SOUTH OTSELIC – In 1988, the Otselic Valley community was embroiled in a heated battle to keep low level radioactive waste sites out of the area. This Saturday, seniors in Michael Foor-Pessin’s communications class at Otselic Valley Central School are inviting the public to attend an open house and share their memories of the communities efforts.

The communications class, with the help of Foor-Pessin and librarian Sue LeBlanc, has begun work on a year-long project to document the communities efforts in fighting to keep the radioactive waste facilities out of the area and out of the state. By the end of the year, they hope to have compiled enough information to write a research paper and hopefully to produce a documentary on the subject.

In 1988 areas in the towns of Otselic, Pharsalia, and Plymouth in Chenango County as well as Taylor in neighboring Cortland County were being examined as possible locations for low level radioactive waste sites, a statement from the class explains. The Otselic Valley community and the Otselic Valley School District played a large role in fighting against the facilities and eventually convincing the state not to move forward with the project. According to Foor-Pessin, an OV community member and active opponent of the radioactive waste sites at the time, there is no doubt the actions of the community are what stopped state officials from locating a waste site in New York.