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Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, January 23, 2025
Volume 17, No. 13
Newsstand Price $1
Officials Discuss ‘State of the County’
Population Decline, Housing Top Among Local Concerns By SARAH ROBERTS
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ONEONTA n Thursday, January 16, around 70 Otsego County residents, business owners, and community leaders met in the Morris Conference Center at SUNY Oneonta to listen to state, county, and town representatives give their annual “State of the County” addresses. The meeting opened with New York State Assemblyman Joe Angelino, Assembly District 101, discussing his goal to stabilize population loss in Upstate New York. “The [number of] people coming from New York City is not enough to offset population loss,” he said. The loss in population—and the impact it has on the size of the local workforce— was a recurring theme. “The pandemic on all levels was bad, but especially for our workforce,” said Steve Wilson, Otsego County administrator. “The [Otsego County Board] has been trying very hard to get vacancies down [in service and workforce].” Specifically, Otsego County does not have sufficient police or EMS coverage, according to Wilson. “The board has made the difficult decision to fund 24/7 police coverage with property taxes,” he said. “They struggled with this,” Wilson continued, “but ultimately decided that it was for the best. However, [the board] wants to keep property taxes low so that we’re not an impediment for housing,” he added.
Edwin Frazier Jr., chair of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, also spoke on this decision, claiming that the choice to increase coverage led to improved response times that has already saved multiple lives. Meanwhile, Mark Drnek, mayor of Oneonta, wants to encourage students from SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College to stay and join the community permanently after graduation. “Half of our population are college students and it is important they are engaged citizens,” he said. Later, Drnek added to this sentiment, asking, “What do you want to do as a 25-year-old or someone with a young family? What can Oneonta do for you?” and said that if five to 10 percent of the student population stayed local after graduation, the impact on the local economy “would be exponential.” “Oneonta will continue its march into an era of renaissance…we need to make Oneonta a welcoming city,” Drnek continued, saying he wanted the city to have a diversity of businesses and to be “artistic.” “A city that thrives is typically dense,” he later said in response to a question from the audience. “You need to provide housing…you need to give [people] something they want to do.” Most speakers specifically pointed to the need for more, better, and less expensive housing as a way to draw in additional people to join the local community and workforce. Ellen Tillapaugh, mayor of Continued on page 6
INSIDE ► Applications for arts grants available, page 2 ► ATTORNEY Zamelis wins Seneca Meadows landfill appeal, page 3 ► aha hONORS a.o. FOX FOR MEMBERSHIP, page 3 ► HOME CARE CRISIS LOOMS; CONGRESS MUST ACT, page 4 ► SYRIAN COOKBOOK SURFACES IN Unexpected place, page 4 ► DRNEK OFFERS ADVICE TO NEXT ONEONTA MAYOR, page 5 Follow Breaking News On
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Photo by williamjaymiller.com
Not Quite There Yet... OTSEGO LAKE--Reports that Otsego Lake had frozen over prompted an e-mail to the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station Tuesday morning, January 21. Holly Waterfield, BFS research support specialist, wrote back: “For record-keeping purposes, the lake is NOT completely frozen yet. As of 9:45 a.m., there was a small patch of open water in Hyde Bay. It looks like geese are keeping it open at this point; while I was watching, several small groups took off and landed.” The rest of the lake is frozen, Waterfield said.
Photo by Monica Calzolari
Oneonta’s Unitarian Universalist Society hosted this year’s annual celebration of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
the partial observer
Monica calzolari
MLK Celebrated by Diverse Group of Speakers, Musicians
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very year, the Oneonta Area Branch of the NAACP celebrates the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at different local churches. On Sunday, January 19, the Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta hosted the annual celebration with 10 guest speakers and nine musical performances. The Rev. Stacey Mitchell, pastor of UUSO, said, “We are so honored to host the NAACP celebration this year” and welcomed an audience of nearly 200 people. There was standing room only in the church. Poletta Louis, president of the local NAACP chapter, announced the theme of the 2025 MLK celebration as “Mission Possible: Protecting Freedom, Justice and Democracy.” She stated that the mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate racebased discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons. A diverse group of musical talents participated in the celebration. Dan Butterman’s three daughters opened the celebration with a prelude. Later, eldest daughter Malena Buttermann sang a solo of “Homeward Bound.” UUSO Musical Director Timothy Horne played the piano during much
of the singing. Many songs were gospel music. Sometimes Horne accompanied the Cooperstown Central School Concert Choir. Other times, their choir director, Tim Iverson, played piano. Yolanda Bush sang three songs, including “When They Go Low,” “I Know Where I’ve Been” and “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round.’” Ajaré Malcolm, a soprano, sang “Deep River” solo, without a microphone. She and Ric Chrislip also sang “Free at Last.” Harry Bradshaw Matthews, a retired associate dean of Hartwick College, introduced himself as the grandson of a formerly enslaved American, Richard Parler Jr., and a civil rights baby. He titled his remarks as “The Gains are Questionable.” “As we enter a new year, we do so without race-based affirmative action, with attacks on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), reversal of Roe vs. Wade, and a split in the coalition supporting the Civil Rights Movement,” Matthews said. On a positive note, a Merrill Lynch report dated 2023 reports two million black millionaires and 46 percent with middle-class status, according to Matthews’ research. However, “The other 45 percent is Continued on page 6
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S AWARD-WINNING WEEKLIES 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD
STD PRESORT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ONEONTA PERMIT NO. 890