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AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Oneonta, N.Y., Thursday, September 21, 2023
COMPLIMENTARY
Templeton Applies Again for Averill Rd. Special Use Permit COOPERSTOWN he Templeton Foundation announced last week that it has applied for the issuance of a Special Use Permit from the Village of Cooperstown for its multi-residential project on Averill Road in the village. The proposed project will support the continued operations of Bassett Medical Center and Bassett Healthcare Network with the construction of one 24-unit apartment building and two clusters of townhomes consisting of six units each, for a total of 12 townhomes. According to a press release, the development will be similar in design to the Templeton-owned community of 40 townhomes located on Fernleigh Drive, which houses Bassett Medical Center employees. The Averill Road buildings will be constructed in accordance with an energy-efficient design and the site has been designed to be environmentally friendly. The development will also involve improvements to the village municipal water system with the construction of a new water tank at no cost to the village, together with improvements along Averill Road in front of the project site. “Templeton Foundation and Bassett Medical Center are committed to maintaining the integrity of the Glimmerglass Historic District and developing this project in keeping with their long-standing commitment to the Cooperstown community,” the release reads. Templeton Foundation said it is “looking forward to the successful completion of this much-needed multi-residential facility in support of Bassett Medical Center and Bassett Healthcare Network.” This is the second time Templeton has applied for a Special Use Permit from the Village of Cooperstown for the Averill Road development. Following issuance of a Special Use Permit in January, the project had been stalled by two lawsuits filed on behalf of adjacent property owners Michael Swatling and Carolyn O’Brien.
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Photo by Wriley Nelson
Alex Payne, a 13-year-old from Boston, meets Bananas player Danny Hosley during a “VIB” event before the game.
Cooperstown Goes Bananas
Barnstorming Team Sells Out Doubleday By WRILEY NELSON
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COOPERSTOWN oubleday Field witnessed one of Cooperstown’s biggest spectacles in recent memory on Saturday, September 16. The Savannah Bananas, a barnstorming team that plays by its own rules and has been called baseball’s answer to the Harlem Globetrotters, descended on the village for the final stop of their 2023 world tour. The Bananas and their traveling rivals, the Party Animals, arrived in Cooperstown on Friday, September 15 with tied
38-38 season records after selling out the 10,000-seat NBT Bank Stadium in Syracuse Thursday night. The teams spent Friday night at the Hall of Fame, unveiling a new exhibit on the meteoric rise of Banana Ball and meeting fans. Hall of Fame Chairman Jane Forbes Clark, members Ted Simmons and Lee Smith, and outspoken Bananas owner and showman Jesse Cole were in attendance. “We have a lot of emotions going on at the end of the tour,” said breakdancing first-base coach Continued on page 11
TEDxOneonta Message: ‘Look Around, Look Ahead’
INSIDE ► Doug geertgens medals, page 2
By Monica Calzolari
► lwv works to reduce polarization, page 2
ONEONTA he all-volunteer planning committee for 2023 TEDxOneonta attracted a diverse slate of speakers on Friday, September 15. TEDxOneonta was founded in 2017 with a goal to bring big ideas worth sharing to our community and to connect community members. Delivering on its promise, it has hosted 30 speakers, held six events and its videos have received more than 500,000 views on YouTube. The youngest speaker on September 15 was just 17 years old and a senior in high school from downstate New York. Noemie Florant aspires to earn a degree in computer science
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► county releases survey, page 3 ► readers share their opinions, page 4 ► Grassroots governance, page 5 ► energy PLAN REQUIRES BALANCE, page 7 ► LOCAL SPORTS UPDATES, page 10 ► GRANT FUNDS INVASIVES RESEARCH, page 10 Follow Breaking News On
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Photo by Monica Calzolari
Juan Carlos Montenegro, Noemie Florant, Julianne Kirkland, Keneea Linton-George, Jean Tien and Josiah Brown are the six speakers featured at the September 15 TEDxOneonta event.
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Cornell University. She gave the audience two examples of how artificial intelligence produces discriminatory practices in the hiring process and in the prison system. To reduce bias, Florant proposed that more underrepresented youth like herself need to become developers. She wants to inspire “Young Minds to Erase Algorithmic Bias in AI,” the subject of her TEDx talk. Juan Carlos Montenegro from Los Angeles, California spoke about “Unleashing Human Potential through Volunteerism.” He described his own struggles from dyslexia. He was not diagnosed until he was 40 years old. He failed all Continued on page 9
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