Several business deals during the month of March 2000 proved to change the look of the local landscape, or affect our daily lives.
Downtown Oneonta was about to take on a much different appearance, along Market Street in an area that had been a vacant lot for nearly 25 years. As The Daily Star of March 24 reported, “Clerks at the proposed downtown hotel may not be accepting reservations yet, but there is reason to be excited about the project.
“This week, two important approvals show the project is coming together, suggesting the 78-room upscale hotel finally will become a reality after a decade of wait-and-see.” Construction began in the next few months to initially become the Clarion Hotel, now known as the Marx Hotel.
In another part of the city, Star readers in the same edition found out, “Now that the State University College at Oneonta will be the main site for Cooperstown Baseball World this summer, residents living near the campus athletic fields want to know how it might affect them,” especially in the Blodgett Drive area.
City officials said they would work with the college in mitigating the potential neighborhood impacts. Cooperstown Baseball World continued its presence on campus and with the city until its conclusion in 2024.
Moviegoers in downtown Oneonta were in for a change on Elm Street, as The Star of March 9 reported, “A local developer intends to convert the Showcase Cinema to a retail space topped with six three-bedroom apartments, according to plans submitted to the city.
Developer James N. Reeks Jr. made the conversion after longtime owner Harold deGraw died the previous July, and his daughters put the 275-seat theater up for sale. The theater had operated on the site since 1970.
In Oneonta’s West End, The Star of March 31 reported, “Employees and local residents had suspected that the company-owned Agway store on Winney Hill Road was closing. Now, it’s official.
“By the end of May, the Oneonta yard, garden and pet supply store will be closed. The move is part of the company’s strategy to leave the retail business and increase sales of its branded bagged food, pet food and lawn-care products through independent dealers.
“Changes in agricultural retailing during the last several years … sparked the decision to sell or close the company’s 100 remaining company-owned stores. Specifically, most farmers now buy products directly from producers, rather than from the retail stores.”
One other local business’s advance in technology made for the retirement of many of the low-speed, dial-up modems on our computers of the time.
Star readers on March 24 learned, “Road Runner officially took the Oneonta area on-ramp to the information super-highway Thursday and was greeted with enthusiasm and curiosity.
“Time Warner Cable’s Southern Tier Division had a ceremonial launching of Road Runner, a high-speed online service delivered to a computer through cable instead of telephone lines, at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta,” a building now occupied by Ioxus, on Browne Street.
“For months, the introduction of Road Runner has been in the works. Bruce Tompkins, Time Warner general manager in Oneonta said the installation of Road Runner is like running an extra cable for a television in another room.
“Work has been done for about 500 customers who are cable-ready for Road Runner service and await installation of a modem, which will be done within about the next two weeks.
“As Time Warner Cable officials exuded excitement about Road Runner’s speedy ability to connect surfers to the Internet, local residents were considering practical applications of the service.
“Andrew Bauerle, elected this week as mayor of Bainbridge, said he was curious about opportunities Road Runner might offer local businesses, municipalities and residents. An Internet service provider already is based in Bainbridge, he said, and the introduction of Road Runner is ‘healthy competition.’”
This weekend, Life and times around Chenango County in March 1925.