Cooperstown To Allow

Outdoor Sales For Summer

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTESGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – In an effort to help businesses and bring shoppers back downtown, the Cooperstown Village Board has declared June 1 through Oct. 12 as a Special Event, dubbed “Cooperstown Outdoors,” during their meeting this evening.

Business owners in the Commercial District – Main Street – will be allowed to apply for a permit to hold sidewalk sales.

“By establishing a special event, we can allow for vending in certain locations,” said Cindy Falk, Village Trustee. “A lot of our shops are in smaller spaces, so it may be advantageous to them to be able to sell on the sidewalk.”

“It’s a chance to do something really creative,” said Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh Kuch. “

The Board is waving all fees, but businesses have to provide proof of insurance, and vendors within three feet of a display window must get the owner’s permission.

Though vending is, at the time, limited to the sidewalk, the trustees did not rule out the possibility of closing the streets down for special shopping days or to better facilitate social distancing.

“We might find a way to go bigger,” said Trustee MacGuire Benton.