Letter from Joseph R. Membrino

Vote Membrino for Village Trustee

On Wednesday, March 18, Cooperstown voters will elect a mayor and three trustees. I write to ask for your support and your vote to continue my service as village trustee for a three-year term. Since joining the Board of Trustees in 2019, my assignments have included chairing the Finance Committee and membership on the Water and Sewer Board and Watershed Supervisory Committee.

Oversight of village finances is a paramount responsibility. The village is fortunate to have dedicated and responsive staff who received well-earned praise from village auditors for the state of village finances. We have managed revenues, appropriations, and grant funds for maintenance and capital projects throughout the village and in our parks in the Towns of Middlefield and Otsego. Street, sidewalk, and water and sewer repairs, improvements, and replacement are ongoing.

I have been pleased to join the dedicated efforts of numerous advocates for a community dog park facility. This year, the Board of Trustees plans to appropriate funds to design a dog park on land adjacent to the Cooperstown Central School District on a site that the village acquired an interest in for a recreation facility more than a decade ago.

Stewardship of Lake Otsego contributes to the well-being and economy of our region. Moreover, because the lake is the source of the village’s municipal water supply, the lake’s ecology is vital to public health. As village representative on the Watershed Supervisory Committee, comprised of the Village of Cooperstown, and the Towns of Otsego, Springfield, and Middlefield, I am collaborating in efforts to address degrading water quality in Lake Otsego and identify specific actions to protect the lake and its watershed.

I am especially grateful to have worked on behalf of village residents to ensure that the village stands fast for human rights, and to have contributed to the village resolutions that condemned the increase of hate speech, intimidation, government violence, and hate crimes targeted against immigrants, refugees, and people of diverse racial, ethnic, religious, and linguistic backgrounds. Dr. King wrote from the Birmingham jail more than 60 years ago that “injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.” In my view, because Cooperstown has a national profile, the village has both an opportunity and a duty to make clear that it stands for equality, fairness, safety, and justice for all.

Public service requires collaboration, long hours, and hard work among trustees, village boards and committees, and village staff, all with attention to the needs and concerns of village residents. I have been privileged to share in it.

Thank you for considering my candidacy as a Democratic nominee for trustee. Whatever your decision, please exercise your right to vote on Wednesday, March 18 from noon to 9 p.m. at the Cooperstown Fire Hall.

Joseph R. Membrino
Trustee, Cooperstown Village Board