http://www.thedailystar.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:21:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_196034513.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_196034513.html One thing people thought they'd never hear again in the Northern Catskills after the late 1960s and mid-70s was the sound of a locomotive coming through their villages. Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:27:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_194034512.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_194034512.html Charles J. Armstrong, Ursil A. Ferguson and John M. Hopkins had to be a bit relieved in August 1917, after the Otsego County Board of Supervisors approved some lengthy work they had done in recent months. That work was for locating a site and building plans for a county tuberculosis hospital, once located near Mount Vision on today's county Route 11, now a private residence. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:30:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_189034513.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_189034513.html Stop me if you've heard this one before. Oneonta's downtown parking conditions are congested. City officials are working to alleviate the problem. Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:31:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_187034515.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_187034515.html For nearly the last 20 years, Oneonta has been a hub of activity on July 4, with the annual Hometown Fourth celebration in Neahwa Park. Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:08:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_180034515.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_180034515.html Some may remember the marketing slogan many years ago for Timex watches: "It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'." Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:10:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_175034509.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_175034509.html Some may recall the 1991 film "City Slickers," starring Billy Crystal. Basically it was about a man in a mid-life crisis and some of his friends finding renewal and purpose on a cattle-driving vacation at a ranch out West. Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:11:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_173034524.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_173034524.html Call this your 1908 "Business Beat." Most are familiar with the dam on the Susquehanna River, just across from the Southside Mall area. That dam will be 100 years old in September. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:12:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_168034513.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_168034513.html Major League Baseball has endured a bit of criticism for its decision to end the annual Baseball Hall of Fame Game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown after today's contest. Scheduling two Major League teams to come to Cooperstown is the main reason cited by MLB for the end to a tradition that dates back to 1940. Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:14:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_166034527.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_166034527.html "So much has been said of late about devotion to the flag, which is perhaps the very first thing to be considered, that it is evidently the thing this month to arrange for observance of the day of the unfurling of the first American banner." Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:15:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_161121647.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_161121647.html There has never been a shortage of performing or visual artists during the time Oneonta has been a city. For the visual arts, however, it wasn't until about 1950 that there was any type of quality public space for people to view an artist's works. Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:18:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_159034528.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_159034528.html Secessions just aren't making headlines like they used to. Occasionally we may hear minor grumblings around state budget negotiation times that upstate should secede from New York City and Long Island. Back in the 1970s and '80s some may remember when the Province of Quebec wanted to secede from Canada. Neither situation has ever come to fruition. Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:23:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_154071619.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_154071619.html Twenty years or more from now, either myself or a successor will likely recall the outcome in the battle over the proposed New York Regional Interconnect power-line project, designed to deliver cheaper electricity to metropolitan New York City. Sat, 31 May 2008 10:25:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_152034525.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_152034525.html Most industrial cities and towns, as they expanded in the late 19th and well into the 20th centuries, expanded at the workplaces first. Mon, 26 May 2008 10:26:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_147034525.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_147034525.html If only Abraham Lincoln had changed his mind on April 14, 1865, and attended a musical ceremony instead of a show at Ford's Theater " things would've been a lot different, and the president would've been entertained by a band calling Walton its home. Mon, 19 May 2008 10:27:00 +0000 http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_140034509.html http://www.thedailystar.com/simonsoncolumn/local_story_140034509.html Just in time for the Memorial Day weekend in 1938, the Fairy Spring Park opened to the public, on the east side of Otsego Lake, north of the village of Cooperstown.