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COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
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Volume 207, No. 51
NEW
1808 BY
VISIT THE
For 207 Years
WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, December 24, 2015
Mom’s Complaint Goes Viral, But Cider Mill Eases Worries FLY CREEK
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renda Michaels, president and coowner of the Fly Creek Cider Mill, wants all nursing mothers to know
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they are welcome at the Fly Creek Cider Mill. “My daughter was born on opening day of the mill, and I nursed her here,” said Michaels. “I am not against Please MOMS, A3
Newsstand Price $1
Indoor Tennis Possible Here
Scrooge In Town
COOPERSTOWN
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he Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce has won approval for a third Cooptoberfest after a plan by Executive Director Matt Hazzard was found to meet public concerns. At the event, planned for Saturday, Oct. 8, Columbus Day Weekend, will more clearly segregate kids’ games from beer-drinking. Provisions will be made for access to the post office and egress from the Farmers’ Market, and merchants will be alerted that they will be permitted to hold sidewalk sales on that day. H-PARB STYMIED: There are three vacancies on the village’s Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board, and two public hearings scheduled for January may not happen because of lack of a quorum. If interested, call village offices at 547-2411. LONGER SEASON: Paid parking will not be extended to any new streets next summer; however, the paid-parking season will be extended five weeks to Columbus Day Weekend.
Village Gives Tentative OK By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
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ith the idea financial information will be forthcoming, Village Trustees Monday, Dec. 21, gave an initial nod to Cooperstown Tennis, a not-for-profit group of local enthusiasts who envision indoor courts in a year-’round building on the village’s south end. One of the backers, Peter van der Riet, told trustees the plan is to start with two courts, but a third could be added if the demand is there. Right now, he said, local tennis players routinely drive the one-hour round trip to the Oneonta P lease See TENNIS, A6
The Freeman’s Journal
The Voices of Cooperstown performed Handel’s “Messiah” to a full house Saturday, Dec. 19, at Christ Episcopal Church. Don Foster conducts.
Chamber Gets Go-Ahead On Cooptoberfest
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Cooperstown’s Newspaper
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Scrooge 2014, left, and Scrooge 2015.
County Rep Koutnik Turns Seasonal Role To Bassett’s Raddatz By LIBBY CUDMORE
3 Car-Charging Stations Likely In Cooperstown
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ood-natured Bassett Hospital rheumatologist Don Raddatz as grumpy, stingy Ebenezer Scrooge? Bah, Humbug. “I’ve played Fezziwig for the last two years, doing this crazy dance,” said Raddatz. “So when they said I’d be playing Scrooge, someone asked me, ‘Is it a comedy this year?’ It’s just not in my nature to be serious.” But when Gary Koutnik, the county rep from Oneonta when he’s offstage, stepped down from the role last year – in a case of Please See SCROOGE, A7
COOPERSTOWN
I Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
Cooperstown’s Don Raddatz (Scrooge), at top, and Oneonta’s Gary Koutnik (Mr. Fezziwig this year), right, take bows at the end of “The Christmas Carol” Saturday, Dec. 12, at The Farmers’ Museum.
MEET NEW COUNTY BOARD
CFA Funds Specialty Pasta-Making
LEN CARSON, district 13, city of oneonta
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s a retired Oneonta firefighter and now proprietor of DC Marketing, Len Carson is looking forward to involvement in emergency services and budget issues when he joins the county Board of Representatives Jan. 1, one of seven new board members being profiled weekly. For details, see WWW.ALLOTSEGO.COM
By LIBBY CUDMORE FLY CREEK
J Carson at American Legion
f you charge them, they will come. In their electric cars, that is. The Village of Cooperstown has been approached by Energetics Inc., which hopes to install perhaps up to three electric-car-charging stations in the village, Trustee Lou Allstadt Please See CARS, A6
FUNDED
im Giombetti, owner of for the B&B Ranch on Bedbug FUTURE Hill, grew up in Jessup, in Pennsylvania’s anthracite region, a town he describes as not unlike Cooperstown – if everyone in Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal Cooperstown had a goat in the backyard. Jim Giombetti show one of the “It was a neighborhood of Italian immiwooden ravioli makers he uses in Please See PASTA, A7 his pasta-making operation.
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD