Hometown Oneonta 1-20-12

City of The Hills

HOMETOWN ONEONTA, THE LARGEST CIRCULATION NEWSPAPER IN OTSEGO COUNTY,2010 WINNER OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD

ComplimentaryVolume 4, No. 18 Oneonta, N.Y., Friday, January 20, 2012

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HOMETOWN ONEONTA& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch

economic Development‘art,’ But Can Be DoneMathes: Invest Upfront, ‘Get Dirt Ready’

SEWARD: GREENE COUNTY BEST IN 51ST

as SUny Food Services Director,Kathy Clark thought ‘out of Box’

Family friend Anya Sloth, 10, poses with Kathy Clark and her husband Bob.

Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA

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Greene County IDA ex-ecutive director Alex-ander “Sandy” Mathes made “every deal” in two business parks.

By JIM KEVLIN

COXSACKIE

As Sandy Mathes tells it, it’s all about “get-ting dirt ready.”

In 2002, the Greene County Industrial Develop-ment Agency – Mathes was longtime IDA executive

director until last summer – began getting dirt ready, and since:

• In 2004, Save-A-Lot, a national discount grocery store opened a $16 million distribution center. 130 jobs.

• Also in 2004, National Bedding Co. completed a $11.25 million Serta mat-tress factory. 100 jobs.

• In 2009, Ducommun AeroStructures Inc., after buying the local DynaBil Industries, opened a new plant to supply parts and materials for the aerospace

industry. 200-250 jobs.• In 2010, Empire Mer-

chants North, an Ulster County-based alcohol dis-tributor, completed a $27.5 million, 250,000-square-foot corporate headquarters and distribution center. 320 jobs.

This happened, and is still happening, on two sites, the Greene County

Business & Technology Park and the Kalkberg

Please See GREENE, A7

TO LEARN MORE about Greene County’s economic development efforts, visit

www.greenebusiness.com

Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTAPlatoon Leader Stepha-nie Proffitt, who is join-ing the Deposit Police Department, leads the Otsego County Law Enforcement Class into SUNY Oneonta’s Goodrich Theater Sat-urday, Jan. 14. (More photos, A2)

WeddingsWILD ABOUT

SEE PAGES B1,4-5

WEEKEND’SBEST BETS

REINTRODUCING!

DETAILS, B1

Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTAKalkberg Commerce Park is just north of the Greene County Business & Technology Park along

Route 9W just north of Coxsackie and just south of Thruway Exit 21B. In the background are a Serta mattress, left, and Empire Merchants North, a mega liquor distributorship owned by the Charmer-

Sunbelt Group, which has national reach.

First Woman Otsego County Board Chair Also First With MPA

By JIM KEVLIN

When she was SUNY Oneonta’s di-rector of residential dining services, par-ents dropping off their students would sample the dininghall menu and rave.

They’d tell Kathy Clark: How can

our kids complain about this?“Everybody always complains about

the food,” said Clark, who calls herself “a realist.” “If you ate at your favorite restaurant every night for three months, you’d find something to complain about, too.”

Please See CHAIR, A9

Consensus:Commerceneeds BoostReps, Execs Concur

By LIBBY CUDMORE

There was agreement when nine of the Ot-sego County Board

of Representatives met with the pro-business Citizens’ Voices group: A more busi-ness-friendly atmosphere is needed here.

“We’re trying to bring everyone together, not drive us apart,” said Oneonta Block president Bob Har-lem, who hosted the third meeting of businesspeople, newly christened Citizens’ Voices, at the Carriage

Please See BOOST, A6

GOHS UPDATE: The Greater Oneonta Historical Society will update sup-porters on progress of its $280,000 Phase Two fund-drive to help complete reno-vations of The History Cen-ter at a breakfast meeting, 9-10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, at The Bistro on Main. For reservations, e-mail [email protected]. $10.

DOG PARKS? The city Parks & Recreation Com-mission is consider estab-lishing dog parks, where dogs could be simply dogs, Common Council was told Tuesday, Jan. 17.

DowntownTo Host IceSculptures

Iceography’s Sean Tay-lor is planning a week of ice-sculpturing in

downtown Oneonta culmi-nating in an ice-sculpting competition Saturday, Feb. 11 on Main Street.

Taylor said sponsors include Joe Ruffino’s Piz-zeria, Capresso Coffee Bar, Teleky’s and the Clarion Hotel.

The event will feature speed-carving contests, demos and something extra special for the kids.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012A-2 HOMETOWN ONEONTA

HOMETOWN People

For information and reservations, call Lori Patryn at(607) 544-2524 or (800) 348-6222.

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Every Friday from 11:30AM-1:30PM, The Otesaga’sHawkeye Grill offers a quick and economical LuncheonBuffet. Enjoy soup, salad, your choice of two signaturehot entrees, a cooked vegetable, dessert and a beverage.All for only $13.95 per person. The Hawkeye Grill’sregular menu is also available. Casual attire welcome.

Service Above Self

Cooperstown [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]@netzero.net

What would it take to change the world?Join us in volunteering in our communities at home and abroad....support education and job training, provide clean water, combat hunger, improve health and sanitation and eradicate polio.

Make a difference in your community, contact your hometown Rotary club TODAY!

Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s Journal“They are a class of only eight and that’s the smallest class ever to graduate, but they are the best qualified ever,” said Cooperstown Police Chief Diana Nicols, who is retiring on disability. She was keynoter at the 2012 Otsego County Law Enforcement Academy commencement Saturday, Jan. 14, at SUNY Oneonta’s Goodrich Theater. None of the graduates were from the county.

AT POLICE ACADEMY GRADUATION

Oneonta Mayor Dick Miller accepts the Thurgood Marshall Unity Award from Lee Fisher, Oneonta NAACP president, during Martin Luther King Day com-memorations Sunday, Jan. 15, at First Baptist Church, 71 Chestnut St. SUNY Oneonta Professor Caridad Souza-Wat-kins also received a Marshall award.

Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA A Jazz Ensemble performed Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” at the NAACP’s Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration. From left are John Banks on drums, Sadiq Abdushahid on drum set, Chris Wolf-Gould on bass, and singer D.J. Wooden.

