Letter from Wendy W. Smith

Residents: What Viewing Platform

This is a follow up to my letter of last month, which was published in “The Freeman’s Journal,” regarding the proposed viewing platform at the end of Pioneer Street.

The biggest issue that I pointed out in my letter was the lack of transparency in the process undertaken by the village. In saying this I cast no aspersions, I simply say that the way the village currently communicates regarding projects as important as this one is not reaching people, and that matters. Before I sent my letter I had one or two residents tell me I was barking up the wrong tree and everyone knew about this project and the timeline. Yet after the letter was published it seemed that the average reaction from people in the village was “What viewing platform? I had no idea about it,” which seems to validate my original point.

Many people wrote letters and conversed with village trustees to share their concern. Many people showed up to the March 25 village meeting. Once the conversation was raised openly, it became quite clear that most people in the village were as surprised as I was that this public works project was happening and most were not in favor of it for a variety of reasons.

I am glad that the village trustees tabled the project for the moment because overwhelming reactions like this tell us a few things. First and foremost, it tells that we haven’t had the robust public discussion that projects like this should have during the planning stages. As I pointed out in my first letter, public conversation makes good projects better and reveals weaknesses in others.

So, what are we now hearing? We are hearing concerns of residents which include very real environmental issues, very real traffic control and safety issues on Pioneer Street, and serious questions about ongoing funding for the completion and maintenance of this proposed project. There are questions about the design, the visual impact of the design on all of us and, the most basic question, why do we need this project?

We are now able to see the design prospectus, and to many of us it doesn’t fit the character of Cooperstown, creates light pollution around the platform, and doesn’t appear safe for our normally cold winters (yes, we hope for regular ice on the lake again and are not yet raising coconuts in Cooperstown).

We can now clear up misinformation surr-ounding the project, such as the idea that no one lived at 2 Pioneer Street during the planning process, they did, and that notifying them shouldn’t matter. Everyone pays their property taxes in town and should have a say about large public works projects, especially ones that abut their property.

Some may think, it’s just a platform off the end of the street, what’s the big deal?

If built, we do know a few things. Building the platform out into the lake will be disruptive to the lake. The platform will generate more traffic, people, and trash on the lake’s edge at the end of Pioneer Street. The platform will be visible from practically everywhere on the south end of the lake and from various parts of the village. Being out on the water, it will generate sound that carries across water, and it will stand, in whatever form it would take, for a very long time. We better be sure we as a village like what we build.

Wendy W. Smith
Cooperstown