Thursday, March 10, 2011

LETTER: Vote for What is Best for our Village and its Future

Dear Editor
                      
    It wasn’t all that long ago that I wrote in support of maintaining 24/7 police coverage in Cooperstown.  I thought anything less was a pretty foolish idea then, and dissolving our entire department is even more foolish now.  With the juggernaut of hydrofracking in Otsego County looming on the horizon, and the unpredictable burden this will put on our Sheriffs Department, turning over the protection and safety of our village to an outside agency, regardless of their prowess (this is not an attack on the Sheriff and deputies), is shortsighted, and the process so far employed is certainly questionable.  Very cogent arguments for keeping our own police force have been made by several writers over the past few weeks.  But I think the most important aspect of this is that our village trustees have control of our own department, and ultimately, have no control over county law enforcement.  When the chips are down, we will have to rely on an agency we basically rent.

            But there is also the “elephant in the room” that our mayor is hoping residents will ignore.  In several articles, a prepared public statement at the last meeting and a taxpayer-supported mailing to village residents, Mayor Booan has denied that his only recently public crusade has anything to do with his personal animosity toward our very capable Chief of Police.  With apologies to William Shakespeare, “The lad doth protest too much, methinks."  When this comes to public referendum, which we should demand, vote for what is best for our village and its future, not for the few dollars this scheme might  save.

David Pearlman

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