Trustees Discuss HoF Weekend, Public Safety

By SARAH ROBERTS
COOPERSTOWN

For Cooperstown residents, summer—and the beginning of tourist season—is fast approaching. The Village Board of Trustees has begun making preparations for Hall of Fame Weekend and other activities in the coming warmer, busier months.

The Village Board met on Monday, March 24 for about two and a half hours. Early in the evening, discussion of Hall of Fame Weekend began, with logistical discussions on the staging of buses for tour groups to the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction. Concerns about parking were clear.

Main Street is set to be closed from Chestnut Street to Fair Street on Hall of Fame Weekend, from 6 a.m. on Friday, July 25 to 6 a.m. on Monday, July 28, with a portion of the Doubleday Field parking lot reserved for vendors.

Local Laws 2-5 were passed by the trustees. Local Laws 2-4 involve parking—Number 2 prohibits parking on the east side of Brooklyn Avenue, Number 3 prohibits parking on Upper Main Street from Grove Street to Averill Road, and Number 4 allows overnight parking on Fish Road in Lakefront Park from November 1 through April 1 on the east side of the roadway.

Local Law 5 states that zoning applications shall not be deemed to be received until the Planning Board determines that such applications are complete and a Certification of Appropriateness has been issued by the Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board.

In the Public Safety update, two arrests and 58 traffic stops were reported by village police, as well as a lockdown drill at Cooperstown Central School.

An account of “words exchanged” between a fire chief and a citizen driver over lack of proper reflective paddles when fire police direct traffic at accident scenes was also shared. The citizen driver reportedly claimed such equipment is required in New York State. Trustees said they will look into this requirement and, if necessary, purchase the equipment.

Public Safety also reported on an agreement to purchase used ambulances from Cazenovia for $75,000.00—the third time used ambulances will be purchased from this community—and a suggestion was made to village officials to consider selling ambulances to other nearby EMS teams. Sidney and New Berlin EMS have both expressed interest in purchasing Cooperstown’s current 2015 ambulances, according to the board. Sidney has made an offer for one of the ambulances for $35,000.00 and the plan to negotiate for $40,000.00 was made by trustees.

The New York State Department of Transportation will be undertaking a project south of the village on Route 28 due to an increase in activity and accidents. The need for a joint meeting with the Town of Otsego was discussed, in order to finalize a project first proposed several years ago to add lighting and sidewalks from Walnut Street to Linden Avenue to improve safety.

A proposal made by the Streets Committee to postpone the start of the Cooperstown trolleys—which usually begin running on Memorial Day weekend—until Father’s Day Weekend was approved by the board.

It was also reported that, over the cold months, water had gotten into Otsego County’s diesel and fuel tanks. Since the Village of Cooperstown gets its diesel from the county, three vehicles belonging to the village were damaged substantially. Insurance will cover the damage and subrogate against the county, officials said.

The plan to purchase a new village flag for the 22 Main Street offices was made, as the current flag was observed to be faded and worn out. According to officials, during the month of April, as Cooperstown is once again recognized as a “Tree City” by the Arbor Day Foundation, there will be an Arbor Day flag flying in the village as well.

Concerns over the TextMyGov number use and costs were raised. The number is meant to be a way for the village to send out text alerts in case of emergencies to those who have signed up to receive them.

Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh observed that it seems like the cheaper and more effective means of mass communication was through the Celebrate Cooperstown Facebook page, rather than a text alert service. The TextMyGov service costs the village $2,750.00 annually.

“I’m concerned about using a Meta platform as our primary form of communication,” said Deputy Mayor Cindy Falk, referring to Facebook and related social media apps as she spoke in favor of keeping the village’s enrollment in the TextMyGov service. “When there was a fire on Elm Street, for instance, we could have texted ‘avoid Elm Street,’ but we are not geared up to do that—but we could be.”

“Maybe it’s something our emergency service needs more than our village government,” Tillapaugh noted.

Similar uses for the TextMyGov service, such as toxicity in the lake, snow emergencies and active shooters, were also pointed out, as was the rarity of an event which might require instantaneous communication in relation to the high cost of the service.

Tillapaugh suggested reaching out to the company that runs the service to request information on how to use it more effectively. She also proposed making the service part of the police, fire or EMS budget rather than the village budget as a whole.

“I just know, as someone on a college campus, this is the way people communicate in an emergency,” Falk insisted.

“Young people,” Tillapaugh countered, “but I disagree in [the case of] the village.”

In the end, the matter was pulled from the consent agenda until a representative from the board could speak to the company about ways in which the service could better support the community.
Discussion of the proposed dog park at Linden Avenue continued, including correspondence to the school and The Clark Foundation. The board decided to look into forming a new parks survey to gauge public interest in this and other projects.

Before the meeting was adjourned, a $150.00 septic inspection fee for property owners with septic systems in proximity to Otsego Lake upon the required inspection was proposed and approved. This inspection fee would be paid in exchange for a certificate allowing the operations of the septic system for three years. Otherwise the “appropriate agencies” would be notified that the system was out of compliance.

The Village Board of Trustees holds its regular monthly meetings on the fourth Monday of the month at 6 p.m. For more information, or to view the March 24 meeting in its entirety, visit www.cooperstownny.org.