COOPERSTOWN—The Village of Cooperstown was selected by the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council to receive a $4.5 million award from New York State through the NY Forward program. Investment from this program will allow Cooperstown to develop a Strategic Investment Plan and implement key catalytic projects to advance a community vision for downtown improvements. Projects selected for funding will transform the community and support a vibrant local economy.
The Local Planning Committee is co-chaired by Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh and REDC Member Ken Meifert and consists of 12 other members representing a diverse array of the Cooperstown community.
The $4.5 million NY Forward grant is another great accomplishment by the Village of Cooperstown’s Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, Deputy Mayor Cindy Falk, the village board and administration, and other major, local, participants.
The sustained, upward trajectory of multiple multi-million dollar grant accomplishments began when Jeff Katz was first elected mayor of Cooperstown in 2012. Village trustees Ellen Tillapaugh and Cindy Falk were there from day one of Cooperstown’s new beginning with Jeff’s mayoral leadership, and the momentum continues now with Ellen and Cindy’s leadership.
The development of the Strategic Investment Plan to develop and revitalize the downtown area is a major requirement for the intended use of the grant money and that plan formulation is under way.
Main streets and retail storefronts are the face of every community, but how does a retail concept and experience—that has been in place and relatively unchanged for centuries—get revitalized? Paint and signage and a movie set ambiance will go a long way, but it will not substantially change the existing tourist, retail, and local economic matrix of income vs. expenses.
Approximately 50 people were on hand for Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh’s first “Welcome Home Cooperstown” event on May 2 at the Village Hall. (Photo provided)
COOPERSTOWN—“Welcome Home Cooperstown,” a new initiative from Coop-erstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, kicked off on Tuesday, May 2 at the Village Hall. The goal of the series of monthly meet and greets is to welcome area newcomers, assist them in building connections to established residents and institutions, and encourage them to make Cooperstown their permanent home. Information about community events will be available and refreshments will be served. All members of the community are invited, including those new to the area as well as longtime residents who would like to meet and welcome others. In general, events will take place on the first Tuesday of each month moving forward—June 6, July 11, August 1, September 5, October 3, November 7 and December 5—at the Village Hall at 22 Main Street. Members of the “Welcome Home Cooperstown” committee include interested citizens and representatives from Bassett Healthcare, Cooperstown Central School, and the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, with support from the Friends of the Village Library. Everyone is welcome to attend and participate in the work of building a stronger, more diverse, and welcoming community.
Strategic Investment Plan Follows Selection of Committee Members
By DARLA M. YOUNGS COOPERSTOWN
The next seven to 10 months will be busy ones for the Village of Cooperstown, as officials work with the Department of State to identify projects that will be funded by a $4.5 million NY Forward grant. The award was announced on Thursday, March 2 during a special press conference held at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
According to the Village of Cooperstown website, the award implementation process begins with the development of a Strategic Investment Plan to develop and revitalize the village’s downtown. That plan will be the responsibility of a DOS-approved Local Planning Committee.
This photo from the filming of “A Roadhouse Coup” shows, from left, Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl as Agent Williams, Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh as Prohibitionist Mrs. Crandell and Isaiha Jones as Fitz the paper boy. In this scene, they are awaiting the train at the Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley Railroad station in Milford to take them to the execution of Eva Coo. (Photo by Josh Jones)
Folks throughout the area have asked me at least a thousand times, “How did you get all those leaders of Otsego County to be in your film?”
Here’s the “Reader’s Digest” version.
I first met former Oneonta Police Chief Douglas Brenner while working on another project. The introduction went something like this: “Hi! My name is Lori. You don’t know me, but I’m going to make a movie here, and I may need your help. By the way, here’s a cake I bought for you, and my contact information.”
Why he didn’t pull a weapon and chase me away, I’ll never know.
By CASPAR EWIG COOPERSTOWN Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh and the unnamed Reading Rabbit mascot kicked off the Friends of the Village Library’s second annual celebration of Library Lovers’ Month on Friday, February 4.
“The underlying aim of the national initiative for Library Lovers’ Month,” Library Director Heather Amendolare declared, “is to encourage everyone to share their love for, and participate in, the events of their community library.”
In order to make the event a bit more interactive, the Friends decided to designate a stuffed rabbit as the mascot for this year’s event.
Editor’s Note: Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh was a panelist at the recent Otsego County Chamber of Commerce “State of the State” Breakfast. The following is her address.
Good morning and thank you to the Otsego County Chamber for hosting this forum. I am honored to be included on this panel of city, county, and state elected officials and a representative of Congress.
For most of you, the calendar year is your fiscal year. That is not the case for our village—the Village of Cooperstown’s fiscal year is June 1st to May 31st, so we are two-thirds of the way through our current 2022-23 budget. Next month we will begin budget workshops to have a tentative 23-24 budget in place by the mandated deadline of March 20th.
Our General Fund budget is usually about $4.1 million and we also have separate Water and Sewer budgets which total approximately 2.2 million, resulting in about a $6.3 million dollar village budget.
COOPERSTOWN – Bassett Hospital’s proposal to build housing for its employees on Averill Road, on property owned by the Templeton Foundation, was the subject of a public hearing before Cooperstown’s Board of Trustees on January 5. That hearing was in conjunction with the board voting on whether a special permit to allow the construction should be granted and, if granted, under what conditions or limitations.
The hearing had attracted interest and was well attended.
At the outset, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh set the ground rules for the hearing. After the Bassett representatives explained the project, each participant was allowed five minutes to comment.
Jeff Katz, president of Friends of Doubleday, gives Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh a check for $10,000.00 to aid Doubleday Field renovations. (Photo by Ted Mebust)
By TED MEBUST
COOPERSTOWN – The Friends of Doubleday, a 501c(3) nonprofit fundraising organization based in Cooperstown, has donated $10,000.00 to the Village of Cooperstown to bolster renovation costs of Doubleday Field’s new third-baseline building, which will be named the Bud Fowler Pavilion.
“We’re very thankful for the Friends of Doubleday and excited to be nearing the end of the road on this project,” said Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, who accepted the donation on behalf of the village at a meeting of the Doubleday Committee on January 9.
Two years ago, in a May 2020 “Mayor’s Message” in the Village Voices newsletter, I wrote this:
“The residents of the Village of Cooperstown should be proud of the way they have responded to this unprecedented health crisis. Recommendations to stay home, to physically distance from others and to wear a mask when not possible to distance, have all been willingly adopted and are successfully reducing the impact locally of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, our community has doubled down on what makes us so special – we sincerely care and support one another – that consideration has never been more evident. We provide meals for Bassett Hospital essential
Federal, state, and local representatives all agreed broadband access remains a significant impediment to Otsego County’s economic growth as they spoke to the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce’s virtual “2022 State of the State” presentation on January 11.
The Chamber lined up Congressman Antonio Delgado, State Senator Peter Oberacker, Members of Assembly Chris Tague, John Salka, and Brian Miller, County Board of Representatives Chair David Bliss, Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek, and Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh to outline their respective priorities for the year ahead. Infrastructure — which includes rural broadband — was high on everyone’s list.
“Washington talked about infrastructure for decades,” Rep. Delgado said in his keynote address. “Finally in 2021 we were able to come together and get something done. Based on formula funding alone, New York should get $1 billion in highway repair funds, $2 billion for bridges, and $100 million for broadband access across the state.”
Oneonta Mayor Gary Herzig gestures to the millrace running through Neahwa Park that he hopes to use ARPA funds to connect to the Susquehanna Green Way trail. (Kevin Limiti/AllOtsego.com)
How Otsego County municipalities use funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) varies as widely as the towns and villages themselves.
President Joe Biden signed the law in March 2021, giving federal relief dollars to state and local governments for COVID recovery
For the City of Oneonta, this means spending the federal dollars on renovating Neahwa Park. But for Cooperstown, it simply means covering only 10 percent of revenue lost mostly to a drop in pandemic travel.
Cooperstown: In on dispensaries, out on on-site “consumption lounges.”
By not voting on a measure that would find the village opting out of allowing retail marijuana dispensaries, trustees defaulted on December 20 to an automatic opt in that would allow the siting of dispensaries within village limits once New York State establishes its regulatory framework.
Separating dispensaries from on-site “consumption lounges,” the Board voted 5-2 to opt out of permitting locations within the village where smokers could legally inhale pot in a public indoor space. Trustees Hanna Bergene and Joseph Membrino cast their votes against the opt-out.
A financial dispute over dead people has left officials in the village of Cooperstown and town of Otsego frustrated with one another.
The disagreement stems from services performed by the registrar of vital statistics, which is a job village officials perform town-wide. Registrar duties include birth and death certificates. While there are some births outside of the village, most are at Cooperstown’s Bassett Medical Center.
However, it is the deaths outside of the village boundaries that have been costly to Cooperstown. According to materials provided at the village’s Board of Trustees meeting Monday, July 26, the cost of providing death certificates to town residents has cost the village anywhere from about $1,300 annually to a recent high of $2,900 in 2015 when there were 290 death certificates prepared for residents outside of the village.
As per the old agreement, the town pays $250 annually and gets remitted the fees for certificates from its residents.
Kiernan
The village must keep and maintain the records, but Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh said it is not adding up for village residents. “This is not sustainable,” she said. “This is a village tax, subsidizing service for the town of Otsego.”
