COOPERSTOWN MAYOR RETIRING
KATZ WON’T
RUN AGAIN
COOPERSTOWN – Jeff Katz, mayor of Cooperstown for the past six years – in many ways a transformational mayor – today said he won’t run for a fourth two-year term in village elections in March.
“I’ve been mayor for six years, trustee for seven before then,” he said in an interview with The Freeman’s Journal. “Thirteen years is a pretty longtime to do this. And they were pretty intense years. I feel it’s time.”
Prior to his election in 2012, Katz served as a village trustee for seven years. He and his family moved to the village in 2003.
In his tenure, Katz oversaw an almost complete renovation and reconstruction of the downtown infrastructure – streets, sidewalks, lampposts, benches and more – an energetic street repaving program (nine streets in the fall of 2016 alone), professionalizing village government, major renovations to 22 Main (Village Hall), and lining up funding for reconstruction of the sewage-treatment plant on the Susquehanna.
All this was made possible by enacting, in the face of much public resistance, paid parking on downtown streets and the Doubleday Field parking lot during the summer season. The $400,000 generated annually, plus effective grantsmanship, kept the tax-rate level in the
While reviewing these initiatives, he shared credit with his colleagues: “I’m incredibly fortunate to have a board to work with that had incredible skill sets.”
FOR COMPLETE DETAILS, SEE THIS WEEK’S
FREEMAN’S JOURNAL, HOMETOWN ONEONTA
