Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • Page 3

Seclion The Sunday Press oca Local Weather 1-5 2C Boondan Baulch IC 13 Binghamton, N. Dec. 7, 1969 Oneonta of ines Lj 'Will Pay $1 J.OM Cawley iAf Press Bureau Oneonta Shoppers who received tickets for overtime parking in municipal lots will have the $1 fine paid by the Chamber of Commerce in Oneonta. is uueen egma The sun came up at 7:17 the-other morning when Leo Fahey and I were going up the East River Road Valley above Chenango Forks on some glum errand or other in a cold dawn. The first light spread slowly and brilliantly, like sour cream over a plate of herring, seeking its own levels along suburbanites' patios, richocheting off a golden weather cock on a widow's cupola and lighting up in the manner of a baby spot hitting a diamond setting in a jeweler's window a red-and-yellow hex sign on a barn door.

wpiiiiii It was in this tiny notch in the hills through which the Chenango River cuts that I first had heard vaguely the stories of the French aristocrats who bugged out of Revolutionary France in the 1790s and tried to make a go of it on the river bank at Greene, which is up at the end of the road from Chenango Forks. The offer, first of its kind, was made yesterday by the Retail Merchants Division which said it does not want its customers to be penalized. Until last week, the penalty for overtime parking in the four municipal lots was 10 cents. The Common Council, however, abolished the so-called courtesy ticket which had been in use since mid-1962 and restored the fine to $1. In so doing, five of the six aldermen overrode a veto by Mayor Albert S.

Nader, who had urged continuation of the 10-cent penalty. He was supported by Alderman James F. Lettis, who will be sworn in as. mayor Jan. 1, 1970.

Efforts by the Greater Oneonta Chamber of Commerce to retain the minor penalty for parking violations were of no avail. Should shoppers and taxpayers feel they are being penalized by elimination of the 10-cent fine, the Chamber is suggesting that they register their feelings with officials at City Hall. George Tyler, executive manager, said yesterday the Chamber, will pay fines for shoppers "as long as this question remains of concern to the public." The City of Oneonta annually provides extended periods of free parking during the Christmas shopping season. Starting tomorrow and con-t i i through Christmas Eve, parking in the downtown area will be free during the afternoon and at night. Parking meters will be in operation, as usual, during the morning, with the free parking becoming effective at noon through the season.

P. J. D. if; 4M IT'S A GLOOMY saga of titled Frenchmen too uncomfortably close to the swish of the guillotine who wound up in these valleys ineptly trying to start their lives all over again. They went broke, and disappeared, floating disconsolately down the river to Binghamton, then down the Susquehanna into Pennsylvania, and into oblivion.

I called Mrs. Mae Smith of Norwich, who treasures 1 the legends and folklore and the scraps of recorded history of her beloved Chenango county. "As far as anyone knows, only one of them stayed behind," she said. "A Simon Barnett. All the others, gone." Ex-Mayors Chamber Directors Oneonta Directors of the Greater Oneonta Chamber of Commerce soon will include two former mayors of the community.

Mayor Albert S. Nader and James N. Georgeson are among three new directors elected by the membership. Neil R. Nielsen, a con-tractor, also was named to the board while Philip Bresee and Gabriel Harris were reelected.

The trio of new directors will succeed Harold W. deGr-aw, Dr. Royal F. Netzer and Ian M. Smith.

In the election conducted by mail, members were offered 10 choices to fill five impending vacancies on the board. Mayor Nader will be leaving City Hall Dec. 31, completing eight years in office. In 1962, he succeeded Mr. Georgeson, who had been mayor for two years and now is director of community relations at State University College.

Mr. Bresee, vice-president of Bresee's Department Store is president of the Chamber. Mr. Harris, a downtown jeweler, is the second vice-president. The 15-member Board of Directors will have its annual election this week.

Other officers are Robert M. Bookout, first vice-president and Henry A. Bunn, treasurer. Three Win City Trip Delhi Three Delaware County young people have been awarded a trip to New York City for 4-H achievements. Miss Peggy Rockefeller, daughter of Mr.

and Mrs. Wil-liam Rockefeller, Delhi; Wayne Richmond, son of Mr. and Mrs. Seman Richmond, Hobart; and Steve Gifford, son of Mr. and Mrs.

Richard Gifford of Deposit, have been selected for the trip to New York City, Dec. 9 to 12. Their selections were made on the basis of outstanding 4-H work during the year. Their agenda will include tours of the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, Hunts Point Terminal Market and the United Nations. About .80 outstanding 4-H members from all over New York State will be gathering in New York to participate in the event.

Herbert Hait, leader of the South Kortright Calf Club, will accompany the youngsters on the trip. ALBERT NADER J. N. GEORGESON Democracy Voice Week Is Proclaimed Walton Clifford L. Dennis, Walton mayor, has proclaimed this week as Voice of Democracy Week in the Village of Walton.

He said, "Never in the history of our great country has our freedom been challenged as it is today. "The Voice of Democracy program provides the opportunity for our youth to address themselves to the preservation of freedom and our way of life." Local VFW Post 270 and its Auxiliary is sponsoring the annual Voice of Democracy competition in conjunction with the national observance of this week. County and the Southern Tier I i sr L-li 7 A t- I Families with names like de Bo Lyne, Shamont and LeFevre took the last boats out of a France that was full of Madame Defarges and mocking tumbrils, wound up in Philadelphia and beat their way into the bushes of the Southern Tier. This was in 1792. CROWNED AT COLLEGE Reigning as Miss Oneonta Stote for 1969 at State University College in Oneonta is Regina Hanretta, a freshman, being crowned by her predecessor, Karin Podsen.

Miss Hanretta, representing Mattison Hall, was chosen Friday night from among 1 1 nominees for the crown. The contest was sponsored by Phi Delta Rho at SUCO. READING from a record, Mrs. Smith said, "They were mostly gentlemen and ladies of refinement and polished manners." Which got them nowhere at all. These were people used to the soft, easy life and found themselves faced with inhospitable wintery dawns.

They tried to become farmers so they could eat. They tried bravely enough, went in hock for 15,835 acres of land on the east bank of the Chenango River, which they wanted to buy from Malachi Tereat and William Morris of Philadelphia. It was all downhill. Nothing they did could pay off and the only solace they had in their brief sojourn was a visit of great eclat from Talleyrand, the French royalist who was in exile for 30 months in the United States before he went back to Paris and eventually became foreign Driver Hurt As Car Hits Fence, Tree Oneonta David O. Brown, 23, of Athens, suffered head injuries Tuesday night when his car plowed through a wooded fence and hit a tree in Winney Hill Road.

He was reported in satisfactory condition later at Fox Memorial Hospital where he was taken by the Oneonta ambulance. State police said Mr. Brown had pulled out of a driveway and spun the wheels of the car before it left the road, ripped through a fence owned by Joseph Keddell, and hit the tree. In the process, two of the fence planks entered the car through the windshield, one of them narrowly missing the driver's head. The accident happened about 10:15 p.

while Mr. Brown reportedly was visiting relatives in Whinney Hill Road. Parley during auditions conducted last May. Young Kniskern, president of the OHS Varsity Choir, and Merzig, vice-president, also are members of the choir at the Main Street Baptist Church. Young Leonard, president of the OHS Band, also is a member of the Oneonta Symphony.

Program To Be Dec. 18 Greene The elementary department of Greene Central School will have a Christmas program at 8 p. m. Dec. 18 in the school auditorium.

It will be directed by Mrs. Gertrude Evans and Merritt Russell, with Mrs. Elinor Robb in charge of the in Music director at OHS, said membership in the conference orchestra and choir is comprised of outstanding young musicians from all sections of the state. The Oneonta students, as well as others, were selected Anderson to Address Oneonta Kiwanis Press Bureau Oneonta Dr. Adolph G.

Anderson, president of Hart-wick College, will address the Kiwanis Club at noon Wednesday at the Elks Club in Oneonta. He will discuss the Scandia-vian Seminar, under which American students are able to study for nine months in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. 3 Seniors Press Bureau Oneonta Three seniors from Oneonta High School will perform during the State School Music Association conference opening tomorrow at the Concord Hotel in Kia-mesha Lake. Arthur Leonard, string bassist, will be in the All-State Conference Orchestra to be directed by Dr. Carl Eberl, conductor of the orchestra and choral society of Queens College.

In the All-Slate Conference Choir will be Richard Knis-kern, tenor, and David Mer-zig, bass, under direction of Thomas Hilbish, a professor of music at the University of Michigan. The concert will be Wednes-d a night, climaxing the three-day conference. Richard J. Schuyler, band Spirit The emigres welcomed him joyously (he was riding horseback from Philadelphia to Albany), and he pushed on. That was the last of the great days for them.

THE COLONIST named de Bo Lyne, who was the strong man of the group, died. This left the people at sixes and sevens, they couldn't meet the mortgage payments to Tereat and Morris back in Philadelphia, and gave up. They mustered a few leaky old rowboats, stowed their little luggage, shoved out into the current of the Chenango and headed south. They floated to Binghamton, turned west and then south in the Susquehanna and came to rest in the neighborhood of Towanda, where they tried settling once again. Wistfully, they named their new place Asylum.

It didn't work out, and they faded away. Tier Area Shows Yule in Bond Fund The citizens of the Chenango McKneally Plans Weekend Visits iff Mr iHt iiMMaHi RIGHT BAIXBRIDGE RESIDENTS are beathing a bit easier today after recent slowdown orders were issued from Albany railroad headquarters regarding rail traffic through the community that was hit with a train derailment disaster a few years ago. The train pileup took two lives, injured several, demolished the fire and police stations, arid caused widespread havoc in the community. Latest slowdown orders came none too soon, according to Police Chief William Payne. Chief Payne said the slowdown averted another, rail disaster a week ago when a northbound freight entering the village through the underpass lost a set of four wheels on the front of the train.

The wheels broke and separated as the train crossed Tyler and Scott streets and caused considerable damage to two crossing areas, a switch and a large amount of wiring. Chief Payne said railroad officials were unable to determine what kept the train on the tracks and that undoubtedly there would have been another major derailment had not the slowdown order been in effect. are displaying an early Christmas spirit with donations at the First National Bank of Greene totaling just a shade under $2,000 in the Bond Family Children's Fund. The fund was initiated after a tragic Nov. 18 house trailer fire claimed the lives of Mrs.

Patricia Bond, 26, of Greene RD2 and her two daughters, Constance Jean Bond, 7, and Anna Elizabeth Bond, 6, and hospitalized three of the remaining four children. A neighbor, Mrs. Paul Stein, inaugurated the fund when the response to a clothing appeal for the remaining four children brought more than 2,000 calls in two days. Mrs. Stein said it is hoped that the trust fund may be able to provide an education for the children.

They are Annette, 5, Kenneth, 4, David, 2, and Theresa, seven months. Area Boy and Girl Scouts presently are preparing toys that were received in the drive to fashion a Christmas for the four youngsters. The overabundance of children's clothing was used quickly to the benefit of other fire victims and some of the surplus was returned to the Triple Cities area to aid a Kirk wood family that lost all of its personal belongings in a house fire later that week. The appeal for funds will continue for the next several weeks. Contributions may be sent to the First National Bank of Greene in care of the Bond Family Children's Fund.

to be impossible to do both." In noting that his primary responsibility is to represent the district in the House, Mr. McKneally added, "I want to assure everyone that I intend to return to the district every weekend to visit personally with mj constituents." Mr. McKneally, a former national commander of the American Legion, is completing the fi st year of his initial term in the House. He was elected in 1968, ousting Democrat John G. Dow of Grand View in Rockland Delhi Representative Martin B.

McKneally, whose district includes Delaware County, plans to tend to his knitting at the Capitol in Washington, D. C. In an unusual announce- ment, the Republican said he no longer will be available for appearances in the district -Mondays through Fridays, when the House is in session. The Newburgh attorney pointed out, however, that he plans to be in the district on weekends. I "I have heretofore attempted to discharge my leg-; i 1 a i responsibilities in Washington, and also to ac- cept the many kind invitations from my constituents in the 27th District to be with them at their civic and social functions," Mr.

McKneally said. "Experience has proven it Center that, after a progressive summer and fall opening, has bogged down because solutions have not been found to the problem of heating the structure to give the Greene youths a place for extra-curricular activities. Center directors, Carl and Barbara Reagan, have announced that if a solution to the current problem is not reached in the immediate future there will be no alternative but to abandon the Youth Center. Directors still hope that the problems might be solved locally without having to seek outside Heat problems have caused the curtailment of all activity at the center, but standard operating costs continue. The loss of the center would be a major loss to the Greene youths and an injustice to the directors who have supplied hundreds of hours of volunteer work to operate the center.

Suggestions to the heating problems are being taken by Mr. and Mrs. Reagan at Greene, 656-4454. NORWICH HAS RAILROAD problems too, but they stem from automatic gates going down at several of the crossings in the city and refusing to come back up. Such has been the case for one-and two-hour periods on the heavily traveled East Main Street in the last three weeks.

But, as one police officer put it, the police station, city hall and fire station are located directly next to the gates, it sure stops the speeding in East Main Street. Report on Meeting Delhi Mrs. Ralph Buel and Mrs. Robert Northrop reported on a recent Junior Matrons' meeting in Stamford at a session of the Delhi Junior Grange. THE GREENE AREA, BESIEGED by major fires in the last three weeks, also has a problem right in the Village of Greene with the lack of heat.

Appeals are being made to obtain heat for the Greene Youth.