Inspiration, laughter and music filled the halls of the First Baptist Church, including clarinetists Robin Seletsky and Abby Michaelson-King, who performed klezmer selections.

STRAIGHT A’S: Han-nah Zimmerman from Oneonta is on SUNY Geneseo’s President’s List for the fall semester, having achieved an A in all course-work (4.0 grade point aver-age) while taking at least 12 credit hours.

RANIERI HONORED: Maria Ranieri of Oneonta is on the Dean’s List at Hudson Valley Community College for the fall semester. She is in the Individual Studies academic program.

AT NAZARETH: Si-enna Hunt of Oneonta is on the Nazareth College Dean’s List for the fall 2011 semester.

DEAN’S LIST: Lauren Mahon from Oneonta is on the Dean’s List at SUNY Geneseo for the fall semester.

Betty Bergleitner, Stamford, the 2011

Otsego-Delaware Realtor of the Year, accepts her award

from Tom Tillapaugh, 2011 president of

the Otsego-Delaware Board of Realtors. Betty is the third

member of her fam-ily to receive this

honor, in addition to her husband, George Bergleitner and son, Michael Bergleitner. The award is based on Bergleitner’s in-

volvement in boards of realtors on the lo-cal, state and nation-al levels, civic activ-ity, Realtor spirit and high principles. She

will be honored at the Mid-Winter New York State Associa-

tion of Realtors Inau-gural Dinner.

Janice Corrie pins the Investigator Rick Parisian Award for Most Outstanding Cadet on Stephanie Proffitt, who is joining the Deposit Police Depart-ment. Janice, Parisian’s sister, and her husband David, as well as Rick’s brother Steve, represent-ed the family at the ceremony.

MARKING MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

BETTY BERGLEITNER REALTOR OF YEAR

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012 HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-3

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21stYEAR

Celebrating our

1990-2011

oneonta tennis clubWelcome Mike Menafra,

a 33 year veteran tennis instructor.Mike will now be teaching tennis lessons at

Oneonta Tennis Club.

Sign up for a FReetennis lesson for yourself or group! No obligation. To reserve time, contact

Mike at 631-664-2368.

5 West Beaver St. Cooperstown • 547-7126(behind Taylor’s Chestnut St. Convenience Store)

Kim’s Kut & Style

New Style, New You

PermsWash, Cut

& Style

The City of Oneonta is accepting applications for the position of

Laborer in Public Service Department. Application should be submitted by

February 10, 2012. Applications and job description are available at the Personnel

Office, 258 Main St., Oneonta or download from our website at www.oneonta.ny.us

EOE

SCULPTURE MFA: Cooper Paulson of Mount Vision has received a master’s in fine arts in sculpture from SUNY New Paltz.

JUST FOR LAUGHS – AND A GOOD CAUSE

Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTAIf you’d stopped by the Stewart’s Shoppe at Main and River Wednesday, Jan. 11, you would have seen manager Matt Sivacek in unusual garb – a dress. Sivacek told his staff that, if they collected more than $1,000 in Stewart’s Christmas Match, where the company matches change custom-ers donate and contributes it to charity, he gave them a choice of ways they could humiliate him. They picked the dress, then raised $1,300. Sivacek moved from Long Island to Sharon Springs nine years ago to tend his grandparents, and joined Stewart’s there, moving to the Oneonta store seven years ago. “It’s a good company to work for,” he said. “We have fun; they encourage it.” Here, Matt gives change to customer Doug Hulick.

The Opportuni-ties for Otsego board of directors recognized three staffers Dec. 15 for commitment to the agency and children served through WIC and Head Start pro-grams. From left are honorees Maryann Ander-son, WIC program assistant, 30 years of service; Rosemary Pow-ers, Head Start teacher/center di-rector, 31 years, and Debra Allen, Head Start teach-er-center director, 33 years.

OFO HONORS 3 FOR SERVICE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012A-4 HOMETOWN ONEONTA

HOMETOWN Views

MEMBER OFNew York Press Association • The Otsego County Chamber

Published weekly by Iron String Press, Inc.21 Railroad Ave., Cooperstown NY 13326

Telephone: (607) 547-6103. Fax: (607) 547-6080.E-mail: [email protected] • www.hometownoneonta.biz

Jim Kevlin Editor &Publisher

Tara Barnwell M.J. Kevlin

Advertising Director Business Manager

Amanda Hoepker Jamie Smith, Luisa Fuentes Office Manager Sales Associates Libby Cudmore Ian Austin Reporter Photographer

Graphic Artists: Andrée Baillargeon, Scott Buchanan

HOMETOWN ONEONTA& The Otsego-Delaware Dispatch

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WELCOME E-mail [email protected]

EDITORIAL

Cooperstown Superintendent of Schools C.J. Hebert better take a deep breath.

His indignation at the press is not going to stop the questions. The questions will stop when it is all over.

“It” is an ongoing and vile aberration at Cooperstown Central High School, where senior football players hold down first-year play-ers and “teabag” them, an assault that involves rubbing testicles in a victim’s face. Or the older boys seize the younger boys by the genitals and insert fingers in their rectums. This – and who knows what else? – can happen repeat-edly. The first-year boys, when seniors, then perform the initiation on the younger boys, an ugly cycle of victim becoming victimizer.

Hebert’s indignation is mis-placed. This isn’t something the press made up. Details emerged only after High School Principal Mike Cring and Athletic Director Jay Baldo sent a Nov. 10 letter to football players’ parents on “a matter of extreme concern.”

“Through interviews with play-ers, information has been revealed that confirms acts of hazing have occurred between players this past season, as well as in past years,” the letter said.

Cring and Baldo called it hazing. But, as pointed out in this space before, if the football players did this to girls it would be called rape. If they did it to District Attorney John Muehl or county Sheriff Richard J. Devlin,

Jr., who have tried to brush off the matter, it would certainly be assault. Incidentally, the FBI has just widened the definition of rape.

Of course, Hebert, who is in the middle of his second year, didn’t know this was going on when he took the job in the summer of 2010, but he knows now. If school board members were in denial before – Tony Scalici, chair; and David Borgstrom, Paula Greene, Mary Leonard, Theresa Russo, Elizabeth Schifano and Mikal Sky-Shrewsbury – they can’t be now.

