Mayor Katz Prepares To Name

Trustee Joan Nicols’ Successor

COOPERSTOWN –  Expressing appreciation for Village Trustee Joan Nicols’ contribution, Mayor Jeff Katz said today he will seek to appoint her successor before deliberations begin in early January on the 2016-17 village budget.

Mrs. Nicols, who resigned Monday, said her husband, Hank, the former village police chief and Democratic county chairman, will be recuperating from a rotator-cuff operation over the next few months in a warmer climate, so she would have been unable to fulfill her trustee role.  Her term would have ended March 31.

“I really enjoyed my tenure; I learned a lot,” she said.  She served on the Tree Committee and Parks Board, and chaired the Trolley Committee as the service was contracted out from village management to Birnie Bus Co.  The results, in maintenance, scheduling and other factors, proved the decision was the right one, she said.  “They do this for a living,” she said.

The trustee said she was also surprised and impressed on the amount of effort that goes into running the village.  “I was amazed to learn how much goes on,” she said, “and how much work the people on the board do – the trustees and the mayor – for no compensation.”

She expressed satisfaction at being able to contribute to the community, the way she and her husband had for years with the emergency squad, fire department and Boy Scouts.   “Everybody does what they can,” she added.

Filling trustee vacancies is a mayoral appointment, Mayor Katz said, and he may be ready to appoint someone by the Village Board’s monthly meeting on the 21st.

The person he has in mind “would be interested in running in March.  This would get them into the budget cycle.  If they were to win, at least they would have a crash course in village finance.”  He said that, given how well the board works together, the person he has in mind should be acceptable to the rest of the trustees.

Over the years, residents have expressed an interest in serving as trustee, so some people immediately came to mind when he learned of Nicols’ decision, Katz said.  With trustees’ committee assignments reduced from five to two in recent year, “it fits in with a lot of people’s schedules,” he said.

Since he joined the Village Board in 2004, resignations have led to mid-term vacancies twice, Katz said.

He recalled that, when Glenn Hubbell stepped down in 2007, then-mayor Carol B. Waller let the vacancy continue a few months to the next election.  In 2010, when Trustee Chuck Hage resigned with a month to go, then-mayor Joe Booan appointed Jim Potts, who ran in the subsequent election.

Mrs. Nicols was appointed to run in 2013 by a vacancy committee, and was unopposed.

She said her husband injured a rotator cuff during a fall while climbing Mount Rainier in 1988.  She said it had bothered him for years, but that advances in treatment prompted him to undergo an operation recently.