THURSDAY-FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2-3, 2017
Harold Palmer, doing double duty as a Chaseville Road dairy farmer and Maryland town supervisor, will be leading the conversation with Otsego Now’s Sandy Mathes.
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-3
Ron Kinch, originally from Westford, three decades ago happened upon the house and related fields that have now been identified as a possible site for the county’s first distribution center. Then a NYSEG lineman, he snapped up what was a great deal, and moved wife Helen and his family there.
Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s Journal
As a clerk at the Schenevus Mirabito, Kailee O’Donnell has her hand on the community’s pulse. Everybody’s very excited about the prospect of more jobs, she said.
250-500 Job Distribution Center Sought At Schenevus JOBS/From A1 “I’m excited,” said the county rep, who was formerly Maryland town supervisor. “It’s the first time we’ve had something to get excited about.” “It’s very exciting, and exactly what we had in mind when we wanted to up our game in Otsego County in regards to economic development,” added state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, whose two “Seward Summits” set the stage for Otsego Now’s efforts. The senator applauded Oberacker and other local leaders who brought the site to Otsego Now’s attention. “It’s located in a part of the county that needs more local jobs,” he continued. “And it’s a site that makes full use of one of our assets: Interstate highway 88.” Thursday, Jan. 26, the Otsego Now board of directors, meeting in Oneonta, approved a three-year option – $3,000 this year, rising to $3,500 by 2019 – on flat, sloping cornfields on top of a rise north of Route 7 on the east side of town. The property has been owned for the past three decades by Ron Kinch, a retired NYSEG lineman, and wife Helen. The Kinches live in the former farmhouse on Route 7, and have rented the fields to corn-growing farmers. “To me, it always had potential,” said Oberacker, who lives on Smokey Avenue, which runs along the western edge of the property. “We have to go out and promote these things. As a fisherman, you have to have a good lure.” Now, by 2018, the Otsego Now directors, buoyed by reports that Amazon is planning 3-5 distribution centers in the Northeast, hope to have construction complete on what could be the largest boon to the Schenevus area since the Borden milk plant closed in 1959. “There’s a great demand for sites in-state that can accommodate larger distribution centers,” said Mathes. With the announcement the other day that Dollar General will put a center in the Town of Florida, near Amsterdam, the “inventory” of such sites in New York State is almost gone, he said. There are “less than five,” he estimated. Otsego Now plans to begin the state’s so-called SEQRA environmental review by March 1, wrapping it up by fall, meanwhile
In the 1990s, distribution centers grew out of the JIT (just in time) concept, which sought to save companies money by keeping inventory low. Typically, wholesalers’ tractor-trailers deliver product to one side of the center one day; products are sorted overnight and sent out the next morning on smaller trucks to a retailer’s stores in the region. Ken Rose, CEO of the Montgomery County Business Development Center, said that timeline is realistic, given the demand for distribution-center sites. “There’s always a need,” he said, and with three Thruway exits his county is well positioned to serve the Northeast Corridor. (Otsego County has 10 I-88 exits.) He recruited Target and, now, Dollar General, and said the jobs are fulltime, with benefits, plus some seasonal hiring leading up to Christmas. Saturday, Victor Hansen, who County Rep. Peter Oberacker, R-Schenevus, who lives on nearby Smokey Avenue, traverses operates the Etc. Etc. Convenience the southern end of the Kinches’ fields, site of a prospective distribution center. Below, you Store – with the Chief Schenevus diner closed for the winter, THE can see where the access road from I-88 connects with Route 7 east of Schenevus. The place to be – said the idea has been driveway will begin directly across from the access road and loop up the hill to the site. debated by his patrons, sometimes looking to make the site “shovelroads, Mathes said. budget. hotly, with opinion split 50-50. ready” – a big retailer’s foremost Another benefit: because of the Before his election to the county Why opposition? “Not in my requirement, Mathes said. hillside, a future building wouldn’t board in November 2015, Oberbackyard,” he replied drily. Additionally – as it has in be seen from Route 7; drivers by acker, as town supervisor, recalled Behind the counter at the Cooperstown and Richfield won’t even know it’s there. always having to figure out “how Mirabito’s in Schenevus, Kailee Springs – it will initiate an In an interview Saturday, Jan. to do more with less.” O’Donnell, said, “There’s exciteupdate of the town’s Compre28, Oberacker ticked off what he The town had approached ment. There would be more jobs.” hensive Master Plan, “working sees as the site’s advantages: Dick’s Sporting Goods when it At first, Town Clerk Kaye Frelvery closely with the community • Elevated, it is outside the was planning a distribution center. ing, accepting tax payments at the to make sure we’ve aligned with Schenevus Creek floodplain, “I’ve got the spot of all spots,” Town Office in the fire hall, called what the community wants in erasing a key state Environmental Oberacker told the executives. chatter about the distribution terms of economic development,” Quality Review Act concern. And While Dick’s chose a site near center “gossip.” Once told of the Mathes said. it contains no