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AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE COMPLIMENTARY
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, August 17, 2023
Oneonta’s First Pot Dispensary Opens By WRILEY NELSON ONEONTA line of local residents and visitors, young and old, stretched across the Main Street bridge in Oneonta as a thunderstorm threatened late in the afternoon of Saturday, August 12. The smiling, waving crowd was waiting for the clock to hit 4:20 p.m. and DOSHA, Oneonta’s first legal cannabis dispensary, to officially open. Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek, board and staff members of the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce, and military veterans mingled with employees and photographers before the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Oneonta’s newest small business is located next to the city police department on Main Street. Customers arrive through a large waiting room and security checkpoint, where their identification is checked, and proceed to the sales floor in the back when it becomes available. Inventory specialists work with patrons to find a product that’s right for them and then retrieve the product from a vault in a third room. Korey Rowe, the owner and proprietor of DOSHA, is a lifelong Oneonta resident and U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also an experienced filmmaker and produced a documentary, “Mile Marker” (2018), examining the use of cannabis by disabled veterans and PTSD patients. Rowe has been heavily involved in lobbying and educational efforts to promote the economic benefits of marijuana cultivation and sales for rural communities. He has been working on the business for nearly three years and received his provisional license to begin operations in May. “Everything here is veterans-first,” Rowe said. “We hire predominately veterans as employees and we work with veteran-owned local producers.” DOSHA is the first service-disabled veteranowned dispensary in the history of New York State. New York’s licensing program for cannabis prioritizes communities with high marijuana arrest rates, Continued on page 11
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Photo by williamjaymiller
Sunshine and Sunflowers COOPERSTOWN—Many thanks to Bill Miller for this bucolic view of the fields on Route 28 just south of the Village of Cooperstown. It’s vistas like this that remind us why we live in Otsego County.
Steve Gaunt Completes Otsego Lake Swim By CASPAR EWIG COOPERSTOWN hy does one swim the length of Lake Otsego? Because it is a challenge, and it’s there. And so, at 8:02 a.m. on Sunday, July 30, Steven Gaunt plunged into 76-degree water at Council Rock to begin his 9-mile journey to Springfield Public Landing. Gaunt was accompanied
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by a kayak alternately paddled by his father, David Gaunt, his father-in-law, Mike Pikarsky, and friend Bill Wilson—to act as guide and to supply water and protein bars along the way—and a motorboat operated by Armin Sommer. Gaunt, a native of Birmingham, England, immigrated to the United States in 2008, settling in San Antonio, Texas. After meeting Kiersten, his wife Continued on page 11
BIANYS To Honor Laurens Couple at March On Walk
► carved birds offer comfort, page 2 ► llc transparency act, page 4
By DARLA M. YOUNGS
► your neighbors in the news, page 6 ► oneontan shares Rabies scare experience, page 10 ► next ny forward meeting announced, page 10 ► fire company card fundraiser underway, page 12 ► area news in brief, page 14 Follow Breaking News On
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LAURENS n 2015, Manny Pelligra had been getting ready for work—knowing retirement awaited him at the end of the week—when his wife, Pat, told him she wasn’t feeling well. As they left the house together that day, Pat needed help to the car, and Manny immediately knew he had to get her to the emergency room. Pat had suffered a stroke. What began as a brain bleed was followed by years of surgeries and rehabilitation. “The first couple of years during Pat’s recovery were certainly difficult,” Manny recalled. “There were many doctor appointments, therapy visits, additional surgeries, counseling, etc. Our retirement plans had changed, and our daily life needed adjustment. “After Pat’s stroke, and a couple of years of reorganizing and redirecting our plans,
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We decided that we wanted to get involved and help those that helped us. Our advocacy efforts mainly began through our contact with the Brain Injury Association of New York State.” Manny and Pat’s introduction to BIANYS has led to many good connections—“other brain-injured people with whom to share frustrations and successes. Also, other caregivers to share experiences, coping strategies and ways to make life easier. BIANYS itself has a great team of professionals who can help people and families with a wide variety of support and resources.” The Pelligras had a long history of advocacy efforts prior to her stroke. “Pat, at 19, and in her first marriage, had given birth to a daughter with multiple Photo provided disabilities. At the time, Pat was told she PAT AND MANNY PELLIGRA should put Tracey in an institution—that we began to realize how prevalent brain she probably wouldn’t live for more than injury was,” he continued. “And we came to three years,” Manny explained. “My first child was born with a brain understand how the support we had received Continued on page 9 played a vital role in Pat’s path to recovery.
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