Donald Benson, CPA/CFP, and Joseph Gunther, CFP, have established Benson & Gunther Financial Group, providing financial services, as well as tax, estate and accounting services.
Both Don and Joe are consortium members of Integrated Financial Group of Atlanta, a Top 25 financial planning firm, as chosen by The Atlanta Business Chronicle magazine, with over $1 billion in managed client assets.
Benson & Gunther will serve clients in Oneonta, Norwich and Rome. The main office is at 48 Dietz.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Incoming Police Officers Give Hope For ‘Great’ OPD
It’s beyond a cliche to say that a commencement is not an end but a beginning. But that doesn’t make it any less true. And it’s hard to attend a graduation and not feel hope, hope for all the potential good that can result from all those young aspirations.
So it was Sunday, March 13, at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union Ballroom, as wellwishers gathered to congratulate and celebrate nine new police officers completing training at the Otsego County Law Enforcement Academy.
Six of the nine will join the ranks of the Oneonta Police Department, and it was hard not to contemplate the OPD’s recent challenges without a renewed hope that the “great” police force Mayor Miller is promising will indeed be achieved.
The speakers hit just the right note.
Lt. Dennis Nayor, officer in charge after the chief’s recent resignation, challenged the new recruits to uphold the ideals of the profession, treating everyone with dignity and compassion, guided by honor and integrity. “Everything else has zero meaning without it.”
“Never dishonor the badge,” exhorted the academy’s director, Lt. Jonathan Bartlett, quoting former county sheriff Don Mundy, the academy’s founder. And Bartlett cautioned the class, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
The awards portion of the evening was telling as well: Of the nine graduates, six had perfect-attendance records over 10 months and 650 hours of training. A 66 percent record reflects commitment.
So does the level of achievement. Officer Brian J. Cetnar got the top score on the firing range. But his 227.50 score was just a quarter-point higher than New Berlin Officer Richard A. Pagillo, who also serves parttime on the Cooperstown force.
SUNY Police Officer Lucas S. Hoague’s top academic score was 95.15, but he was only .07 points ahead of Oneonta’s Amanda L. Spoor. Competition brings out the best in people, for sure.
With commencement there’s hope, indeed, and it was easy to depart at ceremony’s end with a good feeling about the OPD’s future.
Congratulations, graduates, and much continuing success.
Do the community proud. Do yourselves proud.
So it was Sunday, March 13, at SUNY Oneonta’s Hunt Union Ballroom, as wellwishers gathered to congratulate and celebrate nine new police officers completing training at the Otsego County Law Enforcement Academy.
Six of the nine will join the ranks of the Oneonta Police Department, and it was hard not to contemplate the OPD’s recent challenges without a renewed hope that the “great” police force Mayor Miller is promising will indeed be achieved.
The speakers hit just the right note.
Lt. Dennis Nayor, officer in charge after the chief’s recent resignation, challenged the new recruits to uphold the ideals of the profession, treating everyone with dignity and compassion, guided by honor and integrity. “Everything else has zero meaning without it.”
“Never dishonor the badge,” exhorted the academy’s director, Lt. Jonathan Bartlett, quoting former county sheriff Don Mundy, the academy’s founder. And Bartlett cautioned the class, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
The awards portion of the evening was telling as well: Of the nine graduates, six had perfect-attendance records over 10 months and 650 hours of training. A 66 percent record reflects commitment.
So does the level of achievement. Officer Brian J. Cetnar got the top score on the firing range. But his 227.50 score was just a quarter-point higher than New Berlin Officer Richard A. Pagillo, who also serves parttime on the Cooperstown force.
SUNY Police Officer Lucas S. Hoague’s top academic score was 95.15, but he was only .07 points ahead of Oneonta’s Amanda L. Spoor. Competition brings out the best in people, for sure.
With commencement there’s hope, indeed, and it was easy to depart at ceremony’s end with a good feeling about the OPD’s future.
Congratulations, graduates, and much continuing success.
Do the community proud. Do yourselves proud.
 |
| Jim Kevlin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA The OPD’s newest officers, from left, are Amanda L. Spoor, Brian J. Cetnar, Stacy L. Ferris, Jennifer L. Imperato-Barrows and Lucas R. Shaw. At left are Mayor Miller and Alderman Paul Robinson; at right, Lt. Dennis Nayor and Sgt. Douglas Brenner. |
For Good Of All, Oneonta Needs To Be Vibrant Hub Of Entire Region
RICHARD P. MILLER
MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
In my report to the Common Council on Tuesday, Jan. 18, I talked about the current state of the city and posed some thoughts about the future.
The city’s finances are managed with approximately $4 million in reserves in excess of the $3 million we consider to be the minimum necessary in case of emergencies. The forecast for the future is that excess reserves will be consumed by 2015 or 2016, based upon a set of cost and revenue projections that we are constantly revising.
It can be argued that the excess reserves were created over time by a city practice of paying less-than competitive wages compared with other like communities (a condition corrected in the last round of labor negotiations) and by deferring maintenance of our infrastructure, which is most apparent in the condition of our streets and roads.
Our financial strategy over the next few years will be to carefully manage our costs and revenues, taking advantage of work-force reductions through attrition, using some of our surplus to address infrastructure and deferred maintenance while attempting to maintain desired service levels in essential areas like fire, police, public works, water and sewer.
Over a three- or four-year period, it is likely that these efforts will maintain Oneonta as we know it, but reserves will clearly be reduced and we should want to make our city better.
The first ingredient is generating more economic activity, by encouraging investment in downtown and leveraging our exceptional array of arts and entertainment, individuals, organizations and facilities.
This effort has been launched by the two summits we held over the past months, along with the current strengthening of Main Street Oneonta, the organization that promotes downtown.
The Arts & Entertainment Task Force is at work. The Oneonta Theater has announced a busy schedule for the spring and summer, and the sold-out Gordon Lightfoot concert at Foothills bodes well.
The second ingredient, and one which involves the participation of others, is reorganizing our governments to provide services in the most cost effective ways. This will require us to think of Oneonta as a community, not as a city or town.
It will require that community to think of itself, not in isolation, but as the hub of our region, and for the region to see us as that, and the overall benefit of supporting our vibrancy.
Sam Dubben, chair of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, should be applauded for the leadership he is showing in convening the county, city and town supervisors to talk about shared services.
I have told him that the city is willing to consider all options, including shifting some of the services we now provide to others and taking on responsibility for providing services for other government entities.
All these things can be accomplished over time without threatening employees if we carefully manage attrition. They require thoughtful discussion, planning, decision making and implementation.
Mayor Booan of Cooperstown and Sheriff Devlin should be complimented, too, for proposing a cost-effective plan for the county to provide police protection to the village.
As the principal drivers of our regional economy, turning to them for funds, through PILOT agreements would be counter-productive. But, for example, the city, not the region, bears the cost of the police department ($3 million), 60 percent of the arrests of which are of college students, while the institutions and surrounding communities bear no cost. That represents just one of our special challenges.
Another, from the state Comptroller’s figures, is that the city spends $1.6 million on recreation and culture. Without college students, the city and town populations are approximately the same, but the town only spends $120,000.
Town residents use the programs of the city free, while City residents pay for them through taxes. That is a condition that city taxpayers will not be able to sustain.
Even if we can continue to make this situation work in the short term, in the longer term, if Oneonta is to be a viable city, we have to address these issues. The inequity of city taxpayers supporting the region is not only unsustainable for the city, but for the region itself.
There is, of course, an easy way out. That would be the “nuclear option” of the city dissolving into the town.
If it were to be the reverse, the town merging into the city, ultimately, the county would need to face the inequities of sales-tax distribution. Per the retail census, the city and town generate 75 percent of the retail activity in Otsego County, but receive only 14 percent of sales-tax revenue.
The issue is how to avoid such destabilizing steps by working together to share the cost of government and its services, along with sales tax revenue, more equitably and to market the community more effectively, thus generating more economic activity for the entire region.
There has been criticism given of my not dropping the consolidation and shared services subjects. I won’t do that as, along with generating more economic activity through tourism, it’s the key to a better future for the community of Oneonta and the surrounding region.
MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
In my report to the Common Council on Tuesday, Jan. 18, I talked about the current state of the city and posed some thoughts about the future.
The city’s finances are managed with approximately $4 million in reserves in excess of the $3 million we consider to be the minimum necessary in case of emergencies. The forecast for the future is that excess reserves will be consumed by 2015 or 2016, based upon a set of cost and revenue projections that we are constantly revising.
It can be argued that the excess reserves were created over time by a city practice of paying less-than competitive wages compared with other like communities (a condition corrected in the last round of labor negotiations) and by deferring maintenance of our infrastructure, which is most apparent in the condition of our streets and roads.
Our financial strategy over the next few years will be to carefully manage our costs and revenues, taking advantage of work-force reductions through attrition, using some of our surplus to address infrastructure and deferred maintenance while attempting to maintain desired service levels in essential areas like fire, police, public works, water and sewer.
Over a three- or four-year period, it is likely that these efforts will maintain Oneonta as we know it, but reserves will clearly be reduced and we should want to make our city better.
•
The opportunity presents itself to do so. In my remarks I spoke to the council of two ingredients for a more vibrant future for the community.The first ingredient is generating more economic activity, by encouraging investment in downtown and leveraging our exceptional array of arts and entertainment, individuals, organizations and facilities.
This effort has been launched by the two summits we held over the past months, along with the current strengthening of Main Street Oneonta, the organization that promotes downtown.
The Arts & Entertainment Task Force is at work. The Oneonta Theater has announced a busy schedule for the spring and summer, and the sold-out Gordon Lightfoot concert at Foothills bodes well.
The second ingredient, and one which involves the participation of others, is reorganizing our governments to provide services in the most cost effective ways. This will require us to think of Oneonta as a community, not as a city or town.
It will require that community to think of itself, not in isolation, but as the hub of our region, and for the region to see us as that, and the overall benefit of supporting our vibrancy.
Sam Dubben, chair of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, should be applauded for the leadership he is showing in convening the county, city and town supervisors to talk about shared services.
I have told him that the city is willing to consider all options, including shifting some of the services we now provide to others and taking on responsibility for providing services for other government entities.
All these things can be accomplished over time without threatening employees if we carefully manage attrition. They require thoughtful discussion, planning, decision making and implementation.
Mayor Booan of Cooperstown and Sheriff Devlin should be complimented, too, for proposing a cost-effective plan for the county to provide police protection to the village.
•
My motivation, as mayor of the city, in working to increase economic activity and reduce the cost of government is driven by our special challenges: 52 percent of the real property in the city is not taxed. The colleges and hospital, as well as other not-for-profits, are as strapped economically as our governments.As the principal drivers of our regional economy, turning to them for funds, through PILOT agreements would be counter-productive. But, for example, the city, not the region, bears the cost of the police department ($3 million), 60 percent of the arrests of which are of college students, while the institutions and surrounding communities bear no cost. That represents just one of our special challenges.
Another, from the state Comptroller’s figures, is that the city spends $1.6 million on recreation and culture. Without college students, the city and town populations are approximately the same, but the town only spends $120,000.
Town residents use the programs of the city free, while City residents pay for them through taxes. That is a condition that city taxpayers will not be able to sustain.
Even if we can continue to make this situation work in the short term, in the longer term, if Oneonta is to be a viable city, we have to address these issues. The inequity of city taxpayers supporting the region is not only unsustainable for the city, but for the region itself.
There is, of course, an easy way out. That would be the “nuclear option” of the city dissolving into the town.
If it were to be the reverse, the town merging into the city, ultimately, the county would need to face the inequities of sales-tax distribution. Per the retail census, the city and town generate 75 percent of the retail activity in Otsego County, but receive only 14 percent of sales-tax revenue.
The issue is how to avoid such destabilizing steps by working together to share the cost of government and its services, along with sales tax revenue, more equitably and to market the community more effectively, thus generating more economic activity for the entire region.
There has been criticism given of my not dropping the consolidation and shared services subjects. I won’t do that as, along with generating more economic activity through tourism, it’s the key to a better future for the community of Oneonta and the surrounding region.
Thanks To All Who Helped Fight Fatal Fire Feb. 26 On Main Street
To the Editor:
I am writing to express the deepest gratitude of all the members of the Oneonta Fire Department for the extensive assistance we received during and after the devastating fire Saturday morning, Feb. 26, at 540 Main St.
Thank you to all the departments that provided mutual aid. They were West Oneonta, Otego, Worcester, Franklin, Sidney, Laurens, Milford, Schenevus, Unadilla, Wells Bridge, Pindars Corners and Davenport.
Our brothers and sisters in the fire service are true heroes, and assist whenever they are called.
We are grateful for the specialized assistance from the state Office of Fire Prevention & Control. Two highly trained investigators drove from the Capital District and spent several hours with OFD investigators in an effort to determine the cause.
Thank you to the city departments that helped in many ways. They included the Oneonta Police Department, Department of Public Service and Water Department.
State employees assisted also. We are grateful to the state police and the state Department of Transportation.
Thank you also to the many friends and neighbors who provided assistance, including the Salvation Army for their canteen, the Oneonta Price Chopper Supermarket for food for all the hungry firefighters, Munson’s Building Supplies for delivering materials to shore up the inside of the building, and NYSEG for the quick response to cut power.
A very special thank you to the two ladies who arrived at the scene of the fire with coffee and donuts. We don’t know who you are, but you were special angels!
We are very fortunate to live and work in a community where people care about each other and are willing to step forward to help, many times without being asked.
To each and every person who provided help, we extend our most sincere, heartfelt thanks!
PATRICK PIDGEON
Fire Chief
City of Oneonta
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Thanks To Woman On A Mission, Banners Soon To Line River Street
Linda Gilmore’s Project Will Celebrate Neighborhood’s Diversity, Energy
By JIM KEVLIN
When you marry someone from Willoughby, Ohio, anything can happen.
Just ask Linda Gilmore, a Bassett Hospital nurse who would often visit her husband Michael’s family in the Buckeye State.
During one visit, they were driving down a long street in Mentor, Ohio – long and straight, sort of like Oneonta’s River Street, where the couple lives – that was festooned with American flags on every pole.
“It was beautiful,” said Linda, and she got the idea in her head: If Mentor, why not Oneonta? Why not River Street?
“I got into it because I just love the community down here,” Gilmore said the other day. “It’s a unique group of people. We care about each other. When things go awry in our community, we pull together.”
River Street is an access point to businesses and places of employment, so it’s well traveled. And people walk and jog along its sidewalk.
“I just wanted something that would make River Street a little more pretty,” said Linda. “I’m proud to live down here.”
This was a while ago. She approached City Hall, but didn’t get much encouragement. With the arrival of the Miller Administration, she tried again.
Both Mayor Dick Miller and Sixth Ward Alderman Veronica Diver encouraged her.
“I was really excited,” said Gilmore. “But I didn’t realize how much work it would be.”
Meanwhile, Linda had been thinking about what should be on the banner. With the help of neighbors and friends, including Tony and Ann Mongillo, she came up with four themes.
The first banner, on a community theme, will feature a church and a school, and will be the wording, “Welcome to Oneonta; Celebrate Community.”
The second theme – suggested by the Mongillos – is diversity, and will feature flags from the many peoples – Syrians, Russians, Italians, Irish, Germans, Slavs – who populated the Sixth Ward during Oneonta’s railroad heyday.
(Former mayor Sam Nader calls the Sixth Ward “the League of Nations,” a reflection of the ethnic diversity there.)
The third theme, history, with a steam engine. The fourth theme, activity, with the image of a sports team, given the ward’s soccer fields, the Boys & Girls Club and other activities.
Mongillo, a gifted draftsman, helped devise the graphic concepts, which were further stylized via computer by Jarod Miller of Prolifiq, the sign company a few doors up from the Gilmores.
In all, there are posts for 42 banners, stretching from the South Main Street intersection to the turnoff by the Hampton Inn. They will be made of a kind of polyvinyl, and should withstand the elements for three or four years.
When she approached Verizon, whose poles she planned to use, she discovered they were too close to the street to hang banners: They have to be at least 3 feet from the pavement.
So a means was figured out to hang the banners over the sidewalk. The banners will be 18 inches wide and 36 inches long, and will be attached to a rod at the top and bottom.
The set-up is $8 per pole, and the Sixth Ward Athletic Club, that neighborhood mainstay, contributed the $400 for that.
To cover the banners themselves, she is looking for sponsors, whose names will then appear at the bottom of the banners. (Hometown Oneonta immediately signed on.)
The mother of three – stepson, Michael, OHS senior (and football player), and children Audrey, 10, and Sophie, 6, both at Valleyview Elementary – is confident sponsors will soon come forward.
For particulars, give her a call at 432-7894.
TO SPONSOR A BANNER, call Linda Gilmore at 432-7894 for particulars.
By JIM KEVLIN
 |
| Ian Austin/HOMETOWN ONEONTA Linda Gilmore and one of her banners. |
When you marry someone from Willoughby, Ohio, anything can happen.
Just ask Linda Gilmore, a Bassett Hospital nurse who would often visit her husband Michael’s family in the Buckeye State.
During one visit, they were driving down a long street in Mentor, Ohio – long and straight, sort of like Oneonta’s River Street, where the couple lives – that was festooned with American flags on every pole.
“It was beautiful,” said Linda, and she got the idea in her head: If Mentor, why not Oneonta? Why not River Street?
“I got into it because I just love the community down here,” Gilmore said the other day. “It’s a unique group of people. We care about each other. When things go awry in our community, we pull together.”
River Street is an access point to businesses and places of employment, so it’s well traveled. And people walk and jog along its sidewalk.
“I just wanted something that would make River Street a little more pretty,” said Linda. “I’m proud to live down here.”
This was a while ago. She approached City Hall, but didn’t get much encouragement. With the arrival of the Miller Administration, she tried again.
Both Mayor Dick Miller and Sixth Ward Alderman Veronica Diver encouraged her.
“I was really excited,” said Gilmore. “But I didn’t realize how much work it would be.”
Meanwhile, Linda had been thinking about what should be on the banner. With the help of neighbors and friends, including Tony and Ann Mongillo, she came up with four themes.
The first banner, on a community theme, will feature a church and a school, and will be the wording, “Welcome to Oneonta; Celebrate Community.”
The second theme – suggested by the Mongillos – is diversity, and will feature flags from the many peoples – Syrians, Russians, Italians, Irish, Germans, Slavs – who populated the Sixth Ward during Oneonta’s railroad heyday.
(Former mayor Sam Nader calls the Sixth Ward “the League of Nations,” a reflection of the ethnic diversity there.)
The third theme, history, with a steam engine. The fourth theme, activity, with the image of a sports team, given the ward’s soccer fields, the Boys & Girls Club and other activities.
Mongillo, a gifted draftsman, helped devise the graphic concepts, which were further stylized via computer by Jarod Miller of Prolifiq, the sign company a few doors up from the Gilmores.
In all, there are posts for 42 banners, stretching from the South Main Street intersection to the turnoff by the Hampton Inn. They will be made of a kind of polyvinyl, and should withstand the elements for three or four years.
When she approached Verizon, whose poles she planned to use, she discovered they were too close to the street to hang banners: They have to be at least 3 feet from the pavement.
So a means was figured out to hang the banners over the sidewalk. The banners will be 18 inches wide and 36 inches long, and will be attached to a rod at the top and bottom.
The set-up is $8 per pole, and the Sixth Ward Athletic Club, that neighborhood mainstay, contributed the $400 for that.
To cover the banners themselves, she is looking for sponsors, whose names will then appear at the bottom of the banners. (Hometown Oneonta immediately signed on.)
The mother of three – stepson, Michael, OHS senior (and football player), and children Audrey, 10, and Sophie, 6, both at Valleyview Elementary – is confident sponsors will soon come forward.
For particulars, give her a call at 432-7894.
TO SPONSOR A BANNER, call Linda Gilmore at 432-7894 for particulars.
 |
| Diversity and Community are two of the banners’ themes. The other themes are History and Activity. |
Clergy To Cuomo: Extend Fracking Moratorium
‘We Are Compelled To Speak Out When Good Stewardship Of God’s Creation Is At Stake And Injustice Is At Hand’
Dear Governor Cuomo,
Gas drilling under way in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country has proved to be damaging, both below and above ground.
Care of the Earth is of great importance to us and also to future generations, and gas drilling as presently proposed could potentially constitute a grave danger to the water resources of our entire region.
Farm life in our region has been in a steady economic decline, and the possibility of signing a lease for gas drilling, even though the terms may differ greatly from neighbor to neighbor, is tempting.
However, we agree with the Session of First Presbyterian, Cooperstown, that has adopted a resolution stating, “We are compelled to speak out when the good stewardship of God’s creation is at stake and injustice is at hand.”
Therefore, we, the undersigned clergy and religious leaders, are asking you to continue the moratorium on gas drilling using horizontal hydrofracking until the State of New York has had time to examine the complete federal Environmental Protection Agency study currently under way.
New York would then be in a better position to ascertain whether high-pressure hydrofracking can be done safely and then write and enforce stringent regulations sufficient to ensure the future protection of our region’s water, air, and other natural resources.
We hope that all in our area would agree that a comprehensive scientific study is necessary before the state takes irreversible action that would risk endangering our health and the health and beauty of our land.
