nursery.

The father passed away in 1994, and if you stop out there today, Frank and elder brother Ken are running the operation, assisted – as they have been each season for 13 years now – by Jennifer Eckler of Cooperstown.

It takes about 10 years for an evergreen to grow into a Christmas tree, and the trees were about 4 years old when the elder Filor bought them.

“I was already working when I was 7,” Frank remembers, in what might have been the first year the family took their trees to market.

His dad had gotten permisPlease See FILORS, B3

THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL • HOMETOWN ONEONTA

AllOTSEGO.com, WHERE OTSEGO COUNTY GOES FOR BREAKINGS NEWS

VISIT www.

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THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

A B

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wesome Beef!

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eep up with all the news

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AllOTSEGO.life

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

B-3

Mullens’ Handmade Cards Among Growing Collection At GOHS

CARDS/From B1 said. “It’s the most I’ve ever sent!”

His cards are in the Archives of American Art in the Collections at the Smithsonian, including several in their book “Handmade Holiday Cards From 20th Century Artists,” and the subject of a recent show at SUNY’s Martin-Mullen Gallery that ended this week.

A Penn State graduate, he made his first card in 1955 as an assignment. “We had to use a Wrico Pen, which you filled with India ink and used it to draw freehand,” he said. “I did a stylized Mother and Child,” he said.

The pens were used for plastic lettering stencils, to allow duplicating in the day before Xeroxes.

And when he arrived at SUNY Oneonta in 1963, card-making was all the rage in the art department. “Artists are unique to exchange with because they are sending something they consider to be so personal,” he said. “That exchange is always very special

AllOTSEGO.life

Ian Austin

Bob Brzozowski, GOHS executive director, looks through samples of former city judge Ronald Rowley’s homemade cards, using images Rowley painted of country scenes around Oneonta.

to me.”

He’s made cards with letterpress and etchings on zinc, relief prints and, most recently, in Adobe Illustrator. This year’s card, “StarRose,” was a lithograph carved

in limestone and pressed at the Corridor Press Studio in Otego, then reproduced and printed at his home studio at Good Shepherd Village in Endicott.

Martin-Mullen Gallery Director

Tim Sheesley reached out to him in June, and asked him to think about announcement cards. “I was making a lot of birthday cards, and rose is the birthday flower for June, so that motif became this year’s card,” Mullen said.

Fifty of the cards included an original lithograph of the Star Rose. “Last year I created a Santa Claus card, but I got so into the process that I created more than one card!”

He collects cards as well, including many from former students. One is Elaine Downey, who participates in the Artisans’ Guild and also studied with Art Professor Emerita Nancy Callahan, sent him a card.

“When I opened it, it was sublime,” he said. “Another student sent me one that’s a letterpress printing on rice paper. That’s the fun part of it. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Mullen’s late wife, Sally, is credited for the revival of what is now the Greater Oneonta

Historical Society, and many of his cards are in the GOHS archives.

“A lot of people received Jim’s cards,” said GOHS Executive Director Bob Brzozowski. “And a lot of people, myself included, still do!”

GOHS also has more than a decade’s worth of former SUNY Art Department Dean Minnie Martin’s cards. “Minnie was my chair,” said Mullen. “She had experience in almost every kind of art – ceramics, jewelry, printmaking, and she made beautiful cards.”

In addition to the Mullen and Martin cards, GOHS has cards that Ronald Rowley, the former city judge, and wife Marjorie sent to friends, made from images of Otsego County winter life that the husband painted over the years.

“Christmas cards are true ephemera,” said Brzozowski.

“People keep Christmas cards, and we still send them. It’s a very personal way of sending greetings at the holidays.”

Filor Brothers Selling Christmas Trees, 50 Years After Father Launched Enterprise Red Barrel convenience store. The father had gotten permission from Bettiol, father of Southside Oneonta, to give it a try on Route 23.

Over the years, the operation expanded. For a while, Frank hauled trees into the Hudson Valley to be sold at a relative’s place in Stony Point.

By then, the Filors were offering wreaths and kissing balls as well.

While the Filor Farm is on Route 28, the father first planted trees on Sibley Gulf Road, then on additional land on Cooper Road. At one point, Frank contracted for 18 acres in Garrattsville, and planted 10,000 trees there.

Ned Filor was born in Tuxedo, Rockland County, and after college worked

For a while – at Ag & Markets’ encouragement – other farmers were supplementing their incomes with Christmas trees, but eventually it slid. “I know of nobody else around here anymore,” Frank said.

Out front the other day, there were dozens of trees available – all fresh cut, said the brother, an advantage to having the tree lot so close to the stand.

While he was being interviewed, Ania Krasinski, Jim Kevlin OTSEGO.life director of the Daniel The Filors’ Farm team, Ken Filor, Jennifer Eckler J. Palm Teen Center in and Frank Filor, stride through the rows of Christmas trees at their lot just south of Dreams Stamford, showed up Park on Route 28. and bought a larger and a smaller tree for the center. for Ag & Markets as a food He and wife Elaine, who inspector, ending up farming has also passed away, raised “We’ve been coming up for locally – never dairy, always three sons and three daughters three years,” she said.

With thousands of trees raising beef and hogs. in addition to Ken and Frank. planted over the years, many

All

wn rsto Coope

This Holiday Season SHop Small and local!

have grown beyond harvesting, said Frank, walking to the far end of the lot, where the offerings looked 12-, 14-feet tall, and taller.

Those have been topped off trees grown too tall for household use, although they are in demand by institutions and restaurants.

While there are still Scotch pine and white spruce available, other trees have become more popular in recent years. Balsam fir are aromatic, but the needles can be sharp. Soft, full Frazier firs are current favorites.

Asked to assess the competition, Frank said, “I just know what we do, what we offer: the freshest trees – if you don’t cut them yourself.”

&

THINK LOCAL FIRST

of Co mm erce

FILORS/From B1 sion to sell trees at an ice cream shop – in a log cabin, the son remembers – near where the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce is today.

(That would have been the Cooper Cabin, just north of Stewart’s, which had “great ice dream” during the summers but was closed at Christmastime, said Veronica Gil, a lifelong resident, whose dad owned the gas station on the other side of Stewart’s.)

The Filors found themselves competing with a service club selling trees in the vicinity, the family decided not to come back, Frank said.

So the next year, the lad was standing in the icy cold outside Gene Bettiol’s first

rs Ot be seg o County Cham

24 beers on tap HappY HoUr

5 to 8 pm Mon, tues, thurs: 1/2 off Drafts, select wines, well Drinks wed 1/2 off wings

5418 State Highway 28, Cooperstown • 607.282.4525

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AmAzing Specials!

Martini Mondays BOGO Wine Wednesday BOGO Happy Hour Friday

50% off all pizzas, well drinks & beer & wine BOgO Friday First Come, First Served 5 - 8 pm

5438 State Hwy 28 • Cooperstown • 607.282.4031 • www.boccaosteria.com

Legal

Legal

Legal nOtice

Notice of Qualification of BK COFFEE ASSOCIATES, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/09/19.

Office location: Otsego County.

LLC formed in New Jersey (NJ) on 07/31/19. Princ. office of LLC: 178 Old River Rd., Edgewater, NJ 07020. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to William D. Callas at the princ. office of the LLC. Cert. of Form. filed with State Treasurer, State of NJ Div. of Revenue, 33 W. State St., 5th Fl., Trenton, NJ 08608-1214.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

6LegalJan.23 Legal nOtice

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE is hereby given that there has been duly introduced before the Board of Representatives of the County of Otsego, New York, a Local Law entitled: A Local Law establishing the salaries of Emergency Services Coordinator, Director of Real Property Tax Service II, Personnel Officer, County Superintendent of Highways, Commissioner of Social Services Group I, Director of Public Health, Commissioner of Elections (Rep) for the year 2020.

NOTICE is further given that the Board of Representatives will conduct a public hearing on the proposed Local Law in the Representatives Chambers at the County Office Building in the Village of Cooperstown, New

York on Thursday, January 2, 2020 at 9:40 a.m. at which time all persons interested will be heard. The location of the public hearing is accessible to persons with mobility impairment.

Copies of the Local Law are available for viewing at the Clerk of the Board’s Office, County Office Building, Cooperstown, New York during regular business hours.

Dated: December 19, 2019

Carol D. McGovern Clerk of the Board of Representatives Otsego County, New York 1LegalDec.19 Legal nOtice

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE is hereby given that there has been duly introduced before the Board of Representatives of the County of Otsego, New York, a Local Law entitled: A Local Law amending Local Law No. 1 of 2014-Establishing a Solid Waste User Fee. NOTICE is further given that the Board of Representatives will conduct a public hearing on the proposed Local Law in the Representatives Chambers at the County Office Building in the Village of Cooperstown, New York on Thursday, January 2, 2020 at 9:45 a.m. at which time all persons interested will be heard. The location of the public hearing is accessible to persons with mobility impairment.

Copies of the Local Law are available for viewing at the Clerk of the Board’s Office, County Office Building, Cooperstown, New York during regular business hours.

Dated:

Legal

December 19, 2019

Carol D. McGovern Clerk of the Board of Representatives Otsego County, New York 1LegalDec.19 Legal nOtice

NOTICE TO BIDDERS Sealed bids will be received as set forth in instructions to bidders until 10:30 A.M. on Thursday, January 16, 2020 at the NYSDOT, Contract Management Bureau, 50 Wolf Rd, 1st Floor, Suite 1CM, Albany, NY 12232 and will be publicly opened and read. Bids may also be submitted via the internet using www.bidx.com.

A certified cashier’s check payable to the NYSDOT for the sum specified in the proposal or a bid bond, form CONR 391, representing 5% of the bid total, must accompany each bid. NYSDOT reserves the right to reject any or all bids.

Electronic documents and Amendments are posted to www.dot.ny.gov/ doing-business/opportunities/const-notices. The Contractor is responsible for ensuring that all Amendments are incorporated into its bid. To receive notification of Amendments via e-mail you must submit a request to be placed on the Planholders List at www.dot. ny.gov/doing-business/opportunities/ const-planholder.

Amendments may have been issued prior to your placement on the Planholders list.

NYS Finance Law restricts communication with NYSDOT on procurements and contact can only be made with designated persons. Contact with non-designated persons or other involved Agencies will be considered a serious matter and may result in disqualification. Contact Robert Kitchen

►Thursday, Dec. 19

Christmas Calendar

2 large plain pizzas $25* 75 Chestnut Street, Cooperstown · 607-547-2930 126 Main Street/ Rt 20, Richfield Springs · 315-858-0405

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

B-4 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA

Come Join US thiS new year’S eve!

Buffet Dinner Live Music & Dancing

Featuring The Roundhouse Rockers!

December 31, 2019 Buffet dinner starts at 7 pm • Rockers start at 8 pm tickets $35 - Includes dinner, dancing & party favors tickets available at the vets’ club

The AmericAn Legion PosT 259 279 chestnut street, oneonta | 607-432-0494

Legal

LEGALS

(518)457-2124.

Contracts with 0% Goals are generally single operation contracts, where subcontracting is not expected, and may present direct bidding opportunities for Small Business Firms, including, but not limited to D/W/MBEs. The New York State Department of Transportation, in accordance with the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat.

252, 42 U.S.C. 2000d to 2000d-4 and Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Department of Transportation, Subtitle A, Office the Secretary, Part 21, Nondiscrimination in Federallyassisted programs of the Department of Transportation and Title 23 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 200, Title IV Program and Related Statutes, as amended, issued pursuant to such Act, hereby notifies all who respond to a written Department solicitation, request for proposal or invitation for bid that it will affirmatively insure that in any contract entered into pursuant to this advertisement, disadvantaged business enterprises will be afforded full opportunity to submit bids in response to this invitation and will not be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability/handicap and income status in consideration for an award.

BIDDERS SHOULD BE ADVISED THAT AWARD OF THESE CONTRACTS MAY BE CONTINGENT UPON THE PASSAGE OF A BUDGET APPROPRIATION BILL BY THE LEGISLATURE AND GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Please call (518)457-2124 if a reasonable accommodation is needed

Legal

nization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 11 December 2019.

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 689 Beaver Meadow Rd, Cooperstown, NY 13326.

Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.

6LegalJan.23

Legal nOtice

Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of

Notice of Formation of

BEEKMAN WOODS LLC.

M.E.B Records LLC

Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of BUTTERNUT COTTAGE LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 12/09/2019.

Office loc: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 1577 County Highway 16, Burlington Flats, NY 13315.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

6LegalJan.23 Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of a NY Limited Liability Company Name: LINCOLN HOPKINS LLC Articles of Orga-

►Friday, December 20 NATIVITY SCENE – 10 a.m.

- 5 p.m. View amazing nativity scenes. See Thursday Listing.

GIFT WRAPPING – 10 a.m.

- 8 p.m. Santa’s helpers wrap

Legal

to participate in the letting.

Region 09: New York State Department of Transportation 44 Hawley Street, Binghamton, NY, 13901 D264037, PIN 980681, FA Proj , Otsego Co., Rehabilitation and Replacement of 7 Large Culverts on NYS Routes 7, 28, 51 and 80 in Various Towns, Bid Deposit: 5% of Bid (~ $200,000.00), Goals: DBE: 8.00% 2LegalDec.23

Art/Org filed 10/7/19.

Ofc loc Otsego Cty. SSNY desig. agent for svc/proc & shall mail to 24 Andrea Ln, W Sayville, NY 11796.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

6LegalJan23

CHRISTMAS PARTY – 9 - 11 a.m. Bring kids in Christmas best and also a treat to pass. Santa arrives at 10. Gym floor, Clark Sports Center, Cooperstown. 607547-2800, ext. 109.

NATIVITY SCENE – 10 a.m.

- 5 p.m. View amazing nativity scenes including Bresee’s display, others. Free, open to public. Calvary Hill Retreat Center, 290 Chestnut St., Oneonta. 607-432 4926.

GIFT WRAPPING – Noon - 6 p.m. Santa’s helpers wrap your presents. Donations benefit Catskill Symphony Orchestra. Southside Mall, Oneonta. 607-441-3206.

SANTA VISIT – 3 - 6 p.m.

Bring the kids to visit Santa, tell Christmas wishes. Santa’s Cottage, Pioneer Park, Cooperstown. 607-547-9983.

CLASSIC FIX – 7 p.m. “It Happened On Fifth Avenue,” in which a homeless man and company move into a mansion. Tickets, $6. Walton Theater, 30 Gardiner Pl., Walton.

607-865-6688.

Articles Of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NY on 12/03/19 Office in Otsego County Secretary of State of NY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

Secretary of State of NY shall mail copy of process to the LLC at 19 Ford Avenue suite D, Oneonta, NY 13820.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

6LegalJan.16 Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of PROJECT ACE & NINE, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the NY Secretary of State on 11/27/19.

The office of the LLC is to be located in Otsego County.

The Secretary of State has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon it to: 2453 St Hwy 205, Mt Vision, NY 13810.

The purpose of the LLC is to engage in any lawful act.

6LegalJan.9

Legal

Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of Grand Rentals, LLC. Articles Of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NY on 11/12/19 Office: Otsego County United States Corporation Agents, Inc., has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served A Copy of Process should be mailed to the LLC at: 25 West End Avenue, Oneonta, NY 13820 Purpose: Any lawful activity.

6LegalJan.9 Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of a NY Limited Liability Company Name: WALLER HILL FARM LLC. Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 19 November 2019.

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 689 Beaver Meadow Rd, Cooperstown, NY 13326.

Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.

6LegalJan.2 Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of a NY Limited Liability Company Name: BeArt Farm LLC. Articles of Organization filing date with Secretary of State (SSNY) was 19 November 2019.

your presents. See Thursday Listing.

SANTA VISIT – Bring the kids to visit with Santa.

3 - 6 p.m. Santa’s Cottage, Pioneer Park, Cooperstown.

607-547-9983.

5 - 7 p.m. Santa’s Cottage, Muller Plaza, Oneonta. 607432-2941.

CHRISTMAS CAROL – 7 - 9 p.m. Performance of classic Charles Dickens Christmas tale returns. Tickets, $15/ adult. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown. 607-547-1453.

►Saturday, Dec. 21 GIFT WRAPPING – 10 a.m.

- 8 p.m. Santa’s helpers wrap presents. See Thursday Listing.

STORIES WITH SANTA – 10:30 a.m. Learn about Christmas in Mexico, holiday classic Poinsettia plant, Santa reads story to kids at 11, . Richfield Springs Public Library, 102 Main St., Richfield Springs.

315-858-0230.

SANTA VISIT – Bring the kids to visit Santa.

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Santa’s Cottage, Muller Plaza, Oneonta.

11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Southside Mall, Oneonta.

1 - 5 p.m. Santa’s Cottage, Pioneer Park, Cooperstown.

MORE CALENDAR Pg. 5

Legal

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to 312 Valley View Drive, Radcliff, KY 40160.

Purpose is to engage in any and all business activities permitted under NYS laws.

6LegalJan.2 Legal nOtice

Notice of Qual. of Kingfisher Properties, LLC. Auth. filed with SSNY on 7/9/19.

Office location: Otsego.

LLC formed in NV on 4/16/19.

SSNY desg. as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY mail process to: 13 West James St., Richfield Springs, NY, 13439.

Arts. of Org. filed with NV SOS. 4730 S. Fort Apache Rd., Las Vegas, NV, 89147.

Any lawful purpose.

6LegalJan.2 Legal nOtice

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF Country Wood Cellar, LLC Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) was 08/08/19.

Office Location: Otsego County.

SSNY has been designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and SSNY shall mail copy of process to PO Box 537 Morris, NY 13808.

Purpose: All Lawful purposes.

6LegalJan.2 Legal nOtice

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF CARNRIKE ENTERPRISES LLC

Legal

Arts. of Org. filed with the Sec’y. of State of N.Y. (SSNY) on 10/04/19.

Office location: Otsego County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 948 Cty Hwy 20, Edmeston, New York 13335.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

6LegalDec.26 Legal nOtice

Notice of formation of BUTTERNUT VALLEY PROPERTIES, LLC. Articles of Organization were filed with the NY Secretary of State on 9/30/19.

The office of the LLC is to be located in Otsego County.

The Secretary of State has been designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. The Secretary of State shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon it to: The LLC, PO Box 651, UnaBilla, NY 13849.

The purpose of the LLC is to engage in any lawful act.

6LegalDec.26 Legal nOtice

Notice of Formation of 1860 LIGHTED CUPOLA HOUSE LLC Articles of Org. filed NY Sec. of State (SSNY) 10/22/2019.

Office in Otsego Co. SSNY desig. agent of LLC whom process may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Gregory Wayman, 11848 Cydney Ln., Blaire, NE 68008.

Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Principal business location: 153 E. Main St., Morris, NY 13808.

6LegalDec.19

►Need to publish a Notice of Formation, Public Notice, Supplemental Summons, or Notice to Bidders?

Contact Larissa at 607-547-6103 or ads@allotsego.com and she can get you started.

AllOTSEGO.life

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

Christmas Calendar COMPLETE GUIDE TO HOLIDAY FUN!

send calendar items to info@allotsego.com FROM Pg. 4

►Saturday, Dec. 21 NATIVITY SCENE – 10 a.m.

- 5 p.m. View nativity scenes

from Bresee’s display, others.

See Thursday Listing.

HOLIDAY TOUR – 2 p.m.

Tour exhibit ‘A Little Women Christmas’. Free, open to public. Munson Williams Proctor

Arts Institute, 310 Genesee St., Utica. 315-797-0000.

CHRISTMAS CAROL – 3 - 5 & 7 - 9 p.m. Theatrical performance of classic Charles Dickens Christmas story. See Friday Listing.

HOLIDAY CONCERT – 4 p.m.

Festive works by Mozart including Missa Brevis, more with The Voices of Cooperstown. Christ Episcopal Church, 46 River St., Cooperstown. 607-547-9555.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT – 6 p.m. Enjoy sacred & secular music this Christmas by Catskill Brass. Includes selections by Beethoven. St. Paul’s

Episcopal, 307 Main St., Franklin. 607-434-5762.

Listing.

►Tuesday, Dec.24

►Sunday, Dec. 22 SANTA VISIT – Bring the kids to visit Santa 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Southside Mall, Oneonta. 607-4324401.

1 - 4 p.m. Santa’s Cottage, Pioneer Park, Cooperstown.

607-547-9983.

GIFT WRAPPING – Noon - 6 p.m. See Thursday Listing.

CHRISTMAS CAROL – 3 - 5 p.m. Theatrical performance of classic Charles Dickens Christmas story. See Friday

DROP OFF – 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Contribute to Friends of Christmas Dinner. Bring baked pies, fruit breads, other items for Christmas Day dinner. First United Methodist Church, 66 Chestnut St., Cooperstown. 607-432-3084.

►Wednesday, Dec. 25 CHRISTMAS DAY! DINNER – 12:30 - 2:30 p.m. Friends of Christmas, and Saturday’s Bread join

►Saturday, Dec. 28 HOLIDAY TOUR – 2 p.m.

Tour holiday exhibit ‘A Little Women Christmas,’ celebrate a Victorian Yuletide. Free, open to public. Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, 310 Genesee St., Utica. 315797-0000.

wn rsto Coope

This Holiday Season SHop Small and local!

present holiday dinner. Enjoy baked pies, fruit breads, dinner rolls much more donated by the community. Free, takeout & transportation available. First United Methodist Church, 66 Chestnut St., Cooperstown. 607-435-7188.

&

THINK LOCAL FIRST

of Co mm erce

Happy, happy

rs Ot be seg o County Cham

Keeping you in good spirits this holiday season!

Holiday

Gift SEtS

Egg Nog, Wine and Spirits!

while they last!

2008-2019

Liquor Depot

739 State Hwy 28 (Hannaford Plaza) | Oneonta | liquordepotoneonta.com | 607-431-2589 Christmas Eve 9 am to 6 pm | NY Eve 9 am to 9 pm | Closed Christmas and New Year’s Day

The Voices of Cooperstown and Christ Church, Episcopal present

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Conductor: Dan Foster Soloists: Sabrina Elyse Manna, soprano • Aleks Romano, mezzo-soprano Quinn J. Bernegger, tenor • Nathanial Sullivan, bass

Missa Brevis in B-flat K. 275 Exsultate Jubilate K. 165 • Ave verum corpus K. 618 Vesperae solennes de confessore K. 399

Saturday, December 21 at 4 pm Christ Church, Episcopal 46 River Street, Cooperstown TiCkETS: $25 | STuDEnTS: $15 Available at the door and - Cooperstown Art Association - 22 Main St. Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce - 31 Chestnut St. Riverwood - 88 Main St. • Cooperstown natural Foods - 61 Linden Ave.

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! UPDATED MAP THE GREAT OTSEGO HOLIDAY LIGHT TRAIL!

Go to Facbook, then go to The Great Otsego Light Trail.

THEN GET IN THE CAR AND HAVE FUN WITH THE FAMILY!!!

B-5

B-6 THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL

THURSDAY, December 19, 2019

OBITUARIES

Bruce N. Buffett, 66; Walter Hribar, 84; Korean War Vet, Worked In Frankfort RICHFIELD SPRINGS the former Pauline Snyder. programs about the Old grandchildren; two greatCCS Standout Athlete –Korean Walter J. Hribar, 84, a She predeceased him on West. He also had a unique grandchildren; several War veteran and Dec. 22, 2014. interest in John Deere nieces, nephews and

COOPERSTOWN – Bruce Nathaniel Buffett, 66, passed away on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019, of natural causes at his home in Norfolk, Va. Buffett was born in Huntington, Long Island, on Jan. 13, 1953, and was proud of the fact he was descended from three families who settled on Long Island in the 1630s, the Buffett, Conklin, and Sammis families. He was named Bruce Nathaniel, continuing the Buffett family’s practice of naming their sons Nathaniel for more than the past 300 years.

He was the son of Earl Nathaniel Buffett, Jr. and Jennie Sammis Buffett who preceded him in death.

Bruce grew up in Cooperstown after his family moved here in 1956 from Huntington. He graduated from Cooperstown Central High School in 1971, having lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track. He served as cocaptain of the 1970 Center State Conference Champion football team. He thought of himself as a true Redskin, never forgetting CCS, the teaching staff, friends and classmates, and especially fellow student athletes.

He attended the Coast Guard Academy and the Albany Medical Center

_________

Hospital School for Nursing. longtime Richfield Springs Buffett was employed in resident, passed away peaceconstruction, by George fully on Monday, Dec. 9, Mitchell Moving & Storage, 2019, in his home. He had the Delaware & Hudson the comfort of his loving Railroad, and the Walmart family at side.

Distribution Center in Walter was born on March Sharon Springs.

6, 1935, in Fly Creek, son of Bruce is survived by four the late Anthony and Anna children, Nicole Stevens Pope Hribar.

