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Friday, August 18, 2006August 18 20062-Volume Biography May Buoy Cooper's Reputation  By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN Just before James Fenimore Cooper died on Sept. 14, 1851, in his boyhood home on the grounds of what today is Cooper Park, next to the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, he asked family members to keep his personal papers private. "The Cooper family had a kind of love-hate relationship with that idea," said Dr. Wayne Franklin, recently appointed chairman of American Studies at the University of Connecticut. "They were proud of him; they wanted his name to live on, but they wanted to honor his last wishes as well." Be that as it may, that death-bed wish has prevented a definitive biography of the first true American novelist from being written, until now. Shortly before noon on Sunday, Aug. 13, Franklin pushed the "send" button on his e-mail, transmitting his final revisions of "James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years," to his copy editor in Texas. The book is due for publication next spring. Absent a definitive biography, Cooper has been defined instead by such things as Mark Twain's 1895 essay, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," which famously called "The Deerslayer" a case of delirium tremens: "It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality." Jump back: James Feniomore Cooper may be in for a comeback. Lance Schachterle, chairman of The Cooper Edition, definitive versions of Cooper's novels, hopes Franklin's volumes will revive the novelist's reputation the same way Edgar Johnson's two-volume "Charles Dickens, His Tragedy and Triumph," revived the Englishman's reputation in 1950. "I find him" -- Cooper -- "a fascinating figure," said Franklin, interviewed as he packed up his Massachusetts home to move to Hebron, Conn., and assume his new duties at UConn. "His accomplishment is extraordinary. He created the market for American fiction and the marketing of American fiction. His invention -- Natty Bumppo -- nobody had written that kind of story, or given the poetic power to such figures as Cooper did." The prospective biography comes at a time of transition in the Cooperstown-based James Fenimore Cooper Society, which, through the efforts of Hugh C. MacDougall, has developed into an invaluable clearinghouse and e-meetingplace for Cooper scholars and members of the public interested in learning more, according to all the scholars interviewed. He's been something of a guardian angel of Cooperiana: When the Delancy mansion in Westchester County, home of James Fenimore's wife's family, was threatened with demolition, Hugh raised the alarm and effected its preservation. Retired from the Foreign Service for 20 years, MacDougall is still fully active in society matters, and numerous other local ventures as well but, raising his eyebrows during a recent interview, said he understands that's not going to be the case forever. "We need to find a way to get this organization established on a more permanent basis," he said. His answer was to invite Franklin, Schachterle and a dozen of the other top Cooper scholars -- from Allan Axelrad at California State University in Fullerton to Signe Wegener at the University of Georgia -- to serve on the society's board of directors, and the top retired scholars to serve on a senior advisory board. As it happens, the new board may meet for the first time next spring at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass., where Franklin will be lecturing on the first volume of the new biography. Later that summer, the directors may meet again here in Cooperstown, where Dr. Richard Lee of SUNY Oneonta will again be hosting a semi-annual conference on the native son. The most celebrated work so far on the early Cooper family was Alan Taylor's "William Cooper's Town," which won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for American History, but Franklin says: "Alan's take on his (James Fenimore Cooper's) politics is all wrong." Judge Cooper, the writer's father, joined the Federalist Party -- according to Taylor -- to affirm his rise from poverty to prominence. But the son, Franklin said, wasn't a snob. Instead, he "becomes a (Jeffersonian) and renounces his father's Federalist legacy. He was much more interested in the common man." Franklin also explores how the father's fortune came apart after his death in 1809. The War of 1812 drove down the price of land along the St. Lawrence River, where the elder Cooper had invested heavily in the Town of Dekalb; land valued at $5 an acre brought only $1, if it could be sold at all. James Fenimore Cooper, the sole surviving son after 1819, was drawn into a lengthy court battle due to unwise land contracts in the tangled Old Military Tract, the Finger Lakes Region. "James Fenimore Cooper became a writer because his finances were a mess," said Franklin. "He saw how much money Sir Walter Scott made writing." At the outset, Cooper "didn't even like holding a pen in his hand; once he started, he really had something that caught the public's attention, both at home and abroad." Cooper's first novel was a flop, but his second, "The Spy," was a success and his third, "The Pioneers" -- he created Bumppo and Judge Temple, and set them in Templeton, his fictional depiction of Coopertown -- sold 3,500 copies in New York City on its first day of publication, a smash then, but a number that would still be respectable today. From 1820 to 1830, one hundred novels were published in the U.S., and Cooper wrote 10 percent of them. In addition to the spy novel and the sea novel, Franklin credits him with creating the western: The Wild West then was a lot farther east -- somewhere around Fly Creek -- then it was later to be. Successful, he took his family for a year in France and Italy -- Cooper's novels were always popular in Europe -- and became entangled in French politics on the side of the Republicans, not the Monarchists. Back home, newspaper editors representing the more authoritarian side of American politics lambasted Cooper for that, and he sued a number of them for libel, usually successfully. But the experience embittered him, leading to his death-bed request. Susan Fenimore Cooper, his daughter and a novelist herself, burned some of his papers, but published a lot about her father. Still, the family generally honored his request, keeping his papers in a vault in the basement of the family's Cooperstown home. After World War II, however, a young scholar, James Franklin Beard, talked the family into allowing him to do an authorized biography. First, Beard concluded, he needed to edit Cooper's papers and he put together a six-volume collection, which he published between 1960 and 1968. Then, he decided before he could write a biography, he needed to publish authoritative editions of Cooper's novels. So far, 21 have been done, at first by SUNY, but AMS Publishing has picked up the mantle; there are 19 left to go. Finally, Beard realized he had waited too long: He was too old to begin and complete the definitive biography. He died in 1988. Meanwhile, Paul Fenimore "Nicky" Cooper had allowed Alan Taylor access to some of the papers. He arranged for William Cooper's papers to go to Hartwick College, and for James Fenimore's to go to the Antiquarian Society. Franklin, whose mother was from East Worcester and spent some time in Otsego County as a lad, leaped, moving from the Midwest to Northeastern in Boston, so he would be near the Cooper archives. He began researching Cooper's life in 1994. After spending all that time with James Fenimore Cooper, does Franklin still like him? "I do," he replied. "I've enjoyed doing it; it's like you're living with someone and can't get away from it. Cooper's ripe for rediscovery. His significance is large. He was so much in the thick of what was happening in the America of his age. "He's always growing. Some of his last books are among his best." Start All Over, Jordanville Told Warren Said to Flout Law by Secrecy JORDANVILLE The Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed 75-turbine Jordanville Wind Project is faulty, and the process necessary to approve the 7.5-mile swath of 400-foot-tall towers should go back to square one, according to Otsego 2000's environmental lawyer. In particular, Drayton Grant, a former state Environmental Conservation deputy commissioner, criticized the "scoping" phase of the project, where Warren town board members and representatives of the developer, Community Energy Inc., put together the initial concept in secret, without the knowledge of its citizens and those in the neighboring Town of Stark. "The process of informal scoping undertaken here denied the public, which always has a depth of knowledge and wisdom to offer, and thus contributed to the inadequacies of the document you accepted for public comment," Grant said in written comments on the DEIS submitted to Warren's lawyer in this matter, Ulasewicz, Melewski & Greenwood of Saratoga Springs. Attorney Bernard Melewski, who is handling the matter at the firm, said the Otsego 2000 letter is one of several from interested municipalities and entities, including the Village of Cooperstown, the Advocates for Springfield, and three state agencies: Agriculture & Markets, Environmental Conservation and the Public Service Commission. There's a "variety of additional work that needs to be done," Melewski said. He said