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With the deadline to secure more than $1 million in federal funding right around the corner, the village board struggled Monday night to pull together the remaining loose ends for the design of the project.
The board conducted the environmental review of the project with the assistance of attorney Douglas Zamelis, who prepared Part II of the DEC’s State Environmental Quality Review for the board.
Board members agreed with Zamelis’s assessment that the project would create only small to moderate environmental impacts. The board, acting as lead agency for the SEQR review, voted to make a negative declaration for the project because there were no significant impacts.
Board members also approved a resolution calling for the village to maintain the project’s parking lots, roads, sidewalks, and plantings.
The maintenance agreement was a document insisted on by the Town of Otsego Planning Board, which must approve the project’s site plan. The planning board had scheduled a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss the project, but required the village to address some issues in time for the meeting.
Trustee Jeff Katz expressed his concern about the maintenance agreement because over the years, the board had assured taxpayers they would not have to bear that burden.
``Once it’s adopted, it’s on our taxpayers and I think that’s unwise,’’ he said. ``I would be uncomfortable with it.’’
Trustee Neil Weiller said he agreed with Katz.
Katz also commented that the village may have little or no need to plow snow in the winter in the parking areas. Bassett, which plans to use the lot for employee parking, would have a reason to plow and has stated in the past that they intend to maintain the facility.
``Bassett has stated verbally that they would do it,’’ Katz said. Trustee Chuck Hage, the chair of the committee overseeing the project said maintenance will be provided for.
``It’s my feeling the village will not be stuck,’’ he said.
``It’s a question of who’s paying for it,’’ Weiller said.
As recently as April, Bassett Hospital Vice President Joe Middleton, a member of Hage’s committee, re-enforced the idea they would maintain the lot because hospital employees will be using it.
There was always the assumption that it would not be a burden to the school or the community, Middleton said in a project committee meeting.
Katz said he understood the town planning board was concerned primarily about the streets and sidewalks in the project and suggested removing references to parking areas from the resolution.
But Peter Loyola, of CLA Site, the company hired to do the project design work, said parking areas had always been lumped in with sidewalks and roadways by the town.
Trustee Lynne Mebust suggested adding ``as needed’’ to the resolution as a solution. ``Frankly I don’t see the need to qualify it,’’ Hage said.
``While we don’t have a formal arrangement, I’m confident the village will not bear the cost.’’
``I just think it’s a mistake,’’ Katz said prior adoption of the resolution.
The planning board was also concerned about provisions for RV parking so the board adopted a statement indicating the village’s intention to study RV parking and willingness to work to accommodate them. New Cooperstown Central School Superintendent C.J. Hebert and Board of Education President Anthony Scalici attended the meeting and discussed the school’s latest stance on an easement to site a drainage facility under the junior parking lot. The school had earlier agreed to donate the land to the village, but later rescinded the commitment.
With the commitment gone, the planning board wanted the village to get an easement or, at a minimum, a letter of authorization from the school board before proceeding with the site plan review.
In a letter to the village board last week, Hebert wrote that the district is ``deeply committed to acting as a cooperating partner in this worthwhile venture,’’ which he described as ``advantageous to the community of Cooperstown.’’
The price tag for that cooperative partnership was set at $75,000 by the school board. One of the six conditions demanded by the district is a payment of $75,000 from the project’s federal funds in return for the easement to use the land.
Hebert said Wednesday morning the district is supportive of the project and that the $75,000 was half the estimated cost to pave the junior parking lot.
``Our first priority is to be good stewards of the district’s assets. We’re hoping to come out of this with revenue that would put us in a position to pave the lot at some point in time,’’ he said.
Katz said the school should receive fair market value for the easement, but that was to be determined by an independent appraiser. That value was not currently available, Loyola said.
The school also wanted assurances the village will assume responsibility for damage caused by the drainage/storm water system if it should occur.
Additionally, it wants the village to resolve concerns expressed by the town planning board’s engineer about the drainage system.
Loyola said the engineers had different approaches to the same problems, but that in a test conducted Friday, 2,000 gallons of water was dumped down a 15-foot hole at the site and drained in 10 minutes.
There is no restrictive layer that would hinder drainage, Loyola said.
During the discussion of getting the engineers reviewing CLA Site’s design in agreement, the contentious relationship that has developed between Loyola and Hage was clear.
Loyola made reference to the village’s reviewing engineer not being a highway engineer, but a landscape architect like himself. The comment was aimed at Hage, who had complained in July when he wanted to hire an engineer to review CLA Site’s work that Loyola was not a highway engineer. ``The head of the firm under contract with the village, the individual managing the CIT project, is a landscape architect, not a highway engineer,’’ Hage wrote in an email.
When Loyola pointed out that Steve Wilson of Clough Harbour Associates, who was hired by the village to review CLA Site’s work, was not a highway engineer, Hage fired back, ``I don’t care if he’s a dumbo and you’re a white knight’’ and continued to press Loyola about getting all three engineers in agreement as to how to handle storm water drainage.
