We are more interconnected then we often think.
For instance, it surfaced the other day that half of the Town of Otsego’s assessment is in the Village of Cooperstown. No village resident serves on the town board, and the town provides no services to the Cooperstown residents who pay half the bill.
If Cooperstown were to become a city, Otsego’s town taxes would double overnight.
We need each other. And that’s OK. That’s as it should be. We’re neighbors.
It’s essential that as Cooperstown moves toward becoming a city, that city should be crafted in an optimum way to create the maximum benefit for all and minimize any pain.
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Yes, in many ways we think we’re independent. But we actually aren’t.
For instance, the Village Library of Cooperstown is a department of village government, but it serves a constituency well beyond the village.
Amy Stack, a Friends of the Library board member, did a survey last year and discovered, yes, the biggest segment of cardholders are from the village (1,372), but many more come from outside the village (2,407). More people use the library from Otsego (720), Milford (618) and Hartwick (324) – a total of 1,662 – than from Cooperstown alone.
The village is pretty close to broke, so it’s unlikely it will budget much more than the $80,000 or so it spends now on the library, (plus $30,000 in utilities).
Under the leadership of Rebecca Weil, who announced the other day she is stepping aside as president, the Friends of the Library has contributed more than $40,000 in the past two years to upgrades, and the improvements are manifest – the library’s brighter, more comfortable, more user-friendly.
But that’s taken a significant personal investment of time and energy on Rebecca’s part, more than a volunteer can be expected to make ongoing.
In effect, the way matters are structured now limits the library’s future.
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Happily, it doesn’t have to be. There are some positive synergies and ready changes that offer opportunities for all the players.
One is the 22 Main Restoration initiative. The chair of that effort, Veronica Seaver, has stressed “restoration” of that stone, be-pillared landmark over “renovation”; the hope is to return the building – commission by Elizabeth Scriven Clark in 1898 as a YMCA; Robert Sterling Clark gave it to the village in 1932 – to its original splendor, complete with balustrade around the cornice.
When state Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, announced a $100,000 state grant for the effort a month ago, Mayor Carol B. Waller, in her remarks from the 22 Main porch, envisioned the library/municipal building/art association/police headquarters continuing to evolve as a center of community life.
The bad news is that $100,000 is hardly a drop in the bucket. Simply repairing the roof will cost $600,000. (Incidentally, it’s been discovered the roof of the former squash court was actually never attached to the building; it just sat there.) The whole restoration will cost millions.
The good news is the village doesn’t have to go it alone.
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The library doesn’t have to continue as a village department.
In fact, the state Regents are recommending local libraries reorganize as “school district libraries,” with the library budget put up for a vote annually along with the school budget. Because of the affection for libraries, and because of the relative pittance it takes to run a library compared to running a school district, no library budget has ever been defeated, not a single one.
In fact, Milford and Worcester, so-called “association libraries,” are already doing a version of this.
As a school district library, the people who mostly use the Library of the Village of Cooperstown would pay for it, probably happily.
The village could lease the building to the library for $1 a year, saving $110,000 a year and ensuring a more muscular facility for the benefit of village residents and their neighbors.
The Four County Library System has a pool of $400,000 annually for construction grants, which could further help the restoration.
Meanwhile, the municipalilty and police department could continue to evolve their facilities at the building’s lower level. (Is money for capital improvements available through law-enforcement entities as well?)
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Another big plus is the Cooperstown Art Association, which hosts lively – but periodic – openings and events throughout the year in the squash court and the ballroom upstairs. (That fashion show organized by the CCS art department in April was a delight.)
The association leases its space six months a year, and much of the time it’s lightly used. But imagine if the art association and library worked side by side?
The association’s space could be more fully used by library patrons, who could pause from their readings to reflect on a changing cavalcade of works of art. The openings and events, fun in themselves, could also serve to reintroduce a segment of the public to the library at large.
Everybody wins.
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Looking at the numbers and at the village’s financial plight, it’s clear the 22 Main Restoration project will not be complete without a major fundraiser, in the millions.
So ganging constituencies – the library, the art association, the preservation community, citizens of multiple municipalities – will only make success a lot more assured. Likewise, establishing a structure that will ensure an income flow would reassure the contributing public of the library’s viability into the future.
Amanda May, the fundraiser par excellence, is lending her experience to the 22 Main committee. She spoke to the village board last month, suggesting Seward’s $100,000 be used, not to repair the porch, but to lay the groundwork for the full-bore campaign that’s going to be needed.
Regrettably, she received a bit of a cold shoulder. The money, Mayor Waller told her, was earmarked for the porch, period. That’s not really sensible, given the scope of the challenge. Perhaps Seward can weigh in and adjust the allocation’s target. It not, the seed money will simply be found elsewhere.
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That said, it should be encouraging to every public-spirited undertaking that the Otsego County Conservation Association, which timidly sought to raise $30,000, was encouraged to bump it up to $300,000 over three years, only to see that goal surpassed in nine months. (More good news: Amanda May crafted that campaign, too.)
There’s money out there from contributors big and small for things that matter. And what matters to a community more than its library?

Labels: Editorial, Opinion