HARTWICK - The Cooperstown Fun Park's expansion plans received final approval from the Hartwick town planning board Tuesday night.

"It has been a long road, but that's the process," Fun Park co-owner Bob Hickey Jr. said Wednesday morning.

Hickey, who is partner in the operation of the Fun Park with his father, said they are going into their tenth year of operation and the approval Tuesday night was the culmination of five years of research he did on the expansion project.

Contingent on financing, they plan to begin construction in the fall and be ready for the start of the 2002 summer season.

Before voting unanimously to approve the site plan, the board first listened to comments from the public in a hearing on the project.

Concerns were voiced on the impact the park will have on neighboring properties.

Greg Kroll, who lives in the town of Otsego in Phoenix Mills, said he hopes the park will keep the "impact of the lighting as low as possible" and that he is against the water slide because it "doesn't fit the rural character of the area."

Martha Frey, spokesperson for the Glimmerglass Coalition, also worried about the lighting and voiced concerns about the possbility of archeological resources on site.

She said it may be appropriate to revisit the issue because much more has been learned about the cultural resources along the river corridor since the application was submitted in 1999.

Former planning board member Larry Lamb, a neighbor of the Fun Park, said he hoped "the system would work for us and that everything's been checked so we can live with this happily."

Wayne Claremont, the Fun Park's site planner said the park wants to maintian "a good neighbor policy" and that they "don't want to be a public nuisance."

Some of the lighting at the park is dictated by the Department of Health, explained Hickey. To meet their requirements, more in-pool lighting will be used in an effort to cut back on overhead lighting, he said.

The expansion will include a main building, bath house, children's activity pool, adventure activity pool and water slide.

The county planning board earlier approved the project in its review of the application.

Planning board co-chairman Dick Kelly said the Fun Park had paid all fees associated with the board's review of the projectas provided in the site plan law.