There are short-term rental permits at 25 single-family houses in the Village of Cooperstown. Some were grandfathered when the village began issuing such permits in 2018. Some are exemplary applications of the ordinance—the owners are renting a garage apartment or other auxiliary dwelling unit that might otherwise go unused. Where the short-term rental is incidental to the family’s use and occupancy of the property. Where the building is not turned into a rooming house in disguise.
To avoid another summer of HABsteria, I’d suggest the following:
Coordinated Plan—Since Otsego is the largest New York lake in the Chesapeake Bay watershed (which starts in front of our house on the Susquehanna), funding for watershed mitigation can be obtained from the Chesapeake Bay watershed authority—to supplement, not replace—a state-approved plan. Although the DEC 9-E Plan is imperfect, it’s better than a repeat of last summer’s Dueling-Banjos of HABsteria. Since the 9-E Plan is a political document, I’d suggest that the politicians (county, township, village, state reps and senators) and non-government organizations get involved and get busy. Since it’s a professional document, I’d suggest that professionals coordinate the effort and lay out what’s entailed in a public meeting.
Coordinated Effort—Funding requests should be prioritized by where they fit into the plan. Although there may be conflicting agendas academically and organizationally, those conflicts can be addressed and resolved in private, not in the press, and without histrionics adding to HABsteria.
No sacred polluters—The 9-E Plan study can identify the sources of nutrient loading. Once identified, we need to be prepared to do something about them. Even if they are us—our “compliant” septic system, our essential livestock, our own NPK fertilizer—be prepared to be surprised by what we find out.
Most septic systems are designed to remove solids and bacteria, not nitrogen and phosphorus. The harmful algae blooms, or HABs, in Otsego Lake are driven by two key nutrients: nitrogen and phosphorus. Septic systems in the Otsego Lake watershed—including ones that are adjacent to the lake—may be leaking nitrogen and phosphorus into the soil, which may subsequently enter the lake, feeding a toxic bloom. Old-fashioned septic tanks are the culprits in other areas where HABs are becoming chronic.
Most of the housing on Cape Cod is on septic tanks—which can introduce nitrogen into the ponds and creeks, triggering HABs that have closed ponds for swimming and killed wildlife. Let that be a warning to Otsego: You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod. Until you gag on the water.
Glimmerglass Lake (aka Otsego) faces its biggest ecological challenge since the last Ice Age in the form of harmful algae blooms, “HABs,” which can make lake water not only unpotable, but un-swimmable, un-skiable, un-rowable and unpopular. Fortunately, we have the A-Team on the job: The new incoming president of the North American Lake Management Society, none other than our own Dr. Kiyoko Yokota of SUNY Oneonta, and Mr. Doug Willies, who is going to lead the effort to get a DEC-approved HAB mitigation and remediation plan in place in order to organize and formalize the response. Kiyoko is a brilliant scientist whose specialty is quagga mussels, the little culprits that may be exacerbating the HABs, and Doug is a can-do organizer and a canny Scot who can pinch the life out of a penny or a quagga mussel. We couldn’t have a better team leaders to address the challenges of keeping Glimmerglass Lake from turning into Pea Soup Pond.
Chip Northrup Cooperstown
Editor’s Note: The Harmful Algal Bloom Action Team—a collaboration of water professionals, researchers, and educators from the national network of Water Resources Research Institutes, the North Central Region Water Network, and Cooperative Extensions from the 12 states in the North Central Region of the United States—is holding its third annual Harmful Algal Bloom Research Symposium on January 5 and 6, 2023. This virtual symposium is free. Visit the North Central Region Water Network’s website for more information. The symposium will include discussions about the latest harmful algal bloom research, examples of effective bloom management, and the latest technologies being used to tackle this global issue.
Proposition 1 passed last week. It authorizes state bond funds for environmental infrastructure—including $650 million for clean water projects. The Otsego Lake community should make a proposal to address harmful algal blooms (HABs) in the lake.
The funding proposal should come from the Village, the townships and the county. The proposal should be crafted by the lake stakeholders and experts—led by the Biological Field Station.
HABs can be reduced by better watershed management and in-lake remediation. As of last week, state funds may be available to support our effort to keep Glimmerglass Lake from turning into Pea Soup Pond.
Northrup (right) with Luis Velazquez, CTO Marines, and Vince Pope, Master Gunnery Sergeant. (Photo provided)
Ghosts, especially at this time of the year, are meant to scare one to death. But ghosts can also be used to save a soldier’s life. And it is upon that idea that Cooperstown’s James (or “Chip,” as he likes to be called) Northrup filed a patent seven years ago that underlies the function of a training system designed to enhance a soldier’s ability to zero in on a moving target. The concept is obvious: If you are going to shoot at something, you better aim at where a target will be, not where it’s been. Even a bullet that travels faster than the eye can follow must take some time between the instant it leaves the barrel of the gun and the time it hits its target. And a moving target (or an enemy combatant) is not going to conveniently stand still in that interim.
