Finding a solution to the nagging problems of the Linden Avenue area will be much easier with $5 million in federal grant funds.

The grant for an intermodal facility - one that blends many different forms of transportation - was announced Monday morning by Congressman Sherwood Boehlert minutes after he announced a $1 million dollar grant for the Hall of Fame.

"Sound transportation and infrastructure systems are critical to the state and to the economic well being of any community, particularly a popular tourist destination like Cooperstown," Boehlert said. "When completed, this new intermodal facility will provide better access for visitors to Cooperstown and address transportation, parking and infrastructure needs for the residents of the village."

"This funding will allow Cooperstown to accommodate its many visitors in a way that will enhance their experience and have them going home with the true feeling of an upstate New York welcome and hospitality," said Mayor Carol Waller.

"We think this really is a community-based project. We appreciate Bassett officials putting the grant together and we are looking forward as a village and a town to using this opportunity to make significant tong-term improvement for both our visitors and our residents," said Tom Breiten, supervisor of the town of Otsego where the facility will be located.

The facility would address numerous issues faced by all the stakeholders in an area of sometimes conflicting uses and involve everyone from the village and school district to the Leatherstocking Historical Railway Society and its Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley excursion train.

Preliminary proposals include a tourist information center and parking which would keep hundreds of cars per day out of the village and reduce parking demand and traffic congestion. Visitors would be shuttled into the village by the trolley system. Some parking would also be dedicated to school and tour buses.

It may also help Bassett Hospital solve some of its parking problems. The application materials, prepared by Bassett, indicate the hospital plans to lease parking spaces at the facility and shuttle employees back and forth.

Hospital vice-president for external affairs Michael Stein said the hospital is uncertain about the number of spaces.

"We anticipate some of our parking issues will be solved," he said.

Stein said the hospital has not abandoned the campus parking proposal presented to the village last year. They are currently working on the draft scoping document as part of the process of preparing a draft environmental impact statement for the project.

Bruce Hodges, of the Leatherstocking Historical Railway Society, said he was pleased to see the funding for the project come in.

"It will create a real transportation center," he said. "It's a better way to get folks into town and cut down on congestion."

The Cooperstown Central School is also one of the stockholders as the owner of the property currently leased to the village for the trolley lot and because of the bus and car traffic in and out of the high school each day.

"We create much of the problem with traffic flow," said superintendent Mary Jo McPhail.

The project is still in a process of evolution and the next step is to bring together all the government entities, agencies, and organizations involved in the area.

Waller said she intends to call a meeting where everyone puts all their cards on the table and begin to work out details of the plan.

"Nothing has been decided yet," she said.

"I think we have a framework for the plan that many of the key stakeholers have agreed to," said supervisor Breiten.

The village is the recipient of the grant, but the Linden Avenue area is located outside in the town of Otsego.

Both Breiten and Waller said they expect the village to be the lead agency for the project, including the SEQRA review.

Last fall, Bassett went to the town planning board with a proposal for parking where the village trolley lot is located, but was turned away because the area is not zoned for parking.

"Depending on the entity that operates the facility, we may need to do some minor adjustments to the zoning regulations," he said.

He explained that there are currently some revisions to the land use law before the town board that would allow parking in that commercial district. However, he said, "it doesn't include a lot of the real estate we're talking about."

The village will also have of get title to a piece of land it thought it owned, but doesn't. Village attorney John Lambert said he believes he has located a distant relative of the Hooker family which leased the land to village. He said he is confident the village will be able to obtain title to the land.

Boehlert, whose congressional seat is up for election this year, took the time to explain that the grant funds are not what some people may describe as pork barrel spending particularly if they lived in another state.

"This is a very important project - a well-documented, justified project," he said. "A project we can all be proud of."

Boehlert said the funding comes from the 18.4 cents a gallon in federal gasoline tax and is part of the legislation that provides the bulk of the funding for highway and transit projects nationwide.

"This funding will finally turn our plans into reality," Waller said.