To the Editor:
The sun shone down on Cooperstown Saturday, Aug. 9, as 600-plus people came out to show their support for “Miss Mary” Turi.
A warm “thank you” goes out to all the kids, parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, corporate sponsors (over 50!), bakers, volunteers, sign hangers and even several unsuspecting tourists!
Our community pulled together on very short notice. We could be amazed at the way this community responded to Mary, but we’re not amazed at all. The Cooperstown Community can always be counted on to rise to the occasion.
Again, thanks to so many, and please keep Mary in your thoughts as she continues to recover. Mary – see you back in preschool soon!
MARCIE BIRCH
and other organizers of ‘Mary Turi Day’
Toddsville

TOP PHOTO: Mary Turi’s family members from New Jersey and Pennsylvania participating in Mary Turi Day include, from left, Briana Turi, Justin Scott, Sean Turi holding Shawn Scott, and Darla Foley. The event, to benefit the pre-school teacher who is fighting cancer, was held Saturday, Aug. 9, at Barnyard Swing in
Hartwick Seminary.

BOTTOM PHOTO: Some 36 individuals and businesses contributed $100 each to sponsor holes on the miniature golf course. Here, David Baker, 4, of Milford, one of Mary Turi’s students, tests his skill.


353 Love Springfield, Don’t Want It Ruined

To the Editor:
The truth hurts and it’s becoming quite clear by the letters in the papers personally attacking anyone or group who takes the time to do independent research regarding Type I projects, such as the proposed MSG Entertainment festival in Springfield.
When the facts start coming out unfavorably, people pushing for the project who have no real information to defend their claims, distract us with statements that make no sense. It’s almost like they all read and copied from the same propaganda pamphlet.
One point repeatedly mentioned is jobs. Please tell me how dumping human waste and garbage for less than a week, and a few permanent grass-cutting jobs, are going to bring industry or provide long-term growth?
If this concert were to go through, some people would make some money, but money isn’t everything in life that matters. You know what they say, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Some people hear the word, “money” and their brains shut off. Our quality of life in Springfield is not for sale.
The example for a model of our concert, which MSG used from the beginning, was a concert in Manchester, Tenn., called “Bonnaroo.” Rolling Stone Magazine did an expose on this concert in a recent issue which showed: nudity, drugs, alchohol, crime, traffic jams for days, noise, litter everywhere, trespassing on private property.
This resulted in jails being full, hospitals overloaded and resulting environmental problems and decreased property values. When we called to check with the Sheriff’s office in Manchester, this is what they told us also. Some of our town officials and pro-everything people said these aren’t legitimate concerns.
These same people say our petition was gathered by a handful of NIMBYS (not in my backyard): 353 NIMBYS, that’s some big backyard! Let me tell you, this rock festival isn’t only going to affect a handful of NIMBYS; it will affect our whole town and neighboring towns as well.
They also accused us of using scare tactics and unfounded information, but the Planning Board just confirmed our concerns are very real. They must have us confused with their petition. Our petition was signed by 353 intelligent, knowledgeable, upstanding citizens and taxpayers who make up their own minds and can’t be coerced.
In fact, MSG’s plan being a Type I action and the moratorium calling for a nine-month halt of all Type I actions does reflect that our petition was also in favor of the moratorium. 353 vs. 189, and not all of these 189 were taxpayers.
The larger percent of the town’s wishes are reflected in the results of the questionnaire sent out by the Comprehensive Planning Committee, which these same people and some town officials also choose to ignore.
We are for appropriate development and new business. This festival is too large for this town and bad for the environment. It will likely bring real-estate values down and taxes up. The whole town will suffer as a result.
The motorcycle track project was shot down because the SEQR process proved it would be bad for the environment and inappropriate for this small town.
I’m getting fed up with some town officials and pro-everything people being quoted in the paper bad-mouthing our town, saying things such as “our town is dead,” “farming is dead,” and 45 businesses “failed” and the town has “no future.” Blah, blah, blah. Springfield is none of these things.
Your life is what you make it. Don’t blame the town if you are unhappy with your life. If you don’t like Springfield, move to a town that better suits you. Stop trying to ruin our town for those of us who truly love it and care about its future.
Contrary to an earlier letter, we are not all “part-time residents nor retired or rich.” As for me, I just want to live a peaceful, country life.
ROSEMARIE HARRISON
20-Year Resident
East Springfield

Vacant Doubleday Means Village Is Losing Money

To the Editor:
If I was to close my restaurant for four days in August, most people would think I had gone mad.
But the fact is no games were played in Doubleday Field Aug. 4, 5, 6 and 7, a loss of at least $4,800; a loss to merchants of four times that amount. If every member of the board is OK with this kind of scheduling, something is wrong.
The facts are that around 300 parking tickets are sitting on the judge’s desk waiting to be adjudicated, a value of $10,500.
If the board doesn’t understand the ramifications of these facts and if the residents of Cooperstown don’t realize how much these constant losses of revenue mean to us, then call me I will be glad to go over the losses of revenue that constantly occur in our village.
I would like to see one member of the board stand up and be counted as a bearer of the facts. I would like Grace Kull to explain that the mayor said we are generating $1,000 a day on the parking machines as a fact. I would like the mayor to publish the actual numbers earned from the Pay & Display parking machines.
Grace, if you want to know what I think, stop in at TJ’s. I will be glad to buy you lunch and you will be able to clear up all of the misstatements I have made. Bring any member of the board with you that would like to clear up my thoughts on how to run a successful business.
TED HARGROVE
Cooperstown

Who Are We Going To Believe?

To the Editor :
Which one are we to believe: Ted Hargrove or Mayor Waller?
Both had their monetary pronouncements in the Aug. 1 issue of The Freeman’s Journal. Ted says that we have a financial disaster at Doubleday Field, while the mayor describes the revenue success in the same area, Doubleday Parking lot.
I guess you could say that both are true, but if one offsets the other, who’s to worry? In fact the merchants would benefit more from Carol’s report than Ted’s.
Wait till next year when all of Main Street will have paid parking. What a revenue stream the village will have then.
BOB LETTIS
Cooperstown

‘Most Highly Qualified.’ Can We Do Any Better?

To the Editor:
With the ugly political season ahead of us let us look to one ray of hope on the horizon, Judge Jill Ghaleb.
Judge Jill Ghaleb was appointed by our governor to be our county court judge this year to fill the vacant slot left by Judge Coccoma.
She was also unanimously ratified by the full state Senate. Obviously, all agreed on her qualifications.
It is unfortunate that judges must also be backed by political parties to run for office when none of their decisions should be politically based.
All judges must abide by the same rules and base their decisions on current laws.
They cannot deny people’s rights that are given to them by law. They, in turn, cannot grant things that are not allowed by our laws.
I have known Judge Ghaleb for 10 years. In that time I have learned that her ethics and morals lend her to be a great judge.
She also has the compassion needed to deal with the many issues that arise in our courts today. If you’ve met her you immediately know what I’m talking about, and if you don’t know her I urge you attend one of the many events that she will be attending in the near future.
I urge you to vote for Judge Ghaleb in the upcoming Conservative Primary on Tuesday, Sept. 9, and then again in November, where she will appear on several lines.
Every vote counts. The main points to remember are that Judge Ghaleb has the most experience and she is the only candidate for Otsego County Judge that has been deemed “highly qualified” by the most strict review board in New York State.
You can’t beat that distinction.
MEG KIERNAN
Fly Creek