wetlands. Binghamton, the company gave Otsego Now decision, however, Elan Planning, Saratoga • Indian artifacts – an archaeothe town good feedback: The site she smiled. “You should attend Springs, will lead the process as it logical review is part of SEQR itself, between Boston, New York the next town board meeting,” she has in the two other communities, – are most often found along and Philadelphia, was ideal – but said. he said. streams, the migration route of “shovel-ready” is essential. Maryland Town Supervisor Compared to manufacturing early Native Americans, less of a The town board launched the Harold Palmer said he plans to sites, which can require municipal concern here. “Phoenix Project,” aimed at enmeet with Mathes before that water and sewerage, distribution • Finally, the site is relatively couraging townsfolk to spruce up meeting, at 6:30 p.m. Monday, centers are less of a challenge, flat, requiring minimal earthmovtheir properties, but people feared Feb. 6, to discuss the town’s role. needing only restrooms for eming for prospective clients. their taxes would rise. A wind The Kinches’ fields are zoned for ployees, he said. The nearest similar facility is farm, fracking and the Constituagriculture, and the town will have The one obstacle presented by the Walmart Distribution Center tion Pipeline offered economic to change that to a business use, the Kinch site is a 30-, 40-foot on Route 20 in the Town of Shabenefits, but split the community, he said. rise at the south end. But Otsego ron. And Town Supervisor Janet the county rep said. Told of benefits to the Town of Now’s consultant, Delaware EnManko called Schoharie County’s Now, with the possibility of the Sharon, Palmer said that “definitegineering, determined a driveway largest building “very beneficial” distribution center, “there’s a sense ly would be” welcome. “We’ve can be looped up the hillside to in terms of jobs and tax benefits. of hope,” said Oberacker, who been managing – save a penny create a slight enough slope for A 20-year PILOT was just moved here from Long Island as here, save a penny there – to make tractor trailers. renegotiated, she said, and the a boy in 1965. A partner in Form ends meet,” he said, and added The final entryway will be at company agreed to pay $975,000 Tech Solutions, a research firm revenues would allow needed 90 degrees to Route 7, allowing a year in town, county, village and for food companies, he and wife road repairs, and perhaps enable traffic to enter directly from the school taxes. The town share is Shannon raised a son and daughter the revival of youth programs that I-88 connector without using local $195,000, about 20 percent of its locally. have lapsed over the years.
From Sorrowful Chief Schenevus Legend, Thriving Community Emerged HISTORY/From A1 D&H – then the Albany & Susquehanna – arrived in the 1870s. “Schenevus really began to expand and develop,” said Parmerter. “It became an incorporated village. The number of shops and businesses increased.” Horse-drawn buggies would be waiting at the depot to bring patrons to the three hotels – “three large hotels,” Parmeter said. “Farmers would come into town, not Oneonta or Cobleskill. Even hamlets like Maryland and Owl Creek flourished compared to what’s there now.” When Vic Hansen, who owns Maryland’s Etc. Etc. Convenience Store, was a boy on Smokey Avenue, there were 57 businesses in the village – four groceries, four gas stations, a meat
Images of Chief Schenevus abound in his namesake hamlet.
market, three hardware stores, a watch repair shop, drugs stores with soda fountains, a Hudson car dealership. The farmers on South Hill would bring their milk daily to the Borden milk plant then, milk check cashed, shop in local establishments. Well-off mercantile families – Tillapaughs, Clarks, Windsors, Wycoffs – built big homes on Arch
Street. In his mind, the beginning of the end came in 1959, when two things happened: the milk plant closed, and Jamesway opened in today’s Price Chopper Plaza on Oneonta’s east end. “You could shop on Sundays, and you could shop until 9 o’clock,” Hansen said. Many local men continued to commute daily to union jobs at GE in Schenectady, until layoffs struck in the 1970s. To Parmerter, the final blow came in 1974, when Interstate 88 came through, enabling quick shopping trips to Oneonta and Cobleskill. The Schenevus Monitor went out of business in 1981. The village dissolved in 1994 into the Town of Maryland – a rarity then as now. In 2007,
the community’s fortunes around, luring workers from Oneonta, 14 miles away, and Cooperstown, 17.2 miles on the back road over Hooker Mountain. While the village is gone, a street-lighting district and water district continues to function in the former village, which also hosts Schenevus Central School, with its art deco Andrew Draper High School, designed by Richfield Springs’ architect Jim Jordan’s dad. HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s Journal County Rep. Peter Images of Schenevus and the Town of Maryland Oberacker, R-Schenevus, in its heyday abound in Worcester Town Historian described the hamlet as a Marilyn DuFresne’s “Images of America: Tri Valley, bedroom community for Cobleskill to Colliersville.” In the upper right is Oneonta, Cooperstown and The Siver, one of three former hotels. Cobleskill, but 300 jobs might turn that around: The the Catholic church – St. decline, the prospective downtown is only 14 miles Mary’s – closed, and the 300-job distribution center from Oneonta and 17.2 congregation absorbed at St. about to be recruited for miles from Cooperstown, Joseph’s in Worcester. Ron and Helen Kinch’s over the Hooker Mountain If Schenevus’ story so farm fields on a hill across far is one of growth and from the I-88 exit could turn Road.