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 This Week In the News -- Mar. 30, 2007 |
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 Contamination in Susquehanna River Doubles Downstream of Dreams Park;void(0)) Photo Courtesy OCCA Dr. Devin Castendyk stands in the Susquehanna. “Fecal coliform” increases around Dreams Park, he and students found. Prof’s ‘Snapshot’ Traces Pollution to Baseball ParkBy JIM KEVLIN HARTWICK SEMINARY For a few days last summer, you may have noticed Dr. Devin Castendyk, Water Resource Program director at SUNY Oneonta’s Earth Sciences Department, and his students wading in the Susquehanna River near the Hyde Park Bridge on Route 11C. Only in the past few weeks have the worrisome results of Castendyk’s efforts come to light: “Fecal coliform colonies” – the polite term for human (or animal) waste – “rose sharply” between two sites around the bridge and two sites to the south. In between is Cooperstown’s Dreams Park, which brings thousands of young ballplayers and tens of thousands of their family members to the shores of the Susquehanna each summer to fulfill a dream of playing America’s Pastime near baseball’s discredited – but sanctified – birthplace. The source might be either humans or cows, the report says, “but the most likely causes of this change in discharge are groundwater pumping wells near the Dreams Park property ... More data are needed to explore these possibilities.” Cause for alarm? Not yet, Castendyk said in an interview Wednesday, March 28, but cause “to collect more data.” “The work is pretty straightforward,” he said. “But it needs to be done.” The testing he and his stu Please See TAINT, Page 8 Please dents did last August was “one snapshot,” he said. He said what’s needed is regular testing between May, before Dreams Park opens for the season, and September, after it closes. The Castendyk report was commissioned by the Otesgo County Conservation Association, which two years ago sued the Town of Hartwick over concerns its lack of regulation resulted in Dreams Park overusing the aquifer – causing neighbors’ wells to go dry – and threatening its quality. The suit was dismissed in April 2006. OCCA had nine months to appeal but – said its executive director, Erik Miller – realized it could not do so without a “strong scientific base,” which it lacked. Instead, OCCA made common cause with the Town of Hartwick, each chipped in $7,500, and the town is now considering several RFPs – requests for proposals – for a consultant to conduct a “full-scale hydrology study” on Dreams Park’s impact on the watershed. Castendyk’s finding have been available to the OCCA for about a month, Miller said, and he has circulated it along official channels, but it has not yet been released to the public. “It’s kind of scary when you see the level of the influx of contaminants into the river,” he said. A spokesman at Dreams Park’s winter headquarters in Salisbury, N.C., Mike Walter, referred questions to owner Louis Presutti III, who did not return the call. However, Walter did say the youth-baseball facility is working closely with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to protect the river. Castendyk’s experiment occurred last Aug. 15. He and his students established four testing sites. At the first site, 310 coliform colonies per 100 mililiters were recorded; at the second site, 269, slightly less. Then, at Dreams Park, the colonies rose to 493. At the fourth site, downstream from the baseball camp, the level was 532. Phosphorus levels were also tested, and remained about the same. However, nitrite and nitrate levels quadrupled, from .031 milligrams per liter at Site 1 to .112 milligrams at Site 4. It’s Time. Let’s Go Fishing Season Due April 1By BREN MIOSEK VAN HORNESVILLE Knee deep in a pool full of rainbow trout, Larry Kroon scoops up a net-full of trout, then heads for a stocking truck idling close by. With the 2007 trout fishing season opening Sunday, April 1, the crew at the state Fish Hatchery here – one of only 12 – have been busy preparing thousands of rainbow trout for streams scattered throughout the entire state. Under the direction of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Van Hornesville hatchery, a stone’s throw from the Otsego-Herkimer county line, produces about about 400,000 8-9 inch trout annually. “We’re a cold-water, spring-fed facility,” said Kroon. “We used to produce brook trout, but we switched to rainbow in 1994 when production was transferred from another hatchery. Rainbow trout are a popular sport fish.” Managed by a team of three dedicated year ’round employees, the hatchery is made up of 12 ponds. The upper ponds are kept at 47 degrees year ’round; the lower pond are 50-52 degrees, even in the summer. Almost 80,000 fry go through the hatch house each October. The aquifer that feeds the hatchery has been in the news lately, as foes of the Jordanville Wind Project expressed fear 69 proposed turbines would taint the water supply. More often than not, Kroon and his crew stock streams with fish from other hatcheries – salmon, brown trout and brook trout. But most rainbows come from right here. “We’re the smallest cold water hatchery in New York,” said Kroon. “We stock streams from Frankfort to the Vermont border, and from Lake Champlain down to Poughkeepsie. We usually have to stop at other hatcheries to pick up other types of fish, but we produce just rainbows. According to Kroon, the lake trout in Otsego Lake come from a hatchery in Bath, the browns come from Rome, and salmon come from Saranac Inn. For a small operation, Kroon and his crew produce a tremendous amount of fish, and its no secret. “There’s a good chance when we stock ... the stocking truck will be followed,” said Kroon. “It happens every year. There have been times when we’ve stopped to stock a stream and people have fished right over the top of us.” While Kroon and crew stock the local creek in Van Hornesville, most of the fish get washed down stream by spring waters. “Every now and then, someone shows up with a decent size rainbow,” said Kroon, but 16-18 inch ones are few and far between. “People generally fish behind the school.” According to the DEC website, anglers can look forward to a great year of fishing, thanks to the natural diversity of angling opportunities