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We cannot trust the assurances Fear and loathing in Cooperstown was displayed at the special natural gas County Board forum on July 21. Our ``good neighbor’’ principle was shattered by a few leased landowners who see an imaginary pot of gold.
Their Disney World ``everything is beautiful, sprinkle it with dew’’ landscape has happy fracking gas elves drilling while little birds fly through clean untainted air and tie ribbons around glasses of drinking water.
This small group has only one concern, the desire for money. Everything else can spiral down the drain. They believe and repeat myths spun out by energy company PR machines used to bait their support.
The myth that there is a 100-year supply of shale gas is especially enticing to these leased landowners beginning to count their imaginary profits. The Potential Gas Committee (PGC) has estimated that gas from shale is more like 6 years. Oopsies.
The fear came from the overwhelming majority who wanted to protect the health and wellbeing of everyone.
The loathing came from the small band of leased people lashing out at anything that might get in the way of their golden dreams.
We should be afraid. We cannot trust the assurances of energy companies. They told us we could never have a Three Mile Island. They told us we could never have an Exxon Valdez. They told us we could never have a massive Gulf oil spill. It all happened. Now they tell us fracking gas operations will not pollute our air and drinking water.
We see bad air, dead cows, dead fish, brown water and igniting kitchen faucets in places like Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and now fracking gas wells in our own Otsego County. We’ve had enough. It stops here.
John Kosmer
Sustainable Otsego
Mayor is making every effort
Summer is in full swing in Cooperstown and I hope that this letter finds you enjoying the warm weather and sharing good times with family and friends. This letter initiates what I hope will be a productive, ongoing community dialogue. As your Mayor for the past four months, I have strived to provide taxpayers with the confidence that I am making every effort to strengthen fiscal responsibility, build teamwork, prioritize projects, develop long term planning, improve day-to-day operations and communicate with our community. To that end, below is a review of some of the areas that the Cooperstown Village Board of Trustees has worked on over this brief timeframe.
• With great uncertainty looming at the state level and a county budget increase of 7.7%, the village board passed the 2010-2011 budget with no increase in the tax rate for property owners. Keeping taxes at the same level as last year was a clear signal to our residents that we in village government recognize that these are tough times and we must do everything in our power to reduce the financial burden we place on our citizens.
• The Village of Cooperstown continues to recover and learn from the tragic shooting events of April 3, 2010. The Village has since co-sponsored two important events. We assisted the Cooperstown Middle-High School with sponsoring Dr. James Garbarino, Co-Director of the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University, to lecture on the topic of violence at the Sterling Auditorium.
Later, in collaboration with CCS and the Oneonta chapter of the NAACP, we cosponsored a panel discussion on diversity. Both events were well-attended and provided great resources and understanding as we move forward as a community.
• Trustee committees were streamlined in April. Each Trustee chair and representative was asked to commit to a mission statement to help focus discussion. Additionally, each committee was asked to develop both long and short term goals to assure all committees are working withappropriate understanding of mission and goals. Trustee representation of select committees and boards: Conservation:Neil Weiller (Trustee Representative); Cooperstown Intermodal Team: Charles Hage (chair); Doubleday: Jeff Katz (chair), Lynne Mebust; Finance: Willis Monie (chair), Matt Schuermann; Human Resources: Matt Schuermann (chair), Lynne Mebust; Maintenance: Willis Monie (chair), Jeff Katz; Parks Board: Lynne Mebust (chair); Public Safety: (Neil Weiller (chair); Sewer Board: Lynne Mebust (Trustee Representative); Sustainability: Neil Weiller (chair); Trolley: Lynne Mebust (chair), Jeff Katz, Willis Monie; Water Board: Jeff Katz (chair).
• The Village Board of Trustees has authorized the following actions to help improve the immediate condition of 22 Main Street: mold remediation, asbestos remediation, oil tank replacement, and repairs and improvements underway for Gallery A and B.
• After Alton Dunn stepped down from the Village Board of Trustees for personal reasons, Matt Schuermann was appointed to his vacated position. Mr. Schuermann graduated from Cooperstown High School in 1983 and returned to Cooperstown in 1995 with his family.
He served for several years on the Village Planning Board and brings this experience to the Board of Trustees along with his background in financial planning and housing/commercial development. The Long Range Financial Planning Committee has been formed and Mr. Schuermann will serve as Chair of this committee as well as Chair of the Human Resources.
