Doubleday Field might be blocks away from the Baseball Hall of Fame but the two stand side-by-side as Cooperstown’s marquis attractions.
The iconic field has seen its better days, and Village Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh continues to move forward with renovations she says will return the site to all its former glory.
“Doubleday Field will have a lot more plusses for Village residents, tourists, and teams that rent the field,” she said in a discussion with The Freeman’s Journal / Hometown Oneonta. “This is a funding stream for Cooperstown. That’s only one reason to keep it up.”
A 2017 planning document listed a variety of problems demanding attention: a need for on-site locker facilities, concession stands, and accessible, modern bathrooms; fix a drainage system so heavily blocked it causes otherwise avoidable rain-outs; address Willow Brook running directly beneath the first-base bleachers; fix structurally-unsound third-base bleachers; create a safer pedestrian approach to the Field through an active and busy parking lot; build seating compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Despite pandemic delays, crews completed the first phases of renovation in 2020 — with a renovated parking lot featuring improved pedestrian access, the demolition of the third-base bleachers, renovation of the historic 1939 grandstand, and, among other projects, covering Willow Brook to protect it from litter tossed from the first-base bleachers. Still on the agenda: finishing the third-base building that will house locker rooms.
The venue has remained open for rental throughout the major renovation project, except for the summer of 2020 when COVID restrictions shut down team sports activities.
OPEN HOUSE – 2 p.m. Celebrate the completion of a 3 year project to improve the local Waste Water Treatment Plant. The public is invited to meet the operators, tour the facilities, and hear remarks from Mayor Tillapaugh and representatives of the state funding agencies. Delaware Engineering representatives will be on hand to discuss the upgrades made by the project to protect the Susquehanna River and expand capacity for the future. Driveway access is between the Ball Fields at the South End of Linden Ave. Waste Water Treatment Plant, Cooperstown. 607-322-4039.
Two months after getting its special-use permit from the Cooperstown Board of Trustees, the Chestnut Crossing apartment complex at 10 Chestnut St. is mostly finished at the municipal level.
According to village documents, the project has had public hearings and gotten approvals from the village committees that must approve various parts of the project, including its architecture, fencing, parking, sidewalks, streets, lighting and drainage.
Upper Pioneer Street has been defaced by the installation of a large solar-powered speed sign, the kind usually found in commercial districts or at the entrance to municipalities. Around the clock, it flashes the speed of all approaching cars along with a digital display of praise or warning, depending on the car’s speed.
It was placed there, NOT at the request of the police chief who claims to have known absolutely nothing about its installation, but at the request of a Pioneer Street resident who gave the village the money to pay for it. It suddenly appeared without any public vetting of the project whatsoever, and without regard for the residents of Pioneer Street who have to endure its unsightliness and its incessant flashing.
Residents of the village and pedestrians, particularly along Main, Chestnut and Susquehanna streets, main arteries in the village, have all observed countless motorists ignoring the very speed limit posted on the many signs they pass as they speed by. The same is true on residential side streets, such as Pioneer.
Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch joins the applause after presenting a plaque this evening to Trustee Jim Dean, who was attending his last meeting after 10 years on the Cooperstown Village Board. The mayor praised not just Dean’s service on the board, but his community service at large going back four decades. (Among other contributions, the stair-making craftsman built Santa’s Cottage in Pioneer Park.) In his remarks, Dean praised his colleague for “10 years of tremendous progress,” capped by the renovation of Doubleday Field. His seat will be filled April 1 by Hannah Bergene, 30, whom Dean, 80, enthusiastically endorsed. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
COOPERSTOWN – Stars & Stripes forever! (At least for the time being.)
Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh a few moments ago announced the state has eased CORONA-era requirements that all flags in the Empire State be flown at half staff in sympathy for people suffering from the disease or families of those who succumbed to it.
“It turns out that New York State decided to return flags to full staff, but unfortunately never alerted all the municipalities that that is what they had done,” said the mayor. “The Village of Cooperstown received no notification of it; but a state official confirmed it should be at full staff.”
COOPERSTOWN – Village of Cooperstown employees’ emails are “phishing” targets, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch announced this morning.
Phishing is defined as, “the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.”
Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch and Trustees Joe Membrino and, right, MacGuire Benton were sworn in for new terms this evening at the Cooperstown Village Board’s organization meeting. Village Administrator Teri Barown administered the oaths. Usually, village organizational meetings occur April 1, but the mid-March election was delayed until Sept. 15 due to the COVID-19 threat. The mayor was unopposed in that election, and Membrino led the three-way trustee race. But Democrat Benton and the Republican candidate, Mary-Margaret Robbins, tied at 272 each, requiring a runoff election Sept. 29. In that runoff, Benton garnered 343 votes to Robbins’ 308. Unless delayed, the next village election will be next March. Also at tonight’s organizational meeting, The Freeman’s Journal was designated an official newspaper of the Village of Cooperstown. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
In his first public appearance since being appointed yesterday, Village Police Chief Frank Cavilieri knowledgeably assessed complexities of policing that even small departments like Cooperstown’s need to keep in mind. (Jim Kevlin/llOTSEGO.com)
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
Mayor Tillapaugh is interviewed at meeting’s end by WKTV reporter Ben Vahey. Talking in the background are CAB members Rich Browne, left, and Adam Richter.
COOPERSTOWN – At his first public appearance since being named yesterday to lead the Village Police Department, Chief Frank Cavilieri this evening made it seem simple.
The most problematic area of policing, here as everywhere, is “use of force,” Cavilieri said this evening at the first meeting of the Police Community Advisory Board. A related issue is “how we interact with the community.”
The good news, he continued, is that there is very little crime in Cooperstown. He described a typical month as two motor vehicle incidents, two calls, three dogs barking and two instances of criminal mischief.
But as the discussion continued between Cavilieri, Senior Patrolman Jim Kelman and six members of the CAB, brought together here and in 513 communities across the state by Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 202, the complexities multiplied.
Masked and enjoying Main Street are, from left, dad Kevin, Alexis and Addington Kress, Olivia Guida, and mom Christine Kress, visiting from Little Falls last Sunday. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – Kevin Kress, who was raised in Richfield Springs, brought his family from Little Falls to Cooperstown last weekend, and was neither surprised by the village’s new mandatory-mask law, or that most everybody seemed to be obeying it.
“We were in Lake Placid last weekend; they had done the same thing there,” said Kress, who was aware – and undeterred by – the new restrictions, which he’d heard about in a report on WKTV-TV, Utica.
Locally, Village Board members who had crafted the law, and businesspeople who may have worried about it, seemed to unanimously agree that the first weekend of the new strictures had gone smoothly.
Mayor Tillapaugh
Saturday, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch went into the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market while hubby Gary Kuch, the town justice, sat in the car waiting and watching.
“What’s your take, Gary?” she asked on finishing her shopping. “He said, ‘Easily, 97 or 98 percent are compliant. Those who don’t wear it have it around their necks.’”
“I walked Main Street a little bit,” she said. “I found the same thing.”
Village police patrolled, but didn’t have to give out any citations, the mayor said. They asked a few people to put on their masks, and they did. (She emphasized: If they had been issued citations, fines – they are authorized to $1,000 – wouldn’t go to the village, but into state coffers.)
Trustee Richard Sternberg, who has been most hawkish about the need to require mask-wearing, had a similar experience. “I thought I was seeing a higher percentage of masks,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s just a statistical variance. Some people weren’t aware of the new law yet.”
Jess Lanza
Jess Lanza, new board chair at the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, estimated adherence to the law “in the 90 percentile” along Main Street. In Kate’s Upstate, the fashion store he operates with his wife, “we haven’t had any issue with people coming in and fussing about it,” even under the less strict state order.
“We didn’t have any issues or anything,” agreed Laurie Fink, Tin Bin Alley proprietor. “From my perspective, the first weekend went very well.”
The Village Board unanimously passed the law Monday, Aug. 10, requiring masks to be worn on Main Street between Fair Street and Pine Boulevard, and on Pioneer between Church and Lake. The law was reviewed by Village Attorney Martin Tillapaugh, then filed with the New York secretary of state by week’s end, and it went into effect.
The law enhances Governor Cuomo’s executive order requiring people to wear masks within six feet of each other; because of sidewalk cafes, the trustees were worried pedestrians are unable to maintain the required distance on downtown sidewalks.
Concerned that there be enforcement, Sternberg said he had engaged village patrolmen in conversations about their plans to walk Main Street sidewalks.
Trustee Sternberg
But that was before he and the rest of the trustees received an email from the mayor clarifying the chain of command: “She is the sole authority to speak to police,” as well as Village Administrator Teri Barown, he said. “She is correct.”
(However, if Tillapaugh and Barown are both out of town, he continued, the Village Board can meet and designate an acting mayor until one of the women returns.)
Meanwhile, the “Masks on Main” effort to alert out-of-towners to the new law is continuing, with signage, “masks required,” placed in the rain gardens along Main Street, the mayor said.
“We ordered more signage after the law passed Monday night,” she said. “Sandwich boards should be in this week,” she added.
Mayor Ellen TillapaughVillage Atty. Martin Tillapaugh
COOPERSTOWN – Village Attorney Martin Tillapaugh is preparing a law requiring everyone to wear a mask in Cooperstown’s business district. He expects to have a draft ready for the Village Board by its Monday, July 27, meeting, and the law in place by mid-August.
Tillapaugh was moving forward at the request of Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh, who left a special Monday, July 20, meeting of the village trustees after all concluded the downtown sidewalks, particularly with newly encouraged sidewalk cafes, are too narrow to allow social distancing.
Mandating masks is the only option, Mayor Tillapaugh and the Village Board have concluded.
COOPERSTOWN – With one report of coronavirus in the village, complaints about people not wearing masks and lenience in places of business, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch has called a special meeting of the Village Board at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
There, she will be seeking trustee approval of a FAQ (frequently asked questions) to be posted on the village and tourist-related websites emphasizing Village Hall’s stance on the coronavirus: “We strongly support and always promote public safety and social distancing.” The FAQs would also include the list of 22 states from which visitors are required to be quarantined for two weeks.
Today, she said, one of the village police officers was assigned to walk Main Street and visit local businesses to ensure people are wearing masks. Another officer will do so Sunday, and the patrols will continue during the week, she said.
At today’s special meeting of the Village Board today are Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch, top left. Trustee Richard Sternberg is at center. Clockwise from upper right are Trustees Cindy Falk, Joe Membrino, Jim Dean and Jeanne Dewey. Trustee MacGuire Benton was absent. (From Youtube video)
COOPERSTOWN – This morning’s special Village Board meeting, called to approve a “Cooperstown Outdoors” promotion and “Masks on Main” signage, spun off into a larger discussion of the need for masks, with Trustee Richard Sternberg calling for “punitive measures” against people not wearing masks.
“I certainly think we need to go – just like Texas happens to be going – to mandatory masks outdoors,” he said. “Sorry, I don’t like all these tourists coming here, thinking they’re on vacation from the constraints of COVID, and just walking around without masks just like they own the place.”
While Sternberg didn’t carry the day, Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch said she will fast-track the placement of a banner across Main Street (between Key Bank and Sal’s) that encourages mask-wearing. (It has already arrived, but was waiting for the “Congratulations CCS Class of 2020” to be taken down.)
Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch and Public Works Superintendent Mitch Hotaling were at the Doubleday Field parking lot this afternoon, inspecting BMW Fabricators’ installation of an arch over the entrance to 100-year-old grandstand property. Work on Doubleday Field and the Chestnut-Main traffic light upgrade are due by the end of the week. (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)
COOPERSTOWN – In light of Governor Cuomo’s decision to postpone Wednesday’s village elections statewide due , the Cooperstown candidates have said they are pulling up their lawn signs for the time being.
Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch is unopposed. MacGuire Benton, Joe Membrino and Mary Margaret Robbins Sohns are competing for two Village Board seats.
The terms of Benton and Membrino, the two incumbents, expire April 1; but Tillapaugh said that, due to the governor’s State of Emergency, they will continue to serve until the next election.
