Enjoy, Care For Badger Park Playground

To the Editor:
In May of 2005 the village commissioned Chris Pape, an artist from NYC whose work is exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, to paint a mural on the back wall of the Great American.
This was paid for by a grant from Assemblyman Bill Magee, D-Nelson, and agreed to by the Koniuto family, which owns the building.
The village and the Parks Board are grateful to them all.
The mural was the initial step taken to brighten up the area and eventually to build a much needed village playground.
The celebration of the official opening of Badger Park Playground was on Sunday, June 22.
A few months ago vandals, defaced the mural by painting two large areas of graffiti on it.
Blaze Cox, who is working toward becoming an Eagle Scout, chose as his required project to clear out the dead trees and branches in Badger Park and to generally clean up the area.
He also volunteered to paint over the graffiti on the mural.
This week he and a friend, Steven French, did a magnificent job of returning the mural to it’s original state. We thank them for a job well done.
It is our hope that everyone will respect the hard work and time that Blaze and Steven put in on the mural and will think of the cost of the original art and for the repair work, and help keep this mural graffiti free.
We are fortunate to have Badger Park with its playground and skating rink and there are more innovations to come. It belongs to all of us and let’s all protect it and keep it in good repair.
Most of all, let’s all enjoy this latest village park.
GRACE KULL
Village Trustee
Cooperstown

Two Words: Thank You

To the Editor:
The village Parks Board and the Friends of the Parks celebrated the completion of the Badger Park playground Sunday afternoon, June 22.
This marked having a municipal playground in Cooperstown – long wished for by Cooperstown kids and parents – and also the successful inauguration of the working relationship between the village and the new Friends of the Parks.
As the chair of the Friends, dedicated to the enhancement of Cooperstown’s parks, the two most important words I have to say are: Thank you.
Thank you to the village trustees, Mayor Carol Waller and Parks Board members who agreed to a planning and fundraising process to achieve the goal of a village playground.
Heartfelt thanks to Jeff Katz, trustee and Parks Board chair, who was rational, capable and unflappable in a sea of e-mails.
So also was Brian Clancy, superintendent of public works. He was unerring and unwavering in helping fill all the gaps left in the planning.
Thanks to all of the people and the two local foundations who donated money to the fund. We had a little debate amongst ourselves about how much the appeal letter would bring in. You exceeded even the most optimistic among us.
Several local businesses offered materials and services, including Bruce Hall Corp., Kiser Sand & Gravel, the Great American, Haggerty Ace Hardware, Cooperstown Holstein Corp., Mohican Flowers, and the Red Nugget.
Thanks to all who turned out to work in steamy weather, bringing your tools and your good humor. And thanks to Parks Board members Kathy Clancy and Shelby Cooper, who organized the work force, and to Grace Kull and Rich McCaffery, who fed the work crew.
We hope this playground is the beginning of partnership that will get better and stronger and achieve more good things for the village’s parks. I think the sense of cooperation displayed at the ribbon cutting – organized by Susie Knight, Rich McCaffery, Ashley Cooper, and Grace Kull – was a great way to put closure to this project.
JESSIE RAVAGE
Chairman, Friends of the Parks
Cooperstown

Unless Selig Truly Listens, Hall of Fame Game Is Lost

To the Editor:
You’re article encompassing the George Bush – Bud Selig scenario was right on the mark! Both have continually underscored their pathos via their repeated failures. Unfortunately for us as Americans, one has damaged us worldwide far more than the other.
Nevertheless, they both personify common denominators, one of which is an inability to truly listen to those around them, confining such “listening” only to what they want to hear. Both are the puppets of big business, prioritizing their actions relative to the monetary demands of the moment.
Selig recognizes the profit-margin far more than the fans who propagate the success of his teams.
In the end, like Bush, the unfortunate reality spells out the fact that Selig simply does not listen. He only plods on in his know-it-all manner. This does not portend any successful resolution of any future scheduling of the annual Hall of Fame Game, and that reality must be recognized

KENNETH J. KAVANAGH
Cooperstown

It’s Freedom That Creates Opportunity

To the Editor:
Governor Paterson and Mayor Nader of Oneonta have recently suggested eliminating or combining smaller, particularly local, government entities into more efficient economical bodies. In other words, centralization.
Our very successful well-liked adherent to constitutional principles of the past, state Sen. Edwyn Mason of Delaware County, always unfailingly insisted that “government closest to the people serves the people best.” This will never change.
It seems we’ve had enough of centralization in the name of efficiency and economic prosperity at the expense of guiding our future. After all, our own elected officials, our representatives in Congress, abrogated their responsibility to the rest of us by giving up their constitutional right to declare war, by giving up that responsibility to one efficient man, the President of the United States. This was easy, wasn’t it? Look at the consequence.
Margaret Thatcher in a letter to the Heritage Foundation in 2006 had this to say about President Reagan: “He taught us the economic principles which underpin our prosperity. He knew lower taxes and economic freedom brought boundless opportunity and increased wealth.
“He knew that helping people help themselves was better than state planning and regulation. State planning and regulation, far from building a land of opportunity, creates one of dependency.”
An article in the New American magazine by Jane Orient, M.D., January 2007, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, pointed out that, under Universal Health Care, your doctor will not decide your treatment, government bureaucrats would.
Medicare has tens of millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. George Quinn, senior vice president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association told the House Committee on ways and means that Medicare pays only pennies on the dollar for actual costs, shifting huge administration costs onto doctors and hospitals.
BETH WHITCHER
Oneonta

Support Burn Ban

To the Editor:
If you think it is time for the burning of trash to be banned in New York State, then heads up.
Now is the time for all persons who are tired of smelling that noxious trash burning smell in your neighborhood to stand up and let your voice be heard. The state DEC is re-writing the regulations that pertain to trash burning and open burning across the state.
Write a letter and share your thoughts on trash burning, and send it to: Mr. Robert J. Stanton, Director, Bureau of Stationary Resources, Division of Air Resources, Second Floor, 625 Broadway, Albany NY 12233-3254.
It’s time people stop wasting resources, polluting the air, water and soil, and time to stop contaminating our food supply.
MARTHA CLARVOE
Co-chair
Burn Barrel Education Committee


Beautification Evident In Village’s Downtown

To the Editor:
As someone who walks Main Street every day for the pure pleasure of observing its beauty, it was a pleasant surprise to see the new flower beds surrounding the many trees lining the street.
In the past, the area around these trees was all too often trampled down and covered with debris. Hopefully, the civic-minded individuals who planted these new beds, along with those who are committed to maintaining them, will turn an eyesore into a real enhancement.
Many thanks to the many volunteers who donated plants, labored on the street and adopted a bed to maintain.
And special thanks to a few who made it happen: Charlene and Jim Vrooman for their initiative, organization and work, Eric Hage for supporting the program and setting an example of participation, and Neil Weiller for gathering volunteers, assembling tools and supplies, and getting the job done.
ROD TORRENCE
Cooperstown

5 Cars In Doubleday Field Lot Reflect Village Short-Sightedness Downtown

To the Editor:
This is Wednesday morning June 25, 2008. 11:30 a.m. Doubleday Field parking lot has only five cars parked. Village residents get their wish.
Two stores are now empty on Main Street and many more are to come. The customer count at our restaurant is down 500 people in the month of June. Parking tickets will now be given in Doubleday Field on Sunday. The village’s short-sightedness will turn Main Street into a ghost town.
Doubleday Field scheduling has 30 open spaces in June and July. That’s 60 teams or 1,500 people who will not be in Cooperstown for a loss of ball field revenue to exceed $12,000.
Mr. Katz took over scheduling and drove one of our best town employees out. She did the scheduling job well. Mr. Katz took the job away from her, so he could be sure that he could exclude the teams that he did not want to be in Cooperstown.
The open spaces also may be due to the 50 percent to 75 percent raise in fees. When you have no knowledge of scheduling or the teams that have used our fields year after year you would think that the job would have been left to the girl that not only had the knowledge of the teams using our field, took her own time in off hours to be sure the job was done correctly would have been able to continue doing this job.
So here we are less than one year later with parking meters and meter maids, a fairly empty parking lot, teams that have disappeared from our Doubleday Field and God only knows how much revenue lost. It is my understanding that more than 50 parking tickets at $35 per ticket were issued the first day the actual signs were installed. By the way, this was two weeks after the meters were installed. You would have thought courtesy warnings would have come first.
For the residents who were here 20 years ago and can remember the shape of our Main Street, store after store went out of business and the buildings were in horrible shape. Whether we want to admit it or not, only baseball and the patrons of baseball saved our village from empty stores and decaying buildings.
Residents, your town is being taken away from you right before your eyes. The two stores that are now empty could turn into four or six or eight. Wake up and smell the coffee. It may be too late.
TED HARGROVE
Cooperstown

Labels: 062708, Letters to the Editor