Noted: the loading zone on the north side of Main Street extending from the cross walk in front of the CVS almost to the postage size park at the corner of Main and Pioneer appears to be too short. Trucks wishing to deliver to the diner or TJ’s have to lug their goods several weary feet. Why wasn’t the zone extended the entire length of that block of Main Street? Why must these poor drivers be so burdened?

If the zone were so extended it would open up the street for pedestrians to stroll on the side of the road as well as on the sidewalk. This would solve pedestrian congestion that we now see on the thoroughfare in the summer. It would also solve the hopes that villagers have of finding a parking space for the purpose of picking up a prescription at CVS or a hero at Danny’s.

This would alleviate vehicular congestion on the street because villagers would know that they needed to head south to Stewart’s to get a newspaper or a prescription at Church and Scott’s.

With a little creative thinking, the Main Street could become a pedestrian mall with a few delivery trucks, every once in a while, to keep people alert and on their toes. The old flagpole is another inhibitor. As we have seen, delivery trucks and our ancient flagstaff don’t get along too well.

So the flag pole has been there since 1917, so who’s to know if it were to be relocated behind the Hall of Fame. When people finish with their tour at the Hall, they can be shuttled out the back door to see the venerable pole. One day it can be at full mast and the next at half staff.

By removing this obstacle, which inhibits speeders going down the street at full throttle, and extending the loading zone the entire length of Main Street (maybe on both sides) to accommodate truck drivers, we are well on our way to establishing the Babe Ruth Piazza.

This will help in attracting visitors from Europe, especially Italy. And with an eye on attracting Spanish visitors in the future, we can eventually introduce the running of the bulls.

Bob Lettis

Cooperstown

Re-elect Bliss

as Supervisor

As Planning Board Chairman in Middlefield Township for the better part of 20 years, I have seen the complete turnover of the Town Board a few times, almost always as elected officials eventually decided not to run for re-election. It has been a wonderful affirmation of the democratic process for me as an observer: Middlefield has invariably managed to wind up with honest and community-oriented representation, and has wisely seen fit to re-elect experienced leaders.

For some time now, the Town Supervisor has been David Bliss. In countless Town Board meetings, I have seen him be a great listener to all parties, a tireless and careful watchdog of the fiscal details, and decisive in conserving the best attributes of the Town, while looking to the future to assure that the young who are growing up here today can have opportunity to stay as adults.

We could not ask for better or more experienced leadership than Dave _ as an independent I can’t vote in the Primary, but hope Middlefield Republicans will vote to re-elect him next Tuesday.

Henry Weil

Middlefield

CYB season

a success

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who helped to make the 2007 Cooperstown Youth Baseball All-Star Season a success. Assistant Coaches Bob Hall and Tim Haney, field manager Brad Fiek, equipment manager Dave Pearlman, CYB President David Borgstrom as well as the entire CYB Board of Directors all volunteered their precious time to the benefit of our children and our community.

It takes a great deal of effort by a relatively small group of dedicated people to provide our youth with a quality experience on the playing fields. Their work, often unseen, allowed over 200 boys and girls the opportunity to learn and play baseball and softball in a safe and positive, yet competitive environment.

The major league all-star team of Ethan Bliss, Mitchell Bouton, Atticus

Dennis, Matt Frevele, Maggie Hall, Sawyer Haney, Seth Klosheim, Jack Lowenguth, Jacob Miller, Ben Pierson, Henry Stewart, Park Summers and I, truly appreciated their efforts. Thank you again.

Head coach Dave Bliss

Fee increase

too much

I am writing in response to Mr. Katz’s letter of 9-6-07. My husband and I own Beaver Valley and several of the teams and tournaments that play on Doubleday play here at our field as well. Several of the players and their families also stay in our accommodations and I cater the reception and banquet for the Legends.

Although I understand the need for exploring creative ways for generating revenue for the village, skyrocketing the rates to $1000 for a game on Doubleday for only a select few may not be as profitable as it appears on the surface and it is absolutely not a true test of fair market value. To find out the market value of the field, the fees need to be raised by a reasonable amount each year -for everyone- until you notice a decrease in occupancy.

What the baseball committee proposes is a tremendous gamble for the village and for those of us who depend on these visitors. Has enough consideration been given to what will happen if the fee increase backfires? Those of us who make our living in tourism know that it takes a fair amount of resources for a business to get off the ground and a fair amount of time to build up a clientele. Keeping the business alive requires momentum. Once you break that momentum it can take years to recover. Some businesses never do. I donGÇÖt think the village should gamble with a sure thing. And I would definitely prefer that the village not gamble with my livelihood.

