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12-27-2007 By JIM AUSTIN Editor The much-anticipated Induction had been talked about for years, and the community spent months planning for what was expected to be a record- setting crowd at the Clark Sports Center. In late February, Mayor Carol Waller called the first of many meetings with officials and representatives to talk about preparations for the arrival of as many as 60,000 people. That's as many people as live in Otsego County, Waller pointed out. The mayor said the key to handling the induction day crowd would be communication between all the different entities involved in handling the crowd and providing support services. Planning would run the gamut from traffic control and parking to restrooms and emergency medical services. Early on, planners knew controlling traffic and finding all the visitors a place to park would be crucial. There were discussions regarding closing vehicle traffic in all or part of the village, but in May, Police Chief Diana Nicols said the option of closing village streets on Induction Sunday had been dropped. Nicols said news that closing the streets was under consideration drew a number of complaints from residents, particularly in regard to how they would get to church that morning. It was decided that closing village streets would most likely create more problems that it would solve, she said. She also reported they believed they had found about half the land needed for remote parking lots for the 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles that might arrive that Sunday. In late May, Otsego County tourism Director Deb Taylor took on the task of arranging for parking and shuttle buses to move visitors from remote lots to the Induction site. She was successful in getting the county to act as lead agency for the parking. In early June, Taylor said she wanted to provide a map that could be used on websites and in other promotional materials. It would be better, she said, if everyone was using the same map to avoid any confusion for visitors. Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce Director John Bullis said they were being inundated with requests for more information from people who planned to come for the Induction, and asked if there was a date when the map could be ready. In early July, four weeks from the Induction, Taylor said the peripheral parking lots were lined up on Route 26 between Fly Creek and Grasslands. There are five lots and approximately 2,500 spaces for the visitors. The plan included as many as 24 buses shuttling people. Nicols said her department was ready to go. Village police would be joined by NYS State Troopers and personnel from the Sheriff's Office. Four officers from SUCO would also be helping out. Because many of the officers on duty were not from Cooperstown, they would be outfitted with information packets, so it would be more likely they would have the answers when visitors asked for assistance. Nicols said she had also made arrangements with a number of tow truck operators to be on hand to remove improperly parked cars. A week before the Induction, Butch Jones, Otsego County Emergency Services coordinator, suggested that with the number of people expected for the Induction, Waller and Middlefield Town Supervisor David Bliss might want to declare a state of emergency as part of the preparedness and planning, because the potential existed for an emergency. "We certainly have, in my mind, the justification for it," he said. Jones explained that a state of emergency would allow the mayor and supervisor to make executive decisions without having to call a full meeting of their boards first. It empowers them to cope with an emergency situation by committing resources to the emergency. Officials would hold one more meeting the following Monday at 10 a.m. "We need a few prayers for good weather. We want to make this the best weekend we can," Waller said. In the last meeting five days before the event, Cooperstown Fire Chief Jim Tallman said he was worried about a change in plans that called for shuttle buses from remote parking lots south of Fly Creek to drop off and pick up riders at the Clark Sports Center Induction site. "I see it as a real problem," said Tallman, who added that those buses would likely become snarled in traffic and slow down the transport of people to and from the remote lots on Route 26. Officials said they had calls from merchants expressing worries about getting to their stores to restock inventory, employee parking, and dropping off elderly former ball players who would be signing autographs. Trustee Jeff Katz said the village website was down for a while because there was so much traffic, and clerk Teri Barown said she had been inundated with calls from people seeking information, particularly about handicap parking. Bonnie Kaido said they had volunteer EMS personnel and ambulances coming from as far away as Rockland County and Penn Yann. "Good luck and say your prayers," Waller said at the close of the meeting. The long-awaited induction attracted a record-breaking crowd estimated at 75,000 to 80,000, and months of planning paid off. 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 decision to close down extra blocks on both ends of Main Street and Pioneer Street on Friday because of the size of the crowd. 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 all-in-all, with 75,000 people, we did a helluva job." Paid Parking comes to Cooperstown A plan to implement paid parking on Main and Pioneer Streets and in the Doubleday Field lot stirred more controversy in the village than anything in a long time. In September, the police committee forwarded a recommendation to the village board for a local law and resolution to establish guidelines for paid parking. The plan involved a permit that will be available to residents and non-residents, and would allow them to park in paid parking areas at no charge. Paid parking will be on the north side of Main Street from Pine Boulevard to River Street; the south side of Main Street from the west end of the business district beginning with diagonally parking east of the county parking lot to River Street; and the east and west sides of Pioneer Street between Otsego Lake and Church Street. Paid parking would also apply to Doubleday Field parking lot; the Lake Street lot; and the village-owned lot adjacent to the west side of Doubleday parking lot behind the Chamber of Commerce building. The local law allows for the issuance of parking permits, and authorizes the purchase of parking meters and payand- display machines. Village residents didn't wait for the upcoming informational meetings, but attended the next board meeting to let the board of trustees know what they thought about paid parking. Paul Clark asked why, as a village resident, he had to pay for a permit. "I don't think you guys are thinking it through long term," he said. "It's a 100-day-a-year problem. You live here and you deal with it. What's the big deal if we've got a few tourists walking up and down Main Street? It's not that big a deal." Trustee Jeff Katz said the village needs to find another way to increase revenue. He said that preliminary indications point to as much as $400,000 to $600,000 in new revenue could be generated through paid parking. The board scheduled a public hearing on the paid parking plan in October, and planned to hold two informational meetings to listen to residents' comments, concerns and suggestions, and answer questions. The board of trustees faced a largely supportive crowd during the first of two meetings to explain its plan for paid parking. In the introduction, trustee Paul Kuhn said the reason the board is looking for new revenue sources other than taxes was "simple" - the village is looking at more than $7.5 million in infrastructure work in the next few years. "I think that $10 for a resident for all year is cheap as dirt. I would gladly pay more," commented Pam Good. "I don't consider it a bad thing to pay to park. Most people in the village live close enough to walk." The board took no action during its October meeting, but listened to comments from the public asking the board to slow the process. The trustees set another special meeting to again try and hammer out the details of how paid parking would be implemented. "No Paid Parking" signs popped up on lawns and were displayed in windows, but in its November board meeting, after listening to another two hours of public comment weighted heavily against paid parking, the board voted to go ahead with the plan anyway. Many in the audience were stunned, as the board voted 4- 3 to adopt the local law. Waller, Hage and Stewart voted against it. "I'm speechless. More than that, I'm disappointed that our village trustees did not listen to the people and did not represent the people the best way they could," said Paul Clark, whose family has been part of the downtown business world for decades. "It was the saddest day I've seen in a long time." It fell to the police committee to make a recommendation as to how paid parking would be implemented, and committee chair Paul Kuhn said he was going into the meeting with an open mind. "We'll certainly try to get back to a position of more unity on the board," he said. The law and resolution authorize paid parking in the Doubleday Field lot and onstreet parking on Main and Pioneer streets, but do not name any particular dates for implementation, he said. "I think we would have some flexibility in rolling this out," Kuhn said. The committee recommended to the board of trustees that paid parking begin in the Doubleday Field lot next summer. At the earliest, on-street paid parking would be phased in during the summer of 2009, according to the committee, but that is still dependent on the village's experience in Doubleday Field. The board approved the recommendation during its December meeting. This time the vote was 5-2, with Waller and Stewart opposed. Village Gateway and Linden Avenue The multi-million dollar Village Gateway Project moved forward this year, as officials and CLA Site, the consultants hired to do the site analysis and design work, debated how best to create a visitor center and parking lot at the south entrance to the village. The project has evolved slowly since a federal appropriation was announced by former Congressman Sherwood Boehlert years ago. Residents along Linden Avenue grew frustrated as they