The induction of Cal Ripkin Jr. and Tony Gwynn is expected to draw a crowd of as many as 50,000 to the Clark Sports Center for the ceremony.

An ad hoc village committee has been meeting for the last few months to work on plans for how to handle the crowd, but parking arrangements had not been yet been completed.

Otsego County Tourism Director Deb Taylor attended the last village meeting May 11 and expressed her concern that time is running out.

``Parking needs to be resolved as soon as possible,’’ she said. ``We have to get parking nailed down so we can move forward.’’

Taylor explained that somehow the information where to park has to be provided to the visitors before they arrive in the village.

She said there were plans to produce a booklet that would contain maps for parking and other pertinent information, but in order for it to be ready on time, decisions about parking must be made.

Last Wednesday evening, Taylor took her concerns to the board of representatives, which agreed to take a leadership role in the parking plan.

``It makes the county step up to the plate and be a partner with the village and Hall of Fame,’’ she said. ``I’m grateful to the county for taking the role.’’

It would have been difficult for the bus company to do several small contracts with landowners, she said. ``Someone had to do something.’’

Taylor said parking arrangements should have made long ago but that little had been done.

The concept is that Birnie Bus Inc. will transport tourists between Cooperstown and fields on the outskirts, concentrated on county route 26 in Toddsville, she said.

According to Taylor, a big effort is being made to keep as many cars as possible out of the village.

The county will oversee negotiations between landowners and the bus company.

County attorney Rodney Klafehn said he was worried about liability issues, but a majority of the board, led by Rep. Betty Anne Schwerd, R-Burlington, decided that not acting might lead to chaos that weekend and hurt the county’s tourist trade.

Four representatives _ Greg Relic, R-Unadilla; Stephen Fournier, R-Milford; Keith McCarty, R-Springfield; and Cathy Rothenberger, D-Oneonta _ voted against the measure.

Trustee Paul Kuhn, who chaired the last Induction committee meeting for the village, said he thought it was a good role for the county. Kuhn had commented during the last meeting that he did not believe it was the village’s role to contract for the shuttle buses.

Although he said he would like to have known about it before reading it in the paper, he applauded Deb Taylor’s initiative. ``I think Deb will get it done,’’ he said.

Kuhn said the county’s decision will simplify things for Police Chief Diana Nicols, who had been spending a great deal of time working on locating parking.

``That’s really not her role,’’ he said.