Labels: Letters to the Editor, Opinion

Blame Price of Gas, Not Trustees

To the Editor:
The Letter to the Editor, written by Ted Hargrove and printed in the Aug. 1 Freeman’s Journal, accusing Trustee Jeff Katz of being responsible for what Mr. Hargrove perceives as a loss of revenue for the rental of Doubleday Field, is incorrect.
This accusation is insulting to Jeff Katz and to the rest of the Board of Trustees.
No one trustee has the “power” to make a decision by him/herself that will affect the Village of Cooperstown in any way. Every decision has to be approved by a vote of all of the trustees and the majority dictates if the decision is accepted.
Mr. Hargrove blames the parking situation in Cooperstown for what he describes as the “worst Hall of Fame weekend in my memory.”
Come on, Ted, don’t you know what is going on in the economy? Do you know the price of gas? Do you actually think fans interested in coming to Induction Weekend will factor in the cost of a few extra dollars for parking and that will keep them away?
Mr. Hargrove states that the “new rules” for parking limit each driver to two-hour parking. The two-hour limit parking law has been in effect in Cooperstown for at least a decade. It is not a “new rule.”
He says it is to force the driver into paid parking. Has he forgotten that there is no paid parking enforced by the village anywhere except in Doubleday parking lot?
There are two independently owned parking lots in the village that require a daily parking fee, one on Chestnut Street and one at the Baptist Church on Elm Street. The Village has nothing to do with these and does not receive any revenue from them.
Mr. Hargrove asks in his letter that information be published in the paper informing the public about money coming into the village from tickets.
How about paid parking? I guess he didn’t notice the one-sentence article on the front page of the same Freeman’s Journal in which his letter appeared, that is headed, CASH ON HAND.
I quote, “Mayor Carol B. Waller said the Pay & Display machines in the Doubleday Field parking lot are generating $1,000 a day.”
Doesn’t sound like this “business practice is destroying our village” as Mr Hargrove states in his letter.
As for the loss of parking spaces on Main Street that Mr. Hargrove laments in his letter, these are the spaces reserved for delivery trucks to deliver goods to the merchants on Main and Pioneer Streets.
AND, the times that those spaces are blocked off to regular parking are limited to a few hours each day.
Before there were designated loading zones the delivery trucks, usually large trailer trucks, often double parked while unloading, presenting a hazard to pedestrians and drivers alike.
It is my guess that Mr. Hargrove would be the first to complain if trucks were not accommodated on Main Street enabling the merchants to receive their much-needed merchandise.
Ted, I think you ARE blowing smoke. Get your facts straight before going public. My suggestion to anyone wanting straight facts, not Mr. Hargrove’s interpretation of them, is to go to the village clerk and/or the village police for your information.
GRACE KULL
Village Trustee, Cooperstown

Preserve Nature, Yes, But Just Don’t Ban Drilling Outright

To the Editor:
A recent letter in The Freeman’s Journal grossly misstates my view of drilling and says I’ve offered nothing in the way of assistance to constituents. It’s campaign time, and that means truth is the first victim.
I have offered information to property owners at my office and put a special section on my Web site that offer property owners helpful information and links to resources on the subject.
My office has responded to calls from constituents, and I’ve attended meetings on the subject to listen to constituents’ concerns.
My view’s been clear – I support updating DEC regulations that flow from legislation enacted this year on drilling – but not a ban.
The DEC will prepare a generic environmental impact statement, and it’s my view that local governments should be an involved agency under SEQRA so that their views must be considered when drilling permits are reviewed.
That’s why I drafted a model resolution and circulated it to the municipalities I represent.
Careful review and strict environmental standards – yes. An outright state ban during a time of record high home heating prices – no.
JAMES L. SEWARD
State Senator, 51st District
Milford

If Village Won’t Act, Declare Your Property Pesticides-Free

To the Editor:
Though our village trustees are opting for an all-is-well attitude about pesticides and herbicides, some of us remain alarmed about progressive toxic-chemical accumulation.
Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE) with offices in New York and Connecticut, is a group also alarmed by the wide-scale use of toxic chemicals that cumulatively affect people, especially children. They are trying to get New York State to ban the use of toxic pesticides in schools and school yards. CCE maintains that casual acceptance of toxic chemicals into the environment of children shows a lack of caring.
Mark Shapiro’s book “Exposed” compares the attitudes of the U.S. to the 98 other nations that have signed a global treaty called the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS). This treaty identifies “the dirty dozen” chemicals that have horrific consequences for people and the natural world. The treaty also allows additions to be made to the list of harmful chemicals. In spite of the fact that we already ban some of these chemicals, the U.S. did not sign on to this treaty.
This refusal to value people and the environment above the vital forces of economics reveals, to me, a tragically self-defeating philosophy.
The European Union has become a leader in embracing the principle of precaution in this matter and does not allow its hands to be tied in the face of formidable economic interests. Yet, the EU does not appear to be suffering economically by adopting this precautionary principle.
Since our government drags its feet about anything that will hamper some corporations, can’t we start at the community level?
Why can’t our village get out front and embrace a people-first principle by banning the use within the village of pesticides and herbicides considered toxic to people or the environment?
I encourage my fellow villagers to join me and others in declaring our properties to be free from the use of toxic chemicals.
SAM WILCOX
Cooperstown

Ultimatum: No Game? No Induction

To the Editor:
It is most disappointing that the Baseball Hall of Fame, a New York State museum that receives very little financial support from Major League Baseball, has so supinely acquiesced in the elimination of the traditional Hall of Fame Game.
Perhaps it’s time to play hardball with MLB – no Hall of Fame Game, no Induction!!! Let’s see who blinks first!
How infuriating that Bud Selig and the players’ union have so casually thumbed their noses at all the faithful fans who have supported them through the years.
Is it too much to ask a Major League team to come to Cooperstown once every 10 or 12 years to play one exhibition game?
One would think that any reasonable, moderately aware ballplayer, enjoying his princely lifestyle, might have it in his heart to give a little back to the very people who have made that lifestyle possible.
BERNARD J. ENRIGHT
Town of Otsego

Where Have All The Bats Gone?

To the Editor:
I have noticed that there are no bats on the lake. What has happened to cause this? At sunset, I used to see dozens of bats fly over the lake, catching insects.
I sat on my porch the other evening and saw not one bat fly over the lake.
I now have mosquitoes on my porch, which I have never had before.
What has happened? What do we do to bring back the bats?
SALLY SEAVER JOHNSON
Cooperstown

Hall Ought To Be Limited To Only Baseball Players

To the Editor:
Elect Marvin Miller to the Baseball Hall of Fame!!!! What next: the official scorer who records a perfect game or an outstanding groundskeeper?
Miller belongs in the Lawyers Hall of Fame. As head of the players’ union, he turned control of the teams from the owners to the players.
And in doing so he enriched the players beyond their or anyone’s belief. And probably enriched his own bankroll!
The only losers here were the fans who now have to pay outlandish amounts for tickets, to the point that a family of five shells out over $200 for good seats.
The Hall of Fame should have been limited to players only, generally pitchers who win 300 games and batters who hit well over .300.
Some choices for the veterans division are only favoritism, and umpires and owners should have their own Hall.
ED LYNCH
West Nyack

Every Time Someone Suggests Something Why Is Someone Else Always Against It?

