Herkimer County

Three communities in the Mohawk Valley are getting a major financial boost to make walking, biking, and outdoor recreation safer and more accessible.

A combined $5.5 million in federal funding is headed to Boonville, Clinton, and Herkimer County for improvements to sidewalks, bicycle routes, recreational trails, and pedestrian access.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced the awards as part of a larger statewide investment totaling more than $97 million.

That money will support 35 transportation projects across New York through the Federal Highway Administration's Transportation Alternatives Program.

Meanwhile, the village of Clinton is receiving $840,000 to expand the Shenango Canal Trail.

The project will add approximately 2,000 feet to the existing trail, creating more opportunities for walking, cycling, and outdoor recreation.

And in Herkimer County, just over $527,000 will go toward improving access to the Empire State Trail at its Acme Road entrance.

Those upgrades are designed to make the trail easier and safer to reach for pedestrians and bicyclists traveling through the area.

February 28, 1887.

William Drewes farmed in the town of Warren in Herkimer County, New York, and in December 1884, he stopped being seen.

About a month went by before anyone got suspicious, Then the couple's 14-year-old nephew, Frank Gates, told what had happened while he was visiting his father.

And in January 1885, the coroner's jury found that William had been shot and killed by Roxanna, his wife.

That's scheduled for this Thursday at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Hunters in Herkimer County.

The DEC wants your deer heads.

The Department of Environmental Conservation is asking hunters in Herkimer County to send their harvested deer heads to the DEC for chronic wasting disease testing.

Those who do will be entered into a prize drawing for a lifetime New York State hunting license.

Chronic wasting disease is a serious threat that spreads rapidly through wild deer herds.

The DEC says preventing its spread is critical to protecting the state's wild deer and moose populations.

Hunters may remove antlers before dropping off the head.

14 miles north of Utica, New York, lies the sleepy village of Poland.

On the Saturday morning of March 28, 1914, a farmer driving along the road leading out of this little village in Herkimer County noticed something strange in the freshly fallen snow.

It was blood.

and an assortment of random objects haphazardly strewn about, as if scattered by a violent struggle.

But it was Henry Herbert Goddard who first applied these terms, and the term he invented, moron, to different tiers of mental deficiency.

and the trial of Gene Giannini in 1914 was the first time in history that imbecility had ever been used as a defense.

To the district attorney from rural Herkimer County, it must have been quite an ordeal trying to pick apart a never-before-used legal strategy, which Giannini's lawyers seemed to be making up as they went along.

The defense also scored points by pointing out Gene's unsettling but sensational behavior.

They responded extremely aggressively, putting a tremendous amount of resources into action.

It worked, and for nearly two decades and after tens of thousands of tests, there wasn't a positive case until this past October when a deer tested positive in another captive deer facility in Herkimer County.

Fortunately, there has been no confirmed cases in wild deer, and the state is responding aggressively again, depopulating the captive deer facility and culling deer in the surrounding area.

Any person working on CWD these days would say, "Do as much as you can as early as you can.

"Uh, but we're not gonna, we're not gonna sell.

You can, uh, you can just, uh, toddle along now and enjoy the soda bread." And so he contented himself with buying 6,000 acres in Herkimer just to make himself feel better.

But he did come to Saratoga, he did try to buy the place, and he did get shut down.

So twice Saratoga got in, in the way of his life, and he was really angry about it.