Editorial of November 28, 2024
The More You Know…
When Iron String Press received the first e-mail from a concerned citizen who said they knew nothing about the Village of Cooperstown’s plans to install a cantilevered viewing platform at the terminus of Pioneer Street, we were surprised. It was not news to us, because we had covered the village’s NY Forward $4.5 million grant process from beginning to end, and the viewing platform was one of a number of projects being considered for funding.
In our newspapers of November 2, 2023, we outlined the final list of projects being submitted to the state by the village in an article titled “LPC Finalizes NY Forward Priority List.” The viewing platform did not make it to Cooperstown’s Priority Project Slate for possible NY Forward funding; but it was one of four projects moved to the village’s “pipeline” for the future.
The viewing platform was also discussed in an August 31, 2023 article, “LPC Meets To Discuss Project Proposals.”
And on March 10, 2023, the project was described in the article announcing the NY Forward award, titled “Village of Cooperstown To Receive $4.5 Million Via NY Forward Program.”
According to the NY Forward grant narrative, “With design and engineering plans complete, the construction of an accessible Viewing Platform in Lakefront Park will provide greater access to Otsego Lake for visitors and residents. Located just one block from the Village’s Main Street via Hoffman Lane, this 2.6-acre dedicated park land has benefited from Village investment in floating boat docks, a boat wash station, and improvements to the Fish Road boat launch to provide greater recreational opportunities. The construction of an accessible platform will further improve access to Lake Otsego for all, particularly for non-boaters.”
Plans for the project have been in discussion at various village municipal levels since 2016, according to Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh. Tillapaugh said the project—some eight years in the making—was conceptualized as a result of public input, including the village’s 2018 Parks Survey and numerous public charrettes for the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, which emphasized the need for greater ADA-compliant accessibility and access to Otsego Lake via Lakefront Park for non-boaters, including a walking/fishing pier.
“It was from the [Comprehensive] Plan and the survey that the idea of an accessible, ADA-compliant viewing platform arose,” Tillapaugh said in an article we published on November 21, 2024. “As a result, the village applied in 2018 for a planning grant for the development of the concept, which will provide better visual and pedestrian access to waterfront within the Village of Cooperstown for non‐boaters of all ages and abilities.”
And, this month, on November 7, 2024, the Village of Cooperstown published a lengthy legal notice announcing an invitation to bidders “for the construction of a cantilevered wood platform and landscaping at the lakefront terminus of Pioneer Street and adjacent to Lakefront Park.”
So what’s the kerfuffle? Well, we continued to hear from folks who were deeply concerned about the project, including Pioneer Street residents who said they had never heard of it. Others said they thought the viewing platform construction was not planned until 2028. Still others said, as we ourselves thought, “It’s old news.”
We see two issues here.
First, although Cooperstown Village officials thought, as we did, that there was public awareness of—and public support for—the viewing platform, the passage of time seems to have wiped the project from the public’s collective memory. The village’s failure to reach out to Pioneer Street residents who would be directly impacted by the project has exacerbated public push-back against both it and the village.
Second, despite published descriptions of the viewing platform, the village’s clearly-stated intention in building the platform, and the documented history of the project, Cooperstown residents felt they were caught unaware. According to the New York Coalition for Open Government Inc., as of June 2023, only 7 percent of Otsego County municipalities livestreamed their meetings. Cooperstown is one of the three we can currently confirm—the City of Oneonta and the Town of Hartwick are the others. Unfortunately, the real meat of municipal meetings in general is not often reflected in the meeting minutes or even on the agenda. But in attending a meeting, or in viewing the meeting online during and after the fact, citizens can get a real sense of what is going on in their community and have the opportunity to participate if they are so inclined.
Iron String Press has no stance on the viewing platform either way. We do, however, believe that both village officials and village residents can do better moving forward—one at better informing and the other at being better informed.