The Cobleskill Rescue Squad is offering $600 in prizes for the winners in a first-ever essay contest.
Open to all ages, essays are to be on the topic “How Emergency Services Changed My Life.”
And although cash prizes are attractive, the thrust is to get people aware of how important emergency services are.
“Our belief is to get people thinking about their encounters with emergency services,” said Rose Walker, who’s coordinating the contest and is a volunteer with the Cobleskill squad.
“We want to acknowledge that those services, whether non-profit or for-profit, deserve recognition and deserve support.”
Essays must be at least 200 words long, and write ...

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Middleburgh Central School’s 2019 Senior Mural will feature a billboard of highway signs pointing to all of the different directions graduates are headed.
Senior Autumn House, along with coordinator Sophia Soloveitchik, presented the Senior Mural proposal to the school board Wednesday.
The mural will be painted next to the one put up in the cafeteria by the Class of 2018, Autumn said, with the idea that every few years, they’ll be painted over by future senior classes.
The idea behind the 2019 mural, she said, is to show future seniors “what they can be, where they can go,” emphasizing the common ground they share at MCS “but showing them going off in different direc ...

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There’s a new SCRABBLE champion in town.
The team from Games A Plunder turned back challenges from previous winners to take the 11th annual SCRABBLE tournament hosted by Literacy New York––Fulton, Montgomery and Schoharie Counties.
Held Saturday at Radez School in Richmondville, the tournament featured 23 teams, all competing for bragging rights and prize money.
And while green is the color of prize money, it was also the color of the day. Volunteers wore green ‘READ’ tee shirts, and many players wore St. Patrick’s Day garb.
When the letter tiles were boxed at the end, the Games A Plunder’s Michael Willman, April Islip, Brenda All and Melissa Kennison picked ...

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How long does it take to put together a two-day festival?
The Sharon Springs Chamber of Commerce is about to find out.
After learning that Beekman 1802 won’t be sponsoring this year’s Garden Party, the Chamber held an emergency meeting last Tuesday to begin putting together the May 25-26 event.
Initially, the thought was that the Garden Party, which can draw crowds of 6,000, would just be Saturday.
But after hearing from merchants and organizers of past festivals, the Chamber agreed to stick with the two-day format.
“It’s too big, too important to not do,” Chamber President Ron Ketelsen told about a dozen members and volunteers.
“But we just f ...

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Having fun and winning cash are the twin goals of a SCRABBLE tournament this Saturday.
Doors open at 8am at Radez School in Richmondville, and the tournament starts at 9.
Teams can be two to four players, at least 16 years old, and the deadline to sign up is 5pm Thursday.
There will be a warm-up game followed by three SCRABBLE games, all with different rules. Total scores from the three games determine the winners.
The top team wins $200, and the next three win $100 each. One team will be drawn from the remainder, and it will win $100.
There’s also a giant raffle, trivia contests with prizes and a free buffet breakfast provided by Justine’s of Cobles ...

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With a nod to spring, Easter, and egg-headed Presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush, the Schoharie Free Library has an eggs-traordinary month of eggs-citing egg-vents planned for April, beginning with the reopening of the one-of-a-kind Schoharie Easter Egg Museum.
The eggs-cellent fun will include a bedtime reading of Katherine Milhous’ “The Egg Tree,” the story that inspired museum; an Easter egg obstacle relay course at the Schoharie Firehouse, and an Easter egg hunt in Lily Park—to name a few.
All of the eggs-ceptional fun will revolve around the reopening of the Easter Egg Museum weekends in April with admission going to the library.
“It’s going to ...

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The Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave needs…
…you.
The museum is opening its search for volunteers for a variety of duties, from helping school visitors make cornhusk dolls to working in the Nature Park, spreading wood chips on paths, building walkways, and putting out signage.
Volunteers also help with preparing materials for hands-on experiences in the Children’s Museum, stuffing envelopes for mailing, painting walls for new exhibits, or in the online museum shop.
Additionally, volunteers are always needed to help out at museum events.
“We have a small but active group of volunteers, but we want to expand our numbers,” said Christina Hank ...

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Following the popular Seed Swap in late January, the Schoharie County Master Gardeners will begin their 2019 winter-spring workshop season with Make It & Take It – for the Birds, Wednesday, February 20, 10am-noon, at the CCE Extension Center, 173 South Grand Street, in Cobleskill.
Local birder, Chris Keefer, will be on hand to share her passion for all things birding, including identifying backyard birds.
Participants will also have an opportunity to make a hanging suet feeder, a wire whisk of nesting materials, and a feeder from a plastic bottle.
All materials are provided; items created may be taken the same day. All ages are welcome for this fun and informative e ...

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An upcoming genealogy workshop series at the Old Stone Fort Museum will help new and experienced researchers learn to utilize new resources and teach them ways to organize and preserve documents and historic materials at home.
The series will begin on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14 at 7pm with “Love and Marriage,” which will focus on tracking couples and families using clerical and civil records of marriages, marriage licenses, marriage bonds and more.
The workshops will be led by Boston University Certified Genealogist Cathy Adams and Schoharie County Historical Society Trustee Bonnie Dailey, a retired attorney who has been doing genealogy for more than 30 years.

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The Schoharie Valley Concert Band (SVCB) has scheduled two Valentine Pops Concert performances.
The first will be on Friday, February 8 at 7:30pm in the Schoharie High School Auditorium with the repeat concert set for Sunday, February 10 at 3pm in the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School Auditorium.
Both performances are open to the public with no admission charged for students.
On Conductor Martin Zavadil’s Valentine Pops Concerts, Rebecca Schmid will be the featured piano soloist on “Celebre Tanantelle” by Gottschalk.
Ms. Schmid was home-schooled in Schoharie County and studied with blind concert pianist Stephanie Pieck as a teenager.
She grad ...

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Cobleskill will banish the winter blues with a week of activities starting Saturday.
Cobleskill Partnership Inc. is sponsoring the annual Cabin Fever Day this Saturday and is also offering Restaurant Week from Saturday through Sunday the 10th.
An art show follows on February 8-10.
For Cabin Fever Day, the Community Library has cartoons and cereal in the morning. Arts and crafts will be available at The Studio for Art and Craft and also at Games A Plunder.
New this year for Cabin Fever is a scavenger hunt to find Phil the Groundhog. Games A Plunder will have fact sheets, and each business will provide answers for the fact sheets. Players can fill out the fac ...

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For the third time, hundreds are expected to rally in Cobleskill’s Veteran’s Memorial Centre Park Saturday in one of more than 250 sister events to the Women’s March in Washington, DC.
Women’s March Cobleskill will begin at 1pm and is expected to run till about 2:30pm.
Participants are asked to bring signs and a quotation by a woman they admire to share.
There will be speakers and an open mic.
Last year’s event—also a rally and not a march—drew about 450 participants, even more than in 2017, the inaugural year.
All are welcome.
Participants can register online at Actionnetwork.rog/events/women’s-march-cobleskill.
Among the rally’s value ...

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SUNY Cobleskill invites the public to campus for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service, at the College January 21 from 1-9pm.
Service-themed initiatives and activities highlight the day, aimed at giving back and honoring Dr. King and his vision, mission and spirit.
Keynote speaker Jodi Merriday will present “Speak Truth to Power: Trending Topics in Diversity” at 4pm in Bouck Auditorium.
An acclaimed speaker with more than 25 years of higher education experience, Dr. Merriday’s lecture introduces training that cultivates social intelligence and inclusivity, while facilitating open dialogue and equipping attendees with skills to become social justice ambass ...

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Vowing first his love to now-wife Dana Buzon, then pledging to be a local voice in Albany, Chris Tague marked two milestones on January 1:
His wedding and his swearing in.
Schoharie County Judge George Bartlett performed both ceremonies and Rev. Bert Mayne blessed the marriage in front of a crowd of several hundred family, friends, and supporters in SUNY Cobleskill’s ballroom last Tuesday.
They’re all one and the same, said Mr. Tague, so it only made sense to hold the events back-to-back and really kick off 2019 in style.
The wedding was a traditional affair—“The ladies are running late,” Greene County GOP Chairman Brent Bogardus told the crowd to laughter—wi ...

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Jessie Ravage, a preservation specialist, will give a talk on how the Town of Jefferson developed based on her research of buildings in the hamlet, at 2pm on Sunday, January 13, in the former Masonic Hall, 163 Main Street.
Ms. Ravage recently conducted an Intensive Level Survey of Jefferson’s hamlet, which could become a Historic District and be listed on the State’s Register of Historic Places.
The study was commissioned by the Jefferson Historical Society, and paid for in part with a grant from the Preservation League of New York.
Ms. Ravage will discuss how economic factors determined the town’s growth and dictated the style of its buildings.
Since ...

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The Schoharie Handbell Ringers will present an Epiphany Concert on Saturday, January 5, at the Schoharie United Presbyterian Church at 3 pm to close out the holiday season.
Epiphany is celebrated 12 days after Christmas when Christians recall the time the Wise Men (also called the Three Kings) visited Jesus.
The program will include pieces entitled “Grace and Solitude” by composer Bob Burroughs and movements from “Cymbala”, an original composition by Schoharie Valley Concert Band principal oboist Diane Baltazar, played by Schoharie Ringers at the 2018 Schoharie Valley Concert Band Christmas Concert.
The Schoharie Ringers is an ecumenical choir led by SaraJane Cipper ...

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The shopping is done (we hope) and Santa’s warming up his sled.
Now, we need one more thing from our Times-Journal readers before the holidays:
Nominations for the 2018 Star.
And the clock is ticking.
Deadline for nominations is 5pm Friday, December 21 and they can be made in a variety of ways:
--Email them to tjournalnews@yahoo.com and put TJ Star in the subject line.
--By phone, (518) 234-2515.
--By fax, (518) 234-7898.
--By mail, PO Box 339, Cobleskill, NY 12043.
Nominations should include the name of the person being nominated and why he or she deserves to be the 2018 T-J Star.
Include the name of the person ...

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Sharon Springs could be getting not just one, but two places for wintertime skating.
With the goal of getting both kids and adults outdoors throughout the long months of winter, the Sharon Springs American Legion is working on skating projects on both Bowmaker’s Pond and behind the Sharon Springs Free Library.
The Bowmaker’s project would be the simplest to pull off, said Tony Desmond, one of those behind it: It would just involve shoveling off the south end of the popular Route 10 fishing spot.
“Nothing big,” Mr. Desmond told Supervisor Sandy Manko and councilmen Thursday as he explained the project.
“We’ll just shovel it off and then put rope or tape across ...

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In the summer of 1972, a young man from Cobleskill was traveling to Western New York.
On his hand was the 1971 shiny class ring his parents had carefully saved $100 to purchase for him.
He stopped at a diner in Elma (east of Buffalo and Lackawanna), went into the bathroom and removed the ring to wash his hands…and walked out, leaving the class ring behind on the sink.
Several miles down the road he realized what happened, hurried back to the diner to retrieve the ring, but it was gone.
Forty-six years later, in August 2018, Steve Burch of Freedom, was going through his father’s belongings after his recent death when he came across a scarcely-worn class rin ...

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Local Christmas celebrations continue with a parade, tree lighting, music and more.
Middleburgh’s Miracle on Main Street and Sharon Springs’ Parade of Lights, both Friday, will kick off three days of festivities.
Middleburgh’s 20th annual Miracle will run from 5:30-8:30pm with extended store hours, tastings, and treats.
Along Main Street, there will be caroling and musicians, a sound and light show, stilt dancers, photos with Santa in the library, and a chance to visit with local wildlife, farm animals and reindeer.
Kid activities will include pony rides, an Elves Workshop, writing letters to Santa, and a visit from the Grinch.
Non-profit groups will be se ...

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Schoharie and Cobleskill are welcoming Christmas in a big way with a full lineup of events this week.

Schoharie
The Schoharie Fire Department and Schoharie Kiwanis Club are sponsoring “Christmas in Schoharie” all day Saturday.
The Old Stone Fort and the Palatine House Museum are also joining in the holiday fun.
Breakfast with Santa will be at the Schoharie Firehouse, 8am-noon, with crafts and contests for kids.
From 1-3pm, there will be a chili and soup cook-off contest. Anyone can enter but must bring recipes.
Santa will be reading “A Christmas Story” at 2pm.
Schoharie’s holiday parade will start at the north end of the villag ...

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The Community Christmas Chorus is making preparations to hold rehearsals for its bi-ennial performance of G.F. Handel’s Oratorio “Messiah.”
The performance will be held on Sunday, December 16 at 4pm in the Zion Lutheran Church, 615 Main Street, Cobleskill.
Rehearsals are slated to begin on Sunday, November 11 in the Zion Lutheran Church from 7-8:30pm.
The “Messiah” has a long and rich history dating back to its creation in 1741 when the complete oratorio was composed in just 24 days.
It was first performed at a concert for charitable purposes in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1742 with Handel himself conducting.
Many of the choruses in the oratori ...

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The Middleburgh Rotary Club will hold its 27th annual Fall Festival this Saturday with the Timothy Murphy 10K, a parade, arts and crafts, and more.
The 35th annual Tim Murphy 10K Run/Walk will kick off the fun at 9am.
An 8:15am bus will take runners only from the high school to the starting line at Max V. Shaul State Park with free parking at the school and adjacent municipal parking lot all day.
For more information on the race, contact Rachel Hamm at (518) 705-4008 or rchel.hamm@scarylegrunners.com.
This year’s parade theme is “Thank you, Emergency Service Providers.”
Lineup will be at 10am at the Middleburgh Elementary School, with the parade moving ...

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Homecoming welcomed not only alumni but also new features at SUNY Cobleskill over the weekend.
Students, faculty, administrators and officials cut the ribbon on the Carriage House Café and General Store Saturday morning.
The café, on the ag side of the campus, offers local produce, items made on campus and a variety of other goods.
Speaking before the ribbon-cutting, Ag Professor Jason Evans praised the college’s facilities staff and administration for their help with the café.
“This will be a learning lab for students as they partner with local producers,” Dr. Evans said. “We’re really excited about this project.”
College President Marion T ...

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The Old Stone Fort in Schoharie will celebrate all eras of the past at its History Fair this Saturday and Sunday.
Exhibits, programs and demonstrations will run 10am-5pm on Saturday and noon-5pm on Sunday.
The History Fair began alternating with Stone Fort Days––a Revolutionary War demo––about 12 years ago as a way to more deeply examine other aspects of history.
“We’re known for our military re-enactments,” said Old Stone Fort Museum Director Carle Kopecky.
“But history takes many forms––collecting, restoration, research, genealogy. The purpose here is to celebrate people who are enthusiastic about history.”
More subtly, the Fair is also a recruiting ...

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If you know your contemporary poets, you’ll immediately recognize the all-star lineup for the 2018 Sharon Springs Poetry Festival.
And if the only poets you can name are the ones you studied in high school?
Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson or Robert Frost maybe?
Don’t worry.
The second annual Klinkhart Hall Arts Center event has you covered too.
This year’s Poetry Festival will run from Friday, October 19-Saturday, October 20, with events both at Sharon Springs Central School and the Sharon Springs Free Library.
In addition to a free poetry reading and workshops, there will be poetry discussions, a “conversation” with 2001-2003 Poet Laureate B ...

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Gone for months, the Park Theatre sign may be back as a Cobleskill landmark if there’s enough public support.
And even public support may not do it.
Questions abound about what many consider part of Cobleskill’s history: Whether theatre owner Tom Nigro wants it back, the restoration cost, who’ll be responsible for liability and maintenance, and where it will stand.
Tim Snyder, a board member for the downtown advocacy group Cobleskill Partnership Inc., suggested restoring the sign as a CPI project.
Mr. Nigro said he had the sign, then in poor condition, taken down in late May after “a windstorm had it swaying back and forth.”
And although the sign st ...

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The Hall of Flags at Cobleskill-Richmondville High School will be the Blair Hartman Hall of Flags.
C-R school board members agreed to the change Monday night after hearing a request from Cobleskill Rotarians.
A math teacher for more than 30 years and a Rotarian almost as long, Mr. Hartman died in 2016.
“This is someone we dearly want to honor,” said Bonnie Tryon, a retired C-R administrator and years ago, one of Mr. Hartman’s students.
Ms. Tryon, also a Rotarian, said Mr. Hartman was the “go-to teacher” for students but also a dedicated Rotarian who cared about the community.
“Rotary misses him, the school misses him and the community misses him,” she ...

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Clyde Slocum likely smiled when he spotted the big ‘C’ on the basketball jersey.
The Cobleskill High School principal, along with three other men, had traveled to New York City by truck to salvage a big sports mural.
It was late fall of 1940, and the World’s Fair, having just ended its two-year run, was being dismantled.
In April 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had opened the fair, featuring Albert Einstein, Babe Ruth, Queen Elizabeth and seven-foot smoking robot Elektro the Moto-Man.
A time capsule designed by Westinghouse to last 5,000 years was buried 50 feet underground to be opened in the year 6939.
With its iconic Trylon and Perisphere—61 ...

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The 1st annual Cherie Stevens Random Acts of Kindness Day will be held on her birthday, Sunday, September 9, 2-5pm, in Cobleskill’s Nick Iorio Park.
Ms, Stevens died in June and will be remembered for a life of service to the community, especially through Marathon for a Better Life.
Participants are encouraged to wear their Marathon t-shirts and then go out in the community and do random acts of kindness.
Afterwards, there will be music by the Hot Pots and Liam Connors, cupcakes, games and novelties, a birthday cake, Gaige’s French fries, and food, friendship and community at NicK Iorio Park.
The event is sponsored by Marathon for a Better Life.
For mo ...

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The 37th annual Iroquois Indian Festival will feature crafts culture and more this weekend.
Held at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, the festival is open 10am to 5pm Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday’s lineup:
•10am, Festival and art market opens with traditional and innovative works from Iroquois artists.
•11am, Sky Dancers from Ontario will perform social dances, including some with audience participation.
•Noon, Perry Ground, who’s the emcee for the festival, will tell generations-old Iroquois stories.
•1pm, Stone-carving demonstration by Noel Chrisjohn Benson.
•2pm, Special thank you to museum trustee Larry Joyce, who served on ...

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What do Luciano Pavarotti Placido Domingo, and Beverly Sills all have in common?
They’re all “singing” at the Sharon Springs Free Library thanks to a long-distance friendship and an Opera Club that now boasts more than 3,000 CDS, 300 movies, seven statues and a lifetime’s worth of opera posters and other memorabilia.
Since April, Pam and Mike Luby of Sharon have been working to create the William Maher Opera Club and collection at the library.
Ms. Luby is the library’s treasurer; her husband sang 28 summers with Glimmerglass Opera.
Mr. Maher was a longtime opera fan who grew up in Brooklyn and retired to Warrensburg with his wife, Rosemary, bringing his passio ...

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The Esperance Historical Society will host art historian William Coleman for a free program on Thomas Cole and his time spent at Featherstonhaugh Park painting scenes of Esperance and Duanesburg on September 1 at 1pm at the Old Stone Presbyterian Church on Church Street.
Following the program, guests are invited to enjoy refreshments at the Esperance Historical Museum next door and see a recently acquired reproduction of Mr. Cole’s “View on the Schoharie,” looking down on the Village of Esperance, as well as a collection of local art and folk art.
Mr. Cole is considered the father of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, and in the mid-1820s, he spent time in Esperan ...

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Dodging raindrops nearly every day, the 142nd Sunshine Fair still lived up to its name of Schoharie County fun.
Six days of farm animals, rides, exhibits, music, circus acts, racing pigs, tractor pulls and demolition derbies gave Fair-goers plenty of options to enjoy themselves.
As always, the T-J put in time on the Fairgrounds; here’s a sampling on photos. Lots more are in this week’s paper.
Also, five lucky readers are winners in T-J’s first-ever subscription raffle at the Fair.
Winners of a year’s subscription to the T-J are:
•Sarah Hunt, Middleburgh.
•Nadine Panarese, Cobleskill.
•Thomas Price, Schoharie.
•Christine Smith, W ...

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The naysayers said it couldn’t be done, that it shouldn’t be done, that it was irreplaceable and so had no value.
But Friday, the Town of Blenheim put all of that to rest when it cut the ribbon on 2018’s version of the 160-year-old Blenheim Bridge.
About 50 people turned out to mark the event; their celebration was captured on film by Windfall Films UK, which has been documenting the rebuilding of the bridge for a PBS “Nova” segment.
FEMA originally said no to replacing the longest single-span covered bridge in the country—a cornerstone to the town’s plans for flood recovery—but finally relented, footing the entire $5.8 million cost of the project.
Bill Cherry ...

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The Hartley Family will perform at Middleburgh United Methodist Church August 10 at 7pm.
This is the third appearance for this free family-friendly concert featuring gospel bluegrass music.
The Hartley Family of Arkansas started learning to play bluegrass music in 2003 wanting to do something together as a family.
A year later, they started getting invitations to play at churches, festivals and other events.
By 2007, they were traveling to places as far away as upstate New York.
In 2012, three of the Hartley children moved away from home and were too busy to make it to shows. That left their parents – Tom and Deb – and their two youngest kids.
...

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A new footbridge deep in the woods at Mine Kill State Park removes one of the last danger spots of the popular Long Path.
Officials from the New York Power Authority, State Parks and Schoharie County gathered at the park on the Blenheim-Gilboa town line Friday afternoon to celebrate the new bridge’s opening.
NYPA completed the bridge last year, and Friday’s event made it official.
The footbridge, about 40 feet long, crosses Pigeon Creek on the 358-mile Long Path, which starts in Manhattan and ends at Thacher Park in Albany County.
“We’re deeply appreciative of the Power Authority,” said Mark Traver, president of the Long Path North Hiking Club.
“This w ...

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The Schoharie County Historical Society Summer Lecture Series will continue on Thursday, July 26 at 7pm with “Reconstructing Cobleskill,” presented by local author and historian Peter Lindemann.
Through the use of film and photos, Mr. Lindemann will explore the intersection of a mysterious old film and a lost notebook, set to the music of the big bands.
The film clips have been taken from a “main street movie,” which was shot during the week of August 12, 1940 in Cobleskill and the surrounding area by a film crew from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The film was presented twice the following week in the Cobleskill High School Auditorium by the Exchange Club.
Some of ...

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Jackson VanDerwerken, a 2018 graduate of Schoharie High School, is portraying Nephi, a central figure in the new Book of Mormon Video Library produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and scheduled for release in 2018.
Jackson’s acting experience began in fourth grade with a role as the child lead in SCS’s production of “Ragtime.”
“At that age, the rehearsal schedule and the late nights were demanding and exhausting, but I loved seeing how my performance could affect others and make them feel,” Jackson said.
He went on to do community theater at the Timothy Murphy Playhouse in Middleburgh playing roles such as Willy Wonka, the Mad Hatter, and Iago in ...

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We should all be as inspired—or inspiring—as Middleburgh author Isabel Skowfoe.
Her “Sabrina Banner, The Soul of a Sorcerer, Book One” is available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon, she’s already working on Book Two in what she envisions as a trilogy, and she’s only 16.
Isabel, who’ll be a junior at Middleburgh Central School, has been reading and now writing most of her life, beginning like a lot of young authors with what’s called fan fic—stories written by fans of and about popular fictional characters and usually shared online—typed in on her phone.
The more she wrote there, though, the more she wanted to “own” her own stories, and after cutting and pasting and ...

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The 2018-19 school year is one of anniversaries for Cobleskill-Richmondville.
It’s the 50th anniversary of the football team and the 20th anniversary of the high school.
But the biggest––and probably the most important––is the 25th anniversary of the Cobleskill and Richmondville districts merging.
Plans are still in the making for the merger anniversary, and a committee working on it decided that the observance will be a year-long celebration rather than one event.
That the celebration will last all year is appropriate, because the build-up to the merger itself took a year. It was a contentious issue, and many in both districts felt their schools should be di ...

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Celebrations all across Schoharie County will observe Independence Day tomorrow, July 4.
One event will be in Sharon Springs, two are set for Cobleskill on is in Gilboa and a fifth will be at the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie.
The Sharon Springs celebration will come first, with entertainment starting at 9am and a parade at 10am.
The parade, whose theme is Music of America, will start at Dairyland on Route 20, march west to Chestnut Street and end at the athletic field off Chestnut.
Route 20 will be closed in both directions from 9:45 to 10:45. There will be detours for traffic.
After the parade, there will be a chicken and rib barbecue and entertainmen ...

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Celebrations all across Schoharie County will observe Independence Day next Wednesday, July 4.
One event will be in Sharon Springs, two are set for Cobleskill and a fourth will be at the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie.
The Sharon Springs celebration will come first, with entertainment starting at 9am and a parade at 10am.
The parade, whose theme is Music of America, will start at Dairyland on Route 20, march west to Chestnut Street and end at the athletic field off Chestnut.
After the parade, there will be a chicken and rib barbecue and entertainment at Sharon Springs Central School.
The Old Stone Fort will host living history activities, including readin ...

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The Gas Up will roar for the 51st time for the next two weekends.
The Gas Up features working steam, gasoline and oil engines at the Gas Up grounds on Murphy Road off Route 443 towards Gallupville.
Old-time engines will do wood sawing, water pumping, shingle sawing, stone crushing and more.
A Frick saw mill, drag saws, a steam crane, steam tractors, antique military vehicles and automobiles, along with antique trucks, tractors and marine engines will be on the grounds.
There will be a parade of antique equipment both Sundays at 2pm.
Barbecue Delight will cater the Gas Up, and there will be home-made ice cream.
There is free admission and free p ...

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Unless you saved a copy of the September 9, 1981 Times-Journal, or know someone who knows someone, or you’ve driven past the small green road sign at the bottom of a long driveway off the Carlisle Road, you wouldn’t know it was there:
The Full-Tan Sun Club, a family-oriented nudist campground where everyone’s welcome; just leave your clothes at the gate.
Full-Tan is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2018 and though it’s come a long way from what Richard and Marie Roberts began in 1968, there’s also a lot about it that remains the same.
“I’ve never liked wearing clothes—even when I was a kid,” said 80-year-old Norm Varin, who with his wife Evelyn Freer, started goin ...

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Richmondville will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its water wheel—rain or shine—beginning this Friday with the 2018 Richmondville Days.
Friday, the Richmondville Fire Department will serve chicken BBQ dinners at the firehouse from 4pm till gone, followed by Summer Soccer Registration at the Municipal Building from 5-7pm.
Saturday, all day, there will be raffles, food vendors, music, historical events, bus tours, yard sales, dunking booth fun, and more.
Also Saturday:
• 7-9:30am--Pancake breakfast at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
• 10am—Parade; lineup at Mill Street at 9am. This year’s theme: “Keep the Wheel Turning.”
• TREP$ Marketplace in th ...

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Local communities are gearing up to mark Memorial Day.
Events include the following:

Schohoharie
Schoharie’s American Legion will kick off Memorial Day celebrations Thursday with a 6:30pm parade featuring patriotic music and floats, followed by a short ceremony at Veteran’s Park, located on the corner of Main and Spring Streets.
After that there will be Grand Marshal presentations and prizes will be awarded to parade winners.
The parade’s 2018 Grand Marshal is the Esperance Fire Department, which is celebrating its 200 year.

Middleburgh
The Middleburgh American Legion will hold ceremonies at 10am Monday in Veterans Park on Rou ...

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Hundreds of runners will step out in memory of Kayla Urrey May 25 in Middleburgh.
Sponsored by the Middleburgh Rotary Club, the Sloughter 5K this year benefits the Center for Donation and Transplant, a special facility for the Urrey family.
“We always try to help a worthy cause, and this is a great one,” said 5K organizer Steve Hoerz.
“Kayla was such a wonderful young person in Middleburgh.”
Ms. Urrey was a 2011 Middleburgh grad and was seeking her nursing degree when she suffered a pulmonary embolism and died suddenly in March 2016.
Earlier, the 22-year-old had attended a health fair and learned about organ and tissue donation. Ms. Urrey decided that ...

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Even if you’re not man—or woman—enough to strap on 50 pounds of gear, you’ll want to be there to cheer on those who are when the 2018 Run 4 the Hills for First Responders takes to the hills of Sharon Springs at 9am Saturday.
The race starts and finishes at the American Hotel.
Packet pick-up and race registration is Friday from 3-6pm at the American and if you’re still deciding if you’re up to the challenge, 7:30-8:30am Saturday.
You don’t have to wear rescue, fire department or law enforcement gear to run; “regular runners” are welcome to join the four-mile walk-run too and at last count, about 400 people had already registered for the event.
Of them, there ar ...

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Not so slowly anymore, things are moving into place for the Blenheim Bridge.
Last Wednesday, crews began jacking the reconstructed bridge onto large dollies, and by Friday, they’d used hydraulics to slowly move the massive structure toward and then onto a temporary structure over the Schoharie Creek.
Now, the bridge will gradually be jacked up to the awaiting abutments and carefully eased onto reinforced concrete supports.
Anyone interested in watching the process, which is being filmed by a TV crew from Great Britain as part of a PBS documentary to be aired after the project’s completion, is asked to watch from a safe location and to not block traffic on Route 30 or ...

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If you close your eyes when you walk through the front door of Middleburgh’s 1884 Best House, it’s not hard to imagine it as a bustling home and doctor’s office with the sound of piano lessons going on on one side of the pocket doors and straight ahead, Dr. Christopher Best, or in later years, his son, Duncan, treating patients--or in the room beyond, the kitchen, performing emergency surgery on the zinc-topped kitchen table.
Duncan Best, who is fondly remembered by many of Middleburgh’s residents--snapshots taken not that long ago show him waving a top hat from a parade float--bequeathed the Italianate Victorian his family called home for more than a century to the Middleburgh Libra ...

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The Schoharie ARC is accepting applications for the Jean Emerson Scholarship to provide financial assistance to Schoharie County residents enrolled in an accredited college or university in the human services fields.
Two scholarships of up to $1,000 per academic year will be awarded annually to individuals who plan to pursue or continue their career in providing care, education or assistance to people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.
Eligible candidates must be accepted into an accredited college or university or be presently enrolled in an accredited college or university. The scholarship will be prorated for students who are attending school part tim ...

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The Scrabble Rousers were big winners Saturday, and so was Literacy New York.
The Scrabble Rousers fended off all comers in winning the 10th annual SCRABBLE tournament hosted by Literacy New York––Fulton, Montgomery and Schoharie Counties.
Held at Radez School in Richmondville, the tournament included 26 teams, all vying to finish in the money and many sporting green for St. Patrick’s Day.
Literacy New York finished in the money, too. The organization, which teaches reading skills to adults, raised nearly $16,000 for its programs.
The four-person Scrabble Rousers––Robin Suits, Helen Suits, Tracy Robbins and Christina Suits––took home medals and the $200 first ...

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Seventy-five representatives from Schoharie County’s tourism trenches gathered at SUNY Cobleskill for Tourism Summit 2018 Monday.
Their goal?
Finding ways to make the most of a list of local strengths so lengthy it makes you wonder why anyone would visit—or live—anywhere else.
“The object here is to hear from people in the trenches,” said SUNY Cobleskill’s Jason Evans, in welcoming the crowd.
“We’re all starting out with the same thing: A love of this place. Next we need to figure out the best way to work collaboratively.”
Chris Guldner, chairman of the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce’s Tourism Committee, said they’re in the process of developing ...

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Mark these dates:
January 19, 1958 and February 5, 2018.
Those are the beginning and end dates of Gerry Mickle’s 60-year employment at the Times-Journal.
Longtime manager of the commercial printing operation, Mr. Mickle was still active though working part-time the past few years.
“He always did a good job and took pride in his work,” said Publisher Jim Poole. “Gerry had tremendous institutional knowledge of the print trade.”
Mr. Poole is the fourth publisher Mr. Mickle worked for. Charles L. Ryder, who bought The Cobleskill Times in 1919, hired him in 1958.
Mr. Mickle had been laid off at Fenimore Fabrics in Cobleskill, and with his wife, Je ...

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The Schoharie Reformed Church is all the way back from Hurricane Irene.
And the Main Street church is also all the way back from a multitude of structural problems revealed by the 2011 flooding.
The congregation celebrated their church’s recovery with a two-day rededication over the weekend complete with a special worship service, an organ recital and tours to show the finished work.
It was such a project––massive repairs from the foundation to the belfry––that it deserved a two-day celebration.
“Everyone is very proud of the work they’ve accomplished,” said Pastor Sherri Meyer-Veen.
Like most buildings in Schoharie, the Reformed Church suffered floodi ...

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History is getting remade in Blenheim.
Seven years after floodwaters from Hurricane Irene carried the 160-year-old Blenheim Bridge away, contractors are putting the finishing pieces on a look-alike replacement.
Stan Graton of Stan Graton II 3G Construction, the firm hired to rebuild the bridge, said Wednesday that once the temporary supports are in place—something that’s likely another two or three weeks away—the bridge will be ready to roll.
Literally.
Crews for Economy Paving, the general contractors hired by GPI Engineers for the project and also at work Wednesday on the east of the creek, will use a large mechanical dolly to roll the bridge onto a temporar ...

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Drivers on Interstate 88 in Schoharie County may have noticed that a barn along the highway is sporting an attractive new quilt board.
Quilt boards, a form of folk art in which a quilt pattern is painted on the side of a barn, can be spotted along the popular Schoharie County Quilt Barn Trail.
The new quilt board reads: “Respect for All,” and its presence signals a movement emerging in the county.
In 2016, local resident Glen Sanders introduced a resolution “Encouraging Respect for All” before the Schoharie County Board of Supervisors.
It passed on February 17, 2017.
Since then, school officials in Cobleskill-Richmondville and Sharon Springs have issue ...

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Twenty years ago, in the February 25, 1998 Times-Journal, Beulah Waid of Sharon shared some her memories of one of the worst snowstorms ever to hit Schoharie County on February 3, 1958.
On the storm’s 40th anniversary, and with a couple of months more to go till spring, no matter what the groundhog claims, we thought her account was worth sharing again.

By Beulah Waid
The Storm of 1958, February 3 to be exact, we lived in the Town of Carlisle of VanDerwerken Road just about a mile off Route 20.
We decided to head to Cobleskill to get some groceries as we heard we were headed for a big snowstorm.
And needless to say, it was.
With our fi ...

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What Central Bridge really needs is a community center.
But who will use it?
Where will it be?
And how will such an ambitious project be funded—and then maintained?
Those are some of the questions about a dozen people spent two hours Sunday brainstorming the answers to.
Developing some sort of community center in Central Bridge was one of the pieces of a successful grant SALT wrote to help breathe jobs and life back into the once-thriving community.
It’s also come up again and again in the series of meetings SALT, and consultants Laberge Engineering Architecture and Group Surveying Planning have been holding with residents beginning last fall, ...

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The Schoharie Valley Concert Band (SVCB) has scheduled two Valentine Pops Concert performances.
The first is on Friday, February 9 at 7:30pm in the Schoharie High School Auditorium with the repeat concert set for Sunday, February 11 at 3pm in the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School Auditorium.
Both performances are open to the public with no admission charge for students.
If you like pops music, you won’t want to miss Conductor Martin Zavadil’s Valentine Pops Concert, which opens with the fast-paced and high-energy blockbuster “Bright Lights!” by Robert Sheldon.
Chelsea Gentner, the Cobleskill-Richmondville Middle School and High School choral director, will be the V ...

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As part of its efforts in Central Bridge, SALT is hosting a pair of community meetings there Sunday and Monday to gather ideas that could be used to develop community programs in the Schoharie and Esperance hamlet.
All ages are welcome, but youth and senior citizens are especially encouraged to come and share their ideas for additional programs or a community center or space.
Refreshments will be provided.
Meetings will be held:
• Sunday, February 11, 3-5:30pm, at the Central Bridge Fire Department, 137 South Main Street.
• Monday, February 12, 5:30-7pm, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 21 Church Street.
Fore more information ...

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Another year, another march.
But this time, organizers of the Women’s March II are bringing music, speakers, and giant puppets to their Saturday, January 20 event in Cobleskill’s Centre Park, as well as a new theme:
Persist.
The event--a rally--will run from 1-3pm and will mark the one-year anniversary of one of the largest-ever demonstrations both nationally and in Cobleskill, where 350 people turned out to support women’s rights and issues the day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated.
Several local groups formed in the wake of the 2017 rally and marchers are now working to organize the Women’s March II and they’re optimistic the family-friendly event ...

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With the holiday season over and winter promising to be around for a while, the Depot Lane Singers are offering interested singers the opportunity to escape “cabin fever” as they begin to practice for their spring concerts.
Not only is getting off the couch good for everyone, the experience of singing in a choir has been proven to be beneficial to a healthy body and sound mind.
The Depot Lane Singers are a community chorus of 60-70 members. Although they are based in Schoharie, they have participating membership from Albany, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Schoharie counties.
Rehearsals for the spring concert programs will begin on Tuesday, January ...

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Even though the thermometer registered zero outside on Friday, Cobleskill-Richmondville’s Golding School when ahead with Winter Olympics anyway.
Inside, of course.
The Olympics pitted sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade teams against one another in a range of events, from an obstacle course in the gym to digital games in the cafeteria to chess in the library.
Eight-graders won the honors this year, with sixth-grade placing second and seventh-grade third.
The Olympics were originally scheduled for the last day before the Christmas break. Poor weather cancelled school, however, so the games were moved to Friday.


...

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Only in Schoharie County—and maybe only in Gallupville—would a man born in 1910, who never went beyond the 10th grade, provide the inspiration for an effort, 100 years later, to continue restoring an 1872 hotel—and maybe with it, the community.
The man is Chester Zimmer, a lifelong Gallupville resident, farmer, collector of Early Americana, and a self-taught historian.
About six years before his death, Mr. Zimmer, who was beloved by just about everyone who knew him, taped a series of interviews about his life in Gallupville with longtime friend, the Rev. Bob Smith.
Chris Claus, who grew up across Route 443 from Mr. Zimmer and also counts him as a lifelong friend, was ...

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Mary Lou Garrett is the epitome of Schoharie County caring.
Like many in the area, she volunteers for fine causes. But Ms. Garrett also demonstrates a caring nature in her professional life, daily life, all her life, for us two-legged folks and those with four legs.
That’s why Ms. Garrett, who lives in Cobleskill, is the 2017 Times-Journal Star.
“Mary Lou doesn’t crow about her achievements––not at all,” said T-J Editor Patsy Nicosia, who’s organized the Star project for 26 years.
“I think people will be amazed at what she’s done and is still doing.”
Ms. Garrett is probably best known for two causes: the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley and the Cob ...

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Resist is now persist.
And as the one-year anniversary of the Women’s March on Washington nears, positive action groups based in Middleburgh and Cherry Valley are coming together for the Women’s March II, Saturday, January 20 in Cobleskill.
Thursday, more than a dozen volunteers from both groups got together at the Green Wolf in Middleburgh—many of them meeting for the first time—to work on banners, pink “pussy” hats, posters, and oversized puppets.
The 2016 Women’s March drew an estimated two million people worldwide and about 350 to Cobleskill, rallying as a way to draw attention to President Donald Trump’s comments on women, the environment, LGBT rights, and more.< ...

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New York State DEC has officially acquired Vroman’s Nose.
The 139-acre parcel, located in the Town of Fulton, was donated to the state by the Vroman’s Nose Preservation Corporation.
“Vroman’s Nose is a local jewel that contains a portion of the Long Path trail, sweeping views of the Schoharie Valley, nesting peregrine falcons, and a unique geology that make it one of the most recognizable landscapes in the area,” said DEC Regional Director Keith Goertz.
“DEC appreciates the exceptional stewardship of the property undertaken by the VNPC and their generosity in donating this iconic land to the state.”
The recorded history of Vroman’s Nose goes back to the foundi ...

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Cobleskill-Richmondville students who need the most basic items––deodorant, shampoo, clothes––can get them at the high school.
The place to go is ‘Reinvented,’ right across from the library on the ground floor. Reinvented has everything from pencils to overcoats and boots, plus hygiene items. . .pretty much anything a teenaged student would need.
And everything is free.
The store is the brainchild of Danielle Hay, who coordinates C-R’s STRIVE program, and Kristin Komarinski, a guidance counselor.
Both are involved with the district’s Strategic Plan and serve on the At-Risk Committee, which aims to help kids who might not come to school.
And although t ...

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Kind words and awards came Joe Kenyon’s way in Worcester Saturday afternoon.
With friends and family looking on, Mr. Kenyon received the Community Service Award from the Iroquois Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the DAR’s annual ceremony.
Mr. Kenyon attended the event thinking that his younger brother would receive an award and was surprised when he was the guest of honor.
Speakers highlighted Mr. Kenyon’s many contributions to Worcester, including his efforts to continue Memorial Day observances every May.
“You’ve given so much for so long, it’s impossible not to say ‘thank you,’ ” said Melinda McTaggert of the DAR.
Larry Bobnick, for ...

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We need a Star.
So put your Christmas shopping and decorating on hold and pull on your thinking cap.
Then let us know who deserves the honor of being named the 2017 Times-Journal Star.
Deadline for nominations is 5pm Saturday, December 16 and they can be made in a variety of ways:
--Email them to tjournalnews@yahoo.com and put “TJ Star” in the subject line.
--By phone, (518) 234-2515.
--By fax, (518) 234-7898.
--By mail, PO Box 339, Cobleskill, NY 12043.
--Dropped off in person.
Please no nominations on our Facebook page.
Nominations should include the name of the person being nominated and why he or she deserves ...

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It’s hard to believe it’s that time.
But it is.
Time to give us your nominations for the 2017 Times-Journal Star.
Someone like Cherie Stevens (2016), John Radliff (2009), Ray Richards (2001), or Adele Hayes (1994.)
Deadline for nominations is 5pm Saturday, December 16 and they can be made in a variety of ways:
--Email them to tjournalnews@yahoo.com and put “TJ Star” in the subject line.
--By phone, (518) 234-2515.
--By fax, (518) 234-7898.
--By mail, PO Box 339, Cobleskill, NY 12043.
--Dropped off in person.
Please no nominations on our Facebook page.
Nominations should include the name of the person bein ...

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Dennis Shaw of Richmondville has taken over the position of Community Arts Grants coordinator for Schoharie County from Renee Nied, who has recently stepped down from that position.
Arts grants in Schoharie County are administered by the Greene County Council on the Arts with funding from the NYS Council on the Arts Decentralization Program.
Although new to administering grants, Mr. Shaw has been working with the GCCA and before that the Schoharie Council on the Arts for the past 18 years.
He has been the recipient of two individual artist grants and three community project support grants.
For the past nine years Mr. Shaw has written the grant for the Rich ...

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Every child should have a Christmas––that’s the goal of Schoharie County Christmas for Kids.
And you can help reach that goal.
Christmas for Kids collects money and toys and directs them to needy families in time for the holidays.
Now in its sixth year, the effort strives to meet needs that continue to grow.
“Actually, the need is quite dire, and the numbers keep getting bigger each year,” said Pat Costello, regional coordinator of The Joshua Project, which is leading Christmas for Kids this season.
“This actually makes Christmas for many families.”
Last year, Christmas for Kids distributed toys, clothing and gift certificates to 870 kids, reac ...

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If you’ve got something to say about the proposed 38-mile Schoharie Creek Trail, you’ll want to be in Middleburgh next Wednesday.
That’s when one of the final meetings on the project will be held at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. 326 Main Street, 6:30-8pm.
Virtual maps of the trail, which would run from Esperance to Blenheim, are available online on GoogleMaps by visiting SaltDevelopment.org/trail study.
The idea for the trail came out of flood recovery efforts after Hurricane Irene and it’s seen as a way to help grow the local economy while maximizing its natural resources.
SALT—Schoharie Area Longterm—has been coordinating the study with help from consultants G ...

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Residents are invited to attend the Cornell Cooperative Extension Schoharie and Otsego Counties’ annual meeting and dinner on Tuesday, November 28, at Justine’s Restaurant, 399 West Main Street, Cobleskill. The reception begins at 6pm with the dinner to follow at 6:30pm.
This meeting and dinner offers an opportunity for volunteers, staff, and guests to renew friendships and become acquainted with new staff and volunteers and learn about current Extension programs
Guest speaker will be Michael Lapi, a restaurateur and SUNY Cobleskill chef instructor. His talk will be “Farm to Table and Eating Well--the Foundation of Life.”
Mr. Lapi’s appreciation and advocacy of loc ...

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When it came to getting women the vote, Schoharie County was no suffrage stronghold.
But those church groups, card clubs, literary societies, and even the Red Cross, and the DAR?
Sometimes the biggest revolutions are launched behind the scenes.
On the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, that’s just some of the history Summit author Karen Cuccinello shared at the Schoharie Free Library Thursday in a presentation from her just-published “Women Who Paved the Way at the Turn of the Century in Schoharie County.”
Schoharie County voters twice denied giving women the vote, Ms. Cuccinello said, both in 1915 and again in 1917—though that second time, ...

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The Esperance witch finally has her official recognition.
A roadside “Legends & Lore” sign, similar to state historical markers, now stands alongside Route 30 and acknowledges the long-ago witch.
The Esperance Historical Society dedicated the sign Saturday with about 50 attending.
Whether the Esperance witch actually existed may be open to question, but the fact that she persisted through community legend was enough to merit the sign.
The Historical Society secured a grant for the sign from the New York Folklore Society, which collaborates with the Pomeroy Foundation for the Legends & Lore signs, a program that started last year.
Ellen McHale, executiv ...

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Marion Blumenthal Lazan, a Holocaust survivor, shared a message of hope, courage, faith and compassion at Sharon Springs Central School last Tuesday in a near-capacity presentation to students from not only SSCS, but Cobleskill-Richmondville and Duanesburg Central Schools.
Ms. Lazan spoke for nearly two hours, describing her family’s story.
Following Hitler’s rise to power, the Blumemthal family—father, mother, Marion, and her brother, Albert—were trapped in Nazi Germany.
They managed to eventually get to Holland, but soon after, that country, too, was occupied by the Nazis.
For the next six-and-a-half years, the Blumenthals were forced to live in refugee, tra ...

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ESPERANCE
The Esperance Historical Society will be dedicating the Esperance Witch “Legends and Lore” marker on October 28 at the Route 20 Bridge on the Duanesburg side at 1pm.
Refreshments will follow at the Esperance Historical Museum on Church Street in the village, featuring an updated Esperance Witch exhibit.
The event is free and open to the public.
The story of the Esperance Witch has been written about many times since it was first published by Jeptha Simms in his book “The History of Schoharie County and Border Wars” in 1845.
The folklore marker was made possible through a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation in association with the New Yo ...

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Middleburgh Central School technology teacher Scott Gray was named to the New York State Master Teacher program Wednesday.
Mr. Gray is one of only 14 technology teachers from the state to receive this honor.
He has taught at MCS for the past 19 years expanding technology and STEM opportunities for our students.
He also helped rebuild and renovate MCS’s technology classrooms after the floods of Hurricane Irene in 2011, when everything inside the classrooms was lost.
Statewide, 214 teachers were added to the 2017 State Master Teacher program.
All Master Teachers are active beyond their classrooms, serving as curriculum department leaders or on district comm ...

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In 1937, the Young People’s class of the Esperance Presbyterian Church performed a play entitled, “Getting Ira Married.”
Eighty years later, a copy of the playbook was discovered by the daughter of one of the 10 original actors/actresses, and an idea was hatched to resurrect the story to perform in tandem with the bicentennial celebration of the Village of Esperance and its fire department, both founded on July 14, 1818.
The storyline revolves around an unmarried young man who’s enamored with being a fireman, but with disastrous mishaps that affect the fire department’s performance.
Figuring that if he gets married his wife won’t let him participate, the villagers embark ...

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Schoharie County’s most popular and picturesque hiking trails will soon be owned by the state.
Citing a tremendous increase in users and an aging volunteer base, members of the Vroman’s Nose Preservation Corporation have agreed to donate the ownership of the historic landmark to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The transfer should take place by the end of the year.
Because of exposure on Facebook and other social media and Intenet sites, the number of hikers has mushroomed over the past few years, according to Susan Vroman Walker, president of the VNPC.
Visitors have increased from 4,000 in 2003 to nearly 13,000 in 2017, according to the VNPC newsle ...

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Schoharie County’s Community Thanksgiving will hit its 30th anniversary in November, and organizers aren’t about to let that landmark date slide by unnoticed.
Dozens––maybe even hundreds––of volunteers who have helped with the meal over the years will be honored at a special recognition celebration October 24.
Richmondville Mayor Kevin Neary and former county Office for the Aging Director Ethel Benninger came up with the recognition idea while planning this year’s Thanksgiving.
Both have been involved with the dinner since the first one in 1988, and they know there are plenty of others who have pitched in for 30 years.
“We’re looking for anyone who worked on t ...

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The Duanesburg Research and Archive Center is nearing completion in Quaker Street, Schenectady County.
“This building marks an important step in our goal of preserving local history,” said Leonard Van Buren, president of the Duanesburg Historical Society.
“When the building is finished residents will have access to historical records related to Duanesburg and local families. On behalf of the Historical Society, thanks to everyone who made this possible through their enormous generosity.”
The Society, which was formed in 1944, had a long-term goal of establishing a local facility suitable for the collection and storage of records related to the history of the town.

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There’s no arguing the economic importance of dairy farming to the entire Northeast.
But what are we going to do about it?
That’s the question the film “Forgotten Farms” asks and one about 350 people tried to answer last Tuesday at a Cobleskill screening of the 2015 documentary.
Sarah Gardner, who produced the film, said it was never intended for farmers, but rather as a way to tell their story to people who don’t understand the industry’s impact on their local economy.
“This IS probably our 60th screening and one of our best crowds,” Ms. Gardner said beforehand. “It’s great to see such a diverse crowd. Young farmers, older farmers, and a great turn-out from t ...

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The Times-Journal wants your treasured, longtime family recipes.
Or even a few new ones you’ve just perfected.
The T-J is preparing its 26th edition of “Hometown Cooking,” which will feature recipes from readers when it’s published in November.
A flyer in this week’s T-J helps readers submit recipes.
“Without a doubt, this is one of our favorite projects,” said Publisher Jim Poole.
“We enjoy––as much as our readers do––seeing what Schoharie County loves to cook.”
Recipes can include appetizers, drinks and punches, breads, soups, casseroles, quiches, meats, fish, game, vegetables, side dishes and more.
Although “Hometown Cooking” comes o ...

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After at least a decade-long hiatus, afterschool learning—along with fun and games—will be returning to Sharon Springs Central School.
SSCS learned last Wednesday that it has received a five-year grant of $105,000 annually through the Office of Child and Family Services for an afterschool program.
Though SSCS ran a mostly arts and crafts afterschool program through Cornell Cooperative Extension about 10 years ago, the 2017 version will be an opportunity to expand on STEM, said Superintendent Pat Green.
“We want to take what students are already learning and continue it in interactive, hands-on ways after school,” he explained. “This will be a program we design and put ...

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Former DEC wildlife pathologist and environmental activist Ward Stone will be the featured speaker this Saturday at Cherry Valley’s Star Theater in the Old Village Hall on Main Street.
The event is free and open to all, but those attending are asked to bring a donation—cash or food—for the Cherry Valley food pantry.
Mr. Stone’s talk on environmental stewardship and activism will begin at 7pm.
There will also be a potluck at 6pm—bring a dish to pass and table service—and a question and answer session at 8pm.
Mr. Stone was a DEC pathologist for 40 years and responsible for monitoring and researching the causes of sickness and death in the state’s wildlife.
...

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Ava Byrne and her family need help, and Schoharie County is answering.
A benefit Sunday at Hessian Hill Farm raised thousands, and another at Grapevine Farm this Friday should raise additional funds.
Ava, the three-year-old daughter of Leanne Bake and Justin Byrne of Berne, has stage four neuroblastoma and is at Albany Medical Center.
She was first diagnosed with cancer in May 2016, recovered from that but suffered a relapse this year.
Ava was to go to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City last month but wasn’t strong enough to make the trip, according to her grandfather, Sean Byrne of Schoharie.
Donations have been coming in to the f ...

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Cobleskill will have its annual Cobleskill Day this year; it will just be on a different day than originally planned.
First set for Saturday, September 23, Cobleskill Day is now the following Saturday, September 30.
Cobleskill Partnership Inc., the downtown advocacy group, is sponsoring Cobleskill Day.
The day will start with village-wide garage sales at 9am. To register your sale and be on a map, go to the website cobleskillpartnership.com, send an email with name, phone and street address to cobleskillpartnership-@gmail.com or call Sandy Poole at 518-234-3076.
Activities in Centre Park begin at 10am. There will be live music by Force of Habit and children’ ...

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The annual southbound migration of birds through the upper Susquehanna region and the Catskills has begun, and with it comes the start of the local Audubon Society’s Hawkwatch at the group’s wildlife sanctuary on Franklin Mountain near Oneonta.
This season marks the 29th consecutive year of counting raptors at the site, according to Andy Mason, Conservation chair of the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society.
The hawk watch is one of the prime spots in the eastern United States for observing some species in the fall.
“We get excellent numbers of red-tailed hawks and golden eagles,” said Mr. Mason. “Franklin Mountain is always near the top among hawk watches in the Appalach ...

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With the near-end of the growing season, two agriculture-related events are on the September calendar.
Thursday, September 14, the Schoharie County Farm Bureau will hold its annual meeting at the Olde Tater Barn.
Doors open at 6:30pm with dinner at 7pm.
The annual business meeting and voting on resolutions will follow.
The guest speaker for the event will be Jessica Ziehm, executive director of the New York Animal Agriculture Coalition.
NYAAC is a farmer-led organization coalition that supports the dairy industry.
Reservations are due to Linda Cross, (518) 868-9303 or crosslk@midtel.net by Thursday.
Then, on Tuesday, September 19, the F ...

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A fundraising dinner-dance to provide assistance to local disabled veterans will be held on Friday, September 22 at The Olde Tater Barn in Central Bridge.
Proceeds will be donated to the Patriot Highlander Challenge in Cobleskill, which identifies and assists veterans in need of support.
Music and comedy will be provided by “ODY – The Entertainer.”
Free door prizes donated by local merchants. Cash bar at 6pm; dinner at 7pm.
Sponsored by the Knights of Columbus #4475, Middleburgh. For reservations, leave a message at 518-827-3301 or stop by Under the Nose.
• • •

While the Patriot Highlander Chall ...

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Ava Byrne is putting up a brave battle, and the Schoharie County area is rallying to help.
Three-year-old Ava has stage four neuroblastoma, a bone cancer in her head, but the little girl from Berne remains upbeat, as does her family.
The daughter of Leanne Baker and Justin Byrne, Ava was first diagnosed with cancer in late May, 2016. She weathered that bout but recently suffered a relapse.
“It’s rare and very aggressive,” said her grandfather, Sean Byrne of Schoharie, who works in health insurance, and, having survived leukemia himself, is familiar with the process.
“A relapse is not unusual, and you have to get on it,” he added. “But a relapse is very hard to t ...

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The non-profit Hero Fund America will launch the inaugural Hero Fund America Rally for First Responders on Saturday, September 23 starting at the Sharon Springs Fire House and ending at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City.
This single-day event will benefit the nonprofit Hero Fund America, which makes grants via the Hero Fund America fund to support education and training for first responders.
“I was looking to create an experience that would directly tie into the mission of the organization, so that participants will not only enjoy a 200-plus mile scenic ride through the Catskills, but be able to connect more deeply with first responders and the critical roles they p ...

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The Cherry Valley Historical Association and Museum will host its 4th Historic House Tour this Saturday, August 26, from 10am-4pm.
Tickets are available at the Cherry Valley Museum, 49 Main Street, the day of the event.
The tour will include three homes, two carriage barns, the Cherry Valley Museum, and a guided walk through the Cherry Valley Cemetery.
Lunch will be available to purchase at Grace Episcopal Church; complimentary refreshments will also be available behind the museum.
Included on this year’s tour will be: Londonderry, Story Tavern, Limestone, Rampage Carriage House, Clough’s Book Store, the Episcopal Church, Cherry Valley Museum, and Star The ...

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Monday’s solar eclipse will be a pretty good show for Schoharie County, even if a total eclipse won’t be visible here.
And although the eclipse is far from total, viewers must take precautions to protect their eyes.
A solar eclipse has the moon passing between Earth and the sun, blocking the sun’s rays to Earth. Monday’s eclipse will be the first to cross the continental US since 1918, according to a website about eclipses.
Alan French of the Albany Area Amateur Astronomers, a group that holds programs at the Landis Arboretum in Esperance, said 67 percent of the sun will be blocked for Cobleskill viewers.
The moon will first creep across the sun at 1:21pm.
...

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Be there, this weekend, August 12 and 13, as history comes alive at the Old Stone Fort Museum Complex during an educational Revolutionary War encampment commemorating the 240th Anniversary of the 1777 Tory Uprising and Battle of the Flockey.
This free, family-friendly program will provide visitors with an opportunity to get up close and personal with history, as they walk through a re-created of a Revolutionary wartime encampment, witness live demonstrations and military exercises, meet the horses and interact with re-enactors and historians.
Four re-enactment units will be on site for this special anniversary encampment, including members of the 2nd Continental Light Dragoons ...

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Sharon Springs brought home two awards from Otsego 2000’s 18th annual Historic Preservation Awards ceremony for Otsego and Schoharie Counties Wednesday:
One, an honorable mention for a cookbook that combines recipes with the community’s history; the other, for Beekman 1802’s Mercantile—the second time that building has won an Otsego 2000 award.
Before a crowd at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Springfield Center, Otsego 2000’s Executive Director Ellen Pope talked about her organization’s efforts to protect the region from inappropriate development and to advocate for sustainable economic development.
Now only does that include things like November’s Glimmerglass Film Days ...

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All the world’s a stage and and no more so than at Sharon Springs’ Chalybeate Park, where afternoons Wednesday, August 9-Tuesday, August 15, the newly-formed Brimstone Creek Productions will stage William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”
The daily 1pm performances are free; bring a lawn chair or blankets and a picnic, urges Brimstone Artistic Director John Cormier-Burke, and visit the Forest of Arden.
For those who’ve forgotten their high school English lit, “As You Like It,” likely written in 1599, tells the tale of a Duke, who forced into exile in the Forest of Eden, finds liberty in his banishment, a Fool who finds wisdom in a Shepherd, and Rosalind and Orlando, who “find ea ...

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The 141st Schoharie County Sunshine Fair opened its gates to great weather Saturday as crowds filed in for everything from barrel racing to political displays to the brand new Circus Museum, along with tractors, farm animals, sky-high fun, and blue ribbon entertainment.
Today, Wednesday is Bicycle Give-A-Way Day, Thursday will feature the Beautiful Child Contest, and Friday, the state-sanctioned tractor pull.
The Fair runs through this Saturday when a championship demolition derby in front of the grandstand and Arron Tippin in Brown’s Ford Theater wrap up another year.
See this week’s Times-Journal for pages of Fair photos.

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There will be plenty of animals, attractions, and bargains when the 141st Schoharie County Sunshine Fair opens this Saturday.
That’s according to Doug Cater, Fair president for longer than he—or almost anyone else—can remember.
The 2017 Fair runs Saturday, July 29 through Saturday, August 5 with the theme, “Bushels of Fun, Making Memories.”
And with a solid mix of new and old, Mr. Cater said, there will be plenty of opportunities for that.
Once again, he said, visitors will pay one price for admission, something that gets them unlimited rides on the midway and free parking.
If the Fair runs out of parking on its grounds—and Mr. Cater’s keeping his fingers c ...

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More than 200 antique and classic vehicles will be on display this Sunday at the New York Power Authority in North Blenheim.
The theme of the show, which runs from 9am to 4pm, is “When Chrome Was King.”
Besides vintage vehicles, the show includes antique outboard and marine engines, old-time gas engines and antique tractors, a for-sale car corral and food vendors.
Free tours of the Power Authority’s Visitors’ Center and Lansing Manor will also be available.
Proceeds from the show benefit four Schoharie County causes: Cobleskill Elks Lodge, Leatherstocking Honor Flight, Marathon for a Better Life and the Animal Shelter of Schoharie Valley.
The Schoharie Val ...

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A new cider business is up and running thanks to a Schoharie County grant program.
Scrumpy Ewe Cider in Charlotteville will be releasing its products––tasting more like white wine than apple cider––this Friday.
Ryan McGiver of West Fulton owns Scrumpy Ewe, and a boost in funding came from the Schoharie County Micreoenterprise Grant Program (SCMGP).
Funded through a state grant, SCMGP is administered by the county Industrial Development Agency with help from the county Office of Community Development.
Scrumpy Ewe is housed at Kymar Farm and Wineries, which has become a popular stop on the county’s beverage tour.
“We are pleased to assist Ryan in his start-up ...

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Jefferson Heritage Day will be Saturday, July 8.
This free event brings folks of all ages from all over to enjoy a day and night in Jefferson at the Town Green (Rt. 10 to Main Street) with the antique Gazebo at its heart. Also marked as the weekend to schedule many family reunions, the planners for this year’s Heritage Day are confident that no one will be disappointed.
Heritage Day is chockful of performances, live music featuring the TLC Cloggers, Native American Dancers, Country Express, Patty & the Mygraines, wagon rides, food stands and crafters, games, birds and reptiles on display. The parade starts at 11am, live entertainment begins at 9:30am and continues throughout t ...

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‘Old Schoharie in the Great War’ will kick off the Schoharie County Historical Society Summer Lecture Series on Thursday, July 6 at 7pm at the Badgley Museum Annex, Old Stone Fort, Schoharie, with Peter Lindemann as presenter.
Mr. Lindemann is a local author and historian.
The lecture is free and open to the public.
“It was one-hundred years ago that America entered the Great War,” said Mr. Lindemann, who has been working on this project for the last six months, “and in Schoharie County we certainly did our bit. Men enlisted, women joined the Red Cross, children became farm cadets, and everyone bought Liberty Bonds.”
After the war, the state historian r ...

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The Sharon Historical Society has welcomed home a piece of its past:
The bell from St. John’s Lutheran Church—not only Sharon’s oldest church congregation, but also Schoharie County’s.
For years, after the church’s tower and bell were removed, Sheila and Fred Coager, members of the St. John’s congregation, had stored the bell in their basement.
The church has been sold, and as a way to help the Historical Society close out its spring series of meetings, the Coagers dusted off the old bell in 2016 and donated it.
It’s now on display at the Main Street Museum Complex.
The bell was dedicated June 19 in a ceremony moved inside to the library’s Community Room be ...

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Schoharie County will have two chances to celebrate Independence Day, beginning Saturday in Cobleskill and then continuing on Tuesday, the 4th, in Sharon Springs.
Saturday’s celebration will be held at the Cobleskill Fairgrounds, beginning at 10am with a flea market and vendors, kids games, a bounce house, and visits from Mickey and Minnie.
There will be plenty of food and from 3-8pm, music by MSM Music Entertainment.
At 11:30am there will be a Lil’ Firecracker contest for kids up to five years old; registration starts at 11am and there’s a $50 top prize.
At 5pm, there will be a parade with the theme, “Celebrate America,” with lineup at Union and Lark Street to th ...

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What better place to celebrate the Fourth of July than in Sharon Springs with a huge county-wide parade and food and entertainment to follow.
The parade begins at 10am on the Fourth of July. Following the parade, a chicken and rib barbeque will follow in the front lawn of Sharon Springs Central School. Entertainment will be from 11am-2pm provided by the Ira Metzger Band.
“The Chamber has received a lot of inquiries about participation in the parade,” says Chamber President Ron Ketelsen. “We are requesting that anyone who plans to enter a float or participate in the parade fill out a Parade Application found on the Chamber website. We anticipate this will be a huge parade ...

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The clocks will be turned back 100 years to 1917 Thursday night in Schoharie.
On Thursday, the village of Schoharie will re-enact a significant milestone in American cinematic history, Schoharie’s Free Open Air Street Movies which ran every summer from 1917 to 1942.
The festivities will begin at 7pm, and then at around 9pm, when it is dark enough, on a screen hung from the original lampposts in front of the county courthouse, attendees will view a brief documentary on the history of the street movies before a screening of the only surviving reel from The Awakening of Helena Richie, the first motion picture to ever light up the night on Schoharie’s Main Street 100 years ago in t ...

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Ceremonies around the area marked Memorial Day, beginning Thursday in Schoharie, and continuing Monday in ceaseless downpours, which forced many--but not all--of the events inside. Here, Cobleskill braves the weather. Photos from this and other ceremonies are in this week's Times-Journal. ...

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It won’t quite be one straight line from Esperance to Blenheim, but plans to develop a trail that would let outdoor enthusiasts bike, hike, and even paddle their way from one end of the Schoharie Valley to the other should be finalized by the end of 2017.
The next step? Seeking funding to build it.
But even before that, Schoharie Area Longterm, which has been coordinating the trail feasibility study with help from GPI Engineers and FoitAlbert Associates and funding from the state Department of State and Schoharie County, needs help further defining the route.
“We still need more feedback as we refine the route,” said SALT’s Jerrine Corallo, who’s now handling the projec ...

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Tuesday, May 30 at 6pm at the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will conduct a Decoration Day ceremony first observed in Schoharie County 140 years ago.
The public is invited to assist the Sons in ‘strewing with flowers’ the graves of some thirty-five Union soldiers in the Fort Cemetery.
The Schoharie County American Legion Honor Guard will honor veterans of other wars.
Decoration Day began in 1868 with ‘Logan’s Order.’ General John A. Logan was then Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the fraternity of Union veterans which ended in 1956 with the death of the last Union veteran. The Sons of Union Veterans of th ...

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The Community Library, Cobleskill, took its future to the second stage Thursday when architect Paul Mays ran through plans and possibilities for about three dozen patrons, trustees, and members of the staff.
Mr. Mays is an architect for the firm of Butler Rowland and Mays Architects, a Balston Spa firm that specializes in libraries.
His presentation will be repeated this Saturday, May 6, 10:30-12:30pm in the library’s lower level.
Among the things Mr. Mays is looking at is how to best use the library’s existing space and unique architectural features.
“This is an important part of the process,” he told the audience before beginning a power point presentation showc ...

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Calvary Assembly of God in Cobleskill celebrated twin accomplishments over the weekend.
The congregation dedicated its new building on Mineral Springs Road and also noted the church’s 50th anniversary.
The weekend-long celebration began Saturday afternoon with “A Taste of Calvary,” a reunion of Calvary friends and family.
Sunday’s events began with a worship service in the morning, then a banquet and church dedication in the afternoon.
Calvary Pastor Ray Richards formally thanked the First Baptist Church and St. Vincent De Paul, both in Cobleskill, for allowing the Calvary congregation to hold services there during the building of the new church.
Ground was ...

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What do you want your library to be?
That’s one of the questions the Community Library will ask at a pair of meetings Thursday, April 27, 5:30-7:30pm and Saturday, May 6, 10:30-12:30pm.
Both meetings, said Ken Hotopp, president of the Community Library’s Board of Trustees, will take a look at a study on the building just-completed by architect Paul Mays.
Though Mr. Mays’ work focused mainly on the building’s physical aspect, what to do with the space inside will be influenced by what sort of services patrons want, Mr. Hotopp said.
“I go in the library and there are so many different things going on,” Mr. Hotopp said. “People using the computers, kids’ activities, ...

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The future began taking shape in Cherry Valley Thursday when a dozen would-be artists came together to craft oversized puppets and banners for the community’s Climate Change March April 29.
Like Cobleskill’s Women’s March in January, the Positive Action: Cherry Valley event will be a “sister march” to the national Climate Change March in Washington, DC as will hundreds of other registered marches across the country.
This Saturday, Schoharie Blue Streak has plans for an Earth Day rally on the Schoharie DAR’s front lawn beginning at 1pm. (See related story.)
Both events are intended to draw attention to the importance of protecting the earth along with other related issues ...

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Some people come to what's being called lifestyle farming with a background in marketing.
Or knowing how to write a business plan.
Others come to it experienced in gardening. Or maybe in raising sheep.
But all off them unsure of how to take the next step to make their interest in doing something with a few acres and a barn profitable-or at least sustainable.
Saturday's first-ever Lifestyle Farming Conference at SUNY Cobleskill was an effort to bring all of that together for a daylong series of classes on everything from growing mushrooms to farm brewing to backyard poultry.
The event was co-chaired by Plant Science Professors Tim Marten and Adam Wild with help from ...

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Can't attend the March for Science?
Or the People's Climate March?
Two local groups are offering alternatives.
Modeled after January's Women's March, the March for Science, set for Earth Day, April 22 in Washington, DC, hopes to bring attention to the importance of science in everyday life.
The April 29 People's Climate March, also in DC, is more specifically focused on climate change.
In Schoharie, the positive action group Schoharie Blue Streak will be hosting its own science event on Earth Day, April 22, on the front lawn of the DAR's Lasell Hall.
The event will run from 1-3pm and is listed on the March for Science Satellite Marches website.
The three d ...

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KyMar Farm Distillery has added another medal to its portfolio of spirits. Their malt whiskey, bottled for the first time in November of 2016, was awarded a gold medal in the 2017 Denver International Spirit Competition.
The double-blind competition took place on March 4-5, 2017 at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, Colorado.
This competition is open to both craft producers and major brands in the industry.
"We could not be more excited to receive this recognition for our Malt Whiskey," said Ken Wortz, the founder and distiller.
"It takes great grain, great water, great barrels (Adirondack Barrel Cooperage) and patience to make a great whiskey. All of which Ce ...

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The top of Zion Lutheran Church's steeple came off for safety's sake on Monday.
Unstable since being struck by lightning two weeks ago, the steeple had started to list to one side, and the congregation couldn't use the church.
Dimensions North of Catskill removed the top portion using a crane and a lift. At right, the one section comes off Monday afternoon.
Below, a crew and a container go up 165 feet to take off loose portions at the very top. Next, brothers Josh and Same Neubauer of Dimensions North saw through part of the steeple.
At the bottom, the ground crew watches action at the top while a section of the steeple reaches the ground.


...

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Dozens of young chefs from around the region will come to SUNY Cobleskill on April 1 for a chance to show off their culinary skills and improve school lunch menus in the fourth annual Jr. Iron Chef Competition.
This is the second year that SUNY Cobleskill is hosting the event.
The competition is sponsored by SUNY Cobleskill, the Bassett Research Institute's 5-2-1-0 Initiative, and the Rural Health Education Network of Schoharie, Otsego and Montgomery Counties.
It challenges teams of middle school and high school students to prepare dishes from original recipes using both locally sourced and commodity ingredients as they race against the clock. The students learn valu ...

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Sharon Springs Central School will put the best of its science, technology, engineering, arts, and math skills on display on Thursday, March 30, when it hosts its second annual STEAM Expo.
Last year's STEAM Expo featured more than 25 student and teacher presentations, ranging from classroom-based projects to robotics demonstrations.
This year, elementary students and teachers will be joining the STEAM Expo and one of the organizers, math teacher Dan Cornwell, said they're expecting to see even more diversity in what's presented because of that.
"The expo is a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other," Mr. Cornwell said, "and a way to see how great teachers and inspired s ...

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A little soup, a little bread, and a lot of compassion--that's the recipe for Empty Bowls Schoharie County.
The sixth annual Empty Bowls, which raises money for local food pantries, will be this Sunday, 11am-3pm, at Cobleskill-Richmondville High School.
Open to the public, Empty Bowls has visitors buy a decorated bowl and get soup and bread from more than 20 participating restaurants.
Proceeds from the event go to Schoharie County's 15-plus food pantries.
Organizer Jacqui Hauser had clubs, families, Scouts, students and others paint the bowls over the past few months. She has more than 700 ready for Sunday.
"What I love about this is that it gives people who don't o ...

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Schoharie County's home and garden show, which will feature more than 25 local businesses, is coming up in a couple of weeks.
The first-ever event will be Friday March 3 and Saturday the 4th at Rodeway Inn & Suites in Cobleskill.
There will be displays, demonstrations and presentations from builders, home decorating businesses, landscapers, real estate firms and many more.
The Home & Garden Show is sponsored by Cobleskill Partnership Inc., the group promoting Cobleskill as a good place to live and work.
Steve Kuiper, branch manager at Trustco Bank in Cobleskill, is coordinating the show. He admitted that the show didn't start out to be a wide-ranging community event.

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There will be a Water is Life rally in solidarity with the NoDAPL Water Protectors on Sunday, February 19 at The Tepee, Route 20 in Cherry Valley.
At 1:30pm there will be an opening prayer followed by speakers who have visited the Standing Rock camps to show support and would like to share their experience.
A limited supply of NoDAPL t-shirts will be available for purchase with proceeds going to the water protectors. The Tepee will be open from 11am-5pm and will donate 20 percent of that day's sales to support the water protectors.
This is an outdoor event so dress for the weather. Tepee Pete's Chow Wagon will also be open for chili and hot drinks.
...

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Needles clicking, skeins of yarn in every possible shade of pink at their elbows, dozens of women gathered around the table at CeCe's Wool Farm Store in Esperance Friday to knit a message for President-elect Donald Trump.
They're part of a movement to knit or crochet pink pussycat hats-officially, they're Pussyhats-for those who'll be marching in Washinton, DC on January 21, the day after President Trump's inauguration, in support of women's rights.
"Historically, knitting has brought people together, especially in rural communities," said CeCe's owner, knitter and former assemblywoman Cecilia Tkaczyk.
"This is a great way for people who can't march on the 21st to still do som ...

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Being seriously involved in two volunteer efforts would gratify almost all of us.
Not Cherie Stevens.
She's engaged in a range of causes, all of them giving a lift to those who need one, and that's why Ms. Stevens is the Times-Journal Star for 2016.
"A lot of us connect Cherie with one project," said T-J Editor Patsy Nicosia, who directs the paper's Star award. "Maybe it's the Marathon for a Better Life or the Theater Project of Schoharie County. But Cherie does much more than just one or two."
Indeed. Besides the Marathon, which raises money for Schoharie County cancer patients, and the Theater Project, which performs several plays each year, Ms. Stevens is hardly idl ...

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In the 25 years the Times-Journal has been awarding the T-J Star, this year's recipient, Cherie Stevens, probably received more single nominations than any other.
Which didn't make selecting the 2016 winner any easier.
A total of 20 people were nominated for the award, which recognizes someone who's made a positive contribution to his or her community over the past year.
This year's other nominees were:
Greg and Barbara Furlong, for their dedication and leadership of Leatherstocking Honor Flight, which sends veterans to visit their memorials in Washington, DC free of charge.
"To date, the organization has sent more than 1,400 veterans on the trip of a lifetime."

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By now, Christmas has come and gone; Santa's gotten his gifts delivered and he's probably relaxing somewhere quiet and warm.
At the Times-Journal, though, we're still working on our list, finalizing the details on our pick for the 2016 T-J Star, our 25th.
We'll feature the '16 winner and detail the accomplishments of all of our nominees in our January 4, 2017 issue.
But until then, here's who's on the list, most multiple times.
Alyson Montione.
Cherie Stevens.
Tim Snyder.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge.
Tom Nigro.
Pat Costello.
Greg and Barbara Furlong.
Barbara DiCocco.
Alexis Ryder.
Blair Hartman.
Trista Bradt.
...

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Christmas is a time for giving and in Sharon Springs, two high schoolers take that message to heart.
For the second year, in an effort they call the Magic of Sharon Springs, Lester Higgins Jr. and his sister, Deserae, put coin jars out during the community's Garden Party, Harvest Festival, and Victorian Stroll as a way to collect for a family in need.
The first year, the collection went to neighbors who'd lost their home in a fire.
Friday, they presented the $165 they'd collected in 2016 to Molly Roosevelt and her son, Lucas, to help with some of the family's medical bills.
The families are good friends; Ms. Roosevelt thought they were all meeting up at the American Hotel ...

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Here's the thing about Christmas shopping:
Even when you're a cop, used to fighting crime, there's probably nothing tougher than taking a kid with a credit card and a list up and down the aisles of Wal-Mart.
Also:
Nothing more likely to bring tears-of both the Christmas spirit and the glad-it's-not-me type-from others doing their last-minute shopping.
"God bless you, officer. Thank you for your service," said one woman Thursday, offering a high-five to one of a dozen Cobleskill Police Department officers pushing a cart through the Wal-Mart toy aisle Thursday, young charge in tow, for the CPD's second Shop with a Cop.
"I hate Christmas shopping," she confided, cons ...

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Schoharie County's farmers are giving back just in time for Christmas.
After efforts to purchase and then donate coupons for free milk to local food pantries through an organization called Feed America fell through, said Farm Bureau President John Radliff, the SCFB instead made donations of $250 each to the:
--Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association.
--Coats for Kids.
--Schoharie County Community Action Program food pantry.
New York Farm Bureau and Cazenovia Equipment also contributed toward the donations," Mr. Radliff said.
"We were really disappointed that the project with Feed America didn't work out," Mr. Radliff said. "Milk is something food pantries can't h ...

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What goes around, comes around.
Which is a good thing when you're talking homemade chocolate cookies, fire trucks, and an all-expense paid trip to Disney World.
That's the surprise 19-year-old Ryan Hacker of Gallupville got Thursday thanks to the downstate-based Baking Memories 4 Kids.
Baking Memories 4 Kids, explained founder Frank Squeo, bakes and sells containers of homemade chocolate chip cookies as a way to send kids with life-threatening and terminal illnesses to Disney World and other Florida attractions.
Typically, Mr. Squeo explained, it takes months to put together a trip for someone like Ryan, who his cerebral palsy, and his parents, Eric Hacker and Tina Bleau. ...

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Generous Schoharie County donors take care of needy children with gifts at the holidays and food year 'round.
Keeping kids warn is a priority, too.
That's what the Toasty Toes Pajama Project, now in its fourth year, is all about.
Toasty Toes will donate 1,400 pairs of PJs to Schoharie County children at Christmastime.
The idea for Toasty Toes came to Trista Bradt when she was delivering Thanksgiving dinner to a family she and her co-workers had adopted.
A little girl came to the door, and she was poorly dressed for the cold weather.
"I call this a 'God wink,' that Trista was specifically meant to be there, at that time, in that place, and inspiration struck," sa ...

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Time flies when you're having fun.
It flies even faster when you're recognizing some of the best that Schoharie County has to offer.
For the 25th time since the Times-Journal began searching for its first T-J Star in 1992, this year's honor will recognize someone who's had a major and positive impact on their community.
Nominations are already coming in-read to the end to learn how to make yours-but with a quarter-century's worth of Stars under our collective belts, it seemed like good time to look back on some of the past honorees.
In no particular order and for no particular reason, here's what we and others had to say about...
--Jacqui Hauser and Brian Kaiser, nam ...

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Vinnie Zaba suspected all along that Cobleskill wanted a bakery.
He was right.
Since opening on November 22, the Brick House Bakery has had a non-stop response from customers looking to soothe a sweet tooth.
Across West Main Street from Cobleskill's Centre Park, Brick House offers a variety of pies, cheesecake, pastries, cookies and more, exactly as Mr. Zaba planned earlier this year.
"This is everything I envisioned," Mr. Zaba said. "Support from the community has been outrageous.
"I can't explain how excited I am. I can't come up with the words."
The bakery is in the former Coby Motors building, which was dilapidated when Mr. Zaba bought it. He and contract ...

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Christmas is coming early to Cobleskill this year.
Three holiday events--all involving Santa--are happening this weekend, two in the village and one at Cobleskill-Richmondville High School.
The first will be the Marines' Toys for Tots train, which will arrive at the Cobleskill Firehouse at 3pm Saturday.
Santa and his Marine helpers will meet with families and hand out toys and other goodies. The train will be on its way at 3:50.
A little more than an hour later, Cobleskill's Christmas parade will step off at 5pm and march to Centre Park for the annual tree-lighting ceremony.
The festival of trees--about 30 trees sponsored by merchants and individuals--will be lighte ...

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Now that the Thanksgiving leftovers are finally gone and Santa's started checking his list, it's time to get going on the 2016 Times-Journal Star.
Once again, we're looking for someone who exemplifies the best of Schoharie County.
Someone like Sarah Goodrich (our 2012 Star), John Radliff (2009), or Adele Hayes (1994).
Awarded every January since 1992, the T-J Star recognizes someone who's positively impacted the community over the past year in ways not necessarily related to their job.
"We rely heavily on nominations," said T-J Editor Patsy Nicosia, who coordinates the award.
"If you know someone we should consider, let us know-and then back it up with facts. There a ...

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With homemade desserts, Christmas ornaments, a flower show, and speeches on the front porch, Schoharie Library friends and family celebrated two historic milestones Saturday:
The library's 100th anniversary and the unveiling of its status on the New York State and National Historic Registries.
"This library is the hub of the community," said Board President Michelle Borst in her remarks, a sentiment the speakers who came after her echoed.
Mayor John Borst, who's own history with the site goes back to 1963 when as an Explorer Scout, he lent a hand raking and moving debris for the library's move there, said after Hurricane Irene, the library was a place where people gathered and ...

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It was a long time coming-longer than anyone expected-but Friday, the Times-Journal began moving back into its old digs.
Quick work by the Cobleskill Fire Department put out a fire that started in one of the apartments above the T-J last December 23.
But smoke and water damage to the space used by the Sales, Printing, and Graphics Departments left half of the Division Street building unusable.
"We were able to move desks and computers around to maximize the space we could use, but it's been cramped and it took us a while to reorganize," said T-J Publisher Jim Poole.
"Having everyone pitch in here and make the best of things helped a lot. But it's certainly nice to be gett ...

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SUNY Cobleskill has been named to Military Times' "Best for Vets: Colleges 2017" rankings for the second consecutive year, recognizing its commitment to educating and providing opportunities to America's veterans, service members and families.
The eighth annual rankings, announced November 1, are based on Military Times' comprehensive survey of veteran and military student offerings and rates of academic achievement at more than 500 colleges across the country.
"SUNY Cobleskill's continued 'Best of Vets' recognition is a testament to the veteran-friendly culture that the College has cultivated over the years," said Matthew LaLonde, director of Judicial and Veteran Affairs at SUNY C ...

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In Schoharie, a multi-purpose trail that would loop throughout the village is part of a much larger plan to revitalize the waterfront and Main Street.
And quickly moving ahead.
Consultant Nan Stolzenburg of Planning Better Places said concept design, costs estimates, and landowner permissions are all in place and they're waiting to hear on grant applications to the state's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
In addition to the trail, the plan calls for things like better signage, bike racks and parking, landscaping, pocket parks, and even a disc golf course.
But one of the first-and easiest steps-will be to change the village's ...

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Schoharie County's Thanksgiving Day Committee will serve up its 29th meal of turkey and all the trimmings at a new location:
The Schoharie United Presbyterian Church.
The SUPC will be the site for both the sit-down dinner and take-outs on Thanksgiving, November 24, said longtime organizer Kevin Neary of Richmondville.
"That's a little different than the past, but they have great facilities and it's easier than having to drag things like pots and pans in and out," Mr. Neary said.
"We put out a request and they answered. We're very grateful."
The dinner-like always-is free.
"After all these years, it still fits a need," Mr. Neary said. "We believe in this...it's ...

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The Sharon Springs Rotary called out the cavalry Friday in hopes of finding ways to boost its dwindling numbers.
Guests included members of the Cobleskill Rotary Club as well as friends from the Sharon Springs community.
The meet and greet was also a chance to honor Paul Harris Fellows Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Jeremiah Tichy.
The Paul Harris award recognizes individuals who donate-or have donated in their honor--$1,000 to the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.
With Jeremiah's honor, all six members of the Sharon Springs Rotary are now Paul Harris Fellows.
But like volunteer organizations everywhere, the group is struggling to stay alive; Friday's event was a c ...

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Seven businesses throughout the county are in the process of receiving funding through the Schoharie County Microenterprise Grant Program (SCMGP).
Schoharie County was awarded $200,000 though the 2015 Consolidated Funding Application - New York State Community Development Block Grant Microenterprise Program.
The grant application was submitted by the County Planning Agency and is being administered by County Planning and the County Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
Assistance is provided by staff at the New York State Office of Community Renewal.
One of the new businesses receiving funds is the soon-to-be opened Brick House Bakery, also known as The Cheesecake Co ...

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Imagine an eight-acre sports dome, 160-feet tall and big enough inside for six Little League fields and you'll get an idea of the project being constructed by Air Structures American Technologies Inc. at the Cobleskill Fairgrounds.
Since late September, ASAT has been using the wide-open space at the Fairgrounds to assemble pieces of a 12-section cable net grid that will eventually be shipped to East Fishkill for what could be the world's largest air-structure multi-sports dome.
Though ASAT's corporate headquarters are in Rye Brook, the company's manufacturing facilities are nearby in East Worcester, said Bill Fraioli, who runs the family-owned company with his wife, Denise.
Ty ...

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When a carload of local teens headed out that June day, red Solo cups and phones in hand and behind the wheel, they never thought it would end in tragedy.
But it did:
With 17-year-old Sharon Springs Central School senior Ian Rohac dead at the scene of the County Route 8A crash, and Amarnie Lawas, another senior, but from Cobleskill-Richmondville, charged with vehicular manslaughter and facing 7-14 years in state prison.
It was, however, all make-believe, written, staged and filmed for Project CRASH, a joint effort between the Schoharie County Sheriff's Office and SCCASA.
"But what you saw? It's pretty much how it would all go down," said Deputy Zach Reinhart, one of thos ...

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I came to the end of a very adventurous novel and the main character found himself in Sharon Springs, Kansas.
What?
I Googled Sharon Springs, Kansas and low and behold, there really is such a place.
So the little I know about Kansas is that it is vast, dry and that's where Dorothy and her dog Toto called home.
I knew that there is an Ames, Iowa, named after a Congressman from Massachusetts and Syracuse, Kansas named for the city in New York but why would anything be named "springs" in dry old Kansas?
Well, it turns out that the Santa Fe and the Oregon trails went through Kansas, used first by the native peoples and then by the pioneers as they traveled westward, fo ...

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SUNY Cobleskill President Marion Terenzio has announced a new scholarship endowment in honor of Clifford and Elizabeth Hay and their contributions to Schoharie County.
The annual scholarship will benefit a student majoring in Dairy Science at SUNY Cobleskill who has been active in the FFA.
"Cliff and Betty Hay are the kind of people who form the backbone of a community," Dr. Terenzio said.
"From business to education to work with the county's youth, the Hays have given tremendously to Schoharie County and its residents. We are proud to announce this new endowment in their names."
Throughout his life, Mr. Hay has been a pillar of the county's business community.
...

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The Times-Journal wants the best from your kitchen.
The T-J is preparing the 25th edition of "Hometown Cooking" that will feature recipes from readers when it's published in November.
A flyer in this week's paper asks readers to submit recipes for the special edition.
"We like this project as much as any that we print," said Publisher Jim Poole.
"It's always interesting to see what readers send in--old favorites or heirloom recipes."
Recipes can include appetizers, drinks and punches, breads, soups, casseroles, quiches, meats, an fish, game, vegetables, side dishes, desserts and more.
Although "Hometown Cooking" comes out right before the holidays, recipes needn ...

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SUNY Cobleskill will mark 100 years of educating students beginning this Friday and running through Sunday with a Centennial Celebration.
The event will include a parade, fireworks, a youth fishing derby, and even a visit from StoryCorps.
StoryCorps is a national history project that records conversations between people with a story to tell.
Each participant takes home a CD of the recording and copies will be archived at the Library of Congress and at SUNY Cobleskill's Van Wagenen Library.
The number of recording sessions is limited; call Beth Oregeron at 255-5842 to make a reservation.
Saturday, SUNY Cobleskill will be part of the FAM Run, which leaves the Fairgroun ...

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The 2016 annual Patriot Highlander Challenge, a fundraiser for the Wounded Challengers of Honor through the Comeback Initiative at EXOS and Adaptive Team Sports for Veterans, will return to Cobleskill this Saturday.
The event is held at the 160-acre Sunny Knolls Farm, 211 Little York Road, and brings together athletes and veterans from across the Northeast.
Competitive heats start at 8am with Challenger of Honor introductions and opening ceremonies at 9:30am.
Adult heats continue every half hour until noon; Junior Challenge kids' heats are at 12:30 and 1pm.
The Highlander features three- and six-mile courses with nearly a dozen obstacles, including ropes, walls, and mud.< ...

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Officials from Schoharie Area Long-Term Inc. want more public input on a proposed 38-mile multi-use trail in the county.
They have already received 500 surveys on the trail, which would run from Esperance to Blenheim.
Most of the surveys collected have been from residents of Cobleskill, Middleburgh, and Schoharie.
In order to get more public input, SALT has scheduled four landowner information meetings in October, according to Jin Kim, SALT's Schoharie Creek Trail Study Coordinator.
Landowners along the Schoharie Creek as well as the general public are invited to the meetings.
"We want everyone to know that their participation in the study and, if feasible, the devel ...

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President Mary Ann Larkin announces the fall 2016 meetings of the Sharon Historical Society, held at 7pm on the third Monday of the month in the Community Room of the Library Building on Main Street/State Route 10.
Monday, September 19, sculptor/artist Peter Cozzolino and photographer Erreca Batchelor will present a program featuring the historic St. John's Lutheran Church building in the Town of Sharon.
Mr. Cozzolino will speak about frescos and their use in early New York, and Ms. Batchelor will present her photographs of the interior frescos and architecture in this first Lutheran congregation in Schoharie County, founded in 1745 by the Reverend Peter Sommers.
Local chu ...

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It seems way too early to begin thinking about the winter holiday season in September.
But that's just what members of the Depot Lane Singers will be doing in September, as they begin to prepare for their December winter concerts.
"Joys of the Season" will be the theme of this year's program, and new members are encouraged to join.
The Depot Lane Singers are a community chorus of 60 to 70 members, based in Schoharie.
Rehearsals for the winter concert programs will begin on Tuesday, September 6, and will be held at the Depot Lane Theatre building in Schoharie, beginning at 7:30pm.
Music to be performed at the December concerts will feature two very different arra ...

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Although Schoharie County's physical recovery from Irene has been remarkable, the county's recovery in attitude has been even more so.
It was such an attitude--"resilience and dogged determination," Sarah Goodrich labeled it--that Schoharie Area Long Term recovery celebrated Sunday in Middleburgh.
About 100 gathered at the Timothy Murphy Park, scarcely a football field from the creek that flooded the Schoharie Valley, to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Irene and the long recovery since then.
Ms. Goodrich, SALT's executive director, called the process tragedy into triumph, as dedicated volunteers tackled devastation up and down the Valley.
"We saw faces of fear tur ...

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The Iroquois Indian Museum will host its 35th annual Iroquois Indian Festival this Saturday and Sunday, September 3-4, from 10am-5pm both days.
The festival celebrates Iroquois creativity and self-expression with an all-Iroquois Art Market, open by invitation only, and showcasing both traditional and contemporary work.
The Sky Dancers from Six Nations Reserve in Ontario will perform traditional Iroquois social dances, inviting visitors out onto the floor to dance with them.
Onondaga storyteller Perry Ground will return with daring and dramatic tales and special guests this year will be North Country Heritage Award recipients the Akwesasne Women Singers.
The Children's Act ...

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Hundreds of people looking to shop from farmers they know turned out Saturday to help the Festival Farmers Market celebrate its 20th anniversary.
The event featured a birthday cake, remarks by State Ag Commissioner Richard Ball and others, music, free samples, and of course, plenty of produce, from melons to maple products.
Donna Olsen and Linda Cross manage the market, which is open Saturday and Wednesday, from mid-July to mid-October.
The Festival Farmers Market is located at McCarthy Tire Service.
Previous locations included Howes Cave and Wohl's Plaza.
...

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Schoharie County Historian Ted Shuart will be the guest lecturer at the Old Stone Fort Museum this Thursday, August 18 at 7pm in the final installment of the Summer Lecture Series.
His topic, "The Inns and Hotels of Schoharie County"
will focus on some of the best-known inns, hotels, taverns and tavern stories of Schoharie County.
Mr. Shuart will include a look at some of the historic taverns, most currently private residences, still standing in the area.
The program is free and light refreshments will be served.
The earliest lodging establishments in the area were private homes where a family would take in a few travelers.
Such inns, or taverns if they ...

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Schoharie Presbyterian, Schoharie Lutheran, and Schoharie Reformed Churches, with support from Camp Fowler, completed another successful week of camp in July, surpassing previous years attendance records with close to 160 campers, ranging from ages pre-K to eighth grade.
Also this year, the camp received support from Youth Mission Workers from Michigan, who spent a week in Schoharie, serving as counselors.
This year's theme was "Treasure of the Heart" which combined a fun pirate theme with Christian teachings.
Due to the continued success of this program and to extend its reach beyond one week, the churches have developed a Christian after-school program to begin this Septemb ...

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It's a good problem to have and hopefully, a better problem for Sharon Springs:
After six years and two locations, Beekman 1802 has outgrown its space and is moving its corporate headquarters to Schenectady.
Owners Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge are also looking-locally and beyond-for a place to move their shipping and packing operations too.
Together, those efforts will allow Beekman 1802 to expand the couple's Main Street store, Mr. Kilmer-Purcell said Monday outside on the front steps of the shop, tractor and car traffic hurrying by, because there was no room to talk inside.
"Now you see what I mean," Mr. Kilmer-Purcell said as he squeezed past some of the busines ...

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More than 40 farms in Schoharie and Otsego Counties will welcome visitors this Saturday for Family Farm Day.
Running from 10am to 4pm, it's the fourth annual Family Farm Day for Schoharie but the first for Otsego.
The day has been a success in its first three years, with farms offering tours, demonstrations, activities for kids and a selection of local products.
"People are more aware of it now. They look forward to it and ask about it," said Cooperative Extension's David Cox, who organizes the day.
The thrust of Family Farm Day is to forge a stronger link between farmers and their customers and also to raise consumers' awareness of what's available just down the road.

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