It became obvious the board would be unable to satisfy the conditions set by the school district Monday night and Mayor Joe Booan ended the discussion.
``I guess we’re at an impasse,’’ Loyola said.
Local News
Board works to meet Gateway project deadline
- Local News
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Students do the catwalk
Cooperstown Central School students were the stars of the show Friday night as they took to the runway. This marked the fifth year of the student-run fashion show, and there were a few added bonuses. Before the lights were turned off in the Sterling Auditorium at the Cooperstown Middle/High School, a behind-thescenes video about each designer was featured. Skinny Guys with Glasses also provided live entertainment during intermission.
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Chamber names executive director
The Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce announced that Patricia A. Szarpa will be its executive director, effective April 1.
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Village trustees want option to exceed property tax cap
Budget time is approaching for the village and trustees want to prepare by making sure they’ll be able, if necessary, to exceed the state-imposed two percent property tax cap designed to slow the growth of property taxes.
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It’s carnival time ... event takes on pre-Lent party theme
Taking a page from the creed of the U.S. Postal Service (that “Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night” stuff ), organizers for the Cooperstown Winter Carnival, the threeday event that begins Friday, might look at recent weather forecasts and come up with their own creed for the event: “Neither sun, nor warmth, nor the desire to wear short-sleeves shall prevent the Winter Carnival from …” _ well, you can guess the rest.
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CCS to offer online food service payments
Cooperstown Central School is launching an online payment option for purchases of school lunches, breakfasts and other food items.
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Arraignments for CCS players postponed until April 11
Two of the five Cooperstown High School football players charged with harassing a teammate by giving him “the tunnel treatment” appeared in town court Wednesday as the father of the boy allegedly accosted sat in the courtroom.
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Third judge to oversee Pacherille Jr.’s shooting case
COOPERSTOWN — A third judge has taken over the case of local teenager Anthony Pacherille Jr., the former Cooperstown High School student serving an 11-year prison term after shooting an African-American classmate in April 2010. Pacherille’s attorney, Frank Policelli of Utica, is pressing to have his client resentenced as a youthful offender.
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Bassett’s new MRI machine features latest technology
Bassett Medical Center doctors now have the most advanced technology in magnetic resonance imaging that will allow doctors to more accurately diagnosis and treat patients, according to Bassett radiologist Dr. Lawrence Barnowsky.
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MCS program brings together job seekers and employers
People need jobs. Companies need workers with skills. Milford Central School is erecting a bridge, of sorts, that can help connect job seekers with employers.
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Wednesday is community art night at The Smithy
The Smithy-Pioneer Gallery is offering a series of free art-making nights every Wednesday through the month of February. Located at the heart of the village, the historic Smithy provides a place for the community to gather together and partake in some fun and easy art projects like small paper sculptures and ornaments, a variety of printmaking and more.
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College to offer continuing education courses this spring
The State University College at Oneonta will offer more than 30 non-credit courses on topics ranging from Argentine tango to kayaking this spring, according to a media release from the college.
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Circus exhibit closing soon
Like the circuses it spotlights, “From Acrobats to Zebras: Circus Art and the Big Top Experience,” a small exhibition at the New York State Historical Association’s Research Library in Cooperstown, will fold its tent and close its doors on Feb. 29, according to a media release from NYSHA.
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Earth Festival to be April 14
Planning has begun for the seventh annual Earth Festival, set for Saturday, April 14, at Milford Central School, according to a media release from the Otsego County Conservation Association. Returning is the traditional information and vendor fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the gymnasium.
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Local cultural program celebrates Chinese New Year
A celebration of the Chinese New Year was held at Milford Central School on Sunday.
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To Our Readers
In last week’s edition, two front-page stories were printed that did not come up to the high standards you have come to expect from The Cooperstown Crier. The stories concerned the Cherry Valley-Springfield school district and its leadership.
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CV-S: Positive influences abound
Last week, the Crier published an article with several criticisms of the Cherry Valley-Springfield School District, many from anonymous sources.
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Mayor will not seek second term
Barring a challenge from an independent candidate, it appears Village Trustee Jeff Katz will become the next mayor of Cooperstown.
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CCS geo bee winner may get second chance at state competition
The pressure was on. Cooperstown sixth-grader Tom Knight had won his school district’s fifth-and-sixth-grade geography bee last year and said he felt that many were expecting him to pull a repeat. “I was going into the competition confident, but I was feeling much more pressure this time around,” Tom said Friday afternoon after winning in seven rounds.
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Entrepreneurship program receives funding to go green
Cooperstown’s after-school educational program TREP$ has been given an incentive to go green this year. The program, in which students develop their own products or services and then sell them at a “flea market” style marketplace, has been awarded $700 through The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s New York Energy $mart Students Program.
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Sex offender to test Otsego child safety law
When Dennis and Aarona Rockwell rented a home on a side road off Chestnut Street in Cooperstown on Jan. 9, they contacted the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department to let the agency know Dennis had a new address.
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