Editor

The village board of trustees was not receptive to the mayor's suggestion of eliminating two-hour parking limit in the business district.

Last week Mayor Wendell Tripp told the police committee that he thought it might be time to revisit the perennial parking problems in the village. A problem which he readily admitted had no solution.

Tripp had proposed doing away with the two-hour limit and at the same time establishing limited permit parking in the village's lots at Doubleday Field and on Lake Street, above Lakefront Park.

Tripp said his suggestion was driven, not so much by the concerns of tourists, but to answer complaints from businesspeople and people who work in offices in the business district.

"I suggested it as a trial," he said.

The mayor told the board he receives numerous letters each year from people upset at being ticketed in Cooperstown. This year, there were more than the usual amount from village residents and businesspeople.

"I got another ticket last week and wrote myself a nasty letter," he quipped.

Trustees took turns expressing their opinions about the lifting the time limit.

Ed Tripp said he believed elimination of the time limit during June, July and August would result in "total gridlock," but that it may work during the off-season, or shoulder months.

"I have serious reservations about this in the business district," said Stephen Mahlum.

Lee Malone, who chairs the police committee said she wouldn't mind a six month trial, " so it could end before summer."

Malone, whose husband served on the old village parking committee that disbanded when it realized there would never be a solution, said she doubted if the move would serve the very people who were complaining about parking.

"What you mean is, if you think this is bad, try this," the mayor said.

David Sanford, another former member of the parking committee commented that it seemed to him everything goes in cycles and that the board is right back to were it was ten years ago.

"I don't know if there's ever going to be a solution," he said.

Former mayor and long-time trustee Stuart Taugher said that he believed the board was basically taking the wrong attitude. He sees the fact there is a parking problem as an indicator that people are doing business on Main Street. If there wasn't the parking problem, he reasoned, the village would have a real problem.

But, he added, "if you took away two-hour parking, you'd have nothing but utter chaos. You'd have the streets lined with cars from morning to night. You'd have nothing, but gridlock."

Taugher suggested that the village consider coordinating the elimination of two-hour parking with East Standard Time from late October to the end of April. While Daylight Savings Time is in effect, the two-hour parking limit would be reinstated.

Carol Waller said she, too, feared gridlock, but was receptive to Taugher's suggestion.

"You are going to have chaos. The employees will park in those spaces all day long," she said.

She also said she like the idea of permit parking, but questioned whether it would be legal in a public parking lot.

The board will again discuss parking at its next meeting.