This decision is rooted in careful consideration of our longstanding village values, legal responsibilities, and the need for sustainable ways to honor our veterans. It was made after months of public debate, research, letters, input from the community, and examining all sides of the issue.…
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As a nine-year Navy vet with a brother and father who were in the Navy for 30 and 40 years, respectively, I say bravo to the village trustees for their decision not to modify the zoning law to allow veteran banners.…
If approved, the sign law would have been changed to allow banners to be placed on New York State Electric and Gas utility poles on portions of four streets in the Village of Cooperstown—Lake Street, Pine Boulevard, Chestnut Street and Glen Avenue. Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh was the lone vote in favor of amending the law. Tillapaugh was the first village representative to speak when discussion of the sign law amendment officially opened, following a public comment period during which no…
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.”…