What can you tell me about Cohocton, NY in Steuben County? (Rochester: relocating, house)

[spedteach]

My husband is thinking about changing careers and we might be moving to Cohocton, NY with two sons who are 12 and 10. Is it a nice area? I teach school so I would need to get a job there too. How are the schools for my sons?

It looks beautiful there! Thanks in advance for any help you can give. We currently live in SE Michigan.
Leisa

[MookieW]

Very Small, but I will say the Wayland/Cohocton school districts athletic fields are some of the best around.

[spedteach]

Thanks for your comments!
Leisa

[theluckiest1]

Very rural small town. No industry or shopping to speak of. The downtown area is a very depressing one block stretch of nothing. It's claim to fame is probably it is close to the expressway to travel North to Rochester - an hour or so - or south to Corning - 35-40mins. It is a pretty depressed area. Is your husband actually relocating TO there for a specific position? All of the schools are small, rural schools. Enrollments are generally declining. Teaching jobs may not be easy to come by especially if you have to recert for NYS standards which are tougher than most states. I am not sure why anyone would actually CHOOSE Cohocton. There isn't really much to it that's a fact. If you have any other questions let me know. There are some very nice quaint Upstate NY towns in the not to far vicinity of there - places like Naples, Canandaigua, Geneseo, Ithaca, even Corning are all pretty progressive nice places to live with options for recreation, employment and shopping too.

[michellebelle]

My husband grew up in Cohocton. He played soccer and got to go to Holland and France when he was in high school and play soccer there. My neices attend school at Wayland-Cohocton and are very bright, well-rounded girls. They are atheltic, they play sports year-round, and their teams do very well, often placing first in competitions. Cohocton is a great place to raise a family. It is a small town and you will need to travel for most activities. It is about an hours drive to Rochester. We currently live in a very nice suburb of Syracuse. We find it to be extremely cold and lonely. There are no neighbors sitting on their front porches, no people out walking their dogs and stopping to chat, I don't even know the names of most of my neighbors and we've been here for five years. We may be closer to all the things to do, but we are looking to get back to a small town similar to Cohocton.
If you move to Cohocton my husband still has a lot of family in the area. We can send them over with a welcoming pie!!
Are you from a small town? It is the best way to live, you will know all of your neighbors and their extended family! People always help their neighbors and after a few months you will find yourself waving to most people when you are driving somewhere because you know them all.
There is a lot to do in the area. It has some of the best Fishing and hunting in the State. You will be about fifteen minutes from Canandagia Lake, one of the finger lakes. Here you can find fishing and swimming. At the north end of the lake is the city of Canandaguia, which has a small waterpark. There are also wineries on the lake. They have wine tasting tours that are a lot of fun and relatively inexpensive.
They are in the process of building some windmills on the hills that surrond the town. My sister-in-law has been talking about them, apparantly they are pretty cool to go check out. They spent last Sunday driving around looking at them.
Bristol Mountain is about a half an hour drive from town. They offer skiing and snowboarding. I guess snowmobiling is popular in the area as well, but my husband doesn't know if they have any groomed trails.
When you get off 390 you will see the Lutheran Church. The hill next to that is called "Church Hill" That is where most of the neighborhood kids go sledding.
The snow there isn't too bad, not like what we get in Syracuse. They might get the occasional blizzard with 2-3 ft of snow, but those are very rare. In the winter it is beautiful to drive around the hills looking at the snow.
Oh yeah,. they also have the fall foliage festival. I've never been, but it is really popular.
Generally the people there are lower middle class. They are very laid back and fun to be with.
Teaching may be a problem. Teaching jobs are very hard to come by in NY. My friend is certified in math, el ed, and special ed, and she hasn't had any luck finding a job in the upstate area. So you may need to consider an alternative or subbing.
Good Luck!

[mbolokoski]

We just bought a house in Cohocton and the smallness of the town was what we were looking for. We can't wait to be able to live there full time.
We found the area beautiful and any of the surrounding towns are just as nice but not nearly as small, it depends on what you are looking for.

[spedteach]

Thanks to all who posted. It turns out that we won't be moving there afterall. We are actually considering several different parts of the U.S. to move to - long story.

Thanks also for the heads up on finding a teaching job.