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Roses to the Otsego Land Trust for its continuing efforts to conserve the distinctive rural character of Otsego County through protecting open space, lands of scenic value, fragile ecosystems, farmland and forestlands and to Dorothy Manley, who recently placed a conservation easement on 92 acres on Scotch Hill Road in the Town of Hartwick.
Manley said she decided to place a conservation easement on almost all of her property because of changes she’s witnessed in recent years, as farms have declined, fields have grown up to brush and homes have been built on large lots.
MacKenzie Waro, the Trust’s land protection specialist, cataloged the land’s features, which include fields, woods, the stream a five-acre wetland. Now with the easement in place, Manley can be assured that her property will remain undeveloped for future generations to enjoy, Waro said. Connie Tedesco, a botanist who works for the Land Trust, said Manley’s property is important because the stream wetland contributes to the health of the Otego Creek.
Tedesco noted that Manley’s land is beautiful, as is much of the Scotch Hill Road area.
“The name for this road is right; it has a highland kind of feel,” she said, standing in Manley’s field Thursday morning. “It’s great to think that because of Dorothy’s foresight, this place will still be beautiful years from now.” Roses to Cooperstown resident Jon Manning, whose tongue-in-cheek look at energy conservation was named one of the winners in a state-wide contest to show how to save a lot of energy by switching light bulbs. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), sponsors of the contest, invited New Yorkers to submit videos and essays describing how they cut their energy use by switching to Energy Star qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Manning, who lives on Grove Street in a home filled with CFLs, took an off-beat, somewhat sarcastic look at energy conservation.
``I came up with a character who wants to do the right thing, but doesn’t get it,’’ Manning said.
At one point in the 59-second video, Manning is seen standing with frying pan in hand in front of an electric stove with all four burners glowing bright red.
Manning`s entry, ``More Efficienter,’’ can be seen at http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePZT1R9mU1c&feature=player embedded. Roses to the Springfield 4th of July Committee and all the other volunteers who worked to continue the town’s 96-year tradition of celebrating this county’s independence.
The hometown feel is what contributes to the reason why people return to Springfield each summer to help carry on the tradition.
Our Opinion
Our Opinion: Roses
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Our Opinion: Enjoy the carnival
It does not look like there will be much snow, if any at all for this year’s Cooperstown Winter Carnival. Although many events are weather-dependent, that will not spoil all the festivities. As far as getting out your hats and mittens, you might want to dig them out. At least it does not look like the weather will be as abnormally warm as it has been so far this winter.
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Our Opinion: Roses
Roses to Cooperstown sixth-grader Tom Knight, who once again might have the chance to compete in the state level geography bee. He won his school district’s competition for the second year in a row this year and will be taking a written test to see if he qualifies. One could wish him luck, but Tom said he feels more confident taking the test this time around the now knows what to expect. He also said he feels more comfortable answering questions on paper that out loud in front of an audience.
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Our Opinion: Buying locally is right
We are happy to report this week that buying locally made products appears to be on the upswing in the Cooperstown area. We have long been a proponent of shopping locally. It stimulates the local economy, returns more sales tax to the county and is more environmentally sound. Buying locally made or grown products takes it one step further.
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Our Opinion: Confused much?
As if figuring out one’s tax bill isn’t mind boggling enough. Now, with a two percent limit on property tax increases, there will be more brains flustered. It is not a simple calculation at all. In fact, the tax cap will affect each school district’s levy in various ways. So don’t think you will be able to take your bill from last year and just increase it by two percent. The process uses a much more complex formula eight steps, as a matter of fact.
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Our Opinion: We’ll miss Nicols
Cooperstown Police Chief Diana Nicols will be leaving her job shortly and will be missed by the community. She is being retired by the New York State and Local Retirement System that notified her last week that she is “permanently incapacitated for the performance of duties.” The incapacitation is the result of a knee injury she received in 2008 during a training class.
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Our Opinion: Roses and Raspberries
Roses to Cooperstown Central School graduate Molly Pearlman for putting off her college plans for a year to serve a 10-month term of service in the National Civilian Community Corps, an AmeriCorps program. She said her inspiration to participate in the program came from her father and brother.
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Our Opinion: Looking forward
While many will spend the next few days reminiscing about 2011, we at the Crier are looking forward to next year. We are ready to ring in a new year and look forward to the events to come. Of course there are those events that happen annually such as the Cooperstown Winter Carnival,The Goodyear Polar Bear Jump, the Farmers’ Museum’s Junior Livestock Show, The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Father’s Day Classic and Induction weekend, the Pumpkin Festival and Regatta and many more.
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Our Opinion: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
At this holiday season, we take great pleasure in reprinting one of the classic newspaper editorials of all time − perhaps the best Christmas editorial ever written. It has survived the test of time and seems particularly fitting and poignant this year.
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DEC should not dismiss findings
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the findings in a draft of a new federal report that links hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Wyoming with groundwater pollution. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that pumps millions of gallons of chemically treated water into gas wells to fracture the rock and release the gas.
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Our Opinion: Who would have guessed?
Much has been revealed during the baseball winter meeting in Dallas this past week. The Miami Marlins seem to be in hot pursuit of all the big name players to fill their new stadium, Manny Ramirez announced he would like to return to Major League Basbeall, Pedro Martínez announced he plans to officially retire, elections have been held and it appears former Red Sox manager Terry Francona is swapping places with the franchise’s new manager Bobby Valentine.
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Our Opinion: Enjoy the carnival