Hager; Erin Redden and her A lifelong area resident, husband Brandon and their he was educated at Richfield sons, Kilian and Murphy, Springs Central School. of Cherry Valley; Matthew Mr. Hribar was an honorBuffett of Half Moon; Anne ably discharged Air Force Dolezel, husband Mat, and veteran of the Korean War. daughters, Georgia and After his military service Hartley, of Latham. Bruce he was united in marriage to is also survived by his four sisters, Sandra Schecher, Lynda Morris, Laurie Kearns, and Lisa Leslie andSend calendar items ONEONTA – Gerri Mae their families.

Asp Scheele, 86, passed A Service of the Burial away Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, of the Dead with Holy Eucharist will be celebrated during convalescence at by the Rev’d Dane Boston at Fox Nursing Home &d 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 27. The Rehabilitation Center from a committal service and burial late October fall.

She was a resident for the will take place next Spring past 10 years at The Plains in Lakewood Cemetery, at Parish Homestead, and Cooperstown.

Those who so desire may had lived for 45 years before on Irving Place. Gerri was make memorial donations born on Sept. 19, 1933, in in memory of Bruce to The All Souls Fund, Christ Holdrege, Neb., to Esther Church, Episcopal, 69 Fair Marilla Jenkins Asp and Everett Eugene Asp, the Street, Cooperstown, NY third of four children.

13326.

She graduated from high Letters of condolence may be sent to Mrs. Erin Redden, school in Holdrege in 1951.

Gerri moved with her 169 Honey Hill Road, family from Lincoln, to Cherry Valley, NY 13320.

Walter first worked as a meat cutter for the A&P grocery store in Richfield Springs until it closed in 1979. He then went to work for Mohawk Metals in Frankfort until his retirement on June 11, 1999.

Mr. Hribar was especially proud of his membership in the Richfield Springs Veterans Club.

In his leisure time he enjoyed hunting, fishing and working on his hobby farm. His relaxation time was spent watching old Western movies and TV

A complete Guide to

tractors. He was happiest when he was surrounded by his many friends and family, especially his cherished grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

He will be sadly missed.

Surviving him are daughters, Ann Ostrander and her husband, Daniel of East Springfield and Lisa Conklin of Richfield Springs; brother, Dean Hribar and his wife, Barbara of Weeki Wache, Florida, sister, Caroline Hopper and her husband, Herman of Richfield Springs; four

what’s fun in OtsegO COunty _________

cousins.

Besides his parents and wife, Pauline, he is predeceased by a brother, David Hribar.

Calling hours will be from 2 to 4 p.m., Saturday at J. Seaton McGrath Funeral Home, 40 W. James St.; Richfield Springs.

Interment, with military honors provided by the U.S. Air Force, will be in the spring in Lakeview Cemetery.

The time will be announced.

Arrangements are entrusted to the J. Seaton McGrath Funeral Home.

Gerri Asp Scheele, 86; Worked At Farmers’, Fenimore to info@allotsego.com Oneonta in 1964, where at Yager she became a fully engaged and active resident for the remainder of her life. Her works were exhibited in area galleries and in NYC. She taught art to children in an Oneonta Recreation Department program and was a founding member in 1970 of the Upper Catskill Community Council on the Arts (UCCCA), which evolved into the current organization, Community Arts Network of Oneonta (CANO). In 2008, a retrospective of her work was presented in an exhibit at the galleries at Wilber Mansion.

In later years, she worked

Museum of Art and Culture at Hartwick College as a program officer, at The Farmers’ Gerri Asp Museum Scheele and Fenimore Art Museum, particularly with the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, in Cooperstown, as a museum educator.

She is survived by her daughters, Carla Scheele (Harold Augenbraum), Christie Scheele (Jack

Morelli), and Karin Scheele (Bruce Lenkei); five grandchildren, Audrey, Tessa, Tony, Alison and Emily; sister, Beverly Dierberger of Garland, Nebreska; a sister-in-law, Doris Asp of Holdrege, Nebreska; and nine nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her mother, Esther; her father, Everett; a brother, Dean Asp and another brother, Wilson Asp. A celebration of her life is planned with details to follow.

Arrangements are entrusted to the The Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono Funeral Home.

►SUNDAY, DEC. 29

►Monday, Dec. 30

BENEFIT CLASS –9 - 10 a.m. Enjoy restorative mixed style yoga class to benefit Cooperstown Food Pantry.

