As mayor of Cooperstown, it is my honor to be asked to speak every year at our community’s Memorial Day Ceremony. I often note the memorials in our village to honor and remember those who travelled far beyond our small community to defend the principles and freedoms of our nation. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, where the Memorial Day ceremony takes place, was erected in the early 1900s not by the village but by Otsego County in memory of all…
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As a Vietnam veteran who has lived in Cooperstown the past 37 years, I, too, do not need or want to purchase—or pay for though taxes—a banner to hang on a pole with my dated photo to acknowledge my service.…
A pillar of Cooperstown’s economy is tourism. People come to visit our museums and experience what life was like in a less complicated past. Simply put, Cooperstown sells nostalgia.…
In summary, I encourage the Village Board of Trustees to carefully review the many positive comments received at the public hearing and approve the proposed change to the current village sign law to allow these Hometown Heroes banners.…
If changes to the village sign law are approved as proposed, this could open up the door for Hometown Heroes banners to be hung on utility poles on portions of Lake Street, Pine Boulevard, Chestnut Street and Glen Avenue—the equivalent of about two miles, or 15 percent, of village streets—but only with approval from NYSEG via its sign application for nonprofit organizations.…
As a veteran of the United States Air Force Security Service, who volunteered twice for Vietnam, and served at a CIA station outside of Afghanistan for 15 months, I do not want a national, commercial, for-profit company trying to make money on my military service by trying to sell me a custom-printed banner with my picture on it and then trying to get the Village of Cooperstown to let me put it on a utility pole.…
Cooperstown officials say the village is “historic,” which is defined as “famous or important in history.” Last I knew, the wars these men and women fought in were both historic and historical, which is defined as “something that is connected with the past or with the study of history, or something that really happened in the past.”…
The Village of Cooperstown sign law, which regulates banners as signs, states: “Signs are not permitted in the median between the sidewalk and the curb, nor attached to trees, bushes, support wires, street/municipal signs or utility poles located within the median” and “No sign shall be placed or located upon public property or the property of public utilities unless so authorized by other provisions in this chapter.”…
Given all of the regular challenges Cooperstownians deal with living in a town dedicated to tourism, the Hometown Heroes banners seems like an ideal opportunity for the town to give back to those of us who have chosen to call Cooperstown home and their family members willing to lay down their lives for it.…
Panzarella and Panzer sat down recently, outside of their respective caretaker cottages, to talk about their experience. Among the common themes to arise as the Labor Day holiday and the end of the season approached? The challenges and stress from being “on” seven days a week, and more or less around the clock; appreciation for the lakeside-park setting as a “home” for the summer; animals in the parks; and baseball teams.…