in the state. Stream flows and water temperatures during the summer were generally good for trout survival in 2006 and should result in a good number of hold-over trout this spring. Despite the late winter and significant snow and ice conditions that will exist during the early season in the northern and more mountainous areas of New York State, once spring arrives, 2007 should be another good year for New York trout anglers. Due to icy banks and high flows, anglers are urged to use extreme caution while wading in high waters. The early season is a great time to try some of the smaller tributaries. Smaller streams typically have more manageable flows, and are also more likely to hold larger populations of wild trout. Oaks Creek in Toddsville, Wharton Creek in Edmeston, Unatego Creek in Hartwick and the Susquehanna River running through Cooperstown have proven in the past to be active early on opening day. “The fish we stock are meant for catch and take, but people still take more than they should. The limit is five,” stated Kroon. “Catch your limit, call it a good day.”  Village Gardens A Rink, But Can Be Much MoreSo Says Village Parks Board, Soliciting Public InputCOOPERSTOWN Village Gardens, out of sight out of mind behind the Great American, is nonetheless something of an ice-skating mecca in the winter. But what about the rest of the year, and what about shuffleboard, hopscotch, bocce and lawn bowling? The village Parks Board has been asking itself those questions, and at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 3, in the village ballroom at 22 Main, it wants the public to help answer them. “We thought it was very important to involve the park’s neighbors early on in the process,” said Trustee Jeff Katz, who also chairs the Parks Board. He urged all interested village residents to attend. The board contracted with the SUNY Oneonta Center for Economic & Community Development, and in late January, property owners along Beaver, Delaware, Walnut and Chestnut streets near the park were asked to complete a survey to gather their opinions about possible uses of and changes to the park. At the April 3 meeting, Tim Hayes, CEDC deputy director, will guide the community visioning process by reviewing the responses and soliciting ideas and opinions. “We’re looking for input and a design for that input,”said Jesse Ravage, a neighbor and president of The Friends of the Parks Inc. “We need a plan based on those ideas to use for fund raising through grant opportunities and foundations. Planning is the critical piece here. Without it, we can’t effectively “A lot could be done,” she said. “We’d like to make it a place people want to come to.” Friends of the Parks, a not-for-profit charitable organization, can raise funds privately; a municipality cannot. As it stands now, the Village Garden site currently borders 32 residential lots on Beaver, Maple, and Delaware and is only accessible by one driveway off of Beaver. The process will result in a report that will allow the Parks Board to better understand the types of projects and uses village residents may support at Village Gardens. The Parks Board will continue the Village Gardens planning process after evaluating the feedback from the neighbors of Village Gardens, residents of the Village, and existing conditions at the site and will make recommendations to the Village Trustees/Board. Village Gardens became a public park in 1994 when the late Robert B. Seaver donated the property to the village. Seaver died March 5, 2006. It’s Unlikely Woodside Hall Will Be Luxury Hotel Planning Board Rejects IdeaCOOPERSTOWN The village’s stately neighborhood east of the Susquehanna River will remain that way, if the village Planning Board has its way. Before an audience of people from the Woodside Hall neighborhood, board members voted as one to oppose a zone change that would have allowed a local hotelier to turn the 1829 Greek revival mansion – with Egyptian revival gatehouse – into a 22-room luxury hotel. The village trustees could ignore the advice of the Planning Board, but that seems unlikely, given the popular opposition to The Inn at Woodside Hall plan. “I’m certainly happy the neighborhood felt the same way I did,” said Laura Kilty, who lives on Estli Avenue next door to Woodside Hall’s signature address: One Main St. “I’m pleased at the outcome. But I think it’s best for the village, too.” At issue was whether or not to pave the way for Marc Kingsley, who operates The Inn at Cooperstown on Chestnut Street, to create The Inn at Woodside Hall. Kingsley appeared before the Planning Board a month ago, and two weeks ago it convened an “informational hearing” to gauge public opinion. A couple of dozen people appeared, all but two – Kingsley and an employee, Donna Mackie – spoke against the idea. More than a dozen letters also objected to the idea. “The people came and spoke,” said Bill Rigby, a Planning Board member, in an interview the day after the Tuesday, March 27, meeting. “They had really good points. We had to listen to that.” As they have from the outset, everybody expressed confidence that Kingsley, who with his wife Sherrie has substantially renovated the Chestnut Street inn, would run an first-rate operation. “You have to think about what could happen,” said Charles Hill, another Planning Board member. For his part, Kingsley expressed disappointment, but said the next step would mean “getting attorneys involved” and he is reluctant to take that step. He said, however, “I don’t want to hear in two years that they’ve changed their minds.” Kingsley said “we wanted to be first in line,” and he accomplished that, protecting his Inn at Cooperstown franchise in the process. Rigby said Kingsley had a point in noting the village’s land-use plan also calls for the Planning Board to be cognizant of economic development. The plan was developed in the ‘60s, he said, and perhaps it’s time for a fresh look. Hill disagreed, saying, “Generally, it’s working well.” Kilty said she had gotten a phone call from a private individual who had hoped to buy Woodside Hall, until recently an adult-care home, and turn it into a single-family residence. That, she said, would be the optimum use. The Planning Board also approved Mayor Carol B. 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