All $10 suggested donations go to pantry. Registration requested. Clark Sports Center, Cooperstown. 607-547-2800, ext. 129.

ZUMBA PARTY – 6 - 7 p.m.

Welcome New Year and party like it’s about to be 1920.

Come dressed in best flapper outfit or wear black, white, & gold. Dress-up optional. Cost, $7/non-member. Oneonta YMCA, 20-26 Ford Ave., Oneonta. 607-432-0010.

what’s fun in OtsegO COunty _________ _______ what’s fun in OtsegO COunty

►Thursday, Dec. 19

Grandma loved her farm, her family, and playing her old guitar.

Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home will take the time to find out what made your loved one special.

Whether it’s finding just the right flowers, or finding a musician to play her favorite tunes on her old guitar, we’ll do what’s necessary to make her service as unique as she was.

Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home 14 Grand Street, Oneonta • 607-432-6821 www.grummonsfuneralhome.com

BOOKMOBILE – Check out the mobile library.

10-10:30 a.m. Schenevus Valley Lodge, 4 Main Street, Schenevus.

10:45-11:30 a.m. Fire Station, 1812 County Highway 34, Westford.

12:30-1 p.m. a.m. First Christian Church, 1160 State Highway 165, South Valley.

1:15-2 p.m. a.m. Town Hall, 3717 County Highway 35, Middlefield. www.4cls.org or 607-723-8236 RADON – 1:15 p.m. Learn to protect yourself from radon gas with Mathew Johnson. Test kits available.

Cooperstown Senior Community Center, St. Mary’s Church, 31 Elm St., Cooperstown.

amateur local performers; light refreshments; all welcome. Schuyler Lake United Methodist Church. Church Rd., Schuyler Lake.

►Friday, December 20 BLOOD DRIVE – 1 - 6 p.m.

Give blood, save a life with American Red Cross. Southside Wesleyan Church, 5300 St. Hwy. 23, Oneonta. 1-800733-2767.

OPENING RECEPTION – 5:30 - 8 p.m. Celebrate opening of holiday pop-up shop & show of new artworks

by Mark Tougias. Henry March Gallery, 43 Pioneer St., Cooperstown.

►Saturday, Dec. 21

versar y Our 131st anni

Tillapaugh Funeral Service

POP-UP SHOP – 10 a.m.

- 5 p.m. Enjoy treats by Allison King, owner Kings Kakery pastry shop. Available through 12/15. Oneonta History Center, 183 Main St., Oneonta.

607-432-0960.

SOLSTICE CELEBRATION – 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Celebrate shortest day of year with cookies, refreshments, prizes, dance with Happy Hags Dance Troop, more. The Teepee, 7632 St. Rt. 20, Cherry Valley. 607-264-3987.

SNACK SWAP – Noon - 2 p.m. Swap cookies, candies, other snacks with neighbors.

Harris Memorial Library, 344 Main St, Otego. Call 607-9886661.

Home for the holidays. Let’s celebrate our love for our hometown by shopping local this season. Supporting local businesses helps everyone. Spread the cheer and Think Local First!

We’re committed to helping local businesses grow and succeed.

It’s part of our What Starts Here, Stays Here philosophy.

Happy Holidays from Bank of Cooperstown

►Monday, Dec. 23 Our historic Family Room

Our Chapel comfortably seats over 200.

George M. Tillapaugh (1888-1913) · Revo and Anna Tillapaugh (1913-1958) George G. and Marjorie Tillapaugh (1935-1988) · Martin H. Tillapaugh (1988-Present)

dignity · tradition · continuity 28 Pioneer Street, cooPerStown • 607-547-2571 Proudly serving area families since 1888

BLOOD DRIVE – Give blood, save a life with American Red Cross. Walk-ins welcome.

1-6 p.m. Clark Sports Center, Cooperstown.

2:30 - 6:30 p.m. Community Center, Walnut St., Richfield Springs. 1-800-733-2767.

►Saturday, Dec. 28 COFFEE HOUSE –7 - 9 p.m.

Music in range of genres by

73 Chestnut St. | Cooperstown, NY | 607-547-2210 34 Main St. | Oneonta, NY | 607-432-7000 Open 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Monday – Friday) bankofcooperstown.com