Otsego County has plans to replace the Susquehanna Avenue bridge over the river of the same name within the next year or two.

Otsego County highway superintendent Ron Tiderencil made a brief presentation to the village board of trustees Tuesday night about the need to replace the current concrete arch bridge that was built in 1928.

The bridge, which is in the village, but owned by the county, has received a rating of 6.8 which means it has a remaining life span of about seven years, he said.

Mayor Carol Waller expressed concerns about the timeframe for the bridge replacement because of early predictions for a large Hall of Fame induction crowd in 2007 when Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn and Mark McGwire all become eligible for induction. Susquehanna Avenue is the main route to the Clark Sports Center, the site of the Hall of Fame's annual induction ceremony.

"It's going to be tough to have the bridge closed," Waller said.

Tiderencil told the board that he was going to push to do the project next year, but that realisitically it may be 2006. If it isn't scheduled in 2006, the department will skip 2007.

The county road chief said he wanted to incorporate walkways on both sides of Susquehanna Avenue and the new bridge beginning at Walnut Street to accomodate the pedestrians headed to and from the sports center and Bassett Hospital's auxiliary parking lot. To do so would require permission from Jane Clark, who owns the property west of Susquehanna Avenue. Tiderencil asked that the village try to obtain her permission.

He indicated that pedestrian traffic would be maintained during construction.

Tiderencil also asked the board if they wanted a bridge similar to the new Main Street bridge which has a faux stone finish to the concrete.

Village police chief Michael Crippen said Wednesday morning that the bridge closing should not cause too many problems.

The new Main Street bridge which just reopened to traffic last November will be used to detour traffic across the river, he said.

"It will certainly add more traffic to our busy Main Street in the summer, but we have no choice it has to be replaced," Crippen said.

He added that it was important that pedestrian traffic would be maintained during construction because so many children walk to the sports center from the school.

In other business, the board:

• reviewed a fundraising letter from the Red Bursey Playground Program. The 79-year-old program has historically been supported by the Red Bursey Trust Fund, but it was depleted several years ago requiring the village to seek funds from the public.

• listended to a presentation from the emergency medical squad, which answered over 700 calls last year, about the need to replace its older ambulance. The board approved going out to bid for a new ambulance at a price not to exceed $110,000.

• set a public hearing on new Otsego Lake watershed regulations which will establish a septic system inspection program. If approved, all systems within 500 feet of the shoreline or 100 feet of a tributary would be inventoried this summer and inspections would begin the following year.

• received a report from the tree committee that unanimously recommended the village not consider a program to put utility wires underground because it would "devastate our streetscape." Professional estimates, the committee said, placed the fatality rate for streetside trees at 10 to 40 percent due to excavation necessary to bury cables. According to the report, when phone lines were buried on Susquehanna Avenue in the 1980s, the impact on mature trees was over 50 percent.