Mr. Katz does not take into account the ``trickle down’’ effect that will occur. If I make less money, I spend less money at Bruce Hall and Agway and Riverwood. I pay out less in salaries. My employees spend less. I have less time to volunteer at the school. On and on.

I disagree with Mr. Katz’s guarantee that ``the players who will replace the tournament players will spend their money here, just as the tournament players do.’’ I would challenge Mr. Katz to provide concrete proof of that. I encourage him to ask local businesses what their experience is before making that declaration. In the past, Doubleday and Beaver Valley have hosted many of the same groups of day or single game visitors. My experience is this: the teams drive up in the morning, visit the Hall of Fame for a couple of hours, spend an hour or so going through the shops or other attractions in town, board the bus to Beaver Valley, borrow my gas grills to cook their food, play a game on our field, have everyone use the bathroom and then board the bus for home. That in no way compares to the habits of the tournament teams.

Further, I would like clarification as to the intended target of the increase. Is the increase intended for tournaments or for those violating the theft of services clause in the contract? In August I heard that the increase will affect ``tournaments.’’ Yet on March 30, 2007 Mr. Katz generated a letter advising renters of the following:

``The Doubleday Field Committee has become increasingly aware that many of the applicants’ are charging individual participants a fee beyond what is required by the Village ($400 for each 2007 game).’’

The letter then quotes a section of the field application/contract:

``The time slots reserved by an applicant are for the use of the teams represented by that applicant: the applicant may not sublet a time slot or impose a fee beyond that imposed by the Village.’’Any attempt to do so will be treated as a theft of services, resulting in loss of future use.’’

Aren’t the tournament organizers representing the teams therefore not violating this clause?

It is my understanding that Mr. Katz is fairly new to the area and that he may not understand the history behind the ``theft of services’’ clause in the Doubleday Field rental contract.

In the late eighties/early nineties field time on Doubleday was not very difficult to secure. Also at that time there was a tremendous push to try to bring more visitors to the area. The Otsego County Tourism office was in its infancy. The county instituted the ``bed tax’’ _ its revenues to be used to promote tourism. The Hall of Fame increased their efforts to increase their number of visitors. As Cooperstown’s popularity grew, a game on Doubleday began to become more desirable but it was not well known how to secure field time. A handful of people took advantage of this and would reserve a number of time slots and then sell their slots to teams at a considerable profit-subletting or scalping as it were. That was the impetus behind the clause. The clause was not intended to apply to additional fees imposed to cover expenses such as umpires, transportation, equipment, awards, salaries or profits.

It sounds as though Mr. Katz has deeper issues with the Legends and is upset that the Legends is a successful for-profit organization. Is the field now going to be used for only those who do not make a profit? What about coaches who bring their high school teams to play in a tournament? The coaches get paid a salary. There are expenses such as transportation, food, umpires, balls, equipment, administrative fees. If the school collects a fee from its players or its taxpayers above the actual cost of the field to cover expenses and pay the coachGÇÖs salary, will they be subject to the $1000 rate? Will there be a question on the application asking what the school is charging each participant? What about Fantasy Camps like the ones the Baltimore Orioles and the Hall of Fame run?

Mr. Katz’s simplified accounting analysis of the Legends operations (gross income minus fees to the Village equals tremendous profit) does not justly reflect actual operating costs to running a business.

This weekend I personally contacted four of our mutual customers and none had heard anything from the Village regarding the rate increase hence the reason for no other groups responding.

I think that this issue needs to be thought through more thoroughly and adequately debated. I am requesting that the Village revisit this in a public forum so everyone who will be affected can have an opportunity to voice their opinions.

Julianne Sharratt

Cooperstown

Don’t support Wicks Law

An open letter to

Senator James Seward:

This is to express our harshest disappointment at the Senate’s support of the poor revision of N.Y.’s Wicks Law. As you must know, it is the last such punitive law of its kind in the U.S. This revision, as supported by the Senate, reduces the dollar threshold to $500,000 from an original $2 million proposed by the Governor. Please tell, what school construction project can cost $500,000 or less? Meanwhile, New York City remains exempt up to $3 million. There will be little to no benefit realized by any rural district. Then, please explain the Senate’s rationale to taxpayers since only construction unions and buyers of bonds benefit from any continuation of this law. Wicks adds 15 to 30 percent to the cost of building and a district’s long term debt. And there is no taxpayer or student benefit served. A further disappointment comes in that this gesture will now allow legislators to go back to sleep on the issue since they can throw the 2007 "reform" at critics.