If this manifests itself again, and it will unless pulled out stem and root, they may very well be personally liable – and they should be. Certainly, for Hebert, it would be a career ender.

So far, the response is not reassuring. Two of the football players charged are playing varsity basketball, and Hebert won’t say what, if anything, is being done to protect the younger boys on that team. He would say that revisions to the coach’s manual haven’t been completed yet. In other words, business as usual, more of the stonewalling that has become routine since the matter became public.

If anything requires indignation, it is that.

•Let’s draw a few contrasts with

another local scandal that was handled much differently.

In the summer of 2009, Oneonta Police Department officers were implicated in engaging in improp-

er sexual relations with underage girls while on duty; three officers eventually resigned. No sooner had Mayor Dick Miller taken office on Jan.1, 2010, then allega-tions were made that an officer had engaged in police brutality during a marijuana arrest.

Those two incidents suggested something was wrong at OPD.

Miller had a conversation with then-Chief Joseph Redmond, who then abruptly retired. The mayor and Common Council brought in an outside investigator. The mayor also resisted pressure to promote an internal OPD candi-date to chief, instead bringing in a seasoned and widely respected senior officer from out of town to lead and assess the department shortterm.

The suspected marijuana seller sued the city and others for $24 million; Miller was able to get the matter settled for $135,000, mostly covered by insurance.

The investigation led to a hear-ing, and the hearing led to the fir-ing of the police officer, who had been on administrative leave. The investigative report was released to the public – it is excerpted on this page – and it answered any question that may have remained in the public’s mind.

The public pays the bills. The public is the boss. The public deserves to know. This is how responsive government works, and it’s a model the CCS leadership should study and follow.

In Cooperstown, education law is being used as the refuge from responsibility and a shield from public scrutiny. In Oneonta, Miller no doubt could have used the equally obtuse laws protect-ing police officers as an excuse to stonewall, but he had the clear vision that is lacking at CCS.

The Oneonta outcome is every-thing any citizen might wish. In contrast, the CCS administrator and school board have offered no details – none, zero – of what’s been going on, seemingly for years, on the football team, and what steps are being taken to fix it for good.

•The adults among us know

what’s been revealed at CCS is not normal.

And, kids, as you look to the fu-

ture, be assured this isn’t business as usual everywhere. Adolescence has its particular challenges, but physical abuse, institutionalized, accepted by a portion of the com-munity – most of our Cooperstown neighbors, we have to believe, are disgusted and alarmed – doesn’t have to be part of it and in most places isn’t.

As the superintendent continues in denial and the school board flails, what’s a CCS parent to do? Well, take a look at Brookwood School, the private alternative in Toddsville, or other public high schools in the area. If you’re unwilling to speak out publicly, let Hebert and individual school board members know your views privately; they need the support of right-thinking people.

Parents, discourage your sons from playing football until this is resolved. Fans, boycott games, starting now with varsity basket-ball, where Coach Dave Bertram allows two of the accused to flout their shamelessness.

What happened in Oneonta demonstrated leadership. And it shows what can be done at CCS.

Let’s bring in an outside expert to investigate. (Are we afraid to?) Let’s determine the extent of the problem. Let’s cut loose anyone who did know or should have known what was going on. Finally, let’s identify best prac-tices to prevent hazing/bullying of students – or systematic rape and assault, to be more precise – from happening ever again.

HOMETOWN ONEONTACooperstown School Super-intendent C.J. Hebert, left, might be wise to seek guid-ance from Oneonta Mayor Dick Miller on how to dig down to the roots of a public scandal, respond firmly and share the outcome with the public.

Determination, Not Stonewalling, Resolves Troubling Issues

LETTERS

To the Editor:I know people would like

the issue of hydraulic frac-turing, or better known as FRACKING in New York State, to go away.

Personally, I hope it stays in the forefront of conver-sations when natural gas companies use over 596 chemicals in the process and then expect the public to want this next to our food chain. And don’t get me started about ground-level ozone impact to our crops from the air pollution.

My main reason for putting pen to paper is the fact that my dear friends and neighbors of 22 years, Summers End Orchards, will be put out of business if fracking is allowed in New York State.

The following is a quote from Joe Holtz, general manager, Park Slope Food Coop Inc., of Brooklyn: “I want to alert you to a less obvious effect that hydro-

fracking will have on us and on the needs of our shoppers. If hydrofracking is allowed to go forward, our shoppers are certain to be asking us if the fruits, vegetables, dairy products eggs and meats from New York State are produced in areas where hydrofracking is taking place. It will not take many inquiries for us to start researching alterna-tives to New York State products.”

Here is the million-dollar question: Why will Sum-mers End Orchard and other New York State farmers in Chenango & Otsego coun-ties not be allowed to bring their products t o Buffalo or New York City’s markets?

Answer: We live outside the protected Syracuse and New York City watersheds!

SOS!TAMMY REISS

Butternuts(Chenango County native)

Will Fracking Scare AwayConsumers Of Our Crops?

Editor’s Note: Here is an excerpt from Hearing Officer Thomas N. Rinaldo’s detailed examination of police-brutality allegations against Oneonta Police Officer Michael Breen, who has since been fired. Mayor Miller and Common Coun-cil’s determined, methodical and transparent response to the OPD scandal, which culminated in Rinaldo’s report, could be a model to follow for the Cooperstown Central School Board, which is faced with an equally troubling hazing/bullying situation.

A more troubling consideration for the Hearing Officer,

however, is the allegation under Charge I that Re-spondent’s (Breen’s) use of “excessive force” extended to “inflicting repeated blows to his (complainant Bradley Shanks’) head with your closed fist.” This consid-eration is troubling to the Hearing Officer because he finds that Respondent did not offer credible testimony as to his use of physical force when he struck Shanks in the head with a closed fist.

The Hearing Officer finds that the credible evidence in the record, which largely comes in the form of the tes-timony of the three civilian eyewitnesses, is that Shanks, while running from the Of-ficers, tripped or stumbled over the snowbank, slipped on the pavement, and fell to the pavement, with the Respondent, as the lead Officer, immediately on Shanks at that point in time. Respondent was quickly joined by (Officers) Kruser and Cetnar as Shanks lay on the pavement.

Thus, the Hearing Of-

ficer notes the testimony of eyewitness (name redacted) who was approximately 10 to 15 feet from the spot where Shanks fell, that Respondent and the other Officers were “on top of him instantly.” Eyewitness (second name redacted), who was approximately 20 feet from the area where Shanks fell, the Hearing Officer notes, observed that, after Shanks hit the ground, Respondent “was right on top of him.” Eyewitness (third name redacted), the Hearing Officer notes, who was at approximately the same distance from the area where Shanks, testified that the Officers “tackled” Shanks and then “were on top of him.”

The Hearing Officer finds that the three eyewitnesses had no motivation to bring any falsehood to the tribu-nal, and their testimony is otherwise not lacking in credibility regarding the fact that Shanks took no action against Respondent or any of the other Officers before falling to the pavement where the Officers were “instantly” on him.

...To the extent that the testimony of Officers Kruser and Cetnar seems to support

Respondent’s testimony that Shanks shoved Respondent, the Hearing Officer would state his finding that he re-jects the credibility of their testimony to this extent. The Hearing Officer finds that the three Officers elected to give inaccurate testimony on this point, consistent perhaps with their testimony that Shanks ‘’turned a blind eye” on them as he fled from the scene.

In any event, the Hear-ing Officer would observe that Respondent’s claim that his use of force by striking Shanks with his fist to the head is based on false tes-timony, and it follows that the testimony offered by Respondent’s force expert is not persuasive because it was based on assumptions that flowed from this false testimony.

The credible evidence, again essentially based on the testimony of the three civilian eyewitnesses, is that, once on top of Shanks, the Respondent struck repeated blows to Shanks head, which likely caused the injuries to the right side of Shanks face. Unlike Respondent’s use of a head-lock on Shanks, his repeated blows with a closed fist to

Shanks’ head cannot pass muster under the standard for the justifiable use of physical force.

The City’s expert – and the Hearing Officer finds that he was an expert – Lieutenant Dennis Nayor offered credible testimony that striking someone to the head is “considered lethal” and would not have been justifiable even if Respon-dent had been shoved back-wards. There is no reason for the Hearing Officer to resolve any dispute as to the justifiable use of physical force had Respondent been shoved backwards, based on the expert opinion of (his lawyer) Marrow on Respon-dent’s behalf, because there is obviously no justification, even under the more liberal “reasonableness” standard, for an Officer to strike an individual in the head with a closed fist several times when that individual, as was Shanks, is essentially face down on the pavement with three Officers on him.

Respondent’s use of physical force, based on the credible evidence in the record, was therefore clearly “excessive.” To that extent, the City has established Respondent’s misconduct under Charge I, Specifica-tion 1, which alleges the excessive force, and Specifi-cation 2, which alleges that the excessive force in the form of “repeated blows” to Shanks’ head violated the cited Departmental Rules.

The Hearing Officer finds that Respondent and Of-ficers Kruser and Cetnar gave testimony that strains credulity when they took great pains to emphasize how Shanks fell on his face without breaking his fall, which Respondent claimed happened twice.

Hearing Officer Uncovered Lies In OPD Case;CCS Should Embark On Similar Truth-Seeking

2 SCANDALS, DIFFERENT OUTCOMES

Image from WKTV.comOPD ex-officer Michael Breen after his firing.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 2012 HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-5

HOMETOWN HistoryCompiled by Tom HeiTz with resources courtesy of the New York State Historical Association Library

20 Years ago

January 1992

125 Years agoThe Local News – seymour Brownson has ready for

delivery the new directory of oneonta village. The book is well printed, is reasonably free from errors, and is of inter-est as being the first directory of the village ever printed. Mr. Brownson has been obliged to rearrange the numbering on some streets, but this he does at his own expense. His pains to make the directory of value and his enterprise in publishing it are worthy.

a bill passed by the United states senate provides that free deliveries for mail may be established in towns having 10,000 in population and also in towns where the an-nual post office receipts are $10,000. There is likelihood, Postmaster Bundy informs us, of the receipts of the present fiscal year at the Oneonta post office exceeding $10,000, in which event, under this law, the people of oneonta may ere long have their letters brought to their doors by carriers employed by the government.

January 1887

100 Years agost. Mary’s roman Catholic Church in this city is now for

the first time in its history entirely free from debt. For many years a mortgage had been carried upon the church which by successive payments had been reduced to $1,500. In 1910, $500 of this amount was paid and in the first week of the present year $1,000 additional, extinguishing the entire church debt. This is a part only of the successful work done during the seven-years’ pastorate of rev. John s. McCarthy. During that period, a new organ, costing $1,000 has been purchased, a new altar has been erected, with new stations, a new floor and entrance, repairs and improvements to the roof and gutters, and the rectory entirely refurnished, all of which was paid for, along with the mortgage, by a parish consisting of only 125 families. all this money has been raised without a benefit of any kind.

January 1912

80 Years agoscientists in 1931 built a machine to smash the atom,

captured new outposts in the war on cancer and found evidence of an undiscovered planet out in space. suspicion that the new planet exists was voiced by Dr. William H. Pickering. He noted that the planet Uranus is not following its regular orbit. It was pulled off its course, he believes, by the attraction of the unknown planet, which he calls Planet P. Blood of cancer patients was found to be more alka-line and to have more sugar than normal by Doctor elliot McDonald of the University of Pennsylvania. another clue may result from studies by the U.s. Public Health service,

showing that some kinds of living cells multiply rapidly when stimulated by a substance called glutathione. avia-tor prospectors flying over the northern Canada wilderness found radium deposits believed worth millions of dollars. These may break the monopoly now held by Belgium through its Congo mines and make radium less expensive to use in treating cancer.

January 1932

60 Years agoa Moslem surgeon and educator, Dr. salah T. ali, of

Baghdad, Iraq spoke to Rho chapter of Delta Kappa Gam-ma educational sorority saturday afternoon in Morris Hall, state Teachers College, on the philosophy of education. He also told of problems in his country, where his father is minister of education. Dr. Ali is here to gain proficiency and advanced knowledge in the practices of thoracic surgery, and to that end is attached to Homer Folks Hospital staff. He expects to return to his native land, formerly known as Mesopotamia, to train others in chest surgery.

January 1952

40 Years agoMalicious rumor-mongers who take delight in working

on the Oneonta Indians are at it again. Rumors are floating

around that the football tribe will not survive its current financial problems and that means semi-pro football is dead in our town. However, Indian official scoff at such

poppycock. They say they had a good year last year and that financial receipts helped to return the Indians to a solid fiscal footing. Hard-working Terry Cortese has been named general manager of the club and has already begun to func-tion in that capacity. “We have a solid organization and all systems are go for the 1972 season,” Cortese said. “You would be safe in saying the Indians are solid for 1972.” The Empire State Football League is in the process of reforma-tion, and reports say that a couple of weaker teams – al-bany and Hudson – will be out. These may be replaced by a team from Wilkes-Barre and a second team representing the Triple Cities. With the season-opener months in the offing, the Indians will help pass the off-season with a basketball game between the Indians footballers and members of the Triple Cities Jets.

January 1972

30 Years agoPresident reagan settled Wednesday on a 1983 budget

plan calling for tax increases, a mass transfer of federal programs to the states and the largest deficit ever produced by a president, administration sources say. reagan has agreed to seek higher excise taxes on consumer goods and close tax loopholes to raise approximately $15 billion in the coming year. Together with previously approved spending cuts, the new taxes should hold the budget deficit to about $75 billion. Sources said the higher excise taxes are likely to affect cigarettes, alcohol, and luxury goods.

January 1982

10 Years agoMore than 100 Hartwick College and oneonta Job Corps

academy students will join forces on Monday to offer their time and talents in a day of community service to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Among other activities, students will shovel snow from sidewalks in the area; tell stories to children at the oneonta Y.M.C.a.; distribute american civics information at southside Mall and on the campuses; and conduct a community service fair with opportunities for otsego and other groups at the mall, including blood pressure screenings by Hartwick College nursing students. The initiative also includes the fifth annual Emancipa-tion Memorial Ball on Saturday, February 23, at Hartwick College. On February 22, there will be a performance of “ebony embers” to celebrate the music, art and poetry of the Harlem renaissance.

January 2002

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BOOST/From A1House on Southside Oneon-ta on Monday, Jan. 16. “This is a community that needs to work together.”

“Seeing how Otsego County treats other busi-nesses will bring new busi-ness to Otsego County,” said county Rep. John Kosmer, Fly Creek, newly elected to represent District 8.

“We need to look at opportunities that create business investments,” said county Economic Developer Carolyn Lewis. “We’re try-ing to foster a culture where people can start a busi-ness, employ local people and train them to work in our area. We want com-munities, people to fix up dilapidated houses and sell them at affordable prices to people who move here for the work, families who will send their kids to our schools.”

Christine Amos, Bank of Cooperstown vice president, echoed the sentiment. “We don’t want to push busi-nesses out. We don’t want to force our young people

to leave this area to find jobs. We don’t want Otsego County to die off – but that’s what could happen.”

The “unanticipated conse-quences” of the anti-frack-ing fight was on the agenda

of the businesspeople’s first two meetings, in Decem-ber and earlier this month with state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, but fracking was purposely kept off the agenda.

“I took it as a positive,” Harlem said after the meet-ing. “There is definite com-mon ground that we are all concerned with and should be able to rally around. The area needs to work together,

to be more positive. We are going to sit down again and try to have more engage-ment.”

Developing Oneonta’s downtown was a major concern among attendees, and several wanted to know what was going to be done to reduce costs to local busi-ness owners.

Another concern was that Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta are us-ing tax-exempt land. John Higgins, Oneonta, sug-gested that the colleges be asked to “pay their way” for water, sewer, fire and police services.

“If we make the col-leges make payments to the city, it would come out of their pockets,” Mayor Dick Miller responded. “Those universities are vital to the health of the city, and they’ve got their own finan-cial problems.”

When pressed about sell-ing off unused portions of tax-exempt land, Miller add-ed, “I would love to sell off the Armory and the airport – we have to stop moving

the money around and start bringing in new money by leveraging the assets that we have.”

But as the meeting drew to a close, there wasn’t a plan in place. “It’s impor-tant that we develop a road map,” said county Rep. Beth Rosenthal, Roseboom, newly elected from District 7. “We need to have a five-year plan, a 10-year plan, so that when new people join this board, we’re not start-ing over every two years.”

“Now is the time to start making partnerships,” Lewis added. “But what we don’t have is a list of priorities for this area.”

And although the meet-ing closed without a clear direction, there was hope for a stronger economic future for Otsego County.

From the audience, NBT Bank Vice President Ja-mie Reynolds had the last words: “Each of you needs to be advocates for econom-ic development. We need this area to grow. We’re in this together.”

FOCUS: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

County Reps, Businesspeople Agree On Economic-Development Need

Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s JournalCounty Economic Developer Carolyn Lewis fields questions during with a Monday, Jan. 16, meeting with the newly christened Citizens’ Voices group. Behind her are, from left, County Reps. Keith McCarty (partially hidden), John Kosmer, Jim Powers, Beth Rosenthal, Rich Murphy and Kathy Clark, chair. Organizer Bob Harlem is leaning against the door.

THURSDAY-FRIDAY, JANUARY 19-20, 2012 A-7

Greene/From A1Commerce Park, which straddle the town lines of Coxsackie and New Balti-more near the state Thru-way’s Exit 21B, 20 miles south of Albany.

The lean, modern build-ings along Route 61 are ev-erything you might imagine. In fact, squint a bit on your way home, and it isn’t hard to envision them along I-88 at Worcester, at Schenevus, at Unadilla.

But these job- and prop-erty-tax-generating mirages – pinch yourself, Tintin, they aren’t mirages; they’re real – didn’t just happen, and since Mathes got caught in a political crossfire over bonuses, there’s no guar-antee they will continue to happen.

