Otsego Lake Festival to make return this year
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COOPERSTOWN – Based on the success of last year’s first Otsego Lake Festival, estimated to have drawn 1,000 visitors, the Otsego County Water Quality Coordinating Committee (WQCC) has decided to hold the event again this year. It will take place Saturday, July 8, from 12-6 p.m. at Lake Front Park in Cooperstown. The Otsego Lake Festival is a recognition of Otsego Lake and its vital role to the region. It strives to bring together the Otsego Lake community for a day of celebration and education. As in 2005, non-profit groups that support water quality initiatives will have exhibits detailing their efforts to improve and safeguard Otsego Lake. The festival will also feature lake-related activities and entertainment, including live music, children’s activities, food (much of it sold by local non-profit organizations), and much more. The WQCC is a coalition of government agencies and private organizations working to ensure that Otsego County residents enjoy the benefits of clean water. The WQCC functions as a sub-committee of the Otsego County Soil and Water Conservation District. All of the groups under the WQCC umbrella are working to implement the Otsego Lake Management Plan, the primary goals of which are to ensure the quality of drinking water drawn from the lake for both public and private water supplies and to preserve the lake’s natural beauty and its fishery. By organizing the Otsego Lake Festival, the WQCC hopes to engender an appreciation of this county’s key natural resource and to educate the public about programs protecting Otsego Lake. This year, Susan O’Handley, of the Wildlife Learning Company, has been hired to organize the festival. She is working in cooperation with the Lake Festival Executive Committee, which includes Scottie Baker, of the Otsego Lake Association, Martha Frey, of Otsego 2000, Otsego Lake Watershed Coordinator Win McIntyre, and Teresa Winchester, of the Otsego County Conservation Association. As the 2005 Lake Festival was dedicated to the memory of Charles Bateman, this year’s festival will honor Bob Seaver, who died earlier this year. According to the Lake Festival Executive Committee, Seaver’s love of Otsego Lake was well documented by his regular newspaper column, The Badger, and in his recent book “Cooperstown, Otsego and the World.”
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