VILLAGE TRUSTEES GET EARFUL

Development Pressures

Bring Out Worried Citizens

Sherrie Kingsley, above, proprietor of  The Inn at Cooperstown with her husband, Marc (seated to her right), reads a three-page letter to the Village Board this evening raising concerns about impacts of The Grove, a 12-unit apartment complex developer Josh Edmonds is proposing at 10 Chestnut St., next to single-family homes on lower Chestnut and Pine Boulevard.  Several neighbors seconded Kingsley’s concerns. Others, including Bill Rigby, inset at right, opposed a PDD (a planned development district) that would allow expanded parking at New York Pizzeria, across Elm Street from his house.  On a third matter, Eric Olson, inset left, said loud music and noise emanating from the Pratt Hotel, a tavern across from his Pioneer Street home and business, is awakening him as late at 3 a.m. as much as three times a week; he calls police, to no avail.  Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch reassured the crowd that The Grove must go through several steps and public input before a decision is made.  Olson said he was looking for help from a 2001 noise ordinance; Tillapaugh advised him that a new law setting noise levels at an 80-decibel maximum may help him, but that devices to read noise levels has not yet arrived at Village Hall.  (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)