a success

The Otsego County Conservation Association would like to thank all those who helped make our annual garage and pie sale a big success _ those who generously donated items for us to sell, those who helped with set up, sale day, and breakdown, and those who baked pies.

Many donors expressed gratitude for a convenient means of getting rid of their excess goods, and garage sale shoppers loved our "low, low prices." Homemade pies were so popular that our stock was quickly depleted. We will try to have more available next year.

We are often asked what becomes of the leftovers. Answer: Items not sold are taken to Family Services and the Salvation Army in Oneonta and to the SPCA in Cooperstown. The truly unsalvageable goods go to Otsego Auto Crushers. On two occasions, recent house fire victims have benefited from some of our unsold items.

OCCA organizes the garage sale both to raise funds for our countywide programs and to encourage reuse rather than consumption of manufactured goods, whose production depletes natural resources worldwide. It’s not too early to begin putting things aside for next year’s sale. Donations are tax deductible, so contributing them to OCCA is a plus for the donor, for OCCA, and for the environment in general.

Teresa Winchester

OCCA Assistant Director

Mendelsohn outlines credentials

I am writing to ask for the support of Cherry Valley-Springfield voters in my bid for a seat on the School Board.

I have recently retired after 32 years as an elementary teacher (most of those years at Milford Central School) where I’ve had opportunity to work closely with other educators, students, and parents. I’ve managed the results of varying class sizes and responded to the increase in mandated and unfunded standardized testing.

I know the importance of an open, respectful school environment. Working in a small district that includes a diverse student population, I’ve witnessed the difficulty in attempting to balance a tight budget, the ever expanding state mandates and the need to offer the kind of vital activities that go beyond the basic requirements.

While our sports programs offer a great complement to our school day, I’d like to see us support such programs again as Odyssey of the Mind and Excite: creative, problem solving challenges which were part of CV-S when my own children were there.

Our challenge is to prepare young people with a love of learning and skills to compete in a dynamic job market unimaginable to most of us over 30. Even those many students who choose to stay home in Otsego County may not be competing for jobs with their neighbors down the road, but with workers in India or in Mexico, as high-speed internet connections bring foreign competition. As a Board member, my goal will be to be resourceful in finding ways to maintain the high standards and diverse opportunities needed at a price we can afford.

I thank you for your consideration and remind everyone to come out and vote at the school May 15, noon to 8.

Paul Mendelsohn

Cherry Valley

Bernard answers letter writers

In response to a recent letter by Lynn Marsh and Doug Delong. The recent school budget was defeated. It was mainly because of the county tax increase in January and the fact that the school budget seemed a bit high. The school is only 20 years old and it was built because the old school was too dangerous. Funny it is now the community center. Now getting back to the school, The school was suppose to cost us nearly nothing 20 years ago, SURPRISE! It did cost us a whole lot. So it does make some a little leery about empty promises from the state. I live in New Jersey, a state know for over blown budget and my school taxes are less here with more children in the school system, it makes one question where is the money is spent.

If the turbines were built it would have made things much easier on the town tax burden, but you failed to see those benefits. I do use local business when I can. Larry can tell you who I am. I’ve been in Neil’s hardware store, Nancy’s ice cream shop and her old and new. Flints, I get bread, milk, eggs, mail and gas by Bob’s Corner Store. Gates is my insurance agent, have used the Inner Circle, I do not like the pizza there but I don’t like pizza there if I make it myself it doesn’t taste right, the crust is too mushy.

I don’t drink so I could care less about a liquor store, I have no intentions of selling so I don’t need a realtor, I don’t need a kilt, or anything Celtic right now, I do use the bank, I can cut my own flowers. I will need a headstone and funeral services but I don’t plan on them any time soon. I’ve gotten ice at the mini mart. I attended St. Thomas’s until Fr. Tita left and Sunday services were overwhelming for my son.

But I still support the annual barbeque. I have tried to use the library, and health clinic but their hours were prohibitive, so I ended up in Cooperstown. I have given food to the food bank and baby things to the local baby shower and clothes and house wears to people burned out of their homes, and donated thing to the firemen’s auction when they had those. I buy raffle tickets and cook books supporting local organizations. My daughter and friends love Clough’s nothing like a good old book. I do not eat out much. I can’t give out any reviews, I did enjoy Sally’s and Ma & Pa Kettle’s when they were there.

I have sent friends to the B&Bs and the Coyote Cafe, Rose and Thistle, the Tryon when it was open and the Triangle. Alex and Ika’s was where my in-laws took me for my birthday before my mother-in-law died. Joe Nalli was the lawyer who helped us keep the farm in the family, when my mother in law died.

I have little appreciation of opera, and I am not impressed by it, if I had wanted to listen to opera I would have take the scholarship I won from the Met. I have contributed heavily through corporate sponsorship and sent in dresses for costuming to the Glimmerglass opera. As for the art trail. I find it an eyesore. Short of the mirrored balls in the pond by Glensfoot I think that one is nice. As for groceries you are very limited in town, you really have to go to Cobleskill or Cooperstown for a good grocery store visit. I use to like buying fresh veggies from the local stands but they are getting to be a thing of the past, as is our annual pumpkin purchase from the truck by the school I miss those pumpkins they lasted until spring. You can’t buy lumber, sheet rock, furniture, tractor parts, animal feed and there is no laundry mat in Cherry Valley. Car shows and kite exhibits are nice but they do not feed anyone or keep jobs local. We need more jobs than the hospital, county, school or town can provide.

I read that a nursing home is closing in Cobleskill. It is just another employer going by the wayside, and with the older population moving in we will need that home in 10 to 15 years. The fact that it is one of the only skilled nursing home in the area, it will be a great loss. How many more jobs are to be lost before you recognize we have a problem. How many more subdivisions of farms, before you realize this will effect your water, your lifestyle and your taxes.

No I do not wear "cherry colored" glasses I prefer clear ones. Ones that do not obscure my vision so I can see the reality of now, and plan for the future beyond my lifetime. And yes I pay taxes in Cherry Valley since 1976, my family since 1958 (without a say in local government) Roseboom since 1988 without a say in local government and in New Jersey, and I am getting sick and tired you and yours telling me what I can and can’t do on my property especially when one of your biggest supporters no longer lives here in town. He and his wife live elsewhere supported by New York City and Hollywood, they moved rather than use their resources to fix the school system in Cherry Valley. I am afraid of what the proposed ordinances in Cherry Valley will bring since we have no access to review them, we are not sent a copy of any of these proposals, and Mr. Durkin’s website doesn’t download that information. So we are again gagged in decision making about our property just the way like you like it. Taxation without representation.

Susan Bernard

Cherry Valley

Pay and display

a good idea

I read with interest the report that the Board of Trustees is working to resolve the ever worsening parking problem in the Village. While not exactly a proactive move, it is encouraging that our leaders are finally holding their feet to the fire to resolve this perennial problem. Paid parking, designated loading zones and revenue from tourists are issues whose resolution is long overdue. Residents of the village should welcome this effort because it may help right some of the affronts that they have had to endure for years.

Pay and Display Parking has been used for years in Europe and is now finding favor in this country. It can serve two purposes, automatically limiting time spent in precious downtown parking spaces and raising revenue at the same time. For once villagers will have the same opportunity to park at the bank, drug store and restaurants without having to drive out of town to find and use these same serves.

There is just one part of the proposal that is upsetting. Villagers need to purchase a $125 permit. This may be fair for people living outside the village, but residents who pay village taxes to maintain the streets, among other things, should not have to pay to park on their own property. Residents should be issued residential stickers for their cars and should be allowed to park anywhere it is legal in the village.

This sticker could also serve another purpose. Villagers parking in front of their own homes could be exempt from the two hour parking restriction which is in effect on most of the streets in town.

I feel gratified that perhaps I have prodded the process along with my satirical letter to the editor about parking on Main Street. While the Segway was one of my better ideas, pay and display is much better.

Bob Lettis

Cooperstown

Meat not safe

for us to eat

As if people weren’t panicked enough about the recent Menu Foods pet food recalls, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) now believes that several hundred hogs who may have eaten pet food tainted with melamine have entered the human food supply in three states: California, New York, and South Carolina. Farms in Utah, North Carolina, Kansas, and Oklahoma also received contaminated pet food for use as hog feed. The USDA claims that the danger to humans is low, but it would nevertheless be prudent for people to stop eating pork products.

Even if melamine hasn’t entered the food supply, meat is still not safe to eat. Pork is high in saturated fat and cholesterol and can cause heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancers of the mouth, throat, colon, and stomach. Pork is known to carry staphylococcus, salmonella, listeria, and parasites such as those that cause trichinosis.

Factory-farmed pigs are fed huge amounts of antibiotics and sprayed with pesticides, and scientists believe that meat-eaters’ involuntary consumption of antibiotics has given rise to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The bottom line? Pork is bad news.

But don’t despair if you like the taste of pork. Delicious healthy and humane mock meatsłincluding Smart Dogs, Gardenburger Riblets, Gimme Lean meatless sausage, and Yves Canadian Veggie Bacon, Veggie Deli Slices, and Veggie Pizza Pepperoni Slicesłare available in many supermarkets and health-food stores. See www.GoVeg.com for more information.

Heather Moore

senior writer

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)

Norfolk, Va.