Beyond the ineffectiveness of this reform gesture, a feeling of betrayal comes at the lost opportunity to address overall financial burdens to district tax payers from new state mandates. In particular, the growing cost of pension contributions from the Legislature’s 2000 "reform" of this mandate continues unabated. Since the 2001-02 school year increases to districts from this "reform" have averaged 130 percent statewide. And as much as increases in state aid are welcomed _ and sorely needed _ the higher contributions, alone, take nearly a third of additional state aid. Annually, the increased pension costs to taxpayers since that time is almost equal to and one year exceeded the entire STAR program for tax relief. A couple of years back, you were asked about the basis for this change to district contributions and what could be done to reverse it. You replied that nothing could be done, as it was not possible under the state’s constitution. How do special interest financial benefits become protected by a state’s constitution while taxpayers are forced to pay? And who represents taxpayers or the educational purpose of public schools in any of this?

The final tragedy of all this, of course, is that what will suffer in the end is the quality and advancement of education as districts face growing pressure to reduce spending. Residents see declining populations and school enrollments and cannot accept that school budgets only get bigger. With all the financial mandates, old and new, the only cost reduction left is to reduce teachers, administrators, and course offerings. And this comes with a spiraling growth of testing, scoring analysis, and data management also mandated by Albany. It can only be concluded that there is no vision by legislators on the state of public education. Local school boards and superintendents are left to answer daily and face-to-face with taxpayers who are at a breaking point. Then we have to hear the Governor and Legislature applaud themselves to announce new property tax refunds to give people relief from oppressive school and local property taxes. This is hypocrisy and doublespeak beyond words.

There is no conclusion to this letter of comment. The business of public education in New York is in a financial tailspin from state mandates, over-management, and costs that contribute nothing to the quality or development of meaningful learning. And, here, in our local schools, there is a serious level of public dissatisfaction and a growing loss of common unity in our community.

Anthony J. Salici

Board of Education

Cooperstown CS

Hall should pay more too

As a taxpaying resident of Cooperstown, I applaud Trustee Katz’s efforts to enhance the revenue generated from Doubleday Field fees. As a sometime player in Legends of Baseball tournaments and as an original trustee of the Friends of Doubleday with Thom Lach and his father Ralph, I was disheartened to read Thom’s assessment that the size of the increased fee for tournaments will most likely preclude future play in Cooperstown.

At the same time, I was surprised to see that no mention was made of any similar re-assessment of fees for the use of Doubleday Field by the Hall of Fame. I look forward to a future article reporting on Trustee Katz’s and the rest of the Village board’s application of the same aggressive fee increases to the Hall of Fame for its rental of Doubleday Field for its various events throughout the year.

Obviously, the more revenue that can be obtained from that source, the less pressure there will be on the Village board to raise taxes to meet municipal needs exacerbated, in large part, by the influx of transients who come to Cooperstown only to visit the Hall of Fame and attend its events.

John Rudy

Cooperstown

Editor’s note: According to Jeff Katz, the Hall of Fame will happily abide by the decision of the trustees to raise the rental rate for its fall fantasy camp. The use of the field for the annual Hall of Fame game, however, is governed by a separate contract in which the net proceeds are shared by the village and hall.

FoMA a way to get involved

The Friends of Music & Art (FoMA) is a Cooperstown School parent committee which provides scholarships to Middle/ High School students to help attend summer camps/ classes to enhance their fine arts education.

The committee also provides funds to teachers so they may provide additional fine art opportunities for their students in the form of guest speakers, field trips, summer music classes, and materials not covered in the school budget.

FoMA also provides programs for various concerts throughout the year. Our major fund raiser is the popular Cabaret Night held every January.

The committee meets once a month during the school year for approximately one hour. FoMA is an excellent way to be involved with the school and your student(s) without being too involved in terms of time and effort.

Currently, we are seeking new members to assist in this worthwhile effort. Particularly, we are looking for someone to take over the Treasurer’s position. The Treasurer’s report is a one page pre-loaded Excel spreadsheet which takes five minutes to prepare.

If you have students in the Middle/ High School who are involved in the fine arts; or perhaps are the parent of a scholarship recipient that would like to ``give back’’, please consider joining our committee. If you have any questions or would like to step up and help with the Treasurer post, contact Vicki Gates at 547-1943.

Vicki Gates

Current FoMA Treasurer