inputs usually need to be folded into the Final Environmental Impact Statement within 45 days, but he has had to seek an extension because of gaps in the Draft EIS. He said he does anticipate the FEIS will be done this fall. In particular, he mentioned concerrns raised about the impact of the 400-foot-tall turbines and the related night-time lighting on views, including those in the Route 20 Scenic Byway and the Lindsay Patent and Glimmerglass National Historic District. The DEIS said the project could be seen from halfway down Otsego Lake -- within the surveys eight-mile limit -- but there were concerns it would be visible from as far away at the docks at Cooperstown, marring the view of the Sleeping Lion -- Mount Wellington -- made famous internationally in James Fenimore Cooper's novels. Another gap was revealed during a conversation some Cherry Valley planning board members had Tuesday, Aug. 15, with environmental consultant Deb Sullivan, who is working for Reunion Power on the 24 windmills it is proposing there: Community Energy's consultant -- a subcontractor since removed from the job -- failed to test "ambient noise levels" from the windmills at lot lines and nearby homes. Those tests are now being done, Sullivan said, even though it is too late for the three public hearings held at Jordanville and Van Hornesville, and too late for the public comment period, which expired Aug. 4. "The DEIS also fails to address the cumulative impact of the many wind projects, extant and proposed, in the Route 20/Mohawk Valley area," Grant continued in her letter," and omits an analysis of how the area is apt to be more likely to attract further wind projects if this one is approved. "The DEIS ignored the adopted New York State plans to reinvigorate the historic character of the Mohawk Valley Heritage Corridor." Melewski said much remains to be done before any permits may be issued. The DEC must issue a permit if any of the windmills are within 100 feet of wetlands; the PSC has a permit, and each town must issue special-use and building permits. In her letter, Grant cited several studies Otesgo 2000 commissioned: * David Healy, vice president, Stone Environmental Inc., competed a viewshed analysis that "finds the visual impact of the project exceeds the area covered in the DEIS." * James A. Zack, president, Xtra-Special Productions Inc., who simulated the impact of lighting on the nighttime sky. * Patricia M. O'Donnell, principal, Heritage Landscapes, who found "significant omissions" in the historic and cultural resource inventory, "including large rural historic landscapes." * Ronald Bielinski, an engineer, whose report "addresses gaps ini the methodology of the noise report." * Nicholas Pressly, Pressly & Associates, who raised concerns about blasting on the water table and runoff. The final EIS must prove, Grant said, "that you have met the 'hard look' test." Cherry Valley Adopts Short Moratorium Surprise Vote Fails To Allay Lack of Trust  CHERRY VALLEY The vote was greeted with a surprised silence. Two weeks after a 12-month moratorium that would have delayed Reunion Power's 24-turbine windmill farm on East Hill for 12 months died for lack of a second, the town board, seemingly out of the blue, voted unanimously in favor of a three-month moratorium. "Eventually we're going to get the horse before the cart," Town Board Member Fabian Bressett said as he stood outside the town barn Tuesday, Aug. 15, in the waning sunlight. "We were rushing to beat the application," said Supervisor Tom Garretson. Reunion's initial application was rejected and the company is revising it. "Now, with the moratorium, there's no problem." If Reunion's completed application were filed before a moratorium, conceivably it would have been "grandfathered," exempting it from any provisions of the windmill ordinance. It was a week of multiple developments in Cherry Valley's windmill saga: * At a Thursday, Aug. 10, town board meeting, Advocates for Cherry Valley presented two petitions, one (179 signatures) for a 12-month moratorium, the second (190 signatures) asking that the town board be expanded from three to five members. * Also at that meeting, Garretson outlined a fast-track schedule that would have had the town board adopting a windmill ordinance by early September. That has now been set aside. * A few days of furious activity followed, as planning board chairman Jeff Wait and member Walter Buist hurrying back and forth to the town's Syracuse law firm, seeking to draft an acceptable ordinance in five days. The short moratorium takes the pressure off, but didn't little to alleviate the mistrust and worry evident at the July 31 public hearing, attended by 200 people, or at subsequent town meetings, which have all been