The presentation is the culmination of a semester’s worth of work, which began in early September, when the students and their professor visited the village.

Next week, residents will have a chance to see how ideas intended to address short-term and long-term challenges facing Cooperstown and Otsego County discussed during the first visit have evolved after four months of analysis and design.

In October, trustees Paul Kuhn, Jeff Katz and Lynne Mebust traveled to the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind., to get a glimpse of the students work at the mid-point of the semester.

Katz said after the visit that it was an interesting process to watch. The students, he said, have become very familiar with the lay of the land and presented a new way of looking at many of the institutions of Cooperstown.

``There are parts of it that don’t jibe with the reality of Cooperstown 2007, but their view forward is interesting,’’ he said.

Kuhn commented that the students had refined a number of their ideas and started to suggest some priorities for the village to consider. They also made some projections about what the village may be like in 10 years and 50 years from now.

``Even if the village only uses a portion of their ideas, it will be beneficial. They are very forward looking individuals,’’ he said.

Professor Philip Bess, who traveled with the students to Cooperstown, said the village has been cited as an example of good American town design for many years. Now, Cooperstown and many other traditional American towns find themselves coming under increasing pressures to grow in the only manner that law and contemporary culture allow _ the segregated land use pattern of development, or urban sprawl.

The students’ proposals, he said, have emerged from an extensive conversation with village residents, village trustees, and experts in architecture and urban design.

``The student work proposes a future that maintains and extends the historic character of Cooperstown, and a pattern for just, beautiful and prosperous development in Cooperstown and Otsego County that differs from current patterns of post-WWII suburban sprawl,’’ Bess said.

All village and county residents are invited to attend and participate in this public event on Wednesday, Dec. 12, in the Otsego County courthouse. Student drawings will be on exhibit beginning at 6 p.m. The students’ presentation will begin at 7 p.m.

For background on the student work to date, go to the Notre Dame Cooperstown Charrette website at http://ndcooperstown.typepad.com. A link to the site can be found on the village’s website at www.cooperstownny.org.