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Cooperstown’s offiCial newspaper
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dr. lisa wong: the healing powers of music, page 3 VISIT www.ALLOTSEGO.com, OTSEGO COUNTY’S NEWSPAPER/ONLINE Volume 217, No. 22
Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, May 29, 2025
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Cold and Rain Can’t Dampen Hall of Fame Memorial Day Weekend Baseball Celebration
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COOPERSTOWN ike the proverbial carriers of the U.S. mail, “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” was going to keep visitors and participants in the Hall of Fame’s Memorial Day Weekend celebration of the national pastime from having a
good time here in Cooperstown. Leading off with the first annual Hall of Fame Film Series—running from Thursday, May 22 through Sunday, May 25—“Diamond Diplomacy: U.S. Japan Relations Through a Shared Love of Baseball,” directed by Yuriko Gamo Romer, was screened in the Fenimore Art Museum theater and was the first of the six-film series.
According to Romer, “The history of Japanese baseball is the history of Japan/U.S. relations.” Kerry Yo Nakagawa, executive director of the Nisei Baseball Research Project, said that for the first and second wave of Japanese immigrants in the U.S., “Putting on a baseball uniform was like wearing the Continued on page 8
Rural Pathways: New Program To Entice Lawyers to Rural Areas By BILL BELLEN
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MILFORD nyone who has had to navigate the legal system in the rural counties of New York State—Otsego County included—can tell you that it is not nearly as easy as it used to be to find proper legal assistance. Populations of judges, attorneys and lawyers in Upstate New York have been steadily declining over the last few decades, as professionals reach the age of retirement with no newcomers to take their place. This creates a dire state of affairs for those in our region who find themselves in need of the legal advice or assistance
that only these professionals can offer. “Populations of professionals in Upstate New York; it’s just not as what it was. It’s become really hard for people who need to have a will done, get divorced, get custody of their kids or, God forbid, have a criminal matter, to find an attorney in the area,” said Sarah Cowen, associate court attorney for Otsego County Court Judge Michael F. Getman and president of the Otsego County Bar Association. “I totally am of the mind that upstate New York summer is the best; the lakes, the hikes, the everything. If we could get people to come up here, there’s no reason why they wouldn’t like it
as well.” With public access to the legal system at stake, Cowen and a number of her colleagues, both in Otsego County and statewide, have begun to take action to turn this trend around. This summer marks the launch of the state court system’s pilot program, dubbed “Rural Pathways.” This initiative seeks to incentivize young, outgoing law students to make the move to the areas of New York that need their practice the most. Presiding Justice Elizabeth Garry, who oversees the New York State Appellate Court Third Judicial Department, of which Continued on page 9
Photo by Yvonne Eckert
Fallen, But Not Forgotten LAURENS—Laurens Central School fifth- and sixth-graders commemorated and honored the brave military men and women who served our country by placing long stem red carnations on veterans’ graves in the Laurens Village Cemetery and Elm Row Cemetery prior to Memorial Day 2025. This project was sponsored by the Laurens American Legion Auxiliary with assistance from Laurens American Legion members. Above, fifth-grader Hera Baker pays tribute to a fallen hero at Elm Row Cemetery.
Conserved Masterwork Returns to Museum
INSIDE ► rep. riley investigates rising utility costs, page 2
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► Mpox cases detected in syracuse area, page 2 ► DerosA: predictability versus chaos, page 4 ► let’s welcome tourists visiting our area, page 5 ► don’t let coltsfoot take a foothold in our soils, page 6 ► a truck, two pianos and a serendipitous sunday, page 6 Follow Breaking News On
Photo by williamjaymiller.com
CANOE BELIEVE THIS VIEW?! Results are in for last weekend’s General
Clinton Canoe Regatta, which begins in Cooperstown and ends in Bainbridge. For complete results, visit https://www.canoeregatta.org/race/results.php.
ONEONTA fter five centuries, most everything needs a little tender loving care. And that’s something Hartwick College’s Yager Museum of Art and Culture celebrated when, on April 30, it welcomed one of its Renaissance treasures back from a year’s conservation treatment at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Massachusetts. Painted in the early 16th century by Andrea Previtali (ca. 1480-1528), “Madonna and Child in a Landscape” was acquired by the Reverend Louis van Ess, rector of Saint James Episcopal Church in Oneonta and a Hartwick College professor, in the 1950s. According to a press release, when van Ess passed away in 1960, he left much of his art collection, including the Previtali, to Hartwick. “Louis van Ess had collected American impressionist art before coming to Oneonta,” Museum Continued on page 7
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