ONEONTA _ A public hearing on the $16.6 million Southside highway reconstruction project scheduled for Tuesday but postponed because of inclement weather has not been rescheduled.
Department of Transportation officials said Wednesday they are expecting to reschedule the public hearing later this week or early next week, and the date will be announced then.
It was to have been held at the Oneonta High School cafeteria.
The DOT's project is designed to ease motor-vehicle congestion and deal with increased pedestrian traffic, according to the plans posted on the DOT website for the project. Vehicle traffic on Southside can sometimes be bumper-to-bumper depending on the time of day or day of the week.
The DOT is proposing a widening of the Southside retail corridor _ from the Main Street intersection with Exit 14 of Interstate 88 to the town of Davenport _ with up to five lanes of traffic and new amenities for pedestrians and bicyclists. The project also includes Lettis and Foster highways, as well as Main Street from the viaduct south to state Route 28.
The DEC is considering two versions of the project: one with roundabouts and traditional traffic lights, and one with only traffic lights.
With the final design phase expected to begin this winter, the project is now expected to go out to bid next fall. If this schedule holds, work would begin in the spring of 2010 and end in the fall of 2011.
Public comment on the proposal will be taken by the DOT until Nov. 7.
{"headline18"/}Man pleads to attempted murder
COOPERSTOWN _ Gerald W. Jenkins Jr., 44, of Richmondville, pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Otsego County, according to District Attorney John Muehl.
The charge stems from a knife attack that occurred in Schenevus.
Jenkins, who was defended by Assistant Public Defender Garo Gozigian of Cooperstown, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 1 by Justice Michael Coccoma, Muehl said.
``He's going to get 15 years in prison, with five years post-release supervision,'' the district attorney said.
On May 4, Jenkins went to 181 County Route 34 in Schenevus, the home of Dean Drysdale, then 40, and stabbed Drysdale several times in the back, chest, arms and hands, police have said.
Muehl said the men, who had been close friends, were quarreling over a woman.
Drysdale has recovered from the attack but has significant scars, Muehl said.
