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Volume 217, No. 14
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‘echoes of otsego’ at the dunderberg, page 12 VISIT www.ALLOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER/ONLINE Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025
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City of Oneonta Recognizes Four ‘Trailblazers’
Trustees Discuss HoF Weekend, Public Safety
By MONICA CALZOLARI
By SARAH ROBERTS
ONEONTA our local women received Trailblazer Awards from the City of Oneonta’s Commission on Community Relations and Human Rights on March 27 at the Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center. Edyn Aiyemo, Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould, Tina Winstead and Michelle Eastman were named and honored as the recipients of the city’s Trailblazer Award for 2025. Ryan Selzner, chair of the commission, coordinated the event attended by nearly 100 people. She introduced Mayor Mark Drnek, who served as master of ceremonies. “This evening, I am proud to acknowledge four more outstanding women—trailblazers each—to join the ranks of those previously honored by the commission,” Drnek said. He read a detailed proclamation personalized to each award winner. Since 2007, the commission has recognized women in the Oneonta area as part of Women’s History Month, which is celebrated every March. A trailblazer is defined as one who has opened the pathways for others to follow; a pioneer, a forerunner, a trail breaker, a mover and shaker. Trailblazers are nominated by their peers and must fit into one of four categories: Woman in Business; Arts and/or Athletics; Community Impact; and Young Leader (age 21 and under). Edyn Aiyemo is an honors student at Oneonta Middle School. She is an eighthgrader and the youngest of the four 2025 recipients. Aiyemo is the epitome of a young leader. She has already published a book, Continued on page 10
COOPERSTOWN or Cooperstown residents, summer— and the beginning of tourist season— is fast approaching. The Village Board of Trustees has begun making preparations for Hall of Fame Weekend and other activities in the coming warmer, busier months. The Village Board met on Monday, March 24 for about two and a half hours. Early in the evening, discussion of Hall of Fame Weekend began, with logistical discussions on the staging of buses for tour groups to the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction. Concerns about parking were clear. Main Street is set to be closed from Chestnut Street to Fair Street on Hall of Fame Weekend, from 6 a.m. on Friday, July 25 to 6 a.m. on Monday, July 28, with a portion of the Doubleday Field parking lot reserved for vendors. Local Laws 2-5 were passed by the trustees. Local Laws 2-4 involve parking— Number 2 prohibits parking on the east side of Brooklyn Avenue, Number 3 prohibits parking on Upper Main Street from Grove Street to Averill Road, and Number 4 allows overnight parking on Fish Road in Lakefront Park from November 1 through April 1 on the east side of the roadway. Local Law 5 states that zoning applications shall not be deemed to be received until the Planning Board determines that such applications are complete and a Certification of Appropriateness has been issued by the Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board. In the Public Safety update, two arrests Continued on page 8
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INSIDE ► trombonists take the stage, page 3 ► bishop: First the vulnerable, then the rest of us, page 4
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Photo by K. Wayne Bunn
Taking the Plunge COOPERSTOWN—Members of the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station’s Volunteer Dive Team met on Saturday, March 29 at the BFS boathouse before setting out to redeploy no-wake zone buoys at Lakefront Park and Springfield Landing. Above, Paul H. Lord, SUNY Oneonta biology instructor, researcher, and scuba instructor, inspects equipment on Landon Putnam, SUNY Oneonta undergraduate student and research diver. “Otsego Lake is now officially open for recreational boating,” Lord said.
OWL’s PaintFest Offers Hands-on Learning for All Ages By BILL BELLEN
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ONEONTA n Saturday, March 22, community members gath► birds disappearing, ered at the FoxCare Center need our help, page 4 for the highly anticipated Oneonta World of Learning’s PaintFest ► exeter homestead to remain in natural state, event. Hosted annually, PaintFest allows children and adults of all page 6 ages to express their creativity ► new hawkeyes logo put through various means. OWL highto vote, page 12 lights this event in its roster each year as a defining experience for the ► berkson: when push comes to shove, page 13 organization’s goals of childhood enrichment and hands-on learning. ► calendar, page 14 PaintFest has had a long-standing role in local youth education and Follow Breaking News On communal habilitation, with the first of these events being held in November 2008.
“[PaintFest was] one of the very first events that we conceived of and organized. We actually weren’t even officially a not-for-profit at that point,” Rachel Rissberger, sitting OWL board secretary and first organization president, said when asked about PaintFest’s legacy. “We do a lot of things with paint, but it’s really an art exploration day, [and we] usually tie in some kind of science or other learning component with it.” The theme of this year’s program was nature. As one walked through the FoxCare Center plaza, every direction was filled with artistic and scientific youthful exploration. Many organizations sponsored Photo by Maria Griswold stands, with groups ranging from Huntington Memorial Library Youth Coordinator Donna Foote clubs run from the local SUNY reads to a crowd of children at OWL’s PaintFest. Continued on page 9
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S AWARD-WINNING WEEKLIES 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD