STILL ORIGINAL AFTER
30 Years •F
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COOPERSTOWN AND AROUND
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Volume 210, No. 49
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VISIT THE EXPANDING
OUNDED 1808 BY
Cooperstown’s Newspaper
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IN
O M C O PE
GRANDMOM DANCED IN ORIGINAL ‘NUTCRACKER’/B1
AllOTSEGO.com
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, December 7, 2017
Hartwick’s President To Emcee Session On County Management
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artwick College President Margaret L. Drugovich has agreed to emcee “County Manager vs. County Executive,” where local governance expert Dr. Gerald Benjamin will detail management options available to Otsego County. The session will be at 8 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, at Springbrook’s new Family Engagement Please See DRUGOVICH, A3
For 209 Years
Newsstand Price $1
$25K FROM SEWARD FUNDS WiFI
‘Hot Spots’ For Cooperstown By PARKER FISH COOPERSTOWN
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n Cooperstown, it’s all about getting connected. “More and more people are living their lives and con-
FIBRE, TOO: Otsego Electric announced plans in recent days to build a fibre-optic network for its service area. Details at
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
ducting business on their cell phones, laptops and tablets,”
said state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford. “To be competitive, and provide our residents, businesses and tourists with the best possible experience, we need to make it so they can use those devices.” To accomplish that, Seward Please See Wi-Fi, A7
SWATLING, O’BRIEN TAKE OVER The Freeman’s Journal
Lena Rusk, 6 months, was the youngest attendee (with mom Josie and dad Tom) at the final public information meeting Thursday, Nov. 8, on next year’s downtown upgrades.
Spurbeck’s in New Hands
Single Signal, Single String Survives Feds COOPERSTOWN
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single hanging signal on a single strand at Main and Chestnut will survive $1.7 million in federally funded upgrades to downtown streets and sidewalk to begin the day after Labor Day Weekend 2018. Residents at a final public hearing on the project Thursday, Nov. 20, at the fire hall were delighted to hear the news, fearing federal regulators would remove another of the village’s traditional landmarks. For more details, type “signal” in search line at
AllOTSEGO.com
Dot and Roger Smith, in left photo, took over Spurbeck’s Grocery in 1996 from his mother, Gertrude (Spurbeck) Smith. Above, the Smiths celebrated the corner market’s 75th anniversary in May 2016.
By LIBBY CUDMORE
www.
CCS LOCKDOWN: Cooperstown schools were put on an hour-long lockdown after a single, .22caliber rimfire round was found near the auditorium. No threat was found and students were safe.
COOPERSTOWN
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rowing up, Roger Smith remembered weekends with his mother, Gert,
helping stock the shelves at the store her father, Orlando Spurbeck, opened in 1941. “That was my job,” he said. “That and sports.” And on Friday, Dec. 1, after 76 years, the Smith family sold Spurbeck’s, the corner store on Leatherstocking and Railroad, to
Eugene A. Bettiol Sr., 85, Built Southside Oneonta
NOMINEES WANTED: “He lived as if he By JIM KEVLIN The CCS Athletic Hall of was going to live forFame is seeking nominations ever; going full force for the 2018 inductions. ONEONTA each day without Email Athletic Director slowing down. No James Brophy at jbrophy@ aci Bettiol one could convince cooperstowncs.org woke up at 3 him to stop and smell the other mornthe roses. There OFF TO PLACID: ing and wrote down Gene Bettiol were simply too Another Snowmeggang will this sentence, encapmany opportunities be Lake Placid in March. sulating her view of her dad, awaiting his vision. And Eugene A. Bettiol Sr., who there is something inspirapassed away Saturday, Dec. tional 2, at Albany Medical Center: Please See BETTIOL, B7
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Mike Swatling and Carrie O’Brien. “We’re going to miss it,” said Randy, one of the Smiths’ son, who has been helping run the store since 2013. “It’ll be weird not coming in here.” Swatling is painting the store and moving fixtures, but is aiming to be
open in the next week. He received permission Tuesday, Dec. 5, from the Village Zoning Board of Appeals for an excavation to allow him to store the beer selection – some 300 choices – in the basement. In the future, he hopes to add a Please See SPURBECK’S, A8
Danny Lapin Worked, And It Happened By JIM KEVLIN ONEONTA
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anny Lapin sees global warming as a threat, DANNY for sure, but also as LAPIN an economic-development op- District 13 portunity. “Global warming is something we can turn in our favor,” said the newly elected member Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal of the Otsego County Board of RepresentaDanny Lapin at his soon-to-be tives for District 13, Wards 5-6 in the City of natural habitat: The Otsego County Please See LAPIN, A5 government complex.
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD