Letter from Patricia Smith

Letter to Village Board of Trustees

This is a letter regarding the proposed Lakefront viewing platform at the end of Pioneer Street. I join my neighbors on the street in opposing this project that will impact everyone on Pioneer Street, the south end of the lake, and especially our new neighbors at 2 Pioneer Street.

I was not in favor of this project when I sat on the NY Forward Planning Committee and was pleased that it was not funded through those efforts. Seeing this project happen so soon, funded through other means, is a shock to all of us on Pioneer Street. The NY Forward program had a public review process and general publicity; we on Pioneer Street do not feel the same about the process by which the Lakefront viewing platform has come to fruition.

While we are upset that this may be going through, we strongly request modifications, at the very least, to lessen the impact on 2 Pioneer Street. It is clear that the impact to this property owner, and everyone else on Pioneer Street, was never taken into consideration. Had the process been more transparent, these issues all could have been resolved through robust public conversation, but that public conversation never happened.

Patricia Smith
Cooperstown