To the Editor:
I don’t understand why every time something that could potentially enlarge our tax base, create jobs, and overall encourage economic growth for our community, the immediate response is, “How can we stop this”?
I have seen this here in Springfield with a ball-park project on County Route 31, a motorcycle track, and recently with MSG Entertainment and the ballfield project on Allen Lake Road. This is also the same mindset taken toward wind turbines and natural-gas exploration.
I’m not saying there is no reason for concern or that we shouldn’t be cautious. I myself am concerned that my neighbor, who shares a property line, has opened his land up to natural-gas exploration. One of the soon-to-be-wells will be on his property.
Did I have questions and concerns? YES! How will this affect my water, my property’s value and my quality of life are some of the big ones? The truth is I will stay informed and monitor my water quality. Mostly I will wish my neighbor good fortune because he is my neighbor and it is his land!
Recently, our town board voted down a moratorium which some hoped would stop all Class I projects in Springfield. I commend the board for its decision. Those who voted this moratorium down represented their constituents well.
As you can recall, there were 189 signatures turned in opposed to any moratorium that would impede or prevent economic growth and or development for Springfield. I know some will say that there were 353 signatures turned in the same evening as the vote that were ignored by the board. These signatures had nothing to do with the moratorium. They were aimed at the MSG project that is currently before the Planning Board, not the town board.
These signatures were gathered by a handful of NIMBYs using unfounded information and scare tactics. Believe it or not, I was not familiar with this term a year ago: Not In My Back Yard. NIMBYs seem to surface when it directly affects them. The group usually consists of 40-50 folks all wanting to know, “How can we stop this”? They will be at every meeting for as long as it takes to kill the project and then they are gone. As long as the next proposed project isn’t in their backyard they are seldom heard from again.
These people may want what’s best for Springfield almost always, except when it directly affects them. If they truly cared about the community, they would allow MSG and other projects to go through the process and address true concerns.
By true concerns, I am talking about traffic, ecological impacts, water quality and trash removal, to name a few; not a couple of women with body paintings at a concert in Tennessee.
Do I feel MSG is the best option for Springfield? Maybe not, but it will create economic growth, some full-time jobs, many summer jobs, an outlet for arts and products, and mostly it will preserve the viewshed. This is the same view that was such a hurdle in the approval of the subdivision of 20 lots on one of the farms MSG is proposing for the concert site.
Instead of, “How can we stop this,” Why not, “How can we grow through this?” Some things that will come from this are: a larger tax base, commerce, jobs and green space. We as a community could also negotiate to receive economic perks from MSG for our town’s willingness to allow this concert and all that is entails.
I know Bonaroo is continually used as a scare tactic to gather opposition to MSG, but has anyone asked what the community in Tennessee gains economically from this music fest?
Some things we could ask MSG to contribute to could be: Fire and EMT budget, town highway budget, scholarships for Springfield graduates, and a town park on a portion of this property. These are just a few suggestions of things that we as a community could gain from this.
This project could work, if we are open-minded and willing to work with MSG as a community toward a better Springfield. This is not to say we let big business walk on us, but with us, toward the future.
PAUL LEENTJES
East Springfield

What Development Would Be Satisfactory?

To the Editor:
Springfield seems to me to be in turmoil and I would like to address a few of the problems from my experience and point of view.
First, the anonymous letters. I received one earlier in the year and several more went out a month or so ago.
Anonymous writing is anonymous only so long as folks choose to allow it to remain anonymous. People who write write: letters, articles, paragraphs on applications, lesson plans, things that they sign and sometimes pieces that they choose not to sign.
In this day of computers there is a simple program that is not expensive to buy and free if it can be can borrowed. Put into it a few dozen letters and it will group the letters as to author with about 99 percent accuracy.
If the letters in question contain threats or are libelous or are intended to intimidate a public official, a court order can be obtained to check the suspect’s computer hard drive.
Or, we all know how easily companies can invade our mail boxes and send junk spams to everyone on our address list.
Not so easily done, but still not difficult and without physically touching the computer, a Trojan horse can be attached and the hard drive checked for the shadows of things written and long ago deleted. As the hard drive exists, our writings are immortal.
Only so long as no one wishes to take the writer[s] of these letters to court or to embarrass them before their neighbors will they be allowed to remain anonymous.
The letters in the paper concerning our public officials and town planning and the future of the town seem all to miss one point. By doing nothing our town is changing.
One writer speaks of growth that is negative. We have that today. Thirteen years ago, Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School had about 1,040 students. This year they are expecting around 600.
Every year a few more homes fall into ruin, a few more barns collapse.
This is true negative growth and negative growth that impacts our taxes and services, jobs for our children and the quality of our lives. Developers do not buy farm land to farm. Perhaps MSG Entertainment’s project is not the perfect solution for our town. Exploring the plans of the company has barely begun.
Any person who wishes to stop this project without both exploring what the project will entail and also considering possible viable alternatives for the land in question is intellectually dishonest.
Dan Rosen’s statement that town officials should not meet with people who are considering investing in our village is silly. How do people who wish to buy/build know what building in the Town of Springfield entails if they do not talk with our public officials?
Not only is there nothing illegal about these meetings they, are necessary if there is going to be any change in our town excepting the continuing degradation of our tax base and environment. A lecture on ethics and morality by Dan Rosen is farcically humorous.
I have not spoken with the three board members who voted against the moratorium. Still, I think it quite unfair to state that any of these men “sabotaged” the comprehensive plan.
There has been talk and more talk about zoning and a comprehensive plan and what comes of it is more talk and that talk still goes on. And on.
Could the people who are so emotional about putting the moratorium in place NOW not be as easily accused not of wishing to control development but of stopping this project and perhaps all development?
GAIL LARSEN
East Springfield

CCS Students: Thanks For The Help

To The Editor:
As everybody in Cooperstown already knows, the Baseball Hall of Fame Induction brings added work and, of course, enjoyment to the high school kids, staff and people involved in the community. A successful Hall of Fame Induction could never be possible without the help of some great people around the community.
On behalf of the Cooperstown Central School student body, we would first like to thank the community as a whole. To the students and their parents who came to help, thank you. You all did a very good job and worked hard.
Behind the scenes supporting the students were the custodians. Mr. Bennett and his staff worked long hours, and were doing whatever was necessary to keep the induction moving along smoothly. As all of the students know, a good number of us would have been lost without the help of Mr. Hascup and his son; the two always knew what needed to be done and they did so quickly. Mr. Smith and his family should be thanked in the same light as well, they did a great job of cleaning up after the induction was over.
Also, we would like to thank Mr. Kuch and the class advisers, Mr. Goode, Ms. Schliening, Ms. Pindar and Mrs. Murdock. Mr. Kuch and the class advisers put in many hours making sure that everything happened according to plan.
To the law enforcement personnel, security personnel, and the Cooperstown ambulance squad, we thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to keep us safe. Permits were needed at the induction and the students thank those who kindly granted us the permits.
We would also like to thanks Coca-Cola and Blue Bunny for providing the soda and ice cream to sell at the induction.
Again, a huge THANK YOU goes out to everyone involved in the induction. We couldn’t have done it without your hard work!
THE CCS STUDENT BODY
Cooperstown

Labels: Letters to the Editor, Opinion

The fan from Saratoga Springs, outside the crowd-control fence at the 2006 National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction, said he tries to make it to Cooperstown on that weekend every year.
In fact, he always means to come for 3-4 days. But he forgets, happens to hear something on the radio, and finds himself dashing west on Route 20 the day of.
Those of us here in town are always very aware of Induction Weekend. It looms large, as do fireworks on the National Mall on the Fourth of July for people living in Washington, D.C. As the Masters does in Augusta, Ga. As the return of the swallows does Capistrano. As the groundhog does Punxatawney.
Locals know what’s happening locally. But it makes sense to remind everybody else.
•
That’s brought to mind by what the business community, in any event, is calling a dismal turnout at this year’s very nice induction of a great baseball star, Rich “Goose” Gossage, into the Hall of Fame on Sunday, July 28.
The HoF is estimating it brought 14,500 fans to town, but everyone else considers that optimistic.
Certainly, nothing could stack up to last year’s record 85,000 crowd for the induction of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, an exceptional experience for fan, businessperson, and anyone who lived through it.
Still, Ted Hargrove, proprietor of TJ’s Place and the Home Plate Restaurant for the past 31 years, said, business-wise, it was the worst weekend in memory.
•
During that same weekend, the Hall of Fame board of directors elected three new members, a Hall of Famer, a baseball owner and – a jaw-dropping choice – MLB President Bob Dupuy. In a year where MLB was much decried in these parts, the HoF board elects another top MLB executive – in addition to Commissioner Bud Selig – into its ranks.
On the one hand, it may mean – bestill, beating hearts – that Selig is considering retiring – finally! – and Dupuy is learning the ropes in anticipation of a transition.
It might also suggest the Hall of Fame has a tin ear about local opinion or just doesn’t care about local needs outside the walls of 25 Main. Local folks on the board of directors are limited to former or current Hall of Fame or Clark Estates’ associates.
In a perfect world, you would hope that perhaps local representatives – the mayor, as mayor, or chairman of the county Board of Representatives, in his role as chairman – would be brought on as directors to champion local interests within an institution so central to our community life.
As it is, the Hall of Fame is being pulled in various directions by its various constituencies – the MLB, the players, the owners, corporate sponsors, the fans. The Village of Cooperstown and County of Otsego are just two voices of many.
•
Which returns us to that fan from Saratoga Springs.
If Hall of Fame Induction Weekend is important to the business community, the business community should promote it. The Cooperstown and Otsego County chambers should form a joint committee and start thinking about how to get fans here at the end of July 2009.
If sales- and bed-tax revenues are important to the county, it should be ensuring its tourism-promotion efforts are sufficiently muscular to ensure the flow is unstemmed.
Community commerce related to the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum is too important to be left to the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. Let’s control our own destiny to the degree we can.