While the concept may be disarmingly simple, creating a training system that will teach and perfect a soldier’s ability to put that concept into practice is not. That is where the brainstorm of the inventor takes over. The premise is to create a virtual reality that allows one to see the lead point at which one must aim in order to hit the target. Hence the ghost:
As the days grow shorter and the nights grow colder, we begin to think of heading back to Texas. But we never leave before the closing event of the season: the plant auction at Carefree Gardens on October 10, Columbus Day.
One of our great pleasures at Cooperstown is our time spent at Carefree and at Origins Café, where, if I’m lucky, I get to shoot the breeze with my pal Brent Leonard. There are various versions of what Paradise may be like, but I prefer the Muslim one: a fragrant garden filled with bubbling fountains, with food and drinks served by beautiful women. I think I’ll convert to Islam so that when I die, if I’ve lived a good life, I’ll get to go to Origins Café and Carefree Gardens.
Dr Willard Harman of the Biological Field Station understands the biodynamics of toxic slime (“blue green algae”) and he knows what can be done to mitigate their blooms — which may become chronic if left unaddressed — in which case lake water would become non-potable, fish would die, and people would get sick. The Biological Field Station is going to come up with plans to attempt to address the problem —before Glimmerglass Lake becomes Pea Soup Pond.
Other watersheds have had this problem, other watersheds have addressed the problem, other watersheds have solved the problem. We are fortunate that we have Dr. Harman and the Biological Field Station to attempt to keep the glimmer in Glimmerglass without mercilessly maligning mussels.
The Cooperstown firehouse siren is noise pollution at its worst — far above the Village’s own decibel limit, and totally unnecessary, unlike say a heavy metal concert. Pagers and cell phones can and have replaced these ridiculous noisemakers. If the firemen get a page or a text, they get the address of the fire — they can go straight there — they don’t have to go to the fire station first.
When the Queensbury, N.Y. Fire Department turned their firehouse siren off for repairs, there was a 100% response rate — for 7 years. No volunteer fireman missed getting to the firehouse for lack of a siren. And the neighbors certainly didn’t miss the siren going off at all hours. When the repaired sirens were turned back on, the town protested, and the sirens are going to be replaced as unnecessary nuisances.
There is nothing traditional or necessary about ruining property values with sirens. There is nothing traditional or necessary about ruining people’s hearing. Replace the sirens with pagers and cell phone texts. This will improve property values around the sirens and will make the fire response more efficient.
The hapless mussels didn’t want to come here. They were as happy as clams in Siberia — before they were Shanghai’d to the Great Lakes. They have no political advocates in Albany — so they get the blame for everything. Count the votes
The proposed New York State licensing program for cannabis dispensaries (a.k.a. dope shops) gives priority to applicants that have a record of being “justice involved” – that is, persons convicted of drug charges, or the relatives of such persons, before the state dope sale law went into effect. What a great euphemism for a criminal!
Fortunately, I qualify – having exported hashish from England to America in the 1970s. So where do I apply for a license to become the Dope King of Main Street? If sales are slow, I can simply consume the inventory or dispense it gratis to the denizens of Farkle Park.
Texas’s new voter suppression law is a great example of how to keep lots of people from voting. The new statute requires a voter to present either a driver’s license or their Social Security number in order to get an absentee ballot. Since Texas only requires one of these IDs to register to vote, if a county registrar receives an absentee ballot request with a type of ID they don’t have on file, they can’t match the ballot request with the voter. That has already resulted in massive numbers of absentee ballot request rejections.
Other than a lawsuit to overturn the law to conform absentee ballot requirements with voter registration data, there is a simple solution for this: Don’t vote for politicians who don’t want you to vote.
The Plague has produced some revelations, a few for the better.
Our son works remotely at PIXAR. He lives a mile away from the office, where he used to commute by bike, but hasn’t gone there in over a year. Now that working from home is a viable alternative, a PIXAR artist or programmer could work from anywhere there is sufficient bandwidth — even Cooperstown.
The most obvious, most sober course of action for the Village Board is to opt out of the state’s comically misguided and tragically misspelled “marihuana” law, and simultaneously schedule a referendum on the matter that, among other things, addresses zoning, etc.
A new apartment building has been proposed at 10 Chestnut between Main and Lake. Simple Integrity proposed much the same thing two years ago. I was the only person at the hearing that spoke in favor of it—on the simple premise that what they proposed was clearly an improvement on what’s there now—a dilapidated building.
The first and foremost utilitarian test on the redevelopment of property in the village should be that if it’s better than what it replaces, the village should look favorably on it—because if the application is denied, what’s there now will remain a useless hole in the tax rolls. There is no practical mechanism in the village to tear down derelict structures, so the village has a lifetime supply of neglected buildings that will remain neglected until someone proposes to remodel or replace them with something better. When that happens, the trustees should work with the proponent on the proposal— provided it’s allowed within the zoning ordinance—since the alternative is for the buildings to remain eyesores.
