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8-02-2007 By JIM AUSTIN Editor The long-awaited induction of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn into the National Baseball Hall of Fame attracted a record-breaking crowd estimated at 75,000 and months of planning paid off. Mayor Carol Waller said Monday morning that she was "very, very tired," but that things went smoothly. "It was great - a super, super weekend. It was 99 percent good," she said. The mayor credited police chief Diana Nicols with making the right calls to close down extra blocks on both ends of Main Street and Pioneer Street on Friday because of the size of the crowd. "I think Diana did an excellent job. She made the right decisions," Waller said. Two things the mayor would do differently would be to have more garbage cans on Main Street and additional traffic control on Susquehanna Avenue. There were a few fender benders and a lot of illegally parked vehicles were towed because buses couldn't get around corners, she said, "but allin- all, with 75,000 people, we did a helluva job." Waller plans to hold a follow-up meeting with officials who helped with Induction planning to thank them, assess how things went and what lessons they learned. Although there is no Induction class like this one looming in the near future, Waller said she believes it will be important to put it all down on paper for the future. It was fantastic the way Cooperstown put its best foot forward this weekend, she said. There were many instances of residents opening their homes to visitors to let them use the bathroom and get drinks of water. "I'm proud of this village. I'm relieved and happy," she said. Police Chief Diana Nicols said Tuesday the weekend was "spectacular." Nicols said they had developed a well-orchestrated plan that needed some improvisation, but it was excellent framework. Changing a lot of little things made everything else go very smoothly. "It was beautiful," the chief said. Having officers on bikes made a big difference because it allowed them to respond much quicker than using cars. "The bikes were a Godsend. We couldn't have done it without them," she said. The police chief said they did encounter some problems getting people back to the remote lots after the ceremony. Officers were dispatched to Walnut Street where there was a large group of unruly people, who had been waiting a long time in the hot sun for the shuttle buses. Nicols said the officers were on the scene for three hours as people were slowly returned to their cars. The problem, she said, stemmed from the fact the buses were stuck in traffic and the round trip took longer than expected. Eugenia Gratto, from Iowa City, Iowa, was one of the people waiting for a ride. "Three-and-a-half hours after I left the ceremony, I finally pulled out of the satellite lot. In the interim, I witnessed one of the biggest logistics and communications breakdowns I have ever seen. It certainly did not all go smoothly," she wrote in a letter to the editor. Nicols said the one thing she learned from the weekend is that "Cooperstown residents are a very spectacular group of people." She said she witnessed numerous acts of kindness to officers and visitors. Many officers had residents bring them water and snacks while they were posted at intersections throughout the village. Otsego County Tourism Director Deb Taylor, who spearheaded the effort to establish remote parking lots, said the weekend was "awesome." "The fans were wonderful, the transportation system worked quite well. I don't think it could have been better," she said. Taylor said she does not yet have a complete accounting, but believes there were 1,800 to 2,000 cars parked in the remote lots Sunday, an amount that would have caused gridlock if they had looked for parking in the village. There were a few problems getting people back to their cars after the Induction, but the last car was out by 7:30 p.m. "I am so pleased with the way it went and that a bunch of agencies could all work together," she said. "It went very well," said village DPW Superintendent Brian Clancy. "There were no problems we can't address in the future." Clancy said one problem they ran into was parked cars on Main Street from Estli Avenue to the village line and cars parked on Estli Avenue. Normally it is not an issue, but with the size of this year's crowd, people were parking on both sides of the road and Clancy had to post people out there to keep the traffic flowing because it was down to one lane. He agreed with the mayor that there should probably be more garbage cans downtown. The streets were so full Saturday that the DPW couldn't make its noon pick-up and was forced to wait until later. The village hauled two truck loads of garbage out of the village totaling 5.47 tons. By comparison, in 2006 they picked up 1.38 tons and 2005, it was 3.03 tons. On Sunday, there were problems with the shuttle buses taking fans from Doubleday Field to the Induction site because all the people downtown. The buses may have to be re-routed in the future, he said. Clancy credits the incident command center set up in the county office building for helping make things run smoothly. The center, he explained, acted as a clearinghouse for information and personnel there helped direct the information to right person. Some summers there have been concerns about the water department's ability to keep up when large numbers of visitors arrive, but Clancy said everything went well at both the water and sewer departments. "The weekend as a whole went very well. It was a very good learning experience," he said. Village clerk Teri Barown, who spent much of the weekend at the command center, said, "all in all, it went exceptionally well. There were a few minor glitches, but with that many people in town, you'll |
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