Labels: Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, Editorial, Hall of Fame Induction, Opinion

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.
•
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.
•
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.
•
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?)
•
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.
•
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.
•
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

Parking, Doubleday-Field Changes Costing Thousands

To the Editor:
It has come to my attention that our parking machines have broken down several times and the village has even run out of paper for these machines. Our trustees and their leader, the mayor, who constantly stands behind the so-called business practices that are being initiated but not followed through on, are destroying our village.
We have just gone through one of the worst Hall of Fame weekends in my memory, and that goes back 18 years in business on Main Street. The visitors were more than angry about the parking tickets handed out in Doubleday Field.
All of Main Street has been striped off, with more than 50 parking spaces being taken off of Main Street. The new rules of parking in the spaces that are available limit each driver to only two hours on the whole street.
Tires are no longer being marked. Are you, the citizens of Cooperstown, aware that your license plate number is now being written down, so that – believe it or not – your car can be fined for exceeding the two-hour limit no matter where in the village you move it? The idea is to force you into the new paid parking.
If you think these antics are for the sake of the village residents, guess again. Council members will tell you that all of this business is about you, the residents who voted them into office. Is that true?
By the way, if you are interested in how much money we have lost on Doubleday Field this year due to the arrogance of Mr. Katz, go to your village office, get a list of the games and count the open spots compared to last year. It looks like the village could lose somewhere around $20,000 in the month of August.
If you think I am blowing smoke, give me a call and I will be glad to explain it to you. Also, I think the village should publish in this paper every week exactly how much parking-ticket money has been paid each week. Not how many parking tickets they write, but how many have been paid. We have a right to know.
TED HARGROVE
Cooperstown

All Ages Would Enjoy MSG Musical Festival

To the Editor:
As culture enthusiasts, it would be great if the Town of Springfield could support the currently proposed MSG music event. I think the event will be exciting and enjoyable to people of any generation. It will become a fantastic three-day event if more people could participate in and collaborate with the process.
It will give the members of the local community the opportunity to be involved in the entire process of the world-class music event. It will also create opportunities for people in the area of Springfield to get many seasonal jobs and possibly some permanent positions at the facility.
It may not be easy for some people who would like to maintain their current life styles to accept change, but I think it is important to develop and improve our way of life and to have open minds. We should give our younger generation a chance to appreciate the culture as well as a chance to grow financially.
We will be able to participate in an unusual, wonderful experience and play host to some of the best music in the world.
AKIRA & YUKO NITTSU
East Springfield


Thanks For Support

To the Editor:
The family of Phyllis M. Selan would like to express their gratitude for the cards, phone calls, and food at the time of her death. Special thanks go to my brother “Randy” for being there. Also to Connell, Dow & Deysenroth and the Rev. Betsy Jay for their support.
Jerry Selan
Fly Creek

Many Made Book Sale A Success

To the Editor:
This past year the Friends of the Village Library of Cooperstown held its annual Fourth of July Book Sale from June 28 to July 13. The response from our local community was amazing!
Thousands of books were donated to the library for the Friends yearly fund raiser. All proceeds from this sale are used through out the year to support children’s and adult programs and improvements to the library.
THANKS go out to so many people who made this book sale so successful. Thank you for all of you who donated books.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who gave countless hours to collect, transport, organize, box, sort and sell books.
Thank you to everyone who came out to buy books.
Special thanks to Giles Russell and Hugh MacDougall, who have spent so much time during the collection days and during the two weeks of the sale making the day-to-day operation so successful. The success of the sale would not be possible without their involvement!
Also, THANK YOU to the David Kent and the library staff, Janet and the art association, the maintenance staff, Dottie Hudson for all the wonderful posters, Rebecca Weil and the Friends of The Village Library, Tom Selover, Frank Farmer, Kay and Keith Additon, Jean and John Finch, Mary and Herb Marx, Amy Stack, Drew Kotalic, Jane Russell, Martha Clarvoe and her recycle team, Dick Kelly.
Also, Leigh Connor Leo, Joe Siracusa, Steve Elliot and The Farmers’ Museum for use of its tables, the Cooperstown PTO for the use of its tents, Alice Stiles, Jeannine Bohler, Barb Havlik. Hilda Wilcox, Suzanne Stack, Karen Schlather, Pat Duncan, Grace Hull, the Fanion Family, Catherine Russell, Doris Stein, Meg Tillapaugh, Mary Harmon and her daughter, Nancy Irving, Ivy Bishop, Doug Gable and Ireland.
Also, Anne Leonard, Mike Toulson, Sandy de Rosa, Victoria Annania, Shya Miller, the Brown Family, Diane Greenblatt, Doug Walker, Anna Weber, Tom Craig, Pat Thorpe and Karen Katz .
And to the many more volunteers who have given your time to the Friends of the Library and their book sale this year, Thank you! Happy Reading!
LYNDA SELOVER
& AMY BROWN
Co-Chairs
Book Sale Committee
Friends of The Village Library

Natural-Drilling Makes Windmills Look Good By Comparison

To the Editor:
Our elected officials take an oath to protect the economy of the United States.
They must stop thinking in the 1970s and 1980s and start thinking of the future! Nothing can be done about the past. Population has increased 400 percent; energy consumption increased 600 percent, and food demand up 800 percent.
Our government thinks the solution is to import food. This will cause a food crises, like the energy crises we are in now. When you have more demand and less supply, COSTS RISE. That is why fuel bills will be outrageous this winter. Foreign energy suppliers realize we are not willing to take steps for other sources of energy.
A huge question I have is: Why did Senator Jim Seward introduce two bills, S3073 and S3074? They are solely directed at the Jordanville Wind Farm. We need industry to come to our area.
The wind mills would bring jobs and help alleviate our energy crises. Wind turbines do not affect the environment or water. All studies were done.
It appears Senator Seward is encouraging drilling thousands of feet and pumping water to extract natural gas from the ground in the Springfield vicinity. Forcing water into the ground will put aqua furrows and water supplies in great danger.
I agree with Don Barber, “Studies need to be done,” and they should be contracted to private companies, NOT done by the state Department of Environmental Conservation or the U.S. Environmental Protect Agency.
Wind turbines in Cherry Valley could be up and running NOW and the Jordanville Wind Farm could have been 90 percent finished. Cut the political games and special-interest groups and think of everyone’s future.
I was disgusted by the ruling made by Judge Donald Greenwood in Onondaga County on the wind turbines. In my opinion, he infringed on our Bill of Rights and took away citizens’ rights to “not be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.”
I believe this decision was based on special-interest groups, by Martha Frey of Otsego 2000 backing a handful of local people on Article 78, which consisted of many questionable statements.
BIG QUESTION: Why Onondaga County Supreme Court and not Otsego or Herkimer county courts, needs investigating! Much was based on tourism and a red glow on Otsego Reservoir, which is impossible. This “Glimmerglass District” is based on a 150-year legend! James Fennimore Cooper was a writer of FICTION. If you believe in all his stories, then you must believe in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”!
LYLE PHETTERPLACE
Van Hornesville

Get Answers Before Drilling For Natural Gas

To the Editor:
We should extract the natural gas under us because it burns cleaner than oil and coal and it can be part of our New York State energy independence strategy. But it must be extracted in an environmentally responsible way and under contracts that protect our land and our private property rights.
However, as Elmira lawyer Chris Denton said, gas company contracts are “designed to help them in every way possible and to make your life miserable.” The state must provide minimum contract language requirements that protect the landowner.
The 2005 Federal Energy Act exempted gas drillers from the Clean Water, Clean Air & Safe Drinking Water acts. Now it’s up to New York State to keep our water pure.
On July 22, The Albany Times Union published a front page story entitled, “Toxic Gas Drilling Technique.” It cites numerous experts from around the country who explain the hydraulic fracturing technique gas drillers intend to use and how these techniques have spoiled ground and surface water.
According to The Times Union, “In New Mexico, oil and gas drilling projects that use waste pits like those proposed for New York have leached toxic chemicals into the water table some 800 times. In Colorado, more than 300 spills have affected water.” In fact, “The U.S. Department of Energy lists produced water from gas drilling as among the most toxic of any oil industry byproduct.”
Hydraulic fracturing requires millions of gallons per well. “There are tremendous amounts of water used for this process – where are they going to get it and what are you going to do with that?” said William Kappel, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
That is why I’m calling for an immediate moratorium by New York State on lease agreements and drilling permits until we have answered the following questions and have protections in place to preserve our pure water.
• What will our communities be like with a gas well every mile?
• What does the drilling process entail?
• Where will the millions of gallons of water required for each well come from and will the withdrawal process be monitored?
• What chemicals are drillers mixing in the water?
• What will happen to this water mixture after drawing it from wells? No treatment facilities have been identified yet.
• Since there is no guarantee that aquifers won’t be affected, what recourse is available for property owners?
• Will local taxpayers have to pay for roads damaged by the drilling process?
• Will gas lines be buried on our properties?
• Will these leases hurt our ability to sell our property?
Environmentally safe extraction can deal with these problems, but the state legislature has left it up to us to protect ourselves and our land. We also need to know where natural gas extraction fits into our long-term energy independence plan.
Unfortunately, our representatives haven’t made informed decisions that protect our interests; instead, they’ve decided in favor of the gas companies. As your next state senator, I will do better.
DON BARBER
Supervisor, Town of Caroline
Candidate, State Senate, 51st District


11th Hour Here On Browdy Mountain Subdivision

To the Editor:
There have been new developments regarding the proposed Walker subdivision off of Browdy Mountain Road, on the west side of Otsego Lake, and opposition is increasing.
Mr. Walker’s original plan for the subdivision was rejected by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, but a revised plan will be submitted to the Otsego County Planning Board at its meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 5. The revised plan still calls for division of the property into several lots for the purpose of eventually building three new houses on the mountainside above the lakeside houses and cottages just south of Five Mile Point.
The housing development will have a negative impact on the lake, both environmentally and aesthetically. For example, it would involve the clearing of acres of trees, and greatly increase run-off on the steep shale slope.
I urge all those who are concerned about this to take action by writing a letter to the Planning Board and, if possible, attending the Planning Board meeting.
It is the 11th hour in this subdivision application process. The board will soon vote.Mr. Walker’s neighbors and the residents of the Cooperstown/Otsego Lake community have two opportunities to make their feelings known and present their opposition to this development.
1) Write to the Town of Otsego Planning Board immediately, before the Aug. 5 Planning Board meeting: Town Hall, 811 County Highway 26 in Fly Creek.
Better yet, take your letter in person to the Planning Board meeting on at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5 at the Town Hall.
2) Come to the final Public Hearing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2, and voice your disapproval. Let the Board members know the community doesn’t want steep slope development on the faces of the mountains immediately surrounding the lake. Make your feelings known, before the Planning Board votes.
Background on the Walker application and some of the issues and concerns have been documented in the minutes of the Planning Board meetings held in April, May and June, which are accessible online at http://townofotsego.com/planningminutes.htm.
If anyone wishes more information or has any questions, you may email me at:savethe-
mountainside@gmail.com.
Join us in our effort to defeat Otsego Lake steep slope development!
CAROL B. AKIN
Cooperstown

What About New York?

To the Editor:
A radical idea – but one whose time has come – in fact, already came, but has had to wait for over 200 years to be implemented: a government for the people and by the people.
What has been blocking it? Well, obviously, people’s natural desire for money and power. How do you get them besides working for them? Well, you could try getting the people into office who will look after your interests.
But you shouldn’t think these office holders have it easy. Not only do they have to attend all those meetings and read all those documents: They also have to spend countless hours phoning for dollars.
Whom do they phone? The clerk earning minimum wage? No, she can’t pay for all those ads. But the corporation executive can and he will; however, not out of the goodness of his heart, but because he wants what the official can deliver – such as big tax breaks and freedom from costly regulations.
A large percentage of his day has to be spent earning his keep this way, time better spent looking after the needs of his constituents. But he needs money to get into office and stay there. He is not a free man.
How can we free him to listen to all of us who voted him into office? In other words, to get that government for the people and by the people?
Only through publicly financed elections. Connecticut will soon have them. Maine has had them since 1995. Arizona even elected a governor that way.
What about New York?
HILDA WILCOX
Cooperstown

Labels: Letters to the Editor, Opinion

There’s No Reason To Destroy Beauty, Americana

To the Editor:
Another slice of Americana, please!
The day brought sunshine, and a large crowd of about 4,000 to the Town of Springfield for the Annual Fourth of July parade. Friends greeted each other with hugs, babies bounced to the Sousa marches on their grandparent’s lap and Brooks BBQ chicken smoke wafted throughout the air. School bands marched and folks stood with pride when flags were carried down the street.
This is Americana at its best. It is all about why we, who choose to live in the town of Springfield, do so.
Let’s hope those days are not numbered by the Type I development that threatens to rob us of our small-town values and small-town feel.
The majority of people another resident and I have spoken to do not want the MSG Entertainment Music Festival to come to town. Not only do the majority of residents along the lake object, but the Amish community objects, as well.
A large cross section of the town residents do not want it, and unlike the town supervisor, we actually did speak to a lot of residents, door to door, over the past week or so.
Almost unanimously they can see that having 75,000 people camping and attending
a huge concert will cause a myriad of problems, not the least of which is traffic, miles and miles of it. This Type I development will, in fact, affect the land by erecting a fence which will obstruct the view of the most beautiful view in the area, and fill the area with thousands of parked cars, which make this NOT a green concert.
Others will control this view by owning 910 acres or more of the best farmland around. Esthetically it will affect our town forever.
One particular road, Continental Road, the site of the monument, was where Clinton’s March occurred, which is significant to New York State history.
Native Americans used this land as home, as they hunted and fished here prior to European contact. Many of the roads we use now, were once Indian trails.
This is a unique and special area. If this concert comes about, which I hope and pray it will not, Andy Lynd of MSG Entertainment,
who spoke to the Advocates for Springfield on June 28, said, three times, that there “will be loud music ... a significant amount of noise ... a lot of noise, until 1:30 a.m.” And lighting as well.
Bouncing off the hills of Cherry Valley, which is an acoustically unique setting, the concert promises to destroy the peace of all, for miles around.
What about the animals native to the area? Should they rent a camper and “go away for the month,” too, as others tell me they plan to do?
This isn’t “minimal intrusion,” Mr. Lynd. We all know how the movie ends when “man is in the forest.”
A recent editorial asked, “why not?” I ask “why?” No reason can come up with destroying this beautiful area and changing the character of our Americana.
Take a ride some night over to Continental
Road. Look at the stars fill the sky. This view inspires a sense of awe, and calls up the happy memories you had here growing up in this area.
If you want to save it, speak up, speak out. Now is the time.

MAUREEN CULBERT
Springfield

Help Us Send Books To GIs

To the Editor:
The neighbors of the greater Cooperstown area have once again donated a great variety of excellent books to our annual book sale. Please stop by and check it out.
Usually we have books remaining at the end of the sale that we save for the ongoing sale and donate to groups that can utilized them. The sale will continue until July 15.
Last year, we were grateful to sent boxes to four local service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We selected general adventure, mystery and some non-fiction paperback books and mailed them in the Post Office fixed rate boxes.
I would be glad to receive the names of local service members. You can send me the names and addresses or let the library know.
We will celebrate if we ever get out of this tragedy. My friends and I “Support the Troops but Hate the Occupation.”

DOROTHY HUDSON
Cooperstown

Teens Need More Driver’s Education

Editor’s Note: This letter is in response to the articles “Father Advocates for Stricter Teen Licensing Laws” (March 2008) in AAA New York Car & Travel.