Sincerely yours,
Rev. Fred Albrecht
Retired, United Methodist Church, Otego
Rev. Lisa Jo Bezner
Otego and Sand Hill United Methodist, Otego
Rev. Dr. Leonard B. Bjorkman
Retired, Presbyterian Church (USA), Owego
Frederic Chrislip
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Judy A. Gage, CLP
Bovina United Presbyterian Church, Bovina
Rev. Caspar Green
First Baptist Church, Glens Falls
Trustee Ron Guichard
The Presbyterian Church of Andes
Rev. Dr. Janet Adair Hansen
PPAN Moderator, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Rev. Douglas A. Horne
Otego Presbyterian Church
Rev. Betsy Jay
Presbyterian Church (USA), Cooperstown
Rev. Darcey Laine
Unitarian Universalist Church of Athens
and Sheshequin, Pa.; Resident of Ithaca
Paddy Lane
Clerk, Butternuts Friends Meeting (Quaker)
Rev. Thomas Langdon
St. Innocent Orthodox Mission, Oneonta and Otego
Rev. John R. Long
First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo
Rev. Mark Montfort
First Presbyterian Church, Oneonta
Rev. Harry G. Myers
Laurens Presbyterian Church
Rev. Brooke Newell
Upper NY Conference, United Methodist Church
Rev. Randolph Palada
First Baptist Church, Oneonta
Rev. Allen L. Presby
First Presbyterian Church of Delhi
Mother Raphaela and Sisterhood
Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, Otego
Orthodox Church in America
Rev. Elsie Armstrong Rhodes
First Presbyterian Church, Cooperstown
Rev. Sundar R. Samuel
United Methodist Church of Cooperstown
Rev. Eric Santamont
Southside Wesleyan Church, Oneonta
Rev. Craig Schwalenberg
Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta
Dr. Janet Schwengber, CLP
Stamford Presbyterian Church
Rev. Jerald Shave
Liverpool
Elder Barbara Epley-Shuck
Presbytery of Utica
Rev. Teressa M. Sivers
First United Methodist Church, Oneonta
Rev. Dr. Steven R. Swanson
The Presbyterian Church of Andes
Rev. Douglas Taylor
Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Binghamton
Rev. Judith A. Thistle
Director of Chaplaincy Program, Fox Hospital, Oneonta
Pastor, Second Baptist Church, Worcester
Father John Udics
Saints Peter & Paul Orthodox Church
Herkimer (Orthodox Church in America)
Rev. James L. Ulrich
Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian, Old Forge
Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Walton-Leavitt
First United Presbyterian Church, Oneonta
Susan Woodworth
United Methodist Church of Andes
Dear Governor Cuomo,
Gas drilling under way in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country has proved to be damaging, both below and above ground.
Care of the Earth is of great importance to us and also to future generations, and gas drilling as presently proposed could potentially constitute a grave danger to the water resources of our entire region.
Farm life in our region has been in a steady economic decline, and the possibility of signing a lease for gas drilling, even though the terms may differ greatly from neighbor to neighbor, is tempting.
However, we agree with the Session of First Presbyterian, Cooperstown, that has adopted a resolution stating, “We are compelled to speak out when the good stewardship of God’s creation is at stake and injustice is at hand.”
Therefore, we, the undersigned clergy and religious leaders, are asking you to continue the moratorium on gas drilling using horizontal hydrofracking until the State of New York has had time to examine the complete federal Environmental Protection Agency study currently under way.
New York would then be in a better position to ascertain whether high-pressure hydrofracking can be done safely and then write and enforce stringent regulations sufficient to ensure the future protection of our region’s water, air, and other natural resources.
We hope that all in our area would agree that a comprehensive scientific study is necessary before the state takes irreversible action that would risk endangering our health and the health and beauty of our land.
Sincerely yours,
Rev. Fred Albrecht
Retired, United Methodist Church, Otego
Rev. Lisa Jo Bezner
Otego and Sand Hill United Methodist, Otego
Rev. Dr. Leonard B. Bjorkman
Retired, Presbyterian Church (USA), Owego
Frederic Chrislip
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Judy A. Gage, CLP
Bovina United Presbyterian Church, Bovina
Rev. Caspar Green
First Baptist Church, Glens Falls
Trustee Ron Guichard
The Presbyterian Church of Andes
Rev. Dr. Janet Adair Hansen
PPAN Moderator, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Rev. Douglas A. Horne
Otego Presbyterian Church
Rev. Betsy Jay
Presbyterian Church (USA), Cooperstown
Rev. Darcey Laine
Unitarian Universalist Church of Athens
and Sheshequin, Pa.; Resident of Ithaca
Paddy Lane
Clerk, Butternuts Friends Meeting (Quaker)
Rev. Thomas Langdon
St. Innocent Orthodox Mission, Oneonta and Otego
Rev. John R. Long
First Presbyterian Church, Buffalo
Rev. Mark Montfort
First Presbyterian Church, Oneonta
Rev. Harry G. Myers
Laurens Presbyterian Church
Rev. Brooke Newell
Upper NY Conference, United Methodist Church
Rev. Randolph Palada
First Baptist Church, Oneonta
Rev. Allen L. Presby
First Presbyterian Church of Delhi
Mother Raphaela and Sisterhood
Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, Otego
Orthodox Church in America
Rev. Elsie Armstrong Rhodes
First Presbyterian Church, Cooperstown
Rev. Sundar R. Samuel
United Methodist Church of Cooperstown
Rev. Eric Santamont
Southside Wesleyan Church, Oneonta
Rev. Craig Schwalenberg
Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta
Dr. Janet Schwengber, CLP
Stamford Presbyterian Church
Rev. Jerald Shave
Liverpool
Elder Barbara Epley-Shuck
Presbytery of Utica
Rev. Teressa M. Sivers
First United Methodist Church, Oneonta
Rev. Dr. Steven R. Swanson
The Presbyterian Church of Andes
Rev. Douglas Taylor
Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Binghamton
Rev. Judith A. Thistle
Director of Chaplaincy Program, Fox Hospital, Oneonta
Pastor, Second Baptist Church, Worcester
Father John Udics
Saints Peter & Paul Orthodox Church
Herkimer (Orthodox Church in America)
Rev. James L. Ulrich
Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian, Old Forge
Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Walton-Leavitt
First United Presbyterian Church, Oneonta
Susan Woodworth
United Methodist Church of Andes
Realty USA VP Vows To Rebuild On Site Of Fire
Within hours of a fire gutting RealtyUSA’s Oneonta headquarters, the regional vice president was vowing it will rise again at 447 Main St.
“We like the location,” said RealtyUSA’s Thad DeMulder. “Traffic count on that road is one of the highest in Oneonta. And it has pretty good parking.”
The building, which DeMulder said he owned jointly with RealtyUSA President Merle Whitehead, caught fire at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3.
After firefighters left the scene, the fire rekindled and broke out again at 4:30 a.m., and that was when most of the damage occurred, DeMulder said.
Fire officials told the realty executive it appeared that one of two young men who lived on the top story of the white, be-pillared former home had tossed a cigaret onto the back porch, starting the blaze.
At first, the company’s 20 Oneonta agents were working out of RealtyUSA offices on Route 28, Hartwick Seminary, and the Sidney office, but a temporary locations was being sought for them in the city.
The office manager, Realtor Brad Vohs and DeMulder planned to meet with the sales agents and staff at Morey’s Restaurant Wednesday morning, March 9, to discuss options.
Most of the current files and some computers were salvaged from the building, but the structure, purchased for $300,000 in 2006, is a “tear-down,” DeMulder said.
The phone number remains the same for customers seeking to contact the agency.
The building was just down the street from 540 Main, where Hartwick professor Norma Hutman died in a blaze last month.
“We like the location,” said RealtyUSA’s Thad DeMulder. “Traffic count on that road is one of the highest in Oneonta. And it has pretty good parking.”
The building, which DeMulder said he owned jointly with RealtyUSA President Merle Whitehead, caught fire at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3.
After firefighters left the scene, the fire rekindled and broke out again at 4:30 a.m., and that was when most of the damage occurred, DeMulder said.
Fire officials told the realty executive it appeared that one of two young men who lived on the top story of the white, be-pillared former home had tossed a cigaret onto the back porch, starting the blaze.
At first, the company’s 20 Oneonta agents were working out of RealtyUSA offices on Route 28, Hartwick Seminary, and the Sidney office, but a temporary locations was being sought for them in the city.
The office manager, Realtor Brad Vohs and DeMulder planned to meet with the sales agents and staff at Morey’s Restaurant Wednesday morning, March 9, to discuss options.
Most of the current files and some computers were salvaged from the building, but the structure, purchased for $300,000 in 2006, is a “tear-down,” DeMulder said.
The phone number remains the same for customers seeking to contact the agency.
The building was just down the street from 540 Main, where Hartwick professor Norma Hutman died in a blaze last month.
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