Mayor Tillapaugh dedicates memorial tree on Brooklyn Avenue for belated Arbor Day

By KEVIN LIMITI • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh dedicated a tree on Brooklyn Avenue in Cooperstown in honor of Dennis Tallman, Friday, Oct. 15.

Family members of Dennis Tallman were present at the ceremony for Arbor Day, which normally runs on the last Friday of April but was delayed because of COVID.

“Dennis was an invaluable member of our Village who volunteered his time and service to make our Village a better place,” Tillapaugh said.

Dennis Tallman, who served on the village tree committee, worked to enhance “the natural beauty of our community and ensured that generations can benefit from and enjoy the trees he planted and nurtured.”

A Catalpa tree was planted in his honor which Tillapaugh said are “beautiful trees with large white flowers in Spring.”

Nancy Tallman, Dennis Tallman’s wife, said she felt loved by her community.

“Dennis loved those trees,” Nancy Tallman said, who had framed one of the leaves of the tree and gave it to him prior to his death.

Kyle Tallman, the son of Dennis Tallman, said he liked the ceremony and said it was “not too much and not too little.”

Deputy Mayor Cindy Falk, who is also the chair of the Tree Committee, called Dennis Tallman a “critical member of the tree committee” and that planting a tree was an “especially fitting way of honoring him.”