On The Bright Side: Spitzer takes stage in city

By Jake Palmateer
Staff Writer

January 11, 2008 04:00 am

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ONEONTA _ A standing ovation greeted Gov. Eliot Spitzer at Foothills Performing Arts Center on Thursday as he re-enacted the executive act that made Oneonta a city 100 years ago.

Spitzer, who earlier had coffee at Corfu Diner and toured downtown Oneonta, said the city is "exquisite."

"We will do everything we can to make sure the economic vitality that we see here continues," Spitzer told more than 100 local residents at Foothills.

It's easy to take away the modern trappings on Main Street and imagine what the streetscape looked like in the early 1900s, Spitzer said.

On May 21, 1908, Gov. Charles Evans Hughes signed a bill passed by the state Legislature that incorporated Oneonta as New York's 46th city Jan. 1, 1909.

Main Street has a strong sense of history and culture, as does the city as a whole, Spitzer said.

"It is exciting for me to be here today," said Spitzer, who noted he studied the judicial opinions of Hughes in law school.

Spitzer's appearance is the second in a series of events this year commemorating the city's centennial and came a day after the governor's State of the State address in Albany.

Mayor John Nader gave Spitzer a rousing introduction punctuated several times when his finger pounded the podium.

"Governor Spitzer is a man of his word," Nader said.

Foul weather at the Oneonta Municipal Airport on Nov. 20 prevented the governor from making his first visit to the city since taking office last January.

The governor and his staff pledged to make it to Oneonta as soon as possible, Nader said.

Instead, Daniel Gunderson, upstate chairman of Empire State Economic Development Corp., announced then that the city would receive a $1 million grant as part of Spitzer's City-By-City program.

Pictures of the former Bresee's building were projected onto the wall as local residents filtered into Foothills to see the governor.

And Bresee's was mentioned several times by Nader and Spitzer.

"Our capacity to provide capital is wonderful and important ... but none of it works if you don't have a cohesive community to the lay the foundation," Spitzer said.

That community exists in Oneonta, he said.

The City-By-City grant was given to Oneonta because "it fits into a coherent package" created by local officials, he said.

Spitzer is gearing up to give the first-ever "State of Upstate" address in Buffalo on Wednesday, which is expected to focus on the upstate economy.

"We did a lot last year in Albany," Spitzer said.

Although he said much of it was obscure, there was success in laying foundations for the future.

"Things are going to move in the right direction," Spitzer said. "You need to do it one brick at a time."

As in his State of the State address, Spitzer emphasized the role higher education has to play in improving the state's economy.

The audience included State University College at Oneonta President Alan Donovan, Hartwick College Executive Vice President John Anderson and State University College of Technology at Delhi President Candace Vancko, as well as state Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, and Assemblyman Bill Magee, D-Nelson.

Community leaders, current and former aldermen and former mayors, including Kim Muller, who is Spitzer's appointed director of the central region of state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, also attended.

Muller said the governor was impressed with the city's downtown and very interested in the types of businesses occupying the city's storefronts.

Spitzer was invited to visit Oneonta in May to re-enact the signing closer to the actual anniversary, and the Centennial Committee had considered going up to Albany if the governor wasn't able to make it.

But Spitzer's appearance so early in the year was a coup for the Centennial Committee, said city historian and committee member Mark Simonson, who writes a twice-weekly area history column for The Daily Star.

"This can make the souvenir books and all the rest of the things we do this year," said Simonson as he gestured with his camera.

The next centennial event is a ball at the Asa C. Allison Jr. Municipal Building in March.

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