Letter from Chip Northrup

Platform Is Old News

To its collective credit, the Village of Cooperstown has labored long and hard to plan, get permitted, get funded and build a wheelchair-accessible viewing platform at the foot of Pioneer Street in the village park.

Anyone that pays any attention to what goes on in Cooperstown—even from far away Texas—has known about this publicly publicized project for a long time.

One of the Pioneer Street neighbors ex-pressed their concerns about the platform some time ago. Per the law, the village was not required to give notice to adjacent property owners, but, since hindsight is 20/20, the village should have sent a notice to the neighbors. The village might consider amending its code to require notification to adjacent property owners of major municipal projects. So that’s the moral of this play: better communication with adjacent property owners.

Regarding the complaints made by the neighbors: You live next to a very popular public park—with picnic tables, trash receptacles, park benches, an award-winning landscape buffer by the lake, walkways, a bandstand, all with a spectacular public view of a gorgeous lake. The park is frequented by friendly people, visitors, your neighbors and the occasional grouch. You’ll take your grandchildren and your friends in wheelchairs to the viewing platform. They’ll love it.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown