Dryden Democrats

Ellis Hollow Fair

2011-09-14T12:07:00.000-04:00

The Varna Fire Truck is always a kid magnet. This year the fire department also brought a display borrowed from the McLean Fire department to help kids learn to "stay low" in a smoke filled room.

Varna Fire Chief Roy Rizzo

The fair is always fun - music, food, horses, vendors. who could ask for more.

Images from Dairy Day 2011

2011-06-11T15:05:00.003-04:00

Dryden Ahead of the Game on Gas Drilling

2011-06-11T06:54:00.005-04:00

No matter where you stand on the issue, it's pretty clear that Supervisor Sumner and the Town Board are moving ahead rapidly with all of the potential protections the town needs.

Sumner said they have been hard at work on the issue, finishing their own work on their town's critical environmental areas and hiring an engineering firm to perform road assessments and help them draft road protection laws. They're also considering an aquifer protection ordinance and have added an industrial noise ordinance to their proposed new zoning code.

"I feel like we're doing pretty well, we've benefited from the experience of Pennsylvania (where gas drilling is currently going on)," she said. "We have some breathing space until gas companies move further north, but we're not resting."

Town Board Candidates

2008-10-13T09:09:00.003-04:00

After nearly two years of presidential campaigning, it may be easy to lose sight of local elections, but in the past week Jason Leifer's campaign signs have been popping up around town. I've had the pleasure of working with Jason on the Town Board this year. He's been an active member of the finance, technology, block grant, community center and personnel committees, as well as liaison to the Recreation Commission.

On the technology committee, Jason helped write the successful grant application for state funding for wireless broadband access. He's now working to update the the Time-Warner franchise agreement as well as keeping town hall technology up to date.

The community center committee has implemented grant program to help fund long needed repairs and improvements in the Ellis Hollow, Varna and Etna community centers as well as helping the new Cafe in the Village of Dryden.

Jason has successfully promoted a program to use long dormant block grant funding to help residents pay for weatherization home improvements. The block grant committee has also forged partnerships with Tompkins County Area Development to promote economic development in Dryden and with Alternatives Federal Credit Union for small business development.

I'm happy to support Jason in his campaign to continue on the Town Board.

This morning I found the new webpage for the Republican candidate for Town Board. Interesting to get a glimpse of a photo of the candidate. I've never met him. To the best of my knowledge, he's never been to a Town Board meeting. I had regularly attended Town Board meetings, including budget hearings for more than a year before running for office and I still found the learning curve pretty steep.

Governor Paterson in Ithaca

2008-10-11T10:14:00.003-04:00

Governor Paterson was in Ithaca yesterday to announce a grant of $104,000 to Tompkins Community Action to provide home weatherization assistance to Tompkins County elders. Governor Paterson was joined by (L-R) NYS Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson, NYS Senator George Winner and US Representative Maurice Hinchey.

HeatSmartNY.org links to some useful information, but you may get more specific information by calling the Tompkins County Helpline: 211.

Note also that the Town of Dryden is implementing a $300,000 grant for safety and energy home improvements for income-eligible homeowners. Contact the Supervisor's office for more information.

I enjoyed watching these young spectators, tired of the speeches, making shadows on the sidewalk.

Obama's Health Care Plan

2008-09-21T09:21:00.002-04:00

Oh, dear. I've been away so long, it's hard to know where to start.

Here's one thought.

I found the link to this Wall Street Journal article on my favorite economist's blog, Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal

Why Obama's Health Plan Is Better - WSJ.com

Sen. Obama's proposal will modernize our current system of employer- and government-provided health care, keeping what works well, and making the investments now that will lead to a more efficient medical system. He does this in five ways:
- Learning. One-third of medical costs go for services at best ineffective and at worst harmful. Fifty billion dollars will jump-start the long-overdue information revolution in health care to identify the best providers, treatments and patient management strategies.
- Rewarding. Doctors and hospitals today are paid for performing procedures, not for helping patients. Insurers make money by dumping sick patients, not by keeping people healthy. Mr. Obama proposes to base Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and doctors on patient outcomes (lower cholesterol readings, made and kept follow-up appointments) in a coordinated effort to focus the entire payment system around better health, not just more care.
- Pooling. The Obama plan would give individuals and small firms the option of joining large insurance pools. With large patient pools, a few people incurring high medical costs will not topple the entire system, so insurers would no longer need to waste time, money and resources weeding out the healthy from the sick, and businesses and individuals would no longer have to subject themselves to that costly and stressful process.
- Preventing. In today's health-care market, less than one dollar in 25 goes for prevention, even though preventive services -- regular screenings and healthy lifestyle information -- are among the most cost-effective medical services around. Guaranteeing access to preventive services will improve health and in many cases save money.
- Covering. Controlling long-run health-care costs requires removing the hidden expenses of
the uninsured. The reforms described above will lower premiums by $2,500 for the typical family, allowing millions previously priced out of the market to afford insurance.

Note that in every way, this is designed to reduce health care insurance premiums for both individuals and employers.

Beck Farm Tour

2008-08-01T09:50:00.006-04:00

Beck Farms hosted a gathering yesterday to give local policy makers more insight into farm life. The message loud and clear is that one after another, economic and legislative changes challenge farmers. With each wave of changes a few more farmers quit and some of the rest grow larger.

In New York, large farms are still "family farms." Russ is a third generation co-owner of Beck Farms. Russ's grandfather, Martin, started the farm in the 1920s with twenty cows. I met the Becks in the 1980s, when Martin was in his 90s and Russ was working with his father Ron. Becks now farm more than 2,000 acres and milk 1,200 cows.

I've had great respect for the Becks' skill and ethics for the twenty-five years I've known them. The romantic in my heart still loves the image of cows grazing in lush green pastures and the rich yellow cream in milk from grass fed cows. But the Becks and their workers know a lot more than I do about what it takes to get a hundredweight of milk to market. Above all, healthy, relaxed cows make more milk. It was much more comfortable in this open barn with its dozens of fans than it was outside.

Feed components, including corn and grass and alfalfa hay, are stored in these bunkers.

They're measured out by this bucket loader into the feed wagon which spreads them in front of the cows.

People in the crowd asked about bovine growth hormone (BGH.) There's so much contradictory information in the popular press, I haven't made any effort to take a stance. While I doubt the reassurance of reporters and farmers I don't know, I do know the Becks. I know how well educated they are and how much they care about their business. So, I'm prepared to accept that BGH is a protein that's digested by the cows and does not affect the milk.

The tour ended back at this tent where it began and ice cream was served! Among those still listening after the two hour tour were, from Dryden:

Town Board members David Makar and Jason Leifer

Building Department head, Henry Slater

Environmental Planner Dan Kwasnowski

Highway Superintendent Jack Bush

Planning Board member Marty Hatch

Attorney Mahlon Perkins

Conservation Board Chair Craig Scutt

County Legislator Mike Hattery

This is Ms 4562 - not a great name, but she's a pretty good looking cow.

Volunteer First Responders

2008-07-25T09:19:00.003-04:00

This legislation may be a good sound-bite for co-sponsor NYS Senator Seward and Governor Patterson, but I can't imagine it's actually going to help our volunteer firefighters and EMTs. From the Ithaca Journal:

A bill [S4617A] that recently passed both houses of the state Legislature and was signed by Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday will give volunteer firefighters and EMTs expanded opportunities to secure health insurance... By allowing volunteer fire and ambulance companies to access the health insurance plan offered to municipal employees, volunteers will be able to purchase health insurance at a group cost.

Here's the full text of the bill:

AN ACT to amend the general municipal law, in relation to the establishment of a volunteer firefighter and ambulance worker health program.
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 92-a of the general municipal law is amended by adding a new subdivision 7 to read as follows:
7. The provisions of this section shall apply for coverage of volunteer firefighters, as defined in section three of the volunteer firefighters' benefit law, and volunteer ambulance workers, as defined in subdivision one of section three of the volunteer ambulance workers' benefit law, provided however, that the total cost of participation by such volunteers and their families shall be borne by such volunteers.
Section 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law, provided however, that nothing in this act shall be construed to affect any existing enrollment periods in effect within any political subdivision.

That's it. That's the entire law. I'm hunting for Municipal Law Section 92-a. I suppose it has to do with who's eligible for municipal health insurance coverage. But it appears to me that six months from now, volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers can ask the Town to provide health insurance for which the volunteer will pay the full price.

First of all, Town of Dryden employees are all covered by Teamsters health insurance and we're only allowed to cover a limited number of non-Teamster members. Maybe we can work that out with the Teamsters.

Secondly, the Teamsters insurance is pretty expensive. I'll check the rate later today. But it's hundreds of dollars a month. I wonder how many volunteers who need insurance could afford that?

So, it sounds to me like it's up to local government again. Let's find out if providing health insurance would help in recruiting and retaining volunteers. If it will, let's figure out how to do it.

Things Take Time...

2008-07-14T11:06:00.003-04:00

On West Wing staffers referred to Friday press releases as "taking out the trash." Stories released on Friday don't get as much attention over the weekend as weekday stories. That seems to be the fate of Friday's story about the EPA's report on the public welfare threat of global warming. I heard about it on The News Hour. But PBS didn't post it on the website. This LA Times article is very similar to the PBS story. This NY Times article has a different perspective.

As I understand it, last year the Supreme Court ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants subject to federal regulation under the Clean Air Act. If the EPA finds they are a threat to the public, the court said, the agency is required to produce regulations to reduce the risk. Apparently, the EPA report found that indeed, greenhouse gases are a public threat but that the Clean Air Act is inadequate to address the issues. Incidentally, the report released Friday called "Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" triggers a 120 day period allowing for public comment.

All this relates to a comment Councilperson Makar made last week just prior to the Town Board meeting: "Why can't we get anything done?" (He might have said it louder than that.) His frustration surrounds a number of good ideas that have grown into proposals and stalled there. Several of these hinge on putting to use a substantial fund the town has accumulated from repayments of former HUD loans.

David did a great deal of research for these proposals last year. And Jason Leifer has joined in the effort to put together proposals for:

teaming with Tompkins County Area Development to make at least one substantial economic development loan,
teaming with AFCU in a program to make matching grants to small businesses
small grants to low and moderate income households to make home improvements related to energy conservation.

Given all the development work David did last year, you'd think seven months in 2008 would have been enough to get the programs off the drawing board. But, no. One of the obstacles is that we don't have a staff member committed to economic development or housing. So, all the work has fallen to board members who have other full time occupations because their town salaries are about $500 a month. Furthermore, the Town Board meets only once a month. In addition to these three programs, last week's agenda included at least ten other major issues and several less critical ones. We try, and often fail, to keep the meeting under four hours from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM. That doesn't leave much room for discussion and action.

(Crossposted at Five Wells)

Dryden News

2008-07-11T10:43:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Ann Leonard and Friends of Hammond Hill State Forest. Ithaca Journal reports that they have received an $8,600 grant from the New York State Horse Council to repair Hammond Hill trails. I know they've been working on this grant for a while and I'm happy to see their efforts rewarded. It's a great example of residents accomplishing a project without government help (or hindrance.)

The Journal also reports plans for celebration of Freeville Fire Department's 100th Anniversary beginning with a parade at 11:00 and carrying on through fireworks after dark. It's another example of residents working to make the community a better place. The Town of Dryden provides financial support to the Freeville Fire Department (and the other three department in the Town of Dryden) but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the volunteer efforts of the people who respond to emergency calls, maintain the equipment and the station, participate in ongoing training and carry on the countless thankless administrative tasks needed to keep this service strong in the Freeville area.

More later, perhaps, on the four and a half hour town board meeting last night - my second consecutive thirteen hour day. For now, I'm going to go relax in the garden.

Population Trends

2008-07-10T08:21:00.004-04:00

Ithaca Journal has an article this morning from Albany headlined:

Census: NYC grows as Upstate cities shrink

This is the kind of article Simon would have loved before he had so many more important things to think about. To the Journal's credit (and I can't remember if I've ever said that before) the subtitle is: "Ithaca one of few to grow" and they include a table of data from Tompkins County and the towns and villages in the county.

A look at the data shows that NYC grew by .3% since 2000 while Tompkins County grew by 4.7%. The increase is distributed throughout the county ranging from 11.1% growth in the Town of Ithaca to 1.1% and 1.2% respectively in the towns of Groton and Newfield.

It's interesting to me that the Village of Cayuga Heights (in the Town of Ithaca) grew by 12.3% while the populations of all other villages in the county remained nearly unchanged. That's a trend we hope to change as more towns adopt land use plans to encourage growth in villages and hamlets.

Reminders

2008-07-09T07:48:00.003-04:00

I really miss Simon's pointers to articles of interest in the Ithaca Journal. But since I'm forced to try to keep up with local news on my own, I must say the new Ithaca Journal format is much improved. From the front page, you can scroll down to "Communities" and click on Dryden for specific Dryden stories (though you get more if you actually search on "Dryden" or "Freeville."

It's worth mentioning that the Cortland Standard has better local news - but the website only gives you the headlines. You need the print edition for the actual news.

Reminder: A Recreation Masterplan Visioning Session will be held at the Varna Fire Station tonight at 7:30. We had a similar session last month at Town Hall but very few people from the west side of town attended. I know Town Hall seems like it's on the other side of the world for people in the south west part of the Town of Dryden. So, we're trying to make it easier for you to participate in long range planning recreation in the Town. Please come.

Reminder: This month's Town Board meeting is THURSDAY at 7:00 at Town Hall. We changed the dates of the July and August meetings to accommodate Steve Stelick's fierce loyalty to Wednesday night Music in the Park. If you're free tonight because you were planning on coming to the board meeting treat yourself to Music in the Park. Tonight it's Greg McQuade.

Meetings...

2008-07-02T08:16:00.002-04:00

I've been to a number of good meetings recently.

Last week town officials met with representatives of TC3, the Village of Dryden and neighboring property owners including Willowbrook and the fire department to consider development of a trail from the TC3 dorms to Neptune Drive. Lots of good ideas and concerns arose. Is it a nature trail or a way for TC3 students to get to the village or both? Will it reduce pedestrian traffic on Lee Road? Are there safety issues? How much will it affect wildlife habitat? No answers yet. But enough interest to pursue the idea.

Monday (usually my day off) I met with zoning and planning officials and the consultants working with the Planning Board on implementation of the Comprehensive Plan to review preliminary concepts involved in updating zoning ordinances. Again, lots of ideas and questions. How to preserve the rural character of the town without infringing on landowners rights? How to protect agricultural land and activities and encourage development in areas already developed.

Monday night Varna residents met with the Tompkins County Planning Department and Transportation Council to look at the Rt 13/366 Corridor Study. There are two approaches to dealing with Rt 13/366 traffic: land use policies to guide development along the corridor and traffic calming tools to enhance safety in populated areas like Varna. Residents are primarily focused on safety: traffic lights, sidewalks and speed limits.

Last night a small group met at the Dryden Cafe to talk about ways to address child health and obesity. Predictably the discussion focused on nutrition and recreation. Many existing programs and opportunities in Dryden were identified. The task ahead is to get more people to participate.

So much to do, so little time...

2008-06-27T08:11:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of the year David expressed his intent to blog more frequently. I've often echoed that intent, but neither of us are really succeeding. My Five Wells blog is mostly for fun - and for practice writing. I've managed to post there about twice a week lately, though I used to post daily.

This blog has loftier goals to keep people informed and engaged in local issues that affect our lives. Yet I'm barely managing twice monthly posts. Here are some of the reasons that I run out of time or energy before I get to this blog.

From yesterday's schedule:

Meeting with TC3 and other property owners around the area behind the town hall to discuss development of a trail from the TC3 dorms to the village.
Meeting with Ed Bugliosi from USGS to plan development of a new well for the Village of Dryden. This is more urgent that it sounds. The health department mandates that the water supply be able to provide water even in the event that one well has to be shut down for maintenance for up to five days. Even if the health department didn't mandate this, it would be a good idea.
Meeting with representatives of municipalities throughout Tompkins County to hear from the lawyer now consulting on the formation of a consortium to help control health insurance costs for municipal employees, Cooperative Extension regarding training for elected and appointed officials, Tompkins County Emergency Services about - well, emergency services, Tompkins County Planning reporting on the Cornell initiative supporting housing and transportation improvements. And after rushing through those topics we got to the highlight: discussion of dog control and the SPCA contract. This may sound less urgent that, for example, the Dryden Village well. But part of the question is, "Will the Town of Dryden really be paying $45,000 for dog control next year."
Scanning my mail and email to see if there's anything I have to respond to immediately.

I Love a Parade

2008-05-27T08:36:00.005-04:00

The Dryden High School Marching Band! When my kids were in school, the band didn't (couldn't?) march. I'm glad they're doing it now. They've foregone the expense of the Seventy-Six Trombones type uniforms that I remember from my high school days. And that's okay. The music is fine.

There were fire trucks of every color. I was especially glad to see Etna's black rescue vehicle there.

Neptune Hose Company fielded an excellent color guard. W B Strong's Chief Andy Down and his beautiful Great Dane led the Freeville engine. The boy scouts were there and several law enforcement agencies.

The parade led to the Village Green where hundreds of people gathered to reflect on Memorial Day traditions.

Busy, busy, busy...

2008-05-16T10:35:00.003-04:00

Oh, dear. I can't believe I haven't written here since March. Maybe I can find time over the weekend to catch up. We're alive and well and working very hard. We had a very nice Town Board meeting at the Etna Fire Station in April, a public meeting to discuss the planning board's new design guidelines, a public meeting to discuss long range recreation planning.

Wednesday's Town Board meeting finished just before midnight tho' I had worried that we wouldn't be able to get to everything in the five hours we had allotted. There was very little jocularity and hardly any time wasted at all. We covered

two special use permit applications for ice cream stores,
a presentation of the design guidelines developed by the planning board,
the annual report from the Dryden Youth Commission,
discussion of plans for the salt storage barn that will help protect wetlands adjoining the highway garage property,
reports from County Legislators Mike Hattery and Martha Roberson regarding annual assessment and budget challenges.
Recreation Director Melissa Bianconi's report on the Masterplan and current recreation programs,
proposals for changes in the operations permit fee schedule and for maintenance of the new town hall's fire alarm system.
discussion of plans for a new sign marking the new town hall,
discussion of plans for the Dryden-Freeville trail,
approval of plans to purchase audio-visual equipment for the board room,
approval of rate changes for the ambulance service,
nomination of Duane Testut for the NYS Volunteer of Valor award,
proclamation of EMS recognition week to be celebrated beginning Sunday, May 18,
approval of improvements planned at the Ithaca Area Waste Water Treatment Plant of which we are part owner,
support for a trail being developed in Caroline which extends into Dryden,
discussion of amphibian mortality in the Thomas Road area,
introduction of proposed new personnel policy manual,
plans for a new microgrant economic development program,
several changes in job titles, descriptions and staff salaries,
and, believe it or not, many, many more things...

We were dragging a bit in the office yesterday. When I left last night I thought I would actually be taking today off. But as I drove home I thought of several things I want to work on today. So, I'll be going in after all - any minute now.

Recreation in Dryden

2008-03-28T08:56:00.002-04:00

After a morning meeting with the Director of the SPCA, an afternoon meeting with Tompkins County Council of Governments about a health insurance consortium and SPCA negotiations and a suppertime meeting with a school district superintendent search committee meeting, I met with the newly formed Recreation Masterplan Steering Committee. We invited about a dozen people with various interests in recreation to discuss what direction the masterplan should take.

The piecemeal approach we've been taking for the past year or two creates conflict at each step among people who want nature walks or photography classes or youth sports; or who want any of those closer to their own neighborhoods. I think we can agree that we want all of those things and we want them to be where it will be easier for residents to enjoy them.

The Recreation Masterplan is an opportunity to envision what we want recreation in Dryden to look like twenty years from now and to plan how to achieve that vision. We're still in the stage of assessing what we have to work with: parklands, school facilities and faculty, community centers and such. Some remarkable successes show up. Our new Recreation Department is maturing. Our youth sports program is strong. In a 2000 survey for the comprehensive plan, people commented that they'd like to have concerts in the park. We have a well established Music in the Park summer program now, not only in Montgomery Park in Dryden, but also at Ellis Hollow Community Center.

The Comprehensive Plan proposed several recreation centers located around the town with one large, centrally located one. That would give us an opportunity to develop a wide variety of programs tailored to each communities and still open to all residents of the town.

The next step is planning a public meeting for the last week in April. What do you think? What recreation facilities and programs would you like to see in Dryden?

Dog Control

2008-03-27T09:03:00.002-04:00

Large chunks of yesterday and today are devoted to dog control. You may recall reading about the controversy when the SPCA said they couldn't possibly continue contracting with towns for dog control without doubling the price. The town of Dryden paid about $18,000 in 2007 and the SPCA asked for $36,000 for 2008. All Tompkins County towns plus the city and the county protested and started looking for alternatives.

In October the SPCA came back with a proposal to increase the cost to towns by 50% for the first six months of 2008 and 100% the rest of the year which we accepted because there wasn't enough time to research alternatives before we had to present our budgets for approval.

The Tompkins County Council of Government is continuing to explore alternatives. I met with a subcommittee yesterday. I'm meeting with the Director of SPCA and TCCOG today. I remember ten or twenty years ago when stray dogs were a frequent problem with my chickens and sheep. It is better these days. Dog control is important (not to mention mandated) But it's expensive.

Do you think if people knew how much it costs for the SPCA to pick up and deal with stray dogs they'd be more careful about keeping their dogs home?

Comprehensive Plan Implementation

2008-03-24T10:29:00.004-04:00

The projects I like working on most are the ones that I know residents have asked for. The Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2005 was developed by the Planning Board with a great deal of input from the public. The one thing we all seem to agree on is that whatever changes may take place, we want to preserve the rural character of the community.

With that in mind, the Planning Board has been working with Behan Associates on design guidelines to help developers understand what we want and to help the Planning Board with site reviews. The residential guidelines make it possible to achieve the desired density - say one house per two acres - by clustering ten houses on five acres and preserving fifteen acres of adjacent open space rather than spacing out ten houses each on two acre lots with no open space. The commercial guidelines use shared driveways and parking lots to reduce the number of "curb cuts" in high traffic areas.

I'll try to describe the project more fully in the near future. The guidelines are available at the town hall. There should be some discussion about it at the next town hall meeting 7:00 PM, APRIL 9, AT THE ETNA FIRE STATION.

[Edit 4/2/08 Behan Associates has provided links to last month's presentation of the design guidelines. I think it's particularly interesting to click on Residential Guidelines and scroll down to page 8 to view residential development in 1800. Continue scrolling to see increased residential development in successive decades and imagine what the next slide would look like if development continues this way. ]

Things we're working on...

2008-03-22T10:43:00.002-04:00

Lots of exciting things are going on in the town that I keep forgetting to write about.

In keeping with our effort to bring town meetings to the public, the April Town Board meeting will be held April 9 at the Etna Fire Station. The agenda includes time at the beginning of the meeting for anyone to speak for a few minutes if they wish. If there's something you'd like to have added to the business agenda contact me at supervisor@dryden.ny.us.

A grant from the Governor's Universal Broadband Access program was awarded last week to Clarity Connect in partnership with the town and TC3. This $430,000 in state funding along with substantial "in-kind" support from the town will make it possible for Clarity Connect to embark on bringing wireless internet access to all of the Town of Dryden.

The project, involving construction of up to twelve wireless towers is expected to cost more than $1 million over five years. We explored co-locating on existing towers and found it to be impractical or impossible. The wireless towers proposed will be between 100' and 150'. The devices necessary are small and the towers overall are inconspicuous compared to existing telecommunication towers. General areas, for the proposed towers have been identified but not specific sites. The project will be subject to the same building permit and site review process as any construction project and all planning board meetings, in fact all town meetings, are open to the public.

We're in the process of applying for another Community Development Block Grant for housing rehabilitation. The grant, like one we had nearly ten years ago, will enable low income homeowners to address energy efficiency or health and safety problems in their homes. To apply, call 844-8888 or come to the town hall to ask for an application.

I'm out of time and I've barely scratched the surface. More later.

The Tuttle Property

2008-02-16T09:08:00.015-05:00

Before construction began on the new Town Hall, the town acquired an adjoining piece of property to allow a better design of the parking area while preserving the wetland on the east side. The Tuttle property, known by the name of the former owner, of course, includes a house and barn. Our delay deciding what to do with the buildings is partly deliberate. And partly our failure to get the grant we applied for to renovate the house, a lack of response to our offer to sell (or give) the house to someone who would move it, or restore and occupy it on leased land.

All this time, there's been a certain quiet interest in stabilizing the barn, the original part of which is much older than the house - very early 19th century. So yesterday Henry and I headed out with Mr Riddle from Woodford Bros., Inc. to consider the feasibility of restoring the barn.

First I was distracted by the resident turkey flock. I often see them from my office window looking Northeast. But here they are at the edge of the parking lot. Many of them are out of view. I honestly think there were fifty.

They weren't that happy with my effort to get closer.

Back to the barn.
Some influential people are getting restless with the dilapidated look of the barn. These twentieth century additions on the side facing the town hall are pretty awful.

But the view from the west of the original part of the barn is an indication of what it might look like restored. I know. I know. It doesn't look that much better. But use your imagination.

The concrete block will have to go, of course.

But the beams and the pegged mortise and tenons will be great features.

I'm picturing a barn dance.

And better weather.

What do you think?

We can talk about the house, too. Not as much historic value. Needs a lot of work. But under that asbestos siding is chestnut. The upstairs rooms still have the wide board pine floors. Underneath the whole thing is a solid hand built stone foundation.

Any ideas?

Unofficial Record Setting Board Meeting

2008-01-19T11:36:00.000-05:00

Last night, if nothing else, we raised the bar for the most business conducted in the least amount of time.

There were four items on the agenda:

Public hearing and resolution to change the boundaries of the Cortland Road Sewer District to accommodate TC3's dorm construction

Resolution setting the three year repayment schedule of TC3's commitment to the cost of the flow monitoring systems

Resolution setting the three year repayment schedule of TC3 Foundation's commitment to the cost of the flow monitoring systems.

Resolution to approve the agreement with the village regarding the Cortland Road Sewer district and planned improvements

And I added an item to the agenda at the last minute: an agreement to collaborate with a local business to bring wireless high speed internet access to the entire Town of Dryden.

So, we opened the public hearing at 6:30PM . All the Board members were familiar with the issue, so there was no discussion. There were no comments from the public. So, we were able to leave the hearing open for the required 15 minutes while we moved ahead in the agenda.

All the board members had read the TC3 repayment agreements prior to the meeting. There was no request for discussion. So approving those two agreements took only the time necessary to make the motions and vote. And we were still short of the 15 minutes period of the public hearing.

We moved on to the wireless internet proposal. All the Board members had read about the proposal prior to the meeting. I briefly described the Universal Broadband Access Grant program that will allow us to proceed with our effort to bring wireless internet to all of Dryden. There were a few comments. Our commitment is to provide a “Letter of Intent to Collaborate” to a local business applying for a grant. It was approved unanimously.

By then, our fifteen minutes were up. We closed the public hearing and passed the resolution to change the boundaries of the CRSD.

Finally we took up the agreement with the Village regarding the CRSD – at least four years in the making. We discussed arbitration vs simplified judicial proceeding as dispute resolution mechanisms and the need for the village to rescind the moratorium on sewer connections. We passed the resolution approving the agreement including the provision of arbitration for dispute resolution. And passed a resolution to notify the village prior to their Tuesday meeting that we will deliver the signed agreement following their action to rescind the moratorium.

Voila! It was 6:50 PM and we were finished. I must point out that hours of preparation preceded this twenty minute meeting. My thanks go out to the board members who came to the meeting prepared to discuss and decide the issues. And especially to Steve Stelick for his work negotiating the agreement with the Village.

Dryden Village Democratic Party Caucus

2008-01-17T08:57:00.000-05:00

Although I don't live in the Village of Dryden, I do represent people that live in the village at the town level. I am encouraging registered Democrats that live in the village to take part in the party caucus on Tuesday, January 29th. Here's the information from the notice:

NOTICE OF CAUCUS
There will be a caucus of the Democratic Party of the Village of Dryden on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 8:00 P.M. at the Dryden Village Hall, 16 South Street.
The purpose of the caucus is to nominate candidates for offices to be filled at the Village Election to be held on March 18, 2008 as follows:
Trustee (2 years)
Trustee (2 years)
All registered members of the Democratic Party who reside in the Village of Dryden are invited to attend, participate, and vote. Please come.
Dryden Democratic Committee

Local elections are important - water and sewer, long range planning, zoning, construction look and feel guidelines, lighting, and local law enforcement - are all decisions and projects implemented at the town or village level. Get involved on Tuesday, January 29th.

The 2008 Organizational Meeting

2007-12-30T20:03:00.000-05:00

The picture here is from the official opening day of the Dryden Town Hall (Thursday, October 18th, 2007, 5pm). The opening day open house was followed by a Planning Board meeting with a presentation on the route 366/route 13 corridor study.

On Wednesday, January 2nd, at 7pm the 2008 Dryden Town Board organizational meeting will kick off the year in Dryden Town business. Most of the meeting is based on a boiler plate of appointments and authorizations (last year 28 resolutions ranging from approval of budget modifications and rules of procedure to setting the town board meeting schedule). My write up about last years meeting: http://www.davidmakar.com/?p=64

I believe committee assignments will be made - which will hopefully divide the work up between the board members, staff, and community. Also, we'll be discussing and perhaps appointing a replacement for Mary Ann Sumner's third year of her four year term (that board member would then have to run in November for the final year of the term).

If you are free, come to the Town Hall at 7pm and see what we do.

Nominating Procedures

2007-12-30T08:47:00.000-05:00

In Dryden candidates for local office are nominated either by Primary Election (Republicans) or Party Caucus (Democrats). To be nominated by Primary Election, a candidate's supporters collect signatures on a designating petition. If more than one candidate submits a petition with sufficient signatures each candidate's name appears on the ballot in a Primary Election in which registered party members vote using the traditional lever voting machines at the same public polling places used in general elections. Party support for petitioning and campaigning for the primary is definitely helpful but not essential.

To be nominated by Party Caucus, candidates or their supporters attend a meeting of registered members of the party. The date and place of the meeting vary from year to year. Candidates and their supporters may speak. There may be questions and answers. There may be debate. Eventually a vote is taken and the winner is nominated. The Caucuses I've attended have been fairly straightforward. The party has done a good job of recruiting and the candidates have widespread support. But there are some good local stories about years when more than one candidate for a position showed up with enough supporters to create quite a controversy and a truly "democratic" face-to-face, group process.

With all this in mind, it's been interesting to watch the Iowa Caucus process. Both parties have caucuses. The Republican caucus involves meeting and writing the name of the candidate you support on a piece of paper. The papers are collected, counted on the spot and results announced. The Democratic process has the added twist of eliminating any candidate who gets less than 15% of the first vote and calling for a second vote. People who voted for a candidate who was eliminated may vote for one of the remaining candidates. (see blog banner: "disorderly, give-and-take" vs "businesslike, cut-and-dried")

What I like about the Caucus process is that it's face to face, not in a voting booth behind a curtain. What I like about the Democratic Caucus process is the opportunity for face-to-face debate. On the other hand, although the caucus is open to all registered party members, it tends to attract people who are active party committee members. It's a little tougher to get involved than seeing the primary election notice and going to the familiar polling place. I hope in the coming year, we can reach out and encourage more Dryden Democrats to participate in our "rowdy, imaginative" process. I hope we can meet more often, not with agendas but with ideas and enthusiasm (and maybe a beer or glass of cider).

All that said, I'd like to resume the Wednesday Salons at my house. It's not a "special event." None of us seems to have the time or energy for that. But I'm at home the last Wednesday of the month and around 5:00 I'll be opening a decent bottle of wine whether or not anyone else is here. There's always a chance I'll be taking something interesting out of the oven - bread or cookies or such. And I'll welcome the company of any Democrat who'd like to chat. Call or email me if you know you'd like to come. But if you're not sure 'til the last minute, come anyway.

Dryden Peak Oil Planning

2007-12-27T08:41:00.000-05:00

Last week David Makar and Marty Hatch and I met with some people from TC Local, the Tompkins County Relocalization Project. I'm always happy to find people planning more than a week or a year in advance. Some changes take a long time and it's best to start planning a generation or two ahead of the perceived need.

"Peak Oil" is the point in time when oil production reaches it's highest point. As oil reserves become more and more difficult to access, oil production will decline. If consumption does not decline prior to peak production, demand will force oil prices up. I don't see how anyone can deny those two facts, tho' I predict that some people will try.

The questions worth asking are "When?" and "What will happen?" Not to mention "What shall we do about it?" [I'm offering these Wikipedia links, not because they're the best, but because they're relatively objective and easy to understand.]

They're tough questions because, like climate change, information needed to convey the seriousness of the situation sounds alarmist. Let's start from the point where we accept that the problem is serious. The Hirsch Report, published by the US Department of Energy in 2005, which might be considered a moderate document, begins, "The peaking of world oil production presents the U.S. and the world with an unprecedented risk management problem." And concludes:

World oil peaking is going to happen.
Oil peaking will adversely affect the U. S. economy. The decade after the onset of world
oil peaking may resemble the period after the 1973-74 oil embargo, and the economic loss to the United States could be measured on a trillion-dollar scale.
Oil peaking presents a unique challenge (“it will be abrupt and revolutionary.”)
The problem is liquid fuels (growth in demand mainly from transportation sector).
Mitigation efforts will require substantial time (ideally 20 years. )
20 years is required to transition without substantial impacts.
Both supply and demand will require attention.
It is a matter of risk management (mitigating action must come before the peak).
Government intervention will be required.
Economic upheaval is not inevitable (“given enough lead-time, the problems are soluble with existing technologies.”)
More information is needed to more precisely determine the peak timeframe.

Nearly half of U.S. petroleum consumption is for transportation and transportation is the one sector for which there is no ready alternative energy. So, it makes sense to focus on a plan for relocalizing the production and distribution of essential goods and services in Tompkins County to ease the impact of increasingly costly transportation. It will make sense in the near future to focus on these points in planning for modest growth in Dryden.

Schumer and Mukasey

2007-12-17T08:32:00.000-05:00

Tompkins County Democratic Committee Chair, Irene Stein, received the following response from Senator Schumer regarding his support of Judge Mukasey. Yes, it's long. But every effort I make to abbreviate it dilutes the meaning.

As you may know, I voted in favor of Judge Mukasey's nomination. I did so for one critical reason: the Department of Justice is a shambles and is in desperate need of a strong leader committed to depoliticizing the agency's operations.

The department has been devastated under the Bush administration. Outstanding United States attorneys have been dismissed without cause; career civil-rights lawyers have been driven out in droves; people appear to have been prosecuted for political reasons; young lawyers have been rejected because they were not conservative ideologues; and politics have been allowed to infect decision-making.

We now have the potential to improve this critical department. There is virtually universal agreement, even from those who opposed Judge Mukasey, that he would do a good job in turning the department around. Indeed, my colleagues who opposed his confirmation have gone out of their way to praise his character and qualifications. More importantly, Judge Mukasey has demonstrated his fidelity to the rule of law, saying that if he believed the president were violating the law he would resign.

My colleagues and I, and many others, spent a great deal of time and effort to expose the failings of Alberto Gonzales. I did not want to see those failures continued by the installation of a caretaker, acting Attorney General who would do the bidding of Vice President Cheney and his Chief of Staff David Addington instead of working to get the Justice Department back on track.

I understand and respect those who believe that Judge Mukasey's view on waterboarding should trump all other considerations. Like you, I believe that the cruel and inhumane technique of waterboarding is not only repugnant, but also illegal under current laws and conventions. I too found Judge Mukasey's refusal to classify waterboarding as a form of torture unsatisfactory. Therefore, I hope Congress will soon pass S.1943, a bill I am cosponsoring to explicitly ban the use of waterboarding and other abusive interrogation techniques. Judge Mukasey not only made clear to me that the president would have no legal authority to ignore such legislation, but also pledged to enforce such a law. Some say such a law is unnecessary because waterboarding is already illegal a view with which I fully agree. However, there appears to be enough dissension and confusion in the legal community, and within the White House, that a new law, which makes the illegality of waterboarding crystal clear, can only help.

Further, even if we don't pass a new anti-waterboarding law, on the issue of torture we would be better off with Judge Mukasey than with a caretaker. The Judge has stated that he would abide by a court or Office of Legal Counsel ruling against the practice. We could certainly not expect the same from a caretaker appointee who would be more likely to embrace the theory of the unitary executive.

Had we rejected Judge Mukasey, President Bush made clear his intention to install an acting, caretaker attorney general who could serve for the rest of his term without the advice and consent of the Senate. To accept such an unaccountable attorney general, I believe, would be to surrender the department to the Administrations extreme ideology and abandon the hope of instituting the many reforms called for by our investigation. I believe the rejection of Judge Mukasey would have been a symbolic victory in the short term, but it would have ultimately delayed reform at the Justice Department and, in all likelihood, caused more problems in the long run.

Indeed, it is my hope Judge Mukasey's first weeks as attorney general are an indicator of his service to come. Days after he took office, the Justice Department reopened an internal investigation into the administration's warrantless surveillance program, which had stalled for over a year under his predecessor. More recently, the recall of the controversial U.S. attorney for Minnesota, whose radical views and poor management were symbolic of how far the Justice Department had fallen, is a tremendous step towards dismantling the legacy of Attorney General Gonzales. While there is certainly more to do, it is my hope that Judge Mukasey will do what it takes to remove the stench of politics from the Justice Department.

I like Senator Schumer and I actually support his decision. But there's just so much wrong with the whole situation. Mukasey's acceptance of waterboarding is absolutely wrong. And Bush's threat to appoint an acting Attorney General without Senate approval is wrong. And acquiescing to Bush's bullying is, well, not really right.

I just heard a Mormon on Washington Journal saying that Mormons believe in doing what's right "no matter what." I've been searching all my life for "what's right." Despite my craving for absolutes, I keep finding that "A" is absolutely right... unless it conflicts with "B" which is not only absolutely right, but also more important.

More Budget Info

2007-12-02T08:55:00.000-05:00

KAZ made it all the way through the last post about the budget and as a reward I'll answer her question. She makes the valid point that spending increases are sometimes concealed by increases in total assessment. So the number most important to her is the % increase or decrease in total spending. And it is - ta da - 7.9%. Let's just say 8%.

First, let me reiterate that this increase in spending is covered by new construction in Dryden and by our savings, or fund balance. Let me add, that the spending increase is primarily due to cost of living salary increases and "one-time" expenses. That is to say, the "one-times" will not affect next year's budget so it won't be a permanent increase.

For reasons that have to do with municipal law, the budget is divided into:

Special Districts (Fire, Ambulance, Water, Sewer and Lighting) - up 2.4%
Highway Department - down 3.3%
Everything Else (Actually called "General" but EE seems more descriptive) - up 23%

Now you have even more questions, don't you? "Everything Else up 23%?!" Yes. Well. Everything Else includes Public Works. The Public Works Superintendent is also Highway Superintendent. This year he plans to build a salt storage building which we've needed for a long time. (Don't get me started on storing salt in the open adjacent to a wetland...) It's budgeted at $450,000 in the Everything Else, Public Works line. But, the Public Works Superintendent (who is appointed by the Town Board) puts on his Highway Superintendent hat (in which he's a elected official) and asks himself, "Where can I save some money in order to be able to afford this building without affecting the tax rate?" And he finds that he can postpone replacement of some equipment in the Highway Department budget. So, the Highway Department Budget goes down and the Everything Else budget goes up.

I'm actually oversimplifying. But that's the idea. And I'm using the salt storage building as an example because it's the largest single change, so it makes the explanation more dramatic.

More tomorrow or the next day about Special Districts.

By the way, you can see the entire budget at 2008 Budget (pdf).

Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

2007-11-28T11:42:00.000-05:00

I'm beginning to regain control of my life - catching up on lots of stuff I had to ignore while we were campaigning. When I stopped in at Town Hall yesterday and someone said happily, "Look, she's not dead," I knew I'd been away too long.

During that time we passed a very good budget. I clung firmly to my commitment not to raise the tax rate. There's always a lot of talk (really, there is!) about the tax levy vs. the tax rate. There's an feeling out there that elected officials aren't being entirely forthright when ~~they~~ we say that taxes aren't going up when what we mean is that the tax rate didn't go up. In fact, usually when the tax rate is constant, the tax levy (total tax revenue) goes up because total property assessment has gone up.

And in fact that's true again in Dryden this year. The tax rate is staying the same. The tax levy is increasing by $18,589 or nearly 2% because total assessments increased $12,891,737 - the same 2%. But here's the good news. The Building department reports that permits were issued in 2006 for construction totalling $13,421,791. So, apparently the increase in assessments is entirely due to new construction.

So, I may have gotten your attention with the $ sign. But if you read all the way through and you'd like to hear more about the budget, please comment or contact me. I'll be glad to write more here.

Local Government

2007-11-08T06:17:00.000-05:00

Last year a new member of the Tompkins County Democratic Committee innocently asked, "What does the Committee do?" Amidst a little nervous tittering from the audience, Chair Irene Stein answered coolly, "The committee works to find and support candidates for elected office." And it's harder than it sounds.

At the state and national level we expect candidates to have some prior political experience, enough connections to raise a huge amount of money, the ability to speak in complete sentences in public and a certain charisma. But what about the local level?

I've lived in Dryden for 34 years. I admit that for the first twenty of those years, while I was a grad student, while I was building my house and raising my children, I probably couldn't have named a single member of town or county government (tho' I did run, unsuccessfully, for Board of Education in the 80s.) The past 10 years, as I got more involved in local politics, have been a real eye-opener. All those 20 years that I wasn't paying much attention, the Town Board and the Board of Education were having a profound effect on my life.

There are more than 13,000 people in the Town of Dryden. 10,000 are 18 or older. More than 7,000 are registered to vote. 6,000 have voted recently. Only 4,000 have voted recently in local elections and only 3,000 voted this year. This is an age of specialization. We don't all have time to be involved in local government. But there are some things voters should expect of their representatives, not the least of which are time and experience.

Granted each Board member is just one vote out of five. One inexperienced member probably can't do much harm. But voting is the last and simplest step of making town policy. That inexperienced member may also not be able to do much good. A lot of work goes into bringing proposals to the table. Much of the work is done by paid staff members. But, qualified though they are, they're not elected. Elected officials, and candidates for elected office, shouldn't try to avoid the research, discussion, thinking, listening, meeting, writing and rewriting that goes into policy making.

So, the Tompkins County Democratic Committee and the Dryden Democratic Committee will go on encouraging people to participate and making it easier for residents, voters and potential candidates to learn more about local government and to contribute their ideas and skills. Simon St Laurent, Chair of the Dryden Democrats, attends every Town Board meeting and his blog Living in Dryden, does more to keep residents informed than any newspaper, radio or TV broadcast. Simon's dedication and ethics have been a quiet, steady inspiration to us all. Thank you, Simon, and everyone who worked on the campaign this year. The new Town Board members will not disappoint you.

Why we Live in Dryden

2007-10-06T07:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day to be out with the camera. I started out doing work for the campaign. But it's the camera that kept me going.

As a part of the work I've been doing with the Planning Board to implement the Comprehensive Plan, I've been collecting pictures of things I like about Dryden. The overwhelming sense of the community as the Comprehensive Plan was being developed, was the desire to maintain the rural character of the town. You can see that character as you enter Dryden from all sides:

From the north

South

East

and west.

This is Malloryville. "Settled in in 1826 by Samuel Mallory who operated here chair and cloth factories."

This sign in Malloryville says "Duck Crossing." I have to admire those ducks 'cause the unleashed, barking dogs are pretty intimidating.

Fall Creek meanders through Malloryville under a bridge that says: "1915 Manufactured by The Good Roads Machinery Company, Marathon, N. Y."

Green Buildings Open House Saturday

2007-10-04T23:44:00.000-04:00

From Thursday's Ithaca Journal:

Cornell Cooperative Extension and the Ithaca Green Building Alliance’s annual Green Buildings Open House will showcase green building practices and renewable energy technologies from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 26 homes and businesses in Tompkins, Tioga and Schuyler Counties.

A directory of the houses involved in the Open House can be downloaded at the Cornell Cooperative Extension site. One of the house listed is in Dryden and some are very nearby.

I'm looking forward to seeing the straw bale home under construction for JoAnne Cipolla and Deborah Dennis at 964 West Dryden Road. It's number 13 in the directory if you're looking for it.

I hope I can also get to James and Susan Spear's home at 2170 Ellis Hollow Road, Ithaca, just over the line into Caroline. They have solar panels, a wind turbine, a geothermal heat pump and more.

There's also Steve & Cindy Nicholson's house at 220 Yaple Road, Berkshire with wind energy, solar panels and more.

Executive Compensation

2007-10-01T08:07:00.001-04:00

When I was a grad student at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, I tended to think that management wasn't always the bad guy. And that if management and labor would just recognize that they have the same long-range goals we could all just get along. Chalk it up to youthful idealism.

The Ithaca Journal recently reprinted a Christian Science Monitor commentary column Are CEOs worth that much more? The article focuses on the disparity between corporate, not-for-profit and government executives. Top corporate executives make 38 times more than top non-profit executives and 183 times more than top members of the executive branch of the government (including the President.) The conclusion is that these extreme pay gaps "discourage many individuals with leadership talent from entering less lucrative nonprofit fields where their skills could make an important social contribution." I guess it depends on your long range goals.

Financial Week reports that, "Last year, the 20 highest-paid U.S. corporate CEOs made, on average, $36.4 million." That's roughly $7,280,000 in base pay, $9,100,000 in bonuses and $20,020,000 in "long-term incentives" such as stock options.

Comparing corporate CEO salaries to workers' wages, the picture is much bleaker and rapidly worsening. From a House Financial Services Committee report:

In 1965, U.S. CEOs at major companies made 24 times a worker's pay.
In 2004, CEOs earned 431 times the pay of an average worker and 821 times
the pay of a minimum wage worker.

Say a minimum wage worker is lucky enough to have a 40 hour a week job for 52 weeks (no vacation.) She earns $12,168. Eight hundred twenty one times that is $9,989,000.

The money for these high salaries doesn't come out of thin air, of course. It comes from increasing products' prices, decreasing shareholder dividends and tax savings from deducting salaries from taxable corporate income. I'm trying very hard, in vain, to think how this might benefit anyone except the CEOs themselves. If anyone can help me out here, please comment.

So. In April the House passed legislation allowing shareholders to vote on executive pay and Senator Obama has introduced similar legislation in the Senate. Seems fair to me. Financial Week reports that in Europe, where shareholders do vote on executive compensation, top executives earn one third as much as their American counterparts - $12.4 million compared with the $36.4 million American CEOs are paid.

Another legislative initiative in the US comes from Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) promotes capping the amount of executive compensation that corporations are permitted to deduct from their taxable income, at 25 times the pay of a company's lowest-paid worker. For example, if the company has some of those minimum wages workers, they'd be allowed to deduct $268,000 of that executive's $8,794,552 salary. Think that might reduce the incentive for corporations to create those huge compensation packages? Hmm...

Others are suggesting that government contracts be withheld from companies paying their executives more than 25 - or 50 or 100 - times worker pay. I don't see that happening 'cause we'd be pretty much limited to buying a lot of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. And we probably need other stuff.

To learn more or find out how to support pending legislation visit the AFL-CIO's Paywatch page.

Meet the Candidates

2007-09-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

If the next "Meet the Candidates Forum" is as lively as the last, you won't want to miss it.

We joined Republicans candidates and a League of Women Voters moderator at the Neptune fire hall to meet the public. It's great to see so many people come to hear about Dryden voter issues.

I was glad to be able to provide some clear town budget information. Only two people in the audience indicated that they already knew that nearly one-third of the town income is from sales tax. I've been analyzing the budget (here and here) to see if we're spending money (and time and effort) in ways that truly reflect our priorities. Aside from the $1 million we spend to support the 120 volunteers who provide emergency services in Dryden, townwide spending is nearly equally divided between roads and "everything else," including recreation, public works, administration, planning and building, courts and town clerk responsibilities.

David and I both spoke about our work over the past year with the fire departments. And David took the floor to describe his plans with Tompkins County Area Development and other agencies to support business in Dryden with a new micro-grant program and reactivation of the revolving loan program.

Joe Solomon (second from the right) will be a newcomer to the town board. He's been attending meetings as a spectator, a real testament to his interest and commitment. As an engineer, he can't help being attuned to the infrastructure issues under discussion.

Justice candidate Jason Leifer (on the right in the photo) talked about his commitment to fairness in the courts. His experience as a lawyer and public defender in Tompkins County are what inspired him to run for this important office.

Join us Tuesday, October 2 at 7:00 PM at the Etna fire station and October 28 at the Varna fire station to learn more.

A Gathering of Democrats

2007-09-24T09:56:00.000-04:00

Thank you, Simon, for taking custody of my camera at yesterday's picnic. It gave me a chance to talk and listen more than I can when I'm taking pictures.

It was a festive event - a classic Tompkins County picnic with Cornell barbecued chicken, vegetarian lasagna and lots of potluck salads, side dishes and desserts.

Jason and David and I were having a great. time.

Guest speaker June O'Neill said that within minutes of being elected Chair of the NYS Democratic Committee earlier this year, Irene Stein (Tompkins County Committee Chair) came up to her and said, "We're having a picnic..." O'Neill could hardly decline the invitation since it was obviously her first as state chair.

Here O'Neill is using an old joke (so old it's attributed to Abraham Lincoln) to illustrate Senate Majority Leader Bruno's maneuvers. "How many legs does a dog have if you call a tail a leg?" A few answers were shouted from the audience.

And here David and Jason and I (and very few others - that's Caroline Supervisor Don Barber over on the far right) are agreeing that the answer is four.

Be sure to let Bruno know that calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

2007-09-23T10:02:00.000-04:00

I've been an admirer of Wes Clark since the 2004 election. I was surprised as he rose to the top of the list of people I'd support in the presidential campaign. Although I never expected to feel so positive about a General, Clark stood out as one of the smartest, best-educated candidates.

But Friday on C-SPAN he said something that's been like a grain of sand in my oyster shell since then. Asked, "At what point in your life did you decide that the military was a career for you?" He replied, "Well, I was always interested in the military because I grew up in Little Rock and in the south and in the midwest people are very patriotic anyway."

What? Like people in the north and far west aren't?

He goes on to explain, "Most of my friends’ fathers had served in World War II. They always talked about it. And then, uh, we had the Korean War and we had crises every couple of years. And so you became attuned to this. The idea of trying to protect America was a sort of natural thing to think about. "

I don't recall being aware, when I was growing up in Plattsburgh, of whether or not my friends' fathers had served in World War II. They didn't talk about it. So, maybe there is a regional difference.

But is that what "patriotic" means? Talking about war? Both American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster say, "Inspired by love for or devotion to one's country." Love and devotion are pretty strong words. How about "committed?" And "country" is a pretty broad concept.

Freeville Harvest Festival

2007-09-16T10:48:00.000-04:00

The Freeville Harvest Festival yesterday was chilly but festive.

The Dryden Jazz Quartet provided wonderful music. Through that door in the background was the excellent chicken barbecue. I was too busy tasting at the chili cook-off to take pictures but it was great, too.

They do things in a big way in Freeville. It's not that they have a small fire truck. It's that they have Chief Andy Down and Deputy.

For comparison, here they are with regular size Bambi and Matty.

Andy tells me he has has three dogs, each of whom eats four pounds of dog food a day!

One can never have enough soap and candles. I bought delightfully scented candles and soap from Cindy Mueller of Lovey Mushy Things.

Constitution Day

2007-09-16T08:07:00.000-04:00

Simon mentions the Ithaca Journal bit announcing that

"The Dryden Middle School will be observing Citizenship Day on Monday, Sept. 17, with a flag raising ceremony at the school's track. The entire middle school will gathers to say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the national anthem and see a flag raising ceremony..."

Although there's no further mention of it on the Middle School announcement page, I hope the faculty is planning meaningful observations of Constitution Day. The announcements page changes daily. So, perhaps Monday there will be more information. September 17 is the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution. In 1952, President Harry Truman signed a bill proclaiming Citizenship Day to be a holiday celebrated on September 17. In 2004 an amendment made by Senator Byrd to a spending bill established September 17 as Constitution Day.

Despite the White House proclamation urging citizens "to conduct ceremonies..." the amendment establishing Constitution Day specifies that every school and college receiving federal money must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17. Sounds like an enforcement nightmare but it's a good idea. The Department of Education's Constitution Day page includes links to many useful sites. Even the Department of Defense has a 20-45 minute online Constitution Course for DoD employees. Google Constitution Day and you'll find lots of good resources.

Two years ago I wrote about the C-SPAN constitution quiz. I hope they do that again tomorrow. Last year I admitted I don't understand the Pledge of Allegiance. I know that's not something you want to hear from someone who's asking for your vote. But in all honesty, I can't spell "allegiance