VALEDICTORY

...And, Yes, We Are Fiscally Sound,

Supervisor Atwell Says In Summing Up

Editor's Note:  Anne Geddes Atwell, Otsego town supervisor or town board member for the past decade, is retiring from her municipal responsibilities at year's end.  She provided this summing up of her tenure.

By ANNE GEDDES ATWELL, Supervisor, Town of Otsego

As 2015 ends, so does my second term as Otsego town supervisor. This completes 10 years of service on the Town Board. It’s been gratifying work, if sometimes frustrating, especially since some press coverage during this election season may have left the impression that the Town Board was in turmoil.  That has not been the case, though some tensions and even harassment by a couple of members of the Planning Board may have suggested so.

To set the record straight, and to acknowledge the fine accomplishments of the Town Board over recent years, I offer you this account of important successes that been to the direct benefit of you, the Town’s citizens and tax-payers.

Encouragement of Business The outgoing Board and the Supervisor brought final resolution to an urgently important project in a Town of Otsego Business district: The Cooperstown Intermodal Transit Center project, best known as the Linden Avenue Extension.  Disagreement between the Village of Cooperstown and our Planning Board had held up completion for several years and put us in real danger of losing a roughly a three million dollar grant and of incurring further thousands of dollars per day as penalties for delaying the contracted construction. As citizens now know from their use of the Avenue extension to Route 28, it is a tremendous convenience and had made dropping off our children at school much easier and safer.