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Brookwood Enthusiasts Fear

Condos Will Rise On Property

Pat Thorpe, former longtime caretaker at Brookwood Gardens, expresses fears condos will rise next to "The Secret Garden." (Jim Kevlin/allotsego.com)
Pat Thorpe, former longtime caretaker at Brookwood Gardens, expresses fears at Monday’s Cooperstown Village Board meeting that condos will rise next to “The Secret Garden.” (Jim Kevlin/allotsego.com)

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.allotsego.com

Chip Northrup reviews his notes after reviewing his plan with village trustees to make Brookwood financially self-sufficient . He is flanked by wife Nancy and resident Jeff Lewis. Behind him is former mayor Wendell Tripp, who spoke against the village taking on any additional financial liability.
Chip Northrup reviews his notes after reviewing his plan with village trustees to make Brookwood financially self-sufficient . He is flanked by wife Nancy and resident Jeff Lewis. Behind him is former mayor Wendell Tripp, who spoke against the village taking on any additional financial liability.

COOPERSTOWN – If the northern half of 22-acre Brookwood Gardens doesn’t remain in non-profit or public hands, it could very well become a condo development, according to discussion at the Village Board’s August meeting on Monday the 24th.

During public comment at the start of the meeting, Bill Waller, spouse of former mayor Carol B. Waller, verbalized the community’s “fear of (someone) building condos there.”

Pat Thorpe, former Brookwood Gardens caretaker, called it “The Secret Garden” – a reference to the popular 1910 novel – with “its own special magic” endangered by “a condo complex next to it.  That is what is about to happen.”

In setting the stage for trustees to discuss the matter at evening’s end, Mayor Jeff Katz reported on the Otsego Land Trust’s informational meeting Friday, Aug. 14:  In addition to himself and Trustees Jim Dean and Cindy Falk, “there were a lot of realtors there.”

FULL STORY IN THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL, ON NEWSSTANDS TODAY

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