Along the way, Mathes’ IDA helped preserve Stiefel Laboratories’ 200 jobs in Oak Hill, west of Catskill, after it was purchased by GlaxoSmithKline. And ne-gotiations are near comple-tion to locate a Great Wolf Waterpark and 400-room hotel to the north of the Kalkberg park.

The Bank of Greene County built a saltbox-like headquarters in synch with colonial-style design stan-dards for buildings in retail space between the business parks’ white front fence and Route 9W.

Economic development, as Mathes and everyone else most everywhere will tell you, is never easy. In New York State, Mathes avers, it’s “a miracle,” although he proved it’s not impossible. And that’s good news for Otsego County, where lead-ers are looking to reenergize economic development.

At the end of two meet-ings, one in December, one in January, with more than 100 businesspeople, orga-nized by Oneonta Block president Bob Harlem Jr. and Tom Armao, County Club Automotive co-owner, state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, was prompted to say Otsego County is lagging.

He is organizing an Eco-nomic-Development Sum-mit in the next few weeks to begin injecting new ideas into the mix.

Asked which of the seven counties in Seward’s 51st District is doing the best, Seward aide Jeff Bishop suggested Greene, and the senator concurred, saying, “You’ll see several large employers on what was Greene fields only a decade ago.”

One indication of Ot-sego’s second-rate status is that it came out the worst among the 51st’s counties in the first round of grants through Governor Cuomo’s system of 10 Economic Development Commissions, prompting Seward to call the county’s applications “anemic.”

Even Schoharie County, with 31,000 people, half of Otsego’s population,

received $5.5 million for “a major project,” a sewer line from Cobleskill to expand-ing Howe’s Cavern, which will open up the corridor in between for economic de-velopment, the senator said.

A Greene County na-tive, Mathes had become an aide to the late state Sen. Charles Cook, R-Delhi, in the 1970s and learned the ways of Albany. (When he returned home in the 1980s, future senator Seward replaced him on Cook’s staff.) By the late ‘90s, Mathes was serving on the Greene County Legislature, determined to see economic development happen.

The first break came with the New Athens Generating Co., which in 2004 complet-ed an electricity-generating plant next to TransCanada’s Iroquois pipeline, built to transport natural gas from Canada to New York City. The Greene IDA negotiated a deal whereby New Athens paid fees sufficient to cover the IDA’s staff and office. Step one.

During the ‘90s, county governments had been running surpluses, and the county legislature, recogniz-ing the need for economic development, put all of it – about $3 million, much of it money from the state’s tobacco settlement – into a revolving fund for economic development. This allowed the IDA to begin develop-ing the Greene Business & Technology Park. Step two.

Step three? “We just started getting dirt ready,” Mathes repeated. “And when the dirt got ready, we at least could compete.”

Many counties, Otsego with its Pony Farm Com-merce Park among them, have land that’s permitted for commercial use. But Mathes took it a step further. “We would do EVERY-THING,” he said.

In 2006, the Greene County Comprehensive Master Plan for Economic Development would codify what happened, but Mathes didn’t wait. He got out into the communities to find out what people wanted and where they wanted it. They wanted jobs, and it was pretty clear that the flatlands along the Thruway was the logical place to put them.

Mathes then began working with the towns to develop comprehensive master plans and zoning

codes – good companies want the protection zoning provides, he said – to make land available if and when companies came along looking for sites. On the 15 acres in the first industrial park, the IDA mapped out lots, ran in water and sewer lines, and most important – most important, he em-phasized – completed the environmental clearances.

That last part, SEQRA (the state Environmental Quality Review Act require-ments) is not only the most important, he said, but meet-ing the requirements is the most time-consuming part of development and the most likely to shut down any undertaking at the last minute.

Mathes’ interim succes-sor, Rene VanSchaack, then director of the county Soil & Water Conservation Service, remembers being called one morning and asked for help on the Save-A-Lot project, the first catch for the Busi-ness & Technology Park.

He drove up to Cox-

sackie-Athens Central School that night to find the parking lot and all the side streets parked up. The burly, bearded 50-something former Army medic (and death row medic in the Vir-ginia penal system) turned horticulturist, he had been running a backhoe that day and was covered with mud. So he sat in the back of the room and listened to speaker after speaker protest.

The future Greene County Business & Technology Park, it turned out, was on a flyway of two endangered species, the northern harrier and the short-eared owl, and a Article 78 action, the way to legally challenge a SEQRA decision, had been brought. Opponents who spoke that evening included such experts as Rich Guth-rie, a retired DEC conser-vation officer and host of NPR’s “Catbird Seat.”

At a debriefing the next day with the IDA, Van-Schaack said the oppo-nents couldn’t be ignored. He proposed an advisory

committee, “and it’s got to include the guys that are suing you.”

The resulting conversa-tions led to the creation of the Greene Land Trust, which – funded by the IDA – assures the protection of the grasslands section of the commerce parks for 20 years, during which a trust is accruing an endowment that will protect the bird habitat for decades to come.

“We have two acres of land preserved for every one acre used,” said Van-Schaack. In most commer-cial developments, the ratio is one to one.

Meanwhile, 10 miles down Route 9W in Catskill, the county seat, economic development was proceed-ing on parallel tracks. (A first step, the county leg-islature had consciously located the new three-story county office building on Main Street, aiming to bring people downtown. In the spring, a new Tourism Center opened at Thursday Exit 21.)

The county’s planning, economic-development and tourism offices – counter-parts of Terry Bliss, Carolyn Lewis and Deb Taylor’s Ot-sego County responsibilities – had been combined into one office, headed by War-ren Hart, a Capital Region native who had returned home after graduating from the University of Buffalo and working in planning in Seattle.

Hart is administering a $4-6 million revolving loan fund for small business, which 80 “micro-enterpris-es” have taken advantage of, and four Empire Zones. Promoting Hunter Mountain and other Catskill ski resorts is a big part of his portfolio. Main Street revitalization programs are underway in all of the town centers. One of the less-exotic initiatives is making sure water-treat-ment plants are sufficient to the task.

The blueprint for all this activity was the county Comprehensive Economic Development Master Plan, with a consulting firm from Miami with expertise in community planning, Mo-ran, Stahl & Boyer, taking the lead. (The comprehen-sive plan and supporting studies may be viewed at www.Greenebusiness.com)

The planning included a steering committee, and

tourism and infrastructure subcommittees, and pub-lic meetings in the towns. County legislators, who were involved in all aspect of the process, emerged with a thorough understanding of the challenges at hand and the investments required to meet them.

“It really helped to articulate what kinds of development and types of development the communi-ties would support,” said Hart, adding that he and Mathes, and now he and VanSchaack, are in daily contact.

Mathes, while supportive of the county’s initiatives, was blunt: “You can’t have planners do economic development. Planners plan. You need doers to do economic development. Any areas that do public economic development will not be successful.”

Economic development requires private-sector leadership from “positive people who believe in what they can do.” And it can be expensive: “If you can’t attract talent to the job you aren’t going to be success-ful,” said Mathes, who re-signed after a public outcry over a $125,000 bonus he received for attracting Em-pire Merchants North.

And success requires an independent IDA, as not just Greene, but the state’s two other most successful rural counties – Saratoga and Genesee – underscore, directed by an independent executive, not a county de-partment head, as is the case in Otsego.

Even in the best econo-mies and the best of circum-stances, he repeated. “It’s all hard. None of this is easy.”

And yet, the Sandy Mathes formula worked. He returns to Greene County’s secret: “getting dirt ready,” really ready.

“There’s an art to getting a deal done,” he said. “The miracle was, we were doing it in New York. We would do everything. We would do everything.”

He continued, “I did every deal in these parks, and we were never Number One on a company’s list. We always got the deal done at the end, when everyone showed their cards” and only Greene County had a truly construction-ready locale.

Companies don’t plan fa-cilities five years ahead, said VanSchaack; when the need becomes evident, they want to get started right away. “Everything’s about time,” he said. “The only way you control time is you control risk and uncertainty.”

In Greene County, the IDA controlled risk and uncertainty and got the proj-ects. Through ironing out approvals in advance, Van-Schaack said, the Empire Merchants North project got through the town planning board in 35 days.

FOCUS: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Since 2004, the Greene County Industry Development Agency has developed two state-of-the-art commerce parks – the Greene County Business & Technology Park, left, and the adjacent Kalkberg Commerce Park, right, on Route 9W paralleling the state Thruway at Coxsackie. Four major employers, from a Serta mattress factory to a Save-A-Lot distribution center, have been attracted there. The key, said former IDA executive director Sandy Mathes, is installing all the infrastructure and getting all permit approvals – most important, the environmental ones – before a company even comes shopping.

Is Greene County A Model For Otsego County?

HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s JournalRene VanSchaack, former director of the Greene County Soil & Water Conservation Service, was called in by the IDA to develop a working rela-tionship with environmentalists opposing the Save-A-Lot distribution center.

In downtown Catskill, the county seat, Warren Hart, director of the county Planning & Economic Development Office, reviews the Comprehen-sive Economic Development Plan that bolstered Mathes’ efforts.

The Bank of Greene County’s new headquarters, set on a strip designated for retail in front of the Greene and Kalkberg commerce parks, was built to conform with the IDA’s colonial-style design cri-teria, exemplified in the drawing at left. Mathes said quality companies want appropriate regulation: It helps protect their investment.

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ONEONTA – Barbara C. Dailey, 86, owner of one of the first laundromats in Oneonta, passed away Satur-day, Jan. 14, 2012, at Otsego Manor in Cooperstown.

She was born Aug. 1, 1925, in Poughkeepsie, the daughter of Theron and Dor-othy (Popp) Cummings. She graduated from Elmira Free Academy in 1943, received a bachelor’s in economics from Allegheny College and a master’s in retailing from New York University, gradu-ating second in her class in June 1948.

She moved to Oneonta to help her father manage Roslyn Shops, women’s clothing shops in Sidney and Oneonta. She married Willis Dailey Jr. on July 24, 1949, She then joined her husband at his family business, the Oneonta Family Clean-ers, where she ran the front office. She and Willis later built the U-Totem Laundro-mat.

She was an officer and life member of the American Association of University Women, Oneonta Business Women, Oneonta Garden Club, Friends of Huntington Library, Oneonta Historical Society, Hartwick College Citizens Board and the DAR. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church.

She is survived by her husband, children and grand-children.

A memorial service and interment in the Glenwood Cemetery, Oneonta, will be held Memorial Day week-end. An announcement will be made prior to the service.

Arrangements are en-trusted to Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono Funeral Home.

ONEONTA -- David G. Ashe, 79, former First Ward Alderman, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, at Bassett in Cooperstown.

Dave was born on Nov. 9, 1932, in Unadilla, the son of the late Everett and Anne (Fuller) Ashe.

He married Patricia Mol-loy on Aug. 15, 1959, in Seaford.

Dave served his country as a sergeant in the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict. He owned and operated The Pine Shop in Oneonta for 40 years with his wife, Pat, and his sons. Prior to that he was owner and operator of Ashe Homes in Oneonta, and at one time, owned and operated The Pink Pig on Main Street in Oneonta.

He was Cub Master for Valleyview Pack 27, as well as assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 27. He served one term as an Alderman for the First Ward, as well as being a member of the Public Ser-vice Board and the Library Board. He was a longtime member of the Oneonta Lions Club.

Dave is survived by his wife of 52 years, Patricia Ashe of Oneonta; his chil-dren, Harold Ashe and his wife, Becky of Maryland,

Margaret Wikoff of Oneonta and Timothy Ashe and his wife, Kathy of Maryland. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Stephanie, Johnathan and Danielle Ashe, Joshua and Ashely Wikoff and Hannah and Noah Ashe; his sisters-in-law, Mary Ann Ashe of Davenport and Joan (David) Sharp of Massapequa, Long Island; nephew, Charlie (Patty) Ashe; and niece, Elizabeth (Jon) Anderson.

Dave was predeceased by his parents, his brothers, James, Phillip and Eugene Ashe; and a son-in-law, John Stankiewicz.

Funeral services will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, at the Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, 14 Grand St., Oneonta with the Rev. David Rockwell, officiating.

Interment will be in the spring in Mt. Calvary Cem-etery, Emmons.

Friends may call from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home, at which time the family will be in atten-dance.

In lieu of flowers, dona-tions may be made to the American Diabetes Associa-tion or the Kidney Founda-tion.

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Attention: iRAniAn RuGS WeRe iMPoRteD beFoRe eMbARGo.

CHAIR/From A1But Clark, who returned

to her alma mater for a two-decade career (she took the Sodexo buyout in 2000 when the operation was privatized) considers herself an “out-of-the-box thinker.”

If she couldn’t eliminate complaints, she was deter-mined to minimize them.

“The college didn’t have the money to redesign,” she said, “so I decided I would redesign it myself.”

She deployed cheerful, friendly staffers out from behind the serving line, creating more intimate sit-down diningrooms where food was made-to-order and the servers could get to know the students one-on-one.

When the deli-counter line snaked out the door, she would assign a staffer to take orders from the queued-up students. When they reached the counter, their sandwiches were made and ready to go.

When students called from their dorm rooms to order takeout, they would be alerted to the length of the wait so they wouldn’t fret.

And she worked on the food itself, and all these years still gets satisfaction from remembering: In an anonymous taste-test, students – complain as they might – picked dining-services pizza over all the downtown competitors.

“Fair,” “consistent” and “independent” are words that have been popping up to describe Kathy Clark, the county rep from District 3, Laurens and Otego, who on Wednesday, Jan. 4, was elected chairman of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, a surprise that many welcomed.

And you can see how her experience managing the SUNY dining halls, trying this, experimenting with that, adjusting, testing, would result in outcomes that people would character-ize that way.

Born and raised in East Northport, L.I., Kathleen Clark came Upstate to at-tend SUNY Oneonta, where she studied dietetic admin-istration in the Department of Human Ecology. She also played softball – she still does; ask her about the cut lip that disappeared just in time for son Ryan’s wedding this past October – and field hockey.

After graduating in the mid-1970s, she returned to Long Island and joined General Mills, managing Red Lobster restaurants that were opening at that time. She jumped at the chance to oversee a Red Lobster in Vestal, for the challenge, but also to get back in the vicin-ity of her Oneonta pals.

They included Tom Kelly, the esteemed state trooper who, now retired, is Hartwick College’s director

of campus security. Tom grew up with Kathy’s future husband, Bob, and talked him into moving up and taking a job with Conrail in Binghamton.

Soon, Kathy and Bob, the Kellys and other newlywed college friends were all renting apartments at what was then Campus Heights, on the hill above the base-ball field. When a dining-hall position surfaced in 1979, Kathy stepped right in.

In addition to Ryan, 27, who works in Manhat-tan, Kathy and Bob have two daughters: Caitlin, 24, who is in sports and events management (and recently returned from the Sugar Bowl), and Kelly, 21, a senior at St. Bonaventure. Ryan and Caitlin are both living in Fairfield County.

They followed in their mom’s athletic footsteps. Ryan was a three-letter athlete at Unatego, and the girls both played soccer.

Soon moving up to dining services director, Kathy had 10 managers and “hundreds of students” working for her, and she developed an investigative management style: “You hear some stuff. You go by and observe. When people get comfort-able with you, they say stuff.” That approach may be of use to her in her new role.

In the late ‘90s, Clark began studying at SUNY Albany for a master’s in public administration, and is the first county board chairman – she plans to use the title “chair” – with

that relevant degree. At the time, she was coaching travel teams back home and driving back and forth to East Northport to tend for her ailing mother, study-ing into the wee hours after putting her mother to bed. “I was multi-tasking,” she recalls.

After leaving SUNY Oneonta in 2000, it wasn’t long before she was ap-proached by local Repub-licans to challenge the Democratic incumbent, Ron Feldstein, then county board vice chair. In 2005, she re-sisted; her girls were still at home. In 2007 she thought, why not? “I had a business background; I thought I might do some good.”

She was elected again in 2009 and again in 2001, (and promptly departed af-

ter Election Day for a well-earned vacation in Ireland. “Clark” was originally “O’Cleriq” – a mystified immigration officer angli-cized it when her family originally came over from the Old Sod.)

Interviewed at Oneonta’s Latte Lounge a few days after her elevation to chair, she was still shaking her head.

At its Jan. 4 reorgani-zation, the county board was deadlocked on chair. Sequentially, veteran county reps Jim Powers, Rich Mur-phy and Don Lindberg were nominated and failed to gain a majority. The votes were repeated, and still deadlock.

An Oneonta Democrat, Linda Rowinski, then looked over at Clark ques-tioningly. Whatever Clark

was thinking, Rowinski interpreted it as a go-ahead, and placed her colleague’s name in nomination.

Powers seconded, and Rowinski and county Rep. Kay Stuligross, D-Oneonta, joined with the Republicans to put Clark at the helm.

“I didn’t know how many votes I was going to get,” she said, shaking her head.

When Bob called at mid-morning to touch bases, he asked, “Is Jim (Powers) the chairman?”

“No, you’re speaking with the chairman,” Clark told her surprised husband.

Looking ahead, the new chair sees extracting the county from MOSA, com-pleting the microwave com-munication tower project, and partnering the sheriff’s department with the state police to fill enforcement gaps as three challenges for her first year. But she’s open to hearing her col-leagues’ priorities.

A couple of times she said, “I’d like to see the business community more involved,” and, “I’d like to see more businesspeople on the board because they know about the bottom line.” She may get her wish, given businessmen Bob Harlem and Tom Armao’s efforts to see the county energize its econom-ic development efforts.

“I don’t have an ego thing,” she continued. “I’m only as strong as the weak-est link in the chain.”

Still, as chair, she does hope to “channel the ener-gies in a positive direction. There have been some ten-sions. But everybody’s got something to bring to the table. All the people on my side of the aisle and on the other side of the aisle are there to do good.”

Clark To Use Skills Learned At SUNY

Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s JournalThen one of 14 county reps, Kathy Clark, R-District 3, takes in a briefing on natural-gas drilling from a local town manager in Bradford County, Pa., during a May 1 tour. She was elected board chair on Jan. 4.

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Hometown Oneonta 1-20-12