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visit allotsego.com for ONEONTA mayor mark drnek’s 5-point plan to address emergency sheltering ISSUES
VISIT www. Volume 215, No. 34
AllOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S DAILY NEWSPAPER/ONLINE
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, August 24, 2023
Survey Results Reveal Public’s Thoughts on Revitalization
Newsstand Price $1
State, County Struggle with Low Reading Test Scores
By DARLA M. YOUNGS
By DARLA M. YOUNGS
COOPERSTOWN n August 11, the results of the Village of Cooperstown New York Forward Community Survey were released. The report, which can be found in its entirety on the village website, was prepared by Highland Planning. The online survey—intended to gauge community members’ perceptions of opportunities within the Village of Cooperstown in order to inform the $4.5 million funding investment by the NY Forward program— was hosted on Survey Monkey from June 19 to August 7 and received 162 responses. The survey was promoted through the Cooperstown website, a public meeting on July 11, a pop-up event at the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market, flyer distribution, social media posts and in “The Freeman’s Journal” and its sister publications. There were 11 questions and, according to Highland Planning, the survey took approximately 10 minutes to complete. Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh said she was happy with the results. “I would always love to see more input than 162 responses, however, [the survey] was open for seven weeks and strongly promoted, so there was plenty of opportunity. I found the comments we received to be very helpful,” Tillapaugh added. The majority of survey respondents (76.25%) came from the 13326 zip code. Close to half said they visit downtown
OTSEGO COUNTY ew York State has recently come under fire for fourth grade reading scores that fall short of the national average. Equally as troubling, fourth grade reading scores for children in New York dropped six points last year, double the national average, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. According to a recent article in “The New York Times,” that’s the one test that allows for comparisons among states. New York was tied for 32nd in the nation in reading test results. The NAEP reading assessment was administered in 2022 to representative samples of fourth- and eighthgrade students in the nation, states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools, and 26 participating large urban districts. It included literary and informational texts to assess students’ reading comprehension skills. Thirty states and jurisdictions showed a decrease in fourth-grade reading average scores from 2019 levels, while 22 saw no significant change. No states or jurisdictions scored higher than the 2019 figures. The average reading score for fourthgrade students in 2022 was three points lower compared to 2019, the
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Photo provided
Edyn Aiyemo holds a signed copy of her book while celebrating with her mother, her brother Ethan, to whom the book is dedicated, and Ron and Pam Zerbe.
Young Author Holds Book Signing
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ONEONTA dyn Iteafa Ebikoboere Aiyemo, a 12-year-old student at Oneonta Middle School and the author of the children’s book “The Tale of the World with Four Colors,” held a book signing at the Oneonta Starbucks on Thursday, August 3. The event was sponsored by Starbucks in collaboration with A.T. Socio-Judicial Consulting. Aiyemo wrote the book at age 6, encouraged by her mother, Ari NikiTobi. It follows a woman who finds herself an outsider in a world defined by color preference and who learns to forgive after attempting to take vengeance. “It was really nice to meet everyone,” Edyn said. The signing was attended by many local notables, including Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek and Otsego County Board of Representatives Chair David Bliss. Edyn’s former fourth-grade teacher at Greater Plains Elementary School and her uncle, an appellate judge in Nigeria, also attended. “This is a world of redemption and heroism, but also of reassessment and recalibration,” Drnek said in a release about the signing event. “Seen through the lens of a first grader, it’s the sweet story of lives lived in colorful harmony, protected by the least likely. Surely, there’s a lesson in there.”
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Otsego Abroad
INSIDE ► HARTWICK, SUNY announce nursing collaboration, page 2
Cooperstown Resident Returns from Six Years in France
► brian white takes first at NYSBRA trials, page 2 ► town of oneonta recognizes service project, page 3 ► NYS reading scores, crumhorn missive examined, page 4 ► catskill smokehouse tradition, page 5 ► your neighbors in the news, page 6 ► NYCM Earns top AWARD, page 6 Follow Breaking News On
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TV meteorologist, while their father hosts a radio show. Loewenguth spoke highly of the family and of the cultural institution STRASBOURG, FRANCE of the au pair position, which allowed her ae Loewenguth of to explore much of the country with the Cooperstown graduated from family while she earned a living caring the Institut Européen de for the children. Journalisme with a bachelor’s degree in “I got to see a lot of their work as jourjournalism in April. In spite of a distinct nalists and I got to meet many ordinary lack of support from xenophobic profespeople around the country,” she recalled. sors, Loewenguth got through the pres“I realized I liked listening to people’s tigious institute with flying colors while stories.” immersing herself in one of Europe’s The parents helped point her in the most culturally significant cities. direction of France’s many journalism Loewenguth has spent six of the last Photo by Mae Loewenguth schools. seven years in France. She spent her Loewenguth wound up applying to the junior year away from Cooperstown View of downtown Strasbourg across the Rhine. prestigious IEJ in Strasbourg, a city of Central School on Rotary exchange. to live in France for free,’ and it said to look about 300,000 just across the Rhine River “I loved my time there,” she said. “When I into being an au pair.” from Germany. Strasbourg is a historic got back for senior year, I wasn’t sure about She wound up spending a year looking melting pot of cultural interaction and politcollege. I didn’t have any strong ideas about after the young sons of two leading French ical strife between the French-speaking and where I wanted to go or what I wanted to journalists. The boys’ mother, whom study. I wound up literally Googling ‘how Loewenguth left unnamed, is a well-known Continued on page 11 By WRILEY NELSON
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THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD
EDDM PRESORT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ONEONTA PERMIT NO. 890