packed to the overflowing. "Everyone's talking as if the turbines are decided," landowner Greg Noonan said after the 3-0 moratorium vote. "We still have the possibility the state will stand by us." A couple of people reported hearing news reports that the State of Vermont is about to ban windmill farms for the same reasons -- aesthetic, financial and scope -- as they are being opposed here. In New York State, the Pataki Administration has been a prime proponent of the windmill farms, enacting tax breaks to encourage their construction. "If I had to guess," Garretson remarked, "I'd bet you have a better chance with the town." Andy Minnig, who heads the Advocates for Cherry Valley, said he has met with state Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Montgomery County, chairman of the General Assembly's energy committee: "These guidelines are coming. The question is: Will we survive? I don't want us to be a poster child of what not to do." That town board meeting recessed after an half hour, but the planning board -- which then planned to meet -- lacked a quorum. Only Buist, Liz Plymel and Russell V. "Stubby" Flint were there. In another surprise twist, Buist agreed to allow Deb Sullivan, a consultant from Syracuse on Reunion's payroll, to give a presentation on the elements required in an Environmental Impact Statement, which led to an hour-long discussion of noise, setbacks, views and similar aspects. Plymel reported going to the 195-turbine Maple Ridge Wind Farm north of Lowville to assess the noise: "I stood right next to one and, I have to say, it hurt." Sullivan disagreed. Resident Nick Pressly, a hydrologist, raised concerns about the water table, noting Maple Ridge had caused die-off at the Lowville fish hatchery. Again, Sullivan disagreed, but Pressly said he had spoken directly to the man who ran the hatchery. The town board meeting the week before had been much more free-floating, more typical of recent sessions. Garretson, outlining the fast-track process then under consideration, repeatedly emphasized the importance of community input. Harkening back to the July 31 hearing where 96 people testified, 80 percent in favor of the moratorium, and yet the town board rejected it, Patricia Siebold said, ""Whether the public is happy or not, how is that going to be determined?" Minning spoke in support of "eliminating the profit motive." If East Hill's winds are such a resource, he said, why couldn't the town erect a couple of windmills of its own, powering the town and sharing the benefits? Phil Durkin, who represents the Cherry Valley area on the county Board of Representatives, distributed copies of the state law empowering communities to set up municipal utilities. Two clarifications were debated at some length. Garretson pointed out that he had made the motion July 31 to approve the 12-month moratorium, but -- strictly speaking -- it wasn't rejected by a 2-1 vote, because the motion died for lack of a second. A vote was called, and the result was 2-1, but it was an invalid vote since the motion was already dead. At second issue was raised by Plymel: There is no Reunion Power application, she said. It turns out that Reunion had an application, but the planning board sent it back to the company for revisions. The board is now awaiting revised application. It was agreed that the town needs professional advice. "Are we able to process land-use applications without putting the town in liability?" one speaker asked. "We do not have experts to advise us," Plymel added. Garretson agreed that the town's Syracuse law firm and environmental consulting firm would have experts at meetings from now on, (although that didn't happen Aug. 15.) He said later that Reunion has agreed to pay the town's legal and consulting bills. Despite the rancorous tone of recent meetings, and the sparring that's gone on in town for five years since windmills were first proposed for Cape Wyckoff, across from Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School, the supervisor declared his astonishment at the way people could keep the discussion going. "The respect that people have for each other is overwhelming," he said. As the meeting ended, Garretson noted he would be incommunicado for four days: He was giving his eldest of three daughters; she was married over the weekend. The announcement was greeted by thunderous applause. On 'Memorable Day,' Brookwood Cuts Ribbon on $4 Million Building TODDSVILLE The low point came in 1998. The Brookwood School was down to 32 students. All the board of directors' meetings were knock down, drag outs, Michael Moffat said the other day, but he remembers one in particular. Of the 13 directors, 11 up and quit, leaving Moffat and Tom Breiten, the Town of Otsego supervisor, looking at each other. They phoned Amy Williams, the head teacher who was out on maternity leave and wasn't intending to return. It must have been a lonely feeling, the three of them trying to pick up the pieces. That must have seemed a long time ago Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 15, when Michael and Amy, along with Jane Forbes Clark, state Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, and Bassett Hospital COO Bertine McKenna cut the ribbon on a $4 million, 15,000-square-foot addition on a 23-acre campus. "This is a wonderful, memorable day for Brookwood," said Clark, whose Clark Foundation, as well as the Scriven Foundation, contributed to the fund drive. "With the expansion of programs and campus, it is now a valuable asset to Otsego County, providing its students an exceptional opportunity to learn and grow in a safe, positive environment." The modern story of The Brookwood School goes back to 1995. Richard and Ann Wienke had established the Montessori school in 1981 on Lake Street in Cooperstown, but they were ready to retire. So Moffat, Breiten and others reestablished the school as a not-for-profit, intent on continuing. They picked the name "Brookwood" because one plan was to establish it in Brookwood Garden, on Otsego Lake. It ended up in a farmhouse in Toddsville, still used by the school today. What is Montesorri? Talk to Amy Williams about it and her eyes light up even more brightly than usual. It's "very individualized," she said. In a regular school, the whole class at, say, 10 a.m. is told it's time to paint a duck for the next hour. In Montessori, the assignment would be less specific, the child would be provided with supplies and a sponge to clean up any mess, and given 2 1/2 hours to come up with something. "They want to be totally independent," Williams said of young students. By allowing them to pursue their individual interests, they develop a love of learning that lasts them a lifetime. "If I can have them for six years," she quoted Ann Wienke as saying, "I've got them for life." Parents sipping lemonade and eating cookies in the bright new multipurpose room after the ribbon-cutting agreed. "We were home-schooling," said Warren Ainslie, who has three daughters -- Georgia, 14, Ida, 13 and Martha, 10 -- and works maintenance at the school to help cover the tuition. "But our two younger daughters seemed to need more interaction." The smaller classes -- teacher Judy Wertenbaker said she had 12 students last year in her reading and writing class -- helped his girls make the transition. It further helped that the school was "incredibly flexible" in allowing his daughters to develop in their own ways at their own paces, Ainslie said. The fund-drive that just ended only began in earnest a year ago, but Moffat said he had begun briefing Jane Clark three years ago on the need for an alternative to public schools, particularly given the physician-recruitment drive under way at Bassett Healthcare -- Jane Clark is chairman of that board as well. "It's one of the things we" -- Moffat and wife Cory -- "thought about when we were thinking about returning," he said. William F. Streck, the Bassett president & CEO, who was at the ceremony, said the hospital will pay for a certain number of spaces a year, filled or not, so the professionals it recruits can provide the Brookwood option for their children, whether or not they want to go that route. Moffat said that's an ongoing source of revenue for the school, but that the hospital donated directly to the fund drive as well. While the school's tuition is relatively modest as private schools go -- from about $2,000 a year for pre-schoolers to about $6,000 at the upper end -- Brookwood isn't simply an enclave for the children of the well-to-do. "One-third of the families are under the poverty level," said Moffat, adding that Brookwood is serious about its financial-aid and scholarship programs, and has agreements with Otsego and two surrounding counties. Looking around the reception, diversity was evident among the attendees. Amy Williams used words like "essential" and "crucial" to describe the role that lonely trio back in 1998 decided the school must play. Today, it tends infants as young as six-weeks old. One novel program under consideration is a "sick-child care unit," where parents, whether they send their children to Brookwood or not, can drop off "moderately sick" children with the assurance they will be well-tended, said Williams. The idea came from a director who used to work at the Mayo Clinic, which had a similar unit. The numbers reflect the progress. When Moffatt, Breiten and Williams began to dig their way out of what seemed like a deep hole, the school served pre-schoolers through