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cV kicks off monthly community pages, page 2
VISIT www.ALLOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER/ONLINE Volume 216, No. 21
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, June 6, 2024
Newsstand Price $1
Banners Honoring 120 Vets Hang Throughout Oneonta City, Town By MONICA CALZOLARI
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ONEONTA he Greater Oneonta Historical Society teamed up with the City of Oneonta and launched a Hometown Heroes program in 2023. Participation grew from 96 families honoring a veteran with an outdoor custom banner in year one to 120 families in 2024. GOHS Executive Director Marcela Micucci said, “This year, we expanded the program and added the Town of Oneonta.” Each banner includes a photo of the veteran, their name and branch of service, time served and any medals received. The banners were hung before Memorial Day and stay up until Veterans Day. They line Main Street, River Street, and Chestnut Street in both the city and town of Oneonta, and Oneida Street. Each veteran is honored with a custom 18”x 48” banner, sponsored and paid for by anyone who would like to honor a veteran. One veteran served in the Civil War. Most served in World War II, the Vietnam War or the Korean War. Current service members can be honored, too, and INSIDE ► Hartwick college Names new AD, page 3 ► coop b&b awarded best of the best, page 3 ► AT LAST: nEGRO LEAGUES GET RECOGNITION, page 4 ► DO TARIFFS GROW U.S. PRODUCTION? page 4 ► LOCAL CANOERS PLACE HIGH IN REGATTA, page 6 ► eLASTIC POTENTIAL ENERGY LESSON, page 6 ► GREENE NEW CHIEF OF PEDIATRICS, page 9 ► BOOK FAIR INFO, page 9 Follow Breaking News On
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Photo by Monica Calzolari
Happily Ever After ONEONTA—Diana Foster (left) and Kirsten Eggers (right) were married on stage at Pridefest on Saturday, June 1. Hundreds of Pridefest participants cheered them on and waved rainbow flags. Three people played bagpipes. This was Oneonta’s seventh Pridefest. The first occurred in 2018. The theme for Pridefest 2024 is “Follow the Rainbow Home.”
Photo by Monica Calzolari
John Carney is just one of the veterans being honored via the Hometown Heroes banner program.
several are. “About 80 of the original 96 applicants renewed their participation and we received about 40 new applicants this year,” Micucci said. The idea came from Bill Pietraface, a former GOHS board member, in 2022. In a small town near Scranton, Pennsylvania where Pietra-
face grew up, there is a similar banner honoring his father as a Hometown Hero. “The purpose behind Hometown Heroes is to honor those veterans and their families in Oneonta and outside Oneonta who made so many sacrifices to serve our country,” Micucci said. Micucci explained, Continued on page 11
Floating Pollen Sparks Local HAB Concerns OTSEGO LAKE UNY Oneonta’s Biological Field Station has received numerous reports of discolored water in Otsego Lake from concerned local residents. BFS scientists determined that the yellow-green patches are harmless accumulations of pine pollen rather than the dangerous harmful algae blooms that have struck the lake in recent years. For more resources on HABs, Photo provided visit the one-stop Otsego Floating pollen has caused a re- County dashboard at https:// cent scare amongst Otsego Lake otsegocountyhabs.com/. community members.
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Photo by Cindy Falk
Equality Without Exemptions COOPERSTOWN—Moss Croft, president of the Identity Alliance at Cooperstown Central School, joins community members for the annual unfurling of the Pride Flag at 22 Main Street in Cooperstown. June is Pride Month, a month dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride. Cooperstown’s first Pride Block Party is planned for Sunday, June 30.
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD