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Trustees Consider

Requiring Masks

On Main – Always

Special Meeting Deals With

Multiple COVID-19 Issues

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – At a special meeting that ended just few minutes ago, the Village Board directed Trustee Richard Sternberg to confer with the village attorney on a law requiring people to wear masks at all times in the Main Street area.

The law would be effective on Main between Chestnut and Fair streets, and on Pioneer between Church and Lake.

A public hearing would be required before board action.

In related issue, the trustees:

• Tightened and expanded a statement that will be posted on its website and tourism-related sites instructing visitors of Masks on Main and quarantining regulations they must follow.
• Decided to wait a week (they next meet at 6:30 p.m. next Monday) to see if social distancing and masking can be sufficiently regulated during Music On Main performances in Pioneer Park. Such an event is planned Friday.
• Directed that a “safety station,” modeled on Oneonta’s at Saturday’s “Thrive and Survive” Main Street event there, would be set up at the Pioneer Park kiosk, making masks and hand-sanitizer available to the public.
• Agreed that police should be directed to enforce state masking laws, with the attendant $1,000 fines for individuals and $2,000 for businesses. (The village can issue citations; it would be up to Otsego Town Court to impose the fines.)
• Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch offered to explore a Lake George law creating a position like parking enforcement officer or zoning enforcement officer to enforce mask regulations downtown.