• Two consultants have been appointed to village committees. Nancy Morton, retired Otsego County Personnel Director, joins the Huma Resource Committee. Eric Hage, former Trustee and owner of Mohican Financial Group, joins the Finance Committee. The village will incur no cost for their dedicated services and will benefit from their expertise on their respective advisory committees to the Village Board of Trustees.
• Kurt Carman was hired in mid-July for the position of Streets Superintendent. Mr. Carman brings 15 years of managerial experience to this position, including previous Asst. Superintendent and later Superintendent of Public Works for the Village of Otego. Mr. Carman has been given the task of quality improvement as he leads the streets crew in Cooperstown.
Taxpayers deserve quality road surface and sidewalk repair and Mr. Carman has begun to prioritize each project and make recommendations to the Maintenance Committee as necessary with street repair and replacement as top priority.
• Chuck Hage has been appointed to the Trustee seat vacated by my position. Mr. Hage has over 50 years of experience in technology, engineering and management and brings his record of integrity and hard work to the Cooperstown Village Trustees. The village is in the late stage of an engineering contract for the Cooperstown Intermodal Transit (CIT) Project, also known as the Gateway Project, and Mr. Hage has been appointed Chair of this project.
He has since fostered communication and teamwork among principal parties and demanded accountability in moving theproject forward. We are making every effort to complete the design, obtain the next round of funding from the Federal Highway Administration, and proceed to construction.
• As Mayor, I have initiated a new series of Town Hall Meetings to solicit your input on how to continue to strengthen our community. Our first Town Hall meeting is scheduled for August 5, 2010 at the County Courthouse and we will discuss ``How Do We Improve Main Street Cooperstown?’’ We invite all stakeholders to participate and share your positive ideas for improvement on Main Street. We will begin hearing your ideas at 7:00 pm.
• Willis Monie, chair of the Maintenance Committee, will review the feasibility of snow removal on our village sidewalks. Currently, each resident is required to remove snow from their sidewalk. Residents of Cooperstown deserve improved services for their tax money and as such I have asked Mr. Monie to thoroughly review the possibility of providing snow removal on village sidewalks beginning with routes that our children use to walk to school, emergency routes, and Main Street and ultimately removal from all Village sidewalks if feasible.
• The past two Trustee meetings have focused on the upcoming street replacement project on Brooklyn Avenue. Included within this project are improvements to Brooklyn Avenue, Lake Street, Elm Street, and Pioneer Street. Trustees did very careful investigation of the project bids to protect your tax dollar and ultimately awarded a contractor bid. Construction of the Brooklyn Avenue project will begin immediately.
• The village has worked in collaboration with Bassett Hospital recently to help maximize parking spaces in our Trolley lots. These efforts have helped our village trolley system and improved communications with Bassett Hospital, our largest local employer.
• The village police department and emergency services continue to work together with The National Baseball Hall of Fame on their two major Summer events, including collaboration with the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department and the NY State Police.
• As always, the staff of the Village of Cooperstown, as well as many dedicated volunteers, continue to do the work day-in and day-out that keeps this village working smoothly and tackling the emergencies that arise along the way. You efforts give us pride and motivation to continue to serve our village tax payers and make this community better.
As we move forward over the next few months, there will be several topics discussed in our upcoming Village Trustee meetings including: Potential for 1st Annual Cooperstown Celebration Day; Completion of the Cooperstown Intermodal Project; Beginning of long-range financial planning; Completion of village personnel audit; Review of the current law on Paid Parking (Main Street area); Beginning of budget process for Fiscal Year 2012; Plans for the second in a series of Town Hall Meetings; Completion of roof replacement on 22 Main Street; Begin discussions of potential shared resources and collaborative efforts with Otsego County and Town of Otsego boards.
The tough economic times are upon us and we can’t waste time. Let’s produce good clear objectives to accomplish real tasks and solid benefits to our village taxpayers. Please continue to communicate with us and let us know what you think about our great village.
This village is a landmark of significant history and holds so much potential for the future in the hands of its people _ tax payers, families, neighbors, friends, tourists, co-workers, employers, employees, volunteers, store owners, property owners, no matter how you define us. We are all in this together.
Joe Booan, Jr.
Cooperstown Mayor
