Grant To Study Village Merging Into Town

Cherry Valley Village May Merge Into Town

CHERRY VALLEY
Feb. 9, 2007

As the Village of Cooperstown celebrates its 200th birthday, the 195-year-old Village of Cherry Valley may be preparing for its funeral.
The state’s Shared Services Incentive Program has given the village and town boards a $22,700 grant to explore whether to merge the two municipalities into one, said Village Trustee Lou Guido, an advocate of studying the change.
“We just decided to look into the idea to save taxpayers’ dollars,” said Guido. “The bottom line is money, for everyone.”
The village budget is more than $100,000 a year, and it pays for garbage
pickup, sidewalk plowing, a water district and two fire districts, which should probably be merged into one, the trustee said.
Town Supervisor Tom Garretson said he favors exploring the idea as well, if it could save money and improve municipal efficiency.
Village Historian Gary Thompson, whose family moved to town in 1743, just two years after the Rev. Samuel Dunlap arrived with a group of Scotch-Irish settlers, said the village was home to many elegant mansions when it was founded in 1812. There were 80 houses and stores in the community.
The village continued to thrive well into the 20th century and Thompson, who is 58, remembers it was “almost like a city” when he was a boy, with folks riding trains into town on weekends to attend dances at the Central Hotel and other venues. Parking was scarce.
His grandfather, Milton Thompson, was the village’s first Democratic mayor, the grandson recalled.
Because of its proud history, the historian doesn’t favor this merger talk.
“I was against the school merger for the same reason,” he said. “We’re losing our identity.”

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