third-graders. Today, the youngsters ranged from six weeks old to eighth grade. The brown building adjacent to the new one was 6,500 square feet; the school now has 21,000 square feet of space in all. From 32 students, enrollment rose to 120 last year. This year, it will expand to 150. The school now has space for 250, but "we don't want to increase it instantaneously," said Amy. When she joined the school in the early '90s, she was one of six teachers. Today, there are 40 staffers. Fully expanded, that number will rise to 60. The first year at Brookwood School, the Montessori program had a budget slightly under $100,000; this year, it's $1.1 million. "Payroll used to be $40,000 a year," said Moffat. "Now, it's $40,000 a month. Actually, more like 50." Endowment? $18, he kids, "but someone went to Wal-Mart and spent it by mistake." In the future, you can bet that will change. "None of this could have happened without your support and your believing in Brookwood and its philosophy," Jane Clark had told the gathering. "Please don't ever stop supporting or believing in Brookwood." People See Ever More Black Bear MIDDLEFIELD  Linda Lofrumento and Dr. Karen McGinnis, just back from a vacation Cape Cod, noticed all the six-foot-tall birdfeeders in the backyard of their Murphy Hill Road home were bent.The next day, Wednesday, Aug. 2, Karen was playing golf when Linda saw it: A black bear was in their backyard. She watched him for about a half-hour while it "ate seed, walked around, scratched his back against a tree." He was making a sound that wasn't quite a growl, more like "a vibration." Lofrumento didn't know whether to make a noise and scare him away, and finally he ambled away. The experience used to be a rarity around Cooperstown, but no more. McGinnis said she's heard a bear was spotting in the parking lot at the end of Linden Avenue. One of their neighbors spotted a bear -- perhaps the same one -- along Middlefield Road. "We're surrounded by bear," said Bob Partridge of Milford, a hunting guide. While guiding hunting parties in May, Partridge said he saw three bears; he's never seen any before. Bobcats are on the rise, too, he said. Because of the number of sightings, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has, for the first time, authorized a hunting season on bear this fall. Oct. 14 to Nov. 17 is for bowhunting; Nov. 18 to Dec. 10, rifle, and Dec. 11 to 18, muzzleloaders. "If they shoot 2-3 in the county this year, it'll be a lot," said Partridge. Statewide, about 1,000 bear are shot annually. Laurie O'Connell, a DEC spokesperson, said it's not unusual to add or subtract a county from the bear-season list, as the population moves around. The bears appear to be migrating north from Pennsylvania -- 3,500 bear were taken during that state's hunting season last -- via Broome County. The towns around Otsego Lake have "perfect habitat" -- lots of woods, particularly beech and oak trees, lots of grass and crops. Black bears around here are usually 100-200 pounds, but can grow to 350 pounds. In Pennsylvania, where Patridge takes hunting trips, they can be as big as 850 pounds. And they're big eaters: A 200-pounder can put on 150 pounds over one summer. More common, perhaps, but still a surprise. Brent Murdock of Cooperstown said his brother, Scott, was deer hunting last year at Kukenberger's gravel pit in Fly Creek when a big black bear "walked under his tree stand." Trio Arrested For Vandalizing Fernleigh Span COOPERSTOWN Following a three-month investigation into vandalism at the Fernleigh Bridge, Cooperstown police charged three young men -- two of them minors -- with breaking loose masonry and pushing it into the Susquehannah below. “It's still an on-going investigation,” said Cooperstown Police Officer John Congdon. "We're expecting more arrests soon." William Peters, 20, of Hartwick, a 17-year-old Toddsville resident, and a 14-year-old juvenile are facing charges of criminal mischief. “It's estimated that at least $10,000 worth of damage has been done to the bridge,” said Officer Congdon. According to Bart Barown, Leatherstocking Corp. director of security, the bridge was first vandalized April 19. Two months later, it was vandalized again, only worse: Chest-high battlements were knocked off their cement foundations. Revered by generations of Cooperstown as a cozy hide-a-way just steps away from bustling downtown commotion, the bridge was built in 1928 by Jane Forbes Clark's grandparents to connect Fernleigh, a River Street estate, with a now-overgrown practice golf course with nine tees but only five greens. Anyone with information may call Barown in confidence at 547-5285, or contact village police. Labels: Archives
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