waited for relief from the traffic congestion from the middle/high school and county highway garage. Officials from Cooperstown Youth Baseball have watched the progress carefully because their facility lies in the center of the project, on a parcel under a long-term lease from the village. Organization president Dr. David Borgstrom told officials they would rather not move. In June, Mayor Carol Waller said that for the first time, she is feeling some encouragement about the Village Gateway Project and Linden Avenue. "I thought I would be a great-grandmother before the project was completed," she said to members of the project's technical committee during their afternoon meeting. "I feel much better about it today. There's a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel." But Peg Tourella, an outspoken resident of Linden Avenue, reminded the mayor there are still plenty of traffic problems on her street. Linden Avenue was recently resurfaced, and many of the patches, bumps and potholes are gone, but motorists are now speeding on the street. "It's getting worse. It's terrible. Everyone understands, but they don't live here." Tourella said. In July, officials decided against a design concept that would make Linden Avenue a thoroughfare from Walnut Street to state Route 28. Instead, they decided to focus on designs in which Linden Avenue dead-ends into the parking lots and visitor center planned south of the village. Officials said they feared if Linden Avenue was a through street, people might be enticed to use it as a short cut into the village, resulting in more traffic and congestion. By early October, the Village Gateway committee endorsed a design that would not require relocating the Cooperstown Youth Baseball complex. But by the end of the month, the committee made a U-turn and opted for the design that would connect Linden Avenue directly to Route 28, after residents explained that what was needed was another outlet for traffic. "There was never awful traffic on Linden Avenue until the village closed it off," said Ellen Poulette, whose business, Cooperstown Natural Foods, is outside the village on the Linden Avenue extension. "It was no big deal." The problem, she said, was that now traffic must come in from Walnut Street and go back out the same way. If there were another outlet, some traffic would use it and reduce the amount of congestion on the street. The design change, approved by the village board, now means moving the youth baseball complex as well as the village DPW buildings. Zebra mussels found in Otsego Lake Despite years of vigilance, zebra mussels were discovered in Otsego Lake in June. The discovery was made, as it is many times, by an alert property owner who noticed something suspicious on a line that had been in the water for some time, according to Dr. Tom Horvath, SUNY's Director of Environmental Sciences and a world-renowned expert on zebra mussels. The person put in a call to the SUNY Biological Field Station, and director Dr. Willard Harman went out to investigate the sighting. He returned to the station and made a positive identification. Village mayor Carol Waller said that she dreaded the day this would come. "It's bad news, but not the worst news," she said. "There's no need for panic, we just have to deal with it." Horvath said there is no cause for alarm, but it may mean that, in the future, people will have to watch water intakes and their boats. The best option at this point, according to Horvath, is to continue monitoring the mussel population. The population is small right now, but it is likely there is some level of reproduction. "There is nothing you can do once they're in the lake," he said. If the mussels behave in a typical manner, people will probably start noticing them in two years, Horvath said. Harman said it probably won't make a huge difference in the lake because there is not a lot of shallow water. But there will be changes in the lake and a loss of biodiversity. Harman said the mussel feed on algae, so as their numbers increase, the water should be clearer. At the same time, it may mean the end of the six native species of freshwater mussels. "It's been well worth the effort to keep them out as long as we have. I don't think people should be frustrated or feel the effort was lost. Everyone knew sooner or later we would have them. All the effort was worthwhile and the effort should still keep up," he said. The main worry is water supplies, said Dr. Theodore Peters, who helped to establish Cooperstown's zebra mussel inspection program. Peters said the mussel will attach itself to water intakes which can become biofouled, or clogged. Snafu hikes county taxes The 2007 county budget was approved by the Board of Representatives, which expected the tax levy would increase by 2.5 percent. However, when tax bills went out in late December, the board discovered they were mistaken, and had approved a budget with a 22 percent increase. Taxpayers were decidedly unhappy with the situation, as many expressed at the board's first meeting of the year. What the overflow crowd of roughly 60 got was a promise from reelected board chairman Donald Lindberg that the board was working to do what they could to reduce the tax levy to the expected 2.5 percent rate. County Attorney Rodney Klafehn said he had made calls to the state comptroller's office in hopes of finding out if the board had the authority to rescind the budget and approve a new one. He said it would present a "logistical challenge," as some 20,000 tax bills go out, but that the board's goal was to work until the tax levy was reduced to an increase of 2.5 percent. The mistake touched off a tumultuous year as the Board of Representatives and County Treasurer Myrna Thayne tried to shift responsibility back and forth. Eventually, after much debate, the board voted to send refund checks to county taxpayers. Notre Dame graduate students study village Six urban design students and their professor from the University of Notre Dame spent a semester studying the village and looking at the growth pressures the community is facing in the areas of housing, commerce, tourism, parking, sewer and water, community character and aesthetics. Professor Philip Bess said that Cooperstown 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, that flourished following World War II. The students said they approached the village with "fresh eyes," and their vision for the village ranged from two parking garages to new residential neighborhoods on the east side of Brooklyn Avenue and near the Clark Sports Center. "Some of our ideas may seem obvious; others may be a shock," said student Paul Monson, who narrated their final presentation to the public earlier this month. In talking with people, the students found the most commonly identified threats to Cooperstown include: the loss of its historic character; traffic congestion and inadequate parking; declining retail diversity and permanent residential population, a shortage of housing for hospital employees and the middle class generally; and the village's limited taxing authority and consequent inability to raise revenue for needed public works project. Trustee Paul Kuhn described the student's work as a "wonderful gift" to the village. "Your expertise and fresh set of eyes looking at out village will carry us into the future," Kuhn said. "We've been through change in Cooperstown. We've been through change from the outside. Now we have a chance to manage change from inside." Mayor Carol Waller said this week she wants to form a 2025 Committee to review the students' proposal and begin considering plans for the future of Cooperstown. For a complete look at the proposals, the text and slides from the presentation may be accessed at the students' site: www.ndcooperstown.typepad.com/. A link to the site can be found on the village's website: cooperstownny.org. Bassett parking plan approved; hospital files suit After almost four years of review by the planning board, Bassett Hospital's parking plan was approved. Bassett's plan to address the shortfall of parking for employees calls for new parking lots to be created at Harrison House and Bassett Hall. Numerous neighbors have voiced concerns about the impact of the project on the character of the neighborhood. The Hospital's final Environmental Impact Statement was accepted by the planning board in early June. "It's been a very long and expensive process for Bassett," said hospital Vice-President Joe Middleton, who has represented Bassett throughout the review process. "I'll be interested to see if the same standard is applied to other projects." The plan began with a $3.1 million price tag. The price has grown to almost $5 million now, said Middleton. Planning board member Charlie Hill said that he believes the board was able to address both the hospital's need and the concerns of the neighbors. He described it as a "reasonable, practical solution." "It should help with the parking on the street. I think neighbors will see a difference," he said. But a month after the plan was approved, the hospital filed an Article 78 proceeding in Otsego County Supreme Court claiming the planning board improperly restricted the use of the parking lot at Harrison House. Hospital spokeswoman Karen Huxtable said the hospital had made it clear to the planning board in a recent meeting that changes the board was making at Harrison House were not within its purview. The suit was filed, she said, to "clarify the limits of the planning board's authority." "It is Bassett's legal position that the planning board cannot limit the use of the parking lot to a defined group(s) of individuals. To do so is beyond the scope of the board's authority either under the SEQRA or Site Plan Review process," she said. Planning board chairwoman Teresa Drerup said they wanted some idea of who would be parking at the lot, and what times of day they would most likely be arriving or departing. She it was an issue that spoke to concerns about neighborhood character and pedestrian safety. The village is being represented by attorney Joseph Catalano, of Rensselearville. Catalano worked with the planning board's consultants from Saratoga Associates during the review of Bassett's environmental impact statement and site plan. The case was heard by Judge Kevin Dowd at the end of November. He has not yet rendered his decision. |
Copyright 2007, Cooperstown Crier, Cooperstown, NY All rights reserved