Published: March 27, 2008 09:58 am         

Letters for March 27, 2008

CCS team says thanks

Last weekend the Girls’ Varsity Basketball Team completed a season that they will fondly remember. We would like to recognize the following for their generous support, from the send off breakfast to the parade into town. Please accept our apologies if we have left anyone out. — Bassett Healthcare, Christmas Around the Corner, The Cooperstown Crier, the Cooperstown Volunteer Fire Department, CVS, The Daily Star, Danny’s Market, Essential Elements, The Freeman’s Journal, the General Store, Great American, P&C Foods, Brian Horrey Photography, The Sage Center, Sal’s Pizzeria, Matt and Maureen Schuermann, Spurbeck’s Grocery, Straws and Sweets, Tino’s Pizzeria, and The Village Cobbler. We also thank all the parents who made the breakfast such a success.

The girls’ team has received many quality life lessons from this experience. It was exciting to watch them play to a 25-1 record and an appearance in the New York State Final Four. Although they did not return as State Champions, they received something more valuable, the support of their community. It was wonderful to see the overwhelming number of people who attended the games to support our girls. This community offered support in so many ways from spectators and fans to signs and parades.

We know that these young ladies appreciate how kind so many people were and how lucky they are to be in a community that is so supportive and nurturing to its young people. This valuable lesson will one day benefit the community in which they choose to live.

Julie and Michael Cring
Cooperstown

Katz thanks voters

I’d like to offer my congratulations to Doug Walker and Jim Vrooman for well run campaigns. Fewer than 60 votes separated these two candidates in a very close vote. Congratulations also to Neil Weiller for his election to the Board, and to Mayor Waller for her re-election.

My best wishes to Paul Kuhn. I have had the privilege of working with Paul for three years and he has always come to opinions through hard work and with great sincerity. There are long hours and many meetings, as well as serious research, that are part of doing a thorough job as a Trustee. I promise to continue to work hard in confronting the challenges that are present for Cooperstown, and to meet change head-on and make it work for the Village of Cooperstown, not against it.

I wish to thank all who wrote letters on my behalf. Every letter was eloquently written and respectful. They were all greatly appreciated. To everyone in the Village, those who cast their votes and those who chose not to, those who voted for me and those who didn’t, please know that I will continue to represent to the best of my abilities the diverse opinions of the many constituents in our beloved hometown.

As always, I welcome your phone calls and your comments about issues affecting our village. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to serve you.

Jeff Katz
Cooperstown

Board wants aid restored

The following is an open letter to Sen. Jim Seward and Assemblyman Bill Magee from the Cooperstown Central School Board of Education. We are writing to express our grave concerns about the State Executive’s proposed budget and its ramifications for the Cooperstown School District. Last year the New York legislature created “Foundation Aid” to consolidate numerous operating aids to be distributed among school districts based on a formula that would make school aid predictable, adequate and transparent. Under this formula, school districts like ours would receive a minimum increase in school aid of 3 percent over the aid received last year. The monies proposed by the Executive branch in its proposed state budget fall woefully short of reaching these goals.

In addition to cutting the guaranteed minimum increase to our schools, the proposed aid is arbitrarily based on the district’s combined wealth ratio, disregarding any differences in community costs, needs and resources that we face. Moreover, the predictability of Foundation Aid was meant to facilitate long-term planning of our future needs and resources. Manipulation of the foundation aid formula takes away this ability.

We applaud the proposals set forth by both the State Senate and the State Assembly to restore Foundation Aid to school districts to the levels promised in 2007. Furthermore, your proposal to restore BOCES aid, which is currently slashed under the Executive budget, is another laudable proposition. Our BOCES provides invaluable cost-sharing services and the proposed cuts would adversely affect projected revenue.

We urge you to follow through with funding commitments made in the budget enacted last year. We hope that you sustain your current proposal to restore this aid.

We also respectfully request that you work toward passing a budget in a timely manner. Without a firm commitment from the state, we are forced to ask our taxpayers to pass a school district budget based on speculation rather than on concrete numbers. We thank you for your consideration and your commitment to public education.

Board of Education
Cooperstown

Sad about Game

I have been reading with interest of how the Hall of Fame game will be played for the last time.

It is sad that this tradition is coming to a close.

But I always look at life as the cup half full not empty and try to look for the options in situations like this. Just a thought, but what about getting former players to come back and play in a game and maybe even some Hall of Famers.

I am no expert on matters like this, but would Major League Baseball have any power to control such an arrangement, since the players would be retired?

I would also think that the Baseball Hall of Fame would have some connections to get a hold of such players. Yes, the quality of play might not be as high but just as entertaining.

Doug Walter
Northumberland, Pa.