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 In the News This Week -- Feb. 23, 2007 |
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  Assessment Sliced By 2/3rds On Main Street Centerpiece
Revenues On Key Bank Will Go Down $30,000 COOPERSTOWN The assessment has been cut by two-thirds – $600,000 – on Main Street’s most imposing building, home to Key Bank’s downtown office. The $1,020,700 assessment becomes $322,075. The decision, made by the village trustess on Grievance Night, Tuesday, Feb. 20, will cost the village, Town of Otsego, the fire district and the school district more than $30,000 combined in taxes per year. It also free ups that amount for developer Shane Newell, president of Field View Development Inc., Warrensburg, to dedicated to planned upgrades. “That’s absolutely fantastic news. Wow!” said Newell, when asked to comment on the decision. So far this winter, he said, heating the four-story 1903 one-time printing plant has cost him $45,000. Newell had appealed the higher assessment after buying the building for $650,000 last year. The village and Town of Otsego split a $5,000 fee to hire Leland T. Bookhout, a real-estate appraiser from Rhinebeck, who had previously been called in to settle assessment disputes on the Otesaga Resort Hotel, the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, and the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital. Bookhout, reached at his office on Wednesday, Feb. 21, declined to comment on the decision, saying he wasn’t yet aware of it and that he had only briefed local officials orally; his written report is still forthcoming. It was unclear whether the trustees’ decision will bring an end to a lawsuit Key Bank had initiated before selling the building, but that seems likely. Newell said he had consulted a lawyer about his options and had written a letter to the village. Any further challenge would be unnecessary now. It was also unclear what impact the sales price and the assessment decision would have on other downtown real estate now for sale. Al Keck, the village zoning officer who is now conducting the village’s first reassessment since 1987, said the final figure was arrived at by applying the village’s equalization rate of 49.55 to the sales price. Keck said he toured the 33,000-square-foot building – there is about 26,000 square feet of usable space – with Bookhout to observe how he came to his conclusions. Imposing as it is, the building presents challenges to potential development. The windows are more than 7-foot tall and up to 14-feet wide and are single-paned, allowing heat to easily escape. Key Bank and law offices on the second floor have long-term leases, locking in rents below today’s market rates. While the building, erected in 1903 at the Arthur H. Crist Publishing Co., was built in pre-asbestos days, there is some asbestos insulation in the basement, and some asbestos ceiling tiles in the Key Bank premises on the ground floor which would have to be remediated. The roof needs repair, and perhaps replacement, and the freight elevator may have to be as well. Newell, a former restaurateur in the Saratoga Springs and Lake George area, was Key Bank’s regional director of facilities before buying the property and going out on his own. The bank, he explained, wanted to get out of real-estate management to concentrate on its core business. The developer plans to build five luxury condos on the fourth floor, with “common space” – a cinema, a gym, a library and a laundry – on the third floor. The two front condos would have views of Otsego Lake and the Sleeping Lion; the back condos would overlook Doubleday Field. Of the $30,000 revenue loss, the village’s share would be $8,000; the town’s, $1,300; the county’s, $6,000; the fire district’s, $400; and the school district’s, $17,000.  By JIM KEVLIN PORTLANDVILLE Here is it: The Goodyear Lake Polar Bear Jump, by the numbers. The Saturday, Feb. 17, event was the 12th annual. A record 214 would-be jumpers signed up; a record 171 jumped, up from 168 last year. A record $32,350 was raised, compared to $27,500 the year before, and $17,500 each of the three years before that. In all, about $150,000 has been raised and 23 ailing young people helped, or at least solaced. Ed Gwilt of Cooperstown was the jumper who raised the most pledges this year, $2,080. Second was jump founder Jamie Waters, $2,000. This year there were four beneficiaries: Alan Crum Jr., 7, of Milford, who has cerebral palsy; baby Keagan Smith of Bainbridge, who was born prematurely and has a breathing disorder; Quin Sheridan, 3, of Norwich, who has Joubert Syndrome; and Miranda Robinson, 12, of Worcester, who has Retts Syndrome. As always, the water temperature was 33 degrees. The air temperature was 26 and the sun was shining, a beautiful day. Last year, wind chill made it feel like 7 below. In 1999, it was so warm there was concern spectators would fall through the ice. (That didn’t happen.) That year, the ice was 4 inches thick. This year, 10 inches. But the numbers that emerge from that one day a year tell only a small part of the story. The rest of the story goes on 364 days a year, when Polar Bear Jump Central is the cozy Waters’ family home at the end of Hotaling Road, a country lane in the Townof Milford. The other evening at the top of the drive was a light tabby, Tiger – “Lily turned out to be Tiger when we brought her to the vet,” explained Brenda Waters, the mom of the house. Inside the door and to the left was a pile of fur that turned out to be four English setters – Tonka, Max, Neo and Sierra. Echo chirped in a nearby birdcage and six fish, Sparkles among them, moved placidly around the aquarium. Beyond this were the Waterses themselves – in addition to Jamie and Brenda, Dana, 19, her boyfriend Justin Jones, Wyatt, 10 and Mataiah, 8 – in a welcoming high-ceiligned livingroom. Jamie, who has operated James Waters Construction for 17 years, built the house himself; his older son, Jeremiah, 21, works with him. Matt Johnson of Milford, a Waters’ friend and dip enthusiast, has spliced together a video/tribute on the event over the years – in 2006, the wind chill was 7-below; in 1999, Goodyear Lake barely froze. Springsteen’s “Like a Rock” is the soundtrack. The room is filled with chatter and family banter, but it tails off when the video begins to show image after image of the jump’s young beneficiaries. One image is of a sickly looking red-headed lad; the next, of a strong, handsome, smiling red-headed young man leaning against a tree. Another is of a winsome, wistful young lady in a soft light-blue top; she died a few months later, one of three dip beneficiaries who haven’t made it. Both Jamie, son of Olin and Aulis Waters, and Brenda, daughter of Lauren Dutcher and Joe Grill, grew up around Goodyear Lake. When Brenda was in 10th grade, her family moved to Fort Lauderdale. “I won him on a bet,” said Brenda, when the two were asked how they got together. In 1990, she had flown north for a friend’s wedding. Jamie was one of the designated drivers chauffeuring the young women back and forth to the bachelorette party in Binghamton, and during the evening’s frivolity Brenda was challenged to get him to take her out on a date. That was 1990; they married on a beautiful summer’s day in 1993 before 100 friends in an outdoor ceremony alongside Sparrow Hawk Lake in Schenevus. Young attendees sang in a chorus. Doves were released. In 1995, on a lark, Jamie, then 33, and his best friend, Joe Rotolo, participated in a dip at Alexandria Bay on the St. Lawrence River, to the terror of Brenda and Joe’s wife Sheryl. “The guys jumped in,” said Brenda, then 24, “and we girls freaked out. We were crying...” Plunging into the ice is bracing, exhilarating, Jamie said. It’s over before you know it. When you get out, you feel warm and tingly. Jumping into a nearby hot tub is simply icing on the cake. “The next year, we said, ‘Why not jump into our own lake?” said Brenda. So 11 stalwarts did. The idea was to raise money but, at the end, they hadn’t raised any. Brenda realized what was missing was the authority of paper – paper is an organizing tool, and a printed flier communicates legitimacy. The next year, the beneficiary was the Waterses’ church, Portlandville Methodist, “a small church – but they do great things,” she said, and the effort was on its way. “You can’t sterotype the person who does this,” said Jamie. There are the thrill-seekers. There’s a family component: Dads and daughters, dads and sons, and various combinations of parents and children were evident on the 17th. Then there’s the idea of helping young people in need, the idea – as daughter Dana put it – “something so simple can help somebody so much.” (Wyatt had to write a school essay on the topic, “How Can You Change the World?” He wrote about the plunge.) Finally, the dip has built a dip-related community. “It’s like an extended family, almost,” said Brenda. “It’s not almost, it IS a family,” Jamie interjected. The Waterses see some participants every day; others, only once a year. “But if I called them right now for something else,” said Jamie, “they’d be here.” Perhaps the dip has grown as it has because the founding couple aren’t particularly uptight about the level of individual participation. Some people tell Brenda they want to do more, but she tells them, “If you do something, that should be enough.” People who are helped often become the biggest helpers. One example is Deb Green of Cooperstown, for instance, who gave a kidney to her daughter, Natalie, a beneficiary of past plunges. Another, Tara Devlin Kaiser of Milford, whose young husband was suffering from Parkinson’s. A third is Lisa Brooker of Sidney. Another reason for the success is the effort started small and built gradually; sometimes that’s the best way. Yet another reason, although they wouldn’t tell you this, are the Waterses themselves. The house hums with good will and fun stories. About how Jamie once got a Mohawk to give Dana a scare; when she saw him, she burst into tears. Except for occasional videos, the TV’s turned off. “It rots your brain,” Mataiah explains. The family does everything together. Jamie’s home for dinner every night. The extended family goes out together, often 30 at a time. When Jamie and Brenda married, Wyatt and Mataiah weren’t yet part of the scene. And Jamie’s father Olin was quite sick. A few years ago, a friend gave Brenda a bridesmaid’s dress for a young girl. It fit Mataiah perfectly. Her friends were well beyond marrying age. “When would she get to use it?” Brenda asked. So in their 10th year of marriage, Brenda and Jamie simply got married all over again, and all the kids participated in the ceremony.  Reuters Beams Cooperstown Soldier’s Photo Worldwide
Dan Capozza, His Men Nearby When Bomb Went Off in Baghdad By BREN MIOSEK COOPERSTOWN It’s hard to describe,” said Frank Capozza after seeing a photo of his son, Daniel, wearing a Army Ranger uniform and standing in the middle of a recently bombed Baghdad market. “You just don’t draw a full breath knowing that you kid is in harm’s way, until you know they’re safe again.” While Sunday, Feb. 18, passed like any other winter Sunday locally, a series of car bombs tore through that open-air bazaar half a globe away, only a few 100 yards away from where Dan, a first lieutenant, was positioned with the rest of his men from Delta Company, First Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. “We heard from him shortly after the bombing and he told us that he was OK and that none of his guys were injured,” said his father. “I knew he was doing it. I knew he was in the thick of it, but until I saw him in gear, it really hadn’t hit me. Dan’s doing his thing. He’s doing his job.” Capozza, a 2001 graduate of Cooperstown Central School, an Eagle Scout in Troop 1254 and a West Point graduate, is expected to remain in and around the Iraqi capital for at least another year to 18 months. “He was home over the holidays,” said Frank Capozza. “He expected to be home longer, but he received a call the Wednesday after Christmas that he was returning.” On Jan. 3, clad in street clothes, Dan waved goodbye to his family and returned to action. “His platoon was at the highest reaction level ,so they became part of the Strategic Reaction Force and went back early,” the father said. “When he left, he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.” Frank and his wife, Ann, hear from their son a little less than once a week. “It seems like he’s usually able to get to a computer on Sundays,” said Capozza’s father. Appearing undaunted by the carnage and chaos, Lt. Capozza drew jeers, later on, from his men for appearing in a Reuters photo wearing a Ka-bar knife and various badges of honor. “I guess he caught a little flack for appearing in the photo with his Sapper, Ranger and Airborne badges facing the camera,” said Capozza’s father. “That and the knife. “Last time he was home, I gave him my father’s Ka-bar knife. I wore it as a signal corps officer during the Vietnam area and decided it was time to pass it along to Daniel. When I spoke with him last, he said, ‘Make sure grandpa sees the photo.’” By NICK COCCOMA COOPERSTOWN Merchants objected again, to no avail. The village trustees went ahead and amended a law to allow businesses to set up outdoor displays on Main Street from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but no longer. The vote came Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the trustees’ monthly meeting, but not before downtown businesspeople had a chance to register their disapproval. James Forsack of Where It Began Bat Co. said he opposes the proposed time frame, stating that it should be expanded to run from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.. He also suggested a less stringent enforcement of the law, calling for a “three strikes” policy that would only deny permits to three-time offenders. He also said merchants should be given two hours to comply before being fined $500. Jeff Foster, who owns Legends Are Forever, echoed Forsack’s opposition to the proposed time frame, saying it should be expanded during the peak months of tourist season, since tourists are often on Main Street late into the evening. Merchants are often so busy with customers they forget or do not have time to remove their displays after the stipulated time frame, he said. Foster also asked to see the criteria the village proposes for the nature of the displays. And he spoke against a requirement that merchants present schematics to the village of their planned displays before permits are issued. “Every time I leave these meetings,” he concluded, “I feel like there is an ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ mentality.” In response, Village Trustee Jeff Katz reminded everyone that in the past there was no allowance for outdoor displays whatsoever. The village needs proof that proposed displays occur on the private property of the business in question, hence the requirement for the schematics and not mere deeds, he added. As to the criteria for the displays, the Planning Board will meet at 10 a.m. March 2 to approve the guidelines, which have yet to be formally determined. Katz encouraged merchants to be there. By CHAD WELCH COOPERSTOWN The 22nd New York State Snow Sculpting Championships were held in Lake Front Park, over the weekend of Feb. 15-19. An estimated 2,500 spectators enjoyed a weekend full of activities around the village, highlighted by the 72 hour sculpt-a-thon that pitted 7 teams of artists vying for a single guaranteed entry into the 2008 U.S. Snow Sculpting Championships in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. For the second consecutive year, this event was hosted by Cooperstown, under the direction of the Chamber of Commerce and Friends of Sculpting, Inc. Last year, an uncommonly snow-free winter threatened the event, and when attempts to thwart Mother Nature with snow making equipment failed, the staff rallied to produce large blocks of ice as the medium for sculptors to work with. This year, with 12 ton blocks of snow covered and waiting, weather again became a concern after nearly 30 inches of snow buried the park early in the week. Again, the staff rallied, the area was cleared, and the show would go on. The overall Snow Sculpting Championship was won by Marc Sprague, John Safford and Jim Bombard for their creation “8 Seconds.” Finishing in second place, with “Moon Pie”, were Doug Shatz, Joe Leroux, and Tom Sperduto. Cliff Gilbert, Jerry Merrill and Serge Sigouin repeated as third place finishers, and also earned the People’s Choice award. The Artist’s Choice award was given to Clint Taylor and Mark VanBibber for the “Compass Rose. To the delight of everyone, sunny days would follow, and revelers, excited to be out of the house and no longer shoveling themselves, flocked to Lake Front to see all this snow put to good use. Visitors would not go home disappointed, as all 7 teams produced magnificent works of art alongside the lake’s picturesque background. Polly Renckens, director of the Chamber of Commerce, was ecstatic about the success of the final event under her guidance. “This has been spectacular,” she said, gesturing toward the large crowd in the park Sunday afternoon. “This has been a very family orientated event, and the people just keep coming.” She noted, “None of this would have been possible without the generosity of the sponsors, who donated time, money and many in-kind gifts ranging from free meals for contestants to special hotel room rates. Because of their support we were able to keep all the activities free for everyone.” Many of the contestants returned to Cooperstown for a second time, undeterred by last year’s weather because they were impressed with the venue. Brian Hallet, who along with John Beese and Jeri Haldeman, sculpted “Ace in the Hole”, said “We really enjoy Cooperstown because of the nice people and the hospitality we have been shown. Everything has been great.” Jeri quipped. | Jan. 04, 2008 | Local Honor Roll | Pages From The Paper | july 6th 2007 | Hall of Fame Friday | Hall of Fame Saturday | Hall of Fame Sunday | Hall of Fame Monday | July282006 Archive | Aug042006 Archive | Aug112006 Archive | Aug182006 Archive | Sept012006 Archive | Sept082006 Archive | Sept152006 Archive | Sept222006 Archive | Sept292006 Archive | Oct062006 Archive | Oct132006 Archive | Oct202006 Archive | Oct272006 Archive | Nov032006 Archive | Nov172006 Archive | Nov242006 Archive | Dec012006 Archive | Dec082006 Archive | Dec152006 Archive | Dec222006 Archive | Dec292006 Archive | Jan052007 Archive | Jan192007 Archive | Jan262007 Archive | February092007 Archive | February162007 Archive | February232007 Archive | March162007 Archive | March232007 Archive | March302007 Archive | March302007 Archive | April132007 News Archive | Chris Gentile | Obituary | April272007 Archive | May112007 Archive | May112007 Archive | May252007 Archive | June 22, 2007 | July 13 2007 | Sept05 2007 | Sept 7th 2007 | Aug 31st 2007 | Local Law Parking | October 26, 2007 | Nov. 2 2007 | Nov. 16, 2007 | Glimmerglass Oct 5,2007 | Nov 16., 2007 | November 30 2007 | Nov. 30, 2007 | Dec. 07, 2007 | Dec. 14, 2007 | Dec. 21, 2007 | Dec. 28, 2007 | Jan. 11, 2008 | Jan. 18, 2008 | Jan. 25, 2008 | Feb 1, 2008 | Feb. 8, 2008 | Feb. 22, 2008 | GlimmerGlass Feb. 15, 2008 | Sports Feb. 15, 2008 | Feb.28, 2008 | March 7, 2008 | March 14, 2008 | GlimmerGlass March 14, 2008 | March 21, 2008 | March 28, 2008 | April 4, 2008 | April 11, 2008 | April 18, 2008 | April 25, 2008 | May 9, 2008 | May 2, 2008 | May 23, 2008 | | Our Services | Contact Us | Great Links | Return Home | Classified Ads | News Archive | Cooperstown Homes | Calendar -Best Bets | Letters to the Editor | |
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