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Volume 15, No. 20
AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE COMPLIMENTARY
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, March 2, 2023
DEC Summer Camp Spots Up for Grabs
Public Hearing Set for March 7
Lottery Begins March 1st
Lake Street Permit To Be Considered
OTSEGO COUNTY hildren ages 11 through 13 throughout Otsego County have an opportunity to win a free week at a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation summer camp through a special lottery offered by the Otsego County Conservation Association. The lottery is open through the month of March, with winners announced on March 31, OCCA officials said. “For over 75 years, DEC summer camps have offered young people so many wonderful educational experiences in the great outdoors,” said Amy Wyant, OCCA’s executive director. “We are pleased to be able to once again offer this opportunity to children in the area.” Children ages 11-13 can enter the lottery with parental permission by filling out an entry form on OCCA’s website at https://occainfo.org/camp/. The form requires name, age, and contact information, and asks the children to answer a
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single question: Why do you want to go to DEC summer camp? Wyant said, “We’ve awarded camperships through essay contests in the past but decided to simplify things for this year.” Winners will have multiple sessions and camps to choose from, Wyant said. DEC currently offers camps at four locations across the state, including in the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and western New York. Camp activities include hiking, canoeing, fishing, and archery; exploring diverse habitats; and learning basic ecological principles and skills. Camps run for five days, with the first available session beginning on July 2 and the last ending on August 18. “Through generous funding from the Tianaderrah Foundation, we’ve been able to send many kids to DEC summer camps over the years,” Wyant said. “Everyone who has gone has told us what a great experience it is.” For more information, call OCCA at (607) 547-4488.
Editor’s Note: Due to unforseen circumstances, part two of the “Otsego County EMS Reaches Crossroads” series will run next week. Please stay tuned. INSIDE ► oneonta deer management task force member explains stance on solution for deer overpopulation, page 2
By CASPAR EWIG COOPERSTOWN t 7 p.m. on March 7, the Cooperstown Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing to consider an application for a special use permitting short-term rentals to exist on the property at 40 Lake Street. The original application, heard on February 7, was tabled to determine whether the 400-foot-radius of notification to adjacent property owners had been completed as required. The home in question, originally built in 1793 and once known as the Averill Cottage, is one of a number of large, single-family houses that front on Lake Street, east of The Otesaga Resort Hotel. Its present owners—Mark Curley, wife Mary, and Mark’s mother, Irene—purchased the property in October of last year. The application to permit the four upstairs bedrooms to be used for short-term rentals of periods less than 30 days has drawn a rather impassioned opposition from adjacent property owners and other Cooperstownians who feel that permitting this historical structure to be used to house short-term renters would negatively impact the neighborhood. “This would set a terrible precedent,” said Chip Northrup, who lives at 17 River Street. In a letter to the Zoning Enforcement Officer, Northrup stated that “the application…as deeply flawed as it is…exposes the potential harm that can be done to a stable, single-family neighborhood by converting a historic single-family home into transient housing.” Mark Curley countered this by saying any Continued on page 6
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Photo provided
Onward and Upward ONEONTA—Ellin Falin captured this photograph of her handsome fellow, Basil, after he successfully climbed his first tree. This new weekly series highlights animals and the important role they play in our lives— whether furry, feathered or scaled; with fins, paws or hooves. We invite you to send your photos to darlay@allotsego. com. Every week, we’ll select at least one animal to be highlighted in the newspapers and online. All photos will appear on our website, in the “Furever Friends and Purrfect Pets” photo album.
Maher, Oberacker Calling for Universal School Meals Program STAFF REPORT ALBANY ssemblyman Brian Maher (R,C-Walden) and Senator Peter Oberacker (R,CSchenevus) are among a group of legislators reaching across the aisle to support creation of a permanent healthy school meals program in New York State. Maher is a co-sponsor of the legislation introduced by prime sponsor Assemblymember Jessica GonzálezRojas (D, WFP-East Elmhurst). The bill as proposed, A0194/S01678A, would establish the program to provide breakfast and lunch to all children in public school districts, from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade. The federal program that guaranteed meals to students during the pandemic has expired, leaving 726,000 students without access
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► middlefield solar panel zoning law in question, page 2 ► family council for cooperstown center sends letter to the editor with major concerns, page 4 ► COUNTY Ems program rebuttal, page 4 ► Home rule AND local decision making in jeopardy?, page 4 Follow Breaking News On
AllOTSEGO.com Photo provided
Assemblyman Brian Maher, left, and Senator Peter Oberacker.
to a healthy breakfast and lunch. Maher and Oberacker were joined at a press conference on February 17 by Wallkill Central School District Superintendent Kevin Castle, Sara Gunn, director of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, and Lori Rolison of the American Heart Association. “Our children deserve to succeed in school, no matter their circumstances. None of them should be distracted by hunger taking their attention from their studies, personal growth and development,” said Maher, a member of the Committee on Children and Families. “Financial hardship has hit more families than we realize and children shouldn’t suffer for it. This is why a bipartisan network of legislators are working together to create a universal healthy school meals program. Healthy kids mean healthy futures.” “My father instilled in me at a very young age the value of eating
healthy and he always talked about how important it was that his children did not go to bed or to school on an empty stomach,” said Senator Oberacker. “I am proud to join Assemblyman Brian Maher as well as officials from the Wallkill Central School District to support this program, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate in the coming weeks as we begin budget negotiations.” “Children who are not well fed cannot be well read. With the federal government in gridlock, it is incumbent on our state to address the hunger cliff that has impacted almost 800,000 children in New York State. Addressing hunger in our state should not be a partisan issue. But it is a moral imperative,” said González-Rojas. “My Republican colleagues understand that universal school meals have incredible health, Continued on page 6
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD