We note that Christ Episcopal Church is once again sponsoring its annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, featuring pancakes, bacon, sausage, applesauce and beverage.
This year it will be held on Feb.21 in the Parish House, 69 Fair Street, from 4:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. The suggested donation for the dinner is $8 for adults and $4 for children under 12. Proceeds from the supper will benefit the Christ Church Global Mission outreach. For more information, contact the church office at 547-9555.
We also want to mention, while on the subject of church suppers and such, that we partook of the First Baptist Church’s Super Sub Sale which was held on Super Bowl Sunday. It was held as a fundraiser for the First Baptist Church Youth Group’s trip to Haiti.
Interestingly enough, when we perused the flyer for the event, which appeared on our front porch, we realized we could have our sub delivered to our door. What a deal! Weimmediately ordered up two subs, one for lunch before the game, and one for supper during the game.
Just before noon, the subs arrived on cue, thanks to a young gentleman who told us he was looking forward to the trip. We wished him well with the fundraising event and then proceeded to gobble down the roast beef sub which we found to be not only most delicious, but also most generous. During the Super Bowl we prepared soup to go with our ham sub, which was equally delicious and generous, only to discover that we had to save half of the sub for Monday as we simply could not eat it all. All in all, we greatly enjoyed our subs and certainly hope that if the church offers such a deal again, we will be able to partake of it then also.
And while we, being football fanatics, enjoy the Super Bowl, especially if it was a good game as it was this year, we were somewhatsurprised to realize that somehow Super Bowl Sunday has been elevated to the level of “holiday.” We find ourselves wondering why, and when, this happened. It seems somewhat of a stretch to us. But if it gets us subs from the First Baptist Church, we think we will go along with it.
We are also somewhat bemused by the Feb. 2 groundhog’s spotting of his shadow and thus predicting six more weeks of winter. We can’t help wondering if he was predicting six more weeks of winter from Feb. 2 or six more weeks of winter from whenever it might seem that winter actually arrives this year. Thus far it seems we have but had small teases of winter weather that have left us, at least, waiting for the real thing. No doubt the answer to our musing will be known by April or maybe May.
However, we were not surprised to read in last week’s paper the village of Cooperstown Board of Trustees isconsidering overriding the so called 2 percent property tax cap. In fact, such a possible decision came as no surprise to us. And after further investigation, we have learned that the village has the same convoluted rules for the property tax cap as does the school district, which makes it most difficult to figure out exactly how much the tax levy can actually increase.
And added to this, we have discovered, is the fact that if any governmental entity miscalculates and does not ultimately fall within the 2 percent allowance, there will be fines which will have to be paid to the state. And, since any such fines would have to be paid by the taxpayers, we find it most ironic that the state would then be hurting the very taxpayers they claim to be wanting to help. To say that we don’t understand it is a huge understatement.
Therefore, we were most amused to discover that while going through columns that we wrote in 1986, we came across this item in the April 30 column: In closing, in these particularly stressful times in the area of village finance, we pass on to those concerned with formulating a village budget for the next fiscal year a practice of William Cooper’s which appears to have been unique for the time and a real boon to the economic growth of the new village. Cooper allowed the settlers here to pay for their land on the installment plan. Now, this hardly seems new to us in these days of monthly payments, but in Cooper’s day such an idea was certainly revolutionary. Cooper also allowed the settlers to make these installment payments with community service or with goods instead of cash.
We hope, those who now guide the affairs of Cooper’s village will remember the good Judge’s practice as they ponder what appears to be a rather hefty tax increase. Some will be willing to pay the increase without much complaining.
For those who find the increase burdensome, might not a payment plan similar to Cooper’s work to the advantage of all? We are sure that many citizens, for their community service, would be willing to repair the nearest pothole by stuffing their village tax bill into said depression thereby solving two problems at once.
About a month later, on May 28th, we added thispostscript: In closing we wish to thank Jack Nevile for an article he sent us from The Sun News in Myrtle Beach which relates to a somewhat unusual method used in Conway, South Carolina, for repairing the ubiquitous potholes. Each year, for the past four years, on “Pothole Saturday” it seems that residents and city officials divide into teams and roam the streets filling the potholes.
This year, 12 teams, with four members per team, filled 1,183 potholes. Last year, the pothole patchers filled 1,237 potholes which saved the city $6,100. Since we enjoyed the article we thought we would pass it on for what it’s worth.
PLEASE NOTE : Comments regarding this column may be made by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com
Columns
In These Otsego Hills: Pancakes, prognostication and potholes
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
Time to bring you up to date on Fly Creek’s happy clambering into Spring. First, the eatery scene. “Is Jerry’s open yet?” The answer is, “Oh, yes!” The porches are freshly stained; the lawns a uniform green, and the hop vines are already climbing the posts on the covered side deck. Blue and I went up there to lunch earlier this week, and I celebrated spring with my traditional bacon, onion and Swiss cheese hamburger. We two sat on the deck, enjoying the broad view and some spectacular clouds marching across, up toward Schuyler Lake.
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In These Otsego Hills: More from 1986 ...
This week we continue with the discussion of telephone service from the pre-dial days. On March 12 we noted that: “No one has yet produced a telephone directory from pre-dial days, but Doug Preston of New Hartford recalls that some business (which one?) in the village had the phone number 7.”
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Home Notes: Celebrations abound at the Thanksgiving Home
April was a month of celebrations and much to appreciate. We had a 90th birthday celebration for Wanda Noyes on April 4 including her family and friends. Personal care staff Dee Bouck worked with residents to hand paint Easter eggs for the tree in the activity room.
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In These Otsego Hills: 1986 continues ...
This week we continue our journey through the columns of 1986 with the answer to the question “for whom, according to tradition, was Hannah’s Hill named?”
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Book Notes: Baseball book features local contributors
Baseball is part of the nation’s fabric. Most kids have a memory of the game either from playing Little League, attending a major league contest or meeting a favorite player. In Cooperstown that feeling is magnified since we are the official home of baseball. We get to see firsthand what has made the sport the national pastime.
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From Fly Creek: Ya really wanna know?
SETTING: Fly Creek General Store. CAST: Assorted seated geezers, drinking coffee. [Door opens, enter heavy-set geezer; walking slowly with wide stance, maybe prostatitis.]
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In These Otsego Hills: Returning to 1986 ...
For the past several years now we have undertaken sharing some of the area’s oral history we have collected over the years that we have written this column. Therefore, this year, we would like to go back to 1986 to share that rather unusual year. Those who were here then no doubt remember that it was that year that the village celebrated the bicentennial of its founding.
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From Fly Creek: For reasons unknowable
[Jim’s reached back to 2002 to share one of his favorite columns.] My father was born as the last century began into a river village in tidewater Maryland. He told me once of a man there in his boyhood who, like so many, made a thin living tonging for oysters in the cold months and, in the hot and humid ones, crabbing and raising vegetables.
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In These Otsego Hills: CCS balancing act ... side two
Last week we shared a number of activities in which students at CCS can participate. We thought it was an impressive, if not overwhelming, list. And we are indeed pleased that the young people of our area have these opportunities. However, we think it is also important to keep in mind that these undertakings do have a cost associated with them. They are not free. In fact there are, no doubt, those who would say they do not come cheap.
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From Fly Creek: A graceful crowd
Make of this what you will, friends. I feel I’m really meant to share it with you. Despite good medication for my Parkinsonism, every four or five weeks I can sensethe symptoms building up on me, giving me more than ordinary trouble. Lately it’s been falls, and last week brought a typical one. I’d gone out to get the paper, moving along with penguin steps on the snowcoved ice patches, and usingmy spike-tipped cane the waya climber uses an ice axe. But circumstances overcame me. Parkinson’s wipes out the possibility of multi-tasking.
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In These Otsego Hills: This and that and the other side ...
We note that the CCS Class of 2012 is presenting its senior class play, “Snow White” by Tim Kelly, this week with performances 7:30 p.m Thursday and Friday, March 29 and 30, and at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31. All performances will be at the Nicolas J. Sterling Auditorium at the Middle/High School.
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In These Otsego Hills: That green thing ...
Of late we have noticed that our email inbox has been much busier than usual. In fact, we find ourselves hard pressed to keep up with all the various messages we receive. As a result we suspect we have not answered some in as timely a fashion as might be thought appropriate.
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From Fly Creek: What you need to know
In their last Sunday’s bulletins, all 84 churches of Otsego County were to have carried announcements of an important meeting; most of them did. But because the announcement is so important, and not just to the churched, here it is again.
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Book Notes: Living the magic of ‘Hoosier’
A lot of people consider “Hoosiers” the best sports film of all time. The 1986 classic follows the exploits of a fictional small town Indiana high school basketball team in 1952 as it attempts to achieve the impossible dream of a state championship. The story is inspired by the true life achievement of the 1954 Milan team, who with an enrollment of only 161 students shocked big city power Muncie Central on a last second shot to win the state title. It’s the kind of sports story that represents something that is hard to grasp unless you live in a small town.
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In These Otsego Hills: The most perfect village... home to heavy industry?
We suspect we would get a whole lot more accomplished if we spent less time thinking, pondering and musing about things. In fact, there is a good possibility we might actually have completed our goal of cleaning the basement if we only focused on the task at hand, instead of trying to figure out the world around us. It almost makes us wonder if it is possible to think too much about things. We certainly hope not because should that be the case, we are in deep trouble.
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Up On Hawthorn Hill: The past in the present
Clichés abound about the value of photographs. Most are probably true at least to a certain extent. What I do know about an image is that it represents something of the past that is not the pastitself. But that is the power of any image. It represents something that once was. The beauty of an image, revisited, is that it functions as a catalystfor reliving in the present a past experience. My own view, one that I thank the Spanish writer Jorge Luis Borges for, is that all we ever can experience is the present.
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Home Notes: Workshops held for Thanksgiving Home residents
We welcomed Linda Keller, Ph.D. of the Bassett Research Institute and Ida Baker of NYCAMH who presented a six-week workshop for residents and staff.
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From Fly Creek: Late-winter hamlet news
Well, at least I’m “guessing” it’s late winter now — in the winter that wasn’t. But, if not snow, I can provide a flurry of Fly Creek news to share with you, scooping Associated Press, Reuter’s, and United Press International, not to mention all local news services except our General Store.
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In These Otsego Hills: Waiting for spring to have sprung ...
Difficult as it to believe, both January and February seem to have flown by and we find ourselves turning the calendar over to the month of March, which we have long thought is one of the more dreary months of the year. Of course, as in the pastthere are signs of spring as reflected by the tapping of the maple trees. For many years, the trees sprouted buckets to capture their all important sap. However, we now know to look for the sap collection lines that are strung from tree to tree.
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Book Notes: Kennedy: a unique individual
It’s been almost 50 years since the Kennedy assassination shocked the nation. Since then much has been written about President John F. Kennedy and whether he would have achieved his destiny (whatever that may have been) if he had lived. It is said he inspired young people in a way that has never been equaled. And there is the notion of Camelot, espoused by his widow Jackie, that there will never be a time of hope and promise like that again.
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