To the Editor:
I agree stricter graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws are necessary. Although the incidence of teen passenger fatalities has decreased since the implementation of GDL laws in New York, it needs to decrease more.
This, however, is not the case with teen driver fatalities. GDL laws and restrictions cannot replace education and training.
As my son Rob, 21, says, “If we are not trained to be good drivers as teens, we will not be good drivers as adults.”
Our high-tech teen drivers are driving in faster cars on busier roads under a variety of conditions they are not prepared to face.
My 18-year-old son’s first accident took his life. Chris was driving 60-65 mph on a 55-mph road without a seatbelt, on his was to church on Holy Thursday 2007. Someone swerved into his lane to avoid hitting a possum.
He drove into a rut on the side of the road (no shoulder because of flooding the June before) and overcorrected to get out of the rut, was headed for trees and overcorrected to avoid hitting them and rolled the Jeep. Fortunately, there were no other injuries or deaths.
According to many studies I’ve read, it is not uncommon for young drivers not to wear seatbelts, or drive minimally 5-10 miles above the speed limit; in Michelle Arout’s case, maybe 30 mph over the speed limit.
While I believe parents are strong role models, my wearing a seatbelt and driving the speed limit did not prevent my son from doing otherwise.
Our teens need to be trained by someone other than a parent. Studies prove this is not an effective method in which to train our teens to drive.
The June 2008 article ended with the statement, ... “now is the time for state lawmakers to do their part. As a historical leader in traffic safety efforts, New York should not continue to defer action on saving young lives.”

PENNEY S. GENTILE
Cooperstown

Letter From Castagnole Piemonte

Editor’s Note: Evan Jagels of Cooperstown, who was a stringer last summer for The Freeman’s Journal, is touring Europe and promises an occasional
letter.

Hey, Jim:
I just attended an jazz workshop in Italy and thought it would make a nice little mention, seeing as some of the finest living American jazz musicians were instructors and that I know there are plenty of jazz fans in Cooperstown.
Jazz music is alive and well in the small northern Italian village of Castagnole Piemonte, where recently more than 100 students from all over Europe (and one from the United States) gathered for the 16th annual “We Love Jazz” festival and workshop to study under American jazz masters.
Collectively, Buster Williams (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums) and Benny Golson (tenor saxophone)
have collaborated with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Herbie Hancock, Sarah Vaughn and Count Basie, to name a few.
Younger professionals such as Joey Di Francesco (organ), Byron Landham (drums) and Paul Bollenbeck (guitar) also offered valuable instruction.
Benny Golson, who led the ensemble and composition class, stressed the importance of individuality and creativity – often reminiscing of his early days with John Coltrane in Philadelphia.
Nightly concerts were held in the central piazza of the village, giving students the opportunity to see their teachers stretch out artistically.
While English was the spoken language of the workshop,
it was quite apparent that music is the true international language. Following the concerts
were nightly jam sessions where one might find Czech, German, French and Italian musicians all playing jazz standards together – one finger in the air signifying the key of B-flat and a few snaps to set the tempo.
Driving 12 hours south from Dresden, Germany, to get to the workshop, I noticed plenty of American influence on the European
landscape – the golden arches of a McDonalds could be seen from the autobahn, for example.
However, being surrounded by so many jazz musicians in an Italian village smaller than Cooperstown, it was heart-warming to see that this piece of patchwork of American culture
has been so firmly rooted and has prospered in other corners of the world.
I am living in Dresden, and my next trip is to a jazz festival in the Czech Republic. I’ll be playing.

EVAN JAGELS
Dresden, Germany
Evan, son of Rick and Kathy Jagels, graduated from Wagner College in May and will be pursuing graduate studies in music at SUNY Oneonta in the fall.

I Learned To Be Good Neighbor. Everyone Can

To the Editor:
On Sunday, June 29, Emily Bliss, 16, spoke to the congregation at the Methodist Church about lessons she has learned. I was so touched by her talk that I asked her for a copy of it to send to the newspaper in hopes of getting it printed. The following is her speech.
“When asked the question ‘Who is my neighbor?’ a few years ago, I would’ve answered, ‘The couple next door.’
“However, as I’ve grown, I’ve come to realize that every single human being on God’s green earth is your neighbor. Whether it be someone you have never met, or someone you have known all of your life, we are all neighbors.
“When asked the question, ‘How can you be a neighbor?’, it took me back to the weekend when I found the answer.
“In June 2007, as a sophomore, I attended the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership conference
in Troy for three days. There, I found a strong sense of leadership and a desire to better myself and my community.
“Since June 2007, I have completed 260 hours of community service. I have done projects such as food drives for Thanksgiving, Christmas cookies taken to shut-ins, Edmeston Rotary Club events, and many more.
“That conference opened my eyes to see that you don’t necessarily have to save a person’s life to be a good neighbor.
“Those three days at the conference affected me so much that I returned this past June as a volunteer staff member.
“You can be a neighbor to anyone and everyone, and you should be.
“Whether it be an extreme act of kindness or something as small as a smile, we should all follow the actions of the Good Samaritan and remember that in our time of need we would want the same.”

LINDA SMIRK
Cooperstown

Dismissed by MLB, Let’s Go International

To the Editor:
Since everyone would like to see an outstanding game once a year in Cooperstown, why not go international?
How about the United States against Canada or Japan or Mexico or Brazil or England, etc. This might create enough international interest to start international competition prior to a Cooperstown championship game.
We are sure that many Canadians would love to come to a U.S./Canada championship game. How about a Chicago/Toronto game?

JIM and MARIE MURREY

Labels: Letters to the Editor, Opinion

EDITORIAL

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Why is the Doubleday Field Parking Lot so often so empty these days? Previously, it didn’t really matter. Now, however, no cars mean no revenue. Think about it. At $2 an hour, if 10 spaces are open 10 hours a day, that’s $200 lost. If 50 spaces are open 10 hours a day, that’s $1,000.
Between the day this edition is published – July 11 – and Sept. 1, when paid parking ends for the season, there are 52 days. That’s $52,000.
Let’s say 100 spaces are open six hours a day ... well, you get the idea.
•
It was just like Yoga Berra would have said it at the village trustees’ Parking Committee
Tuesday, July 8. Legends of Baseball’s Jeff Foster was there, and Robin Gray from Essential Elements, joined by 2 Chestnut B&B’s Doug Walker, The Tunnicliff’s Frank Leo, Helmut Michelitsch from Metro Cleaners and more.
No one ever thought the local law enabling paid-parking in the Doubleday lot would end the debate, and so it was. Read on:
• Michelitsch said long-time customers can’t find a place to park in front of his laundry, which fronts on the parking lot, don’t want to pay the $2 per hour, or don’t want to haul their dirty laundry two or three blocks. The result: Business is down.
• Pat Narcisso of Cooperstown Batting Cages reports teams saying on returning to play at Doubleday Field: “They raised the price of the field” – from $400 to $600. “Now they want us to pay for parking.” Plus, 20-30 spaces are open all the time. The result: Business is down.
• Said Robin Gray, “Nobody knows it’s paid parking.”
• Said Foster, “The perception of the (trustees) is that they’ve already made their decision and there’s nothing we can do to sway the board’s mind.” He added, “You might be making money this year. But in the long run, you’re taking it from the businesses.”
•
But whatever the over-arching issues, the village is determined to make money off parking, so it should make as much money as efficiently as possible. That’s not happening now.
The previous Sunday, people were queued up all afternoon, waiting to use the Pay & Display
machine at the Main Street end of the lot, Parking Enforcement
Officer Thomas “Stretch” Redding reported to the committee.
The instructions are clear, he said, but people didn’t want to make the intellectual investment
to figure it out. (After all, they ARE on vacation.) So Redding spent the afternoon next to the machine giving instructions.
Further, Parking Enforcement Officer Mike DeSimone reported, that particular machine
wasn’t accepting dollar bills or credit cards. A new control board was en route from Mackay Meters in the Maritimes; meanwhile, Michelitsch reported, folks were cleaning out his laundromat’s change machine.
Finally, Police Chief Diana Nicols reported 270 parking tickets, $35 each, were issued in the Doubleday lot the last 10 days of July – the first 10 days the P&D machines were being enforced.
That’s 270 visitors leaving town with bad tastes in their mouth, 540 if you include their wives, 1,080 if you add in the two kids. If it continues at that rate, in the average summer – June 1 to Sept. 1, or 82 days – we might succeed in antagonizing 8,856 folks a summer. Over a century ... well, you get the idea.
•
By July 6, total parking revenues were edging toward $20,000, which would cover the initial installation of the two machines, so at least the village is breaking even, (plus the parking-ticket revenues.)
Nicols had DeSimone conduct a 10-question survey, and he approached 34 people at random. The results were mixed, but only one person objected to the $2 per hour fee. Price doesn’t seem to be a hurdle.
The committee – even chairman Lynn Mebust and trustee Neil Weiller – seemed to agree it doesn’t make sense to make adjustments willy-nilly. Data is being collected and, as agreed upon, the trustees will revisit the whole matter in September.
But what about now? Time’s a’wasting and money’s a’being lost.
What’s lacking is promotion, and that can be addressed today, or tomorrow.
All we locals know there’s parking in the Doubleday Field lot, but first-time visitors don’t.
The signage is inadequate. There’s no advertising – say, fliers in the Hartwick Seminary and Oneonta hotels, billboards, maybe even an ad on www.thefreemansjournal.com (what a concept!) – of convenient parking just a few steps from downtown and the Hall of Fame.
We have a better mousetrap, but the world isn’t beating a path to the door of the Doubleday
Field lot. It’s the oldest marketing truism.
Promote – and fill the lot.

Labels: Editorial, Opinion

BARBARA MULHERN

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COOPERSTOWN CHRONICLES


Editor’s Note: During the Monday, June 30, press conference announcing a $100,000 state grant to help restore 22 Main, Mayor Carol B. Waller praised Barbara
Mulhern’s historical findings. Here are excerpts from her report.

Cooperstown’s Village Library Building at 22 Main St. is located in the center of some of the village’s historical and architectural treasures. Directly across the street is the former Otsego County Bank, built in 1831 in the Greek Revival style. It is thought that its stone structure and columns were the architectural inspiration for the library building.
For many years the two parcels of land at 20 and 22 Main held shops and taverns, the last of which burned as an aftermath of the Great Fire of 1862. The 1868 atlas shows the area as one large lot.
Soon thereafter a syndicate called the Otsego Lake Building Association began construction of a large hotel on the site. The hotel was never finished and stood in its unfinished state for almost 20 years, until 1889, when Alfred Corning Clark bought the property and had the structure demolished and the lot cleared.
In April 1897, construction of the present structure was begun. The Clarks had chosen Ernest Flagg (1857-1947) of New York City as the building’s architect. Flagg had studied architecture at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and designed St. Luke’s Hospital on Morningside Drive. He later went on to design the 45-story Singer Building, Scribner’s bookstore on Fifth Avenue, and the chapel and Bancroft Hall at the Naval Academy.
In August 1898, “the new stone building erected by the Clark family at the corner of Main and Fair streets to be used as a YMCA, library and museum, was formally opened with a ball given by Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark for her son, Mr. Robert Sterling Clark, who had lately reached his twenty-first birthday. Parlati’s orchestra of Albany furnished the music and the supper was served by Sherry of New York.”
This building was officially called the Village Club and Library and its original primary function was as a men’s club. The YMCA moved there from its temporary quarters in the bank building across the street.
The library was in the big room on the right. The room on the left was used for pool and billiards. Directly behind that was a card room and the office of the manager. Dinners and banquets were held frequently in the ballroom upstairs.
The Village Club’s affiliation with the YMCA ended in 1911. Apparently there was still interest in athletics at the Club because
two squash courts were built behind the main building in 1914.
In 1939, the “members of the Village Club voted to dissolve the organization and accept an invitation from the Alfred Corning Clark Gymnasium to use facilities there, including a new lounge and reading room being fitted out at the gymnasium.”
According to the early records, there was a library in Cooperstown as early as 1797. There are sporadic mentions of a library in the intervening years, but the true beginning was after the move into the building at 22 Main in 1898. The library was an integral part of the Village Club until
1932, when Robert Sterling Clark gave the building to the Village.
“The next year the Women’s Club of Cooperstown appointed a standing committee
to support the library, and in l939, assumed total responsibility for its operation.”
In 1949 the Village took over the Library’s operation and it became an officially licensed public library for the residents of Cooperstown and students of the Cooperstown Central School.
In 1964, the Library joined Broome, Chenango and Delaware counties to form the Four County Library system, which permitted the present coordinated cataloging,
book ordering and interlibrary loan services.
In 1974, the Library took over the rooms on the west side of the main building for its children’s room, director’s office and a reading room. Books on tape and CDs, DVDs, and computer access are now available. A volunteer organization, the Friends of the Library, operates an annual book sale, which raises money to provide ancillary services as well as to furnish and maintain the entire library area.

Labels: Barbara Mulhern, Columns, COOPERSTOWN CHRONICLES, Opinion

JOHN KOSMER

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JUST A THOUGHT

We have been in our new home since last June and have not yet ordered TV service. Let me say just say that there are many good things on TV, if you can find time to watch them or make time to find them.
Some people just like being able to say they don’t have TV. As a former TV addict, I am not one of them. Not having TV may be an unfolding trend just like increasing numbers of people do not have land line phones and have opted, instead, for solely using their cell phone.
Every fall I would get that special annual issue of TV Guide with the map of prime time programming. I would chart out all the programs I would watch from 7:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. for all seven days, making sure no time slot was overlooked. The most trouble I had were with shows that aired in the same time slot or ones that overlapped time slots. No video recorders, TIVO, DVR or computers then. You made your decisions and lived with them.
But we live in a different world today. In the golden age of television, prime time shows were produced and sold to the networks – a costly process. Today, in an effort to save money, the airwaves are full of less expensive reality TV, news magazines and other types of “soy” used as cheap filler. When you add to that soy the writer’s strike (with no new episodes for months), it became a perfect storm for giving up TV.
The road to no TV started innocently enough when we tried to get cable from Time Warner. We used to have cable TV and broadband in our last home. Time Warner wanted over $6,000 to run a line to our home – a line they would own for any future use. They said that included a booster they had to install on Route 28. Well, that was about $6,000 more than we were willing to spend, so we declined their offer.
The reports we got about satellite were mixed and you needed a separate satellite connection for broadband. The reports on satellite broadband were mixed too, none coming close to cable’s speed and reception. So we started innocently enough, simply having dial-up and no TV until we were able to sort things out. A funny thing happened. We got used to it. In our last home sometimes the TV would just be on, without our really paying attention to it. Now the silence is quieting.

John Kosmer ranges the Otsego Lake region from his hilltop home outside Fly Creek.

Labels: Columns, John Kosmer, Just a Thought, Opinion

EDITORIAL

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It hasn’t been much mentioned in the debate about Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s proposed music festival, but the Town of Springfield has already approved a 20-lot subdivision at Route 20 and Continental Road.
Say the music festival doesn’t happen; that lovely view to the southeast of that intersection may be dotted with 20 McMansions instead.
So what’s really being debated isn’t MSG Entertainment or nothing, it’s MSG Entertainment or something that may be less desirable.
Springfield Town Clerk Jeannette Armstrong is right when she likens the community to “the Garden of Eden.” But so is much of Route 166 between Milford and Cherry Valley Garden-of-Eden like. So is the Butternuts Valley. So is the east side of Otsego Lake. So are many of the fields, forests, hills, dales and byways that make up our delightful county.
We who live here want it to stay the way it is, mostly. But what have we done to ensure that? Some, but hardly enough, as indicated by the sprawl now developing around Hartwick Seminary and a near-miss: 100 towers, each 400-feet tall, could have been blowing in the wind by now, but for Otsego 2000 and a few hundred determined people who dug in their heels.
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One of the problems with win-lose scenarios is somebody loses.
In the case of the windmills, the losers were the developers. In Hartwick Seminary, the developers won and chunks – some, not all – of the surrounding communities lost.
Could there have been a win-win scenario at Cooperstown Dreams Park? As it is, there are some winners from the money spent, but many downsides, too. Rental housing has dried up. Indications are the Susquehanna is being polluted to some degree. The jobs are primarily minimum wage, and they’re seasonal. Cooperstown is ever more crowded.
With MSG Entertainment, there are definite pluses.
For instance, if there is only one three-day event a year, and if the fest-goers do indeed stay on the grounds, then the impact will be limited and, if anything, positive: Tepee Pete Latella will be selling a lot of seven-pepper chili; likewise his sisters, moccasins. The noise will go into the wee hours, no doubt, but folks in the area who may be bothered by that can plan to spend the weekend visiting Aunt Millie in Fort Plain.
Don Simpson, the MSG Entertainment vice president who outlined the plan June 5 at the Springfield Community Center was pretty convincing: MSG Entertainment in general, and Simpson and his team in particular, know how to do this right. No Woodstock II here.
Last year’s Hall of Fame Induction Weekend, attended by 85,000 people, would be an equivalent event. The Monday after in Cooperstown, you’d hardly know that anything out of the ordinary was going on just 18 hours before.
If – and again, if – MSG Entertainment follows through on the rest of its promises, there should be nothing objectionable about the other 360, or 361, or 362 days of the year. The required water towers, Simpson said, will look like silos. The few permanent buildings will look like your typical northern Otsego farm house. The open fields will be open fields.
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So how can any remaining objections be erased or fears quieted?
Here’s a concept that was suggested at one of the public meetings on the topic. If MSG Entertainment is really serious about preserving the open space, why not ensure that? (Not a bad marketing idea to appeal to aging hippies, either.)
The company, in acquiring the land, could surrender the development rights, ensuring it would remain agricultural forever. Or perhaps there could be a covenant in the deed: If MSG Entertainment were to fold its tent and slip away, and land would devolve to the Otsego Land Trust. That would be a curiosity: that commercial use of a piece of property would ensure its preservation. But why not?
MSG Entertainment contracted with Tony Casale of Cooperstown, the lobbyist and retired assemblyman who knows his way around the corridors of power in Albany and Springfield Town Hall. The town, likewise, should reach out to the expertise and clout it needs to go toe-to-toe with MSG’s mandarins. Happily, that clout is close at hand.
Kent Barwick of Cherry Valley, president of New York City’s Municipal Art Society, which advocates good urban planning, would be an excellent advocate and negotiator on the town’s behalf. As it happens, he knows how MSG’s somewhat difficult CEO, Jim Dolan, operates, through MAS’ efforts to ensure the optimum redevelopment of the Brooklyn Navy Yards.
Or Harry Levine of Springfield Center, who happens to be both leader of Advocates for Springfield and president of the Otsego Land Trust, could assume that role. He was associated with real estate and development in the Tri-State Metropolitan Area in and around New York, and could be as effective as anyone, bar none.
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The first question to answer, of course, is: Does the Town of Springfield want the music festival at all? The second: If not, does it have the regulations in place to stop it? (It seems unlikely, after months and even years of delay, that the town board will adopt any development moratorium.)
But if the town could ensure the perpetual protection of those lovely 1,000 acres between Continental Road and Route 33. And if it could receive some economic benefit, through temporary jobs, property-tax revenues and some retail spinoffs. And if the three days aren’t too hellish. Why not?

Labels: 062708, Editorial, Opinion

Editor’s Note: With “Chris’ Law,” aiming to develop a 21st Century driver’s education curriculum, awaiting Gov. David Paterson’s signature, some of Chris Gentile’s friends are writing letters to alert the governor to the urgency of the issue. Here are two.

‘Every Teen ... Deserves Chance To Live’

Dear Governor Paterson:
Over the last few years I have lost three friends to car accidents. Through these losses I have discovered that there is a way to stop the pain and suffering that I and many other Americans have been through. In America, 6,000 teens die every year due to car accidents, along with that many teens are physically and or mentally injured.
The American government makes education available, and drivers’ training should be a part of that education. If we as Americans cannot keep our children alive through the education system, then we have failed them much more then if they are unable to have an extra study hall or advanced calculus. Those classes are important, but will not do anyone any good if the teen is not alive to use them.
Many of my friends have a lot of potential; however, none of us is very good at driving. I personally have been in an awful car accident where I hydroplaned into a house. It was the scariest moment of my life, I had no idea what to do, and I am very lucky to be alive.
My friends and family members have had similar experiences. For example, someone you know, my uncle Marty Mack, has a daughter who almost died in a car accident daughter. Sarah Mack got in awful car accidents because she could not gauge a turn.
I believe that teens must be taught to drive, and the 21st Century Driver’s-Training Program, which we have set up at Cooperstown Central School, can do that.
In order for that, and other successful state-of-the-art programs to ever be implemented, passing the bill S.6985 is essential.
I hope you have not and will not experience the pain of losing a teen to inexperienced driving or anything else. I will let you know there is no pain greater than losing a friend or loved one when you know that something could have been done to prevent it.
You will keep many towns and schools from being turned upside down, in turn lessening emotional pain. You will decrease the economic cost of accidents by having better drivers and fewer accidents. The biggest problem you will be solving is the loss of our future.
Every teen out there has something to contribute and deserves the chance to shine.
LINDSAY M. ROWLEY
Cooperstown

‘Our Lives Depend on It’

Dear Governor Paterson,
I’ve had two minor accidents within my first two years of driving. Many of my brother’s and my friends have had accidents. Some totaled their family car.
My brother’s first accident took his life. He was driving 60-65 mph on a 55-mph country road without a seat belt on his way to church on Holy Thursday 2007, when someone swerved into his lane to avoid hitting a possum.
He ultimately lost control of the Jeep and rolled the jeep trying to avoid hitting her car. Not only would driver training have helped him, but also it might have prevented the other driver from crossing over into Chris’ lane instead of hitting the possum.
We are not prepared to face the challenges of weather, animals, and country road conditions without driver education and training. If we are not trained to be good drivers as teens, we will not be good drivers as adults!!
New York State needs to educate its teens, in schools, with a state of the art driver-training program such as 21st Century Driver Training!!
Restrictions alone do not work! We need to educate and train teens before they begin to drive unsupervised on the road!!
It is very important that you make Bill S.6985 law as quickly as possible. Our lives depend on it!!
ROBERT J. GENTILE
Cooperstown

Labels: Opinion

BETH ROSENTHAL

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SUSTAINABLE OTSEGO

At my house, dinnertime discussions often begin with the idea of whether or not we could feed ourselves if our industrial food chain were to disappear.
Although I’ve been interested in native plants and have been growing them for many years, my interest was ratcheted up several notches after reading a new book by entomologist Douglas Tallamy, “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens.”
Tallamy writes about the “unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife” and how when native plants disappear, so do native insects. Without insects, humans would quickly vanish – they are our pollinators after all – so ensuring a habitat that sustains insects in turn sustains humans.
He continues, “In too many areas of our country there is no place left for wildlife but in the landscapes and gardens we ourselves create.”
He further says, “All plants are not created equal, particularly in the ability to support wildlife. Most of our native plant-eaters are not able to eat alien plants” – Tallamy considers all non-native plants “alien” – “and we are replacing native plants with alien species at an alarming rate.”
Who doesn’t love something showy? I know that the big, the bold and the beautiful easily seduce me. Who can resist a plant labeled “pest-resistant”? No fuss, no muss and instant gratification. But plants labeled pest-resistant can’t support native insects; they are unpalatable to them. Everytime we plant one, we reduce already limited food sources.
At the same time, the mail brings an announcement plant guru Lee Reich will be talking about native plants at Catskill Native Nursery.
It was somewhat serendipitous, because along with our discussions on whether we could feed ourselves, we’ve been talking about what kind of fruit people ate before apples and pears. What was here natively, in upstate New York before “alien” fruits were widely planted?
From Reich, we discovered a plethora of fruits and nuts that are native to North America, many which will grow well in our area. Familiar berries are blueberries and cranberries. Other edible berries include gooseberries, mulberries, currents and loganberries.
Many of these were popular before the transcontinental journey of foods changed the way we eat, but have since fallen out of favor. Joining the berry roster are persimmon, paw paw and native crabapples.
We brought home a persimmon tree and a hickory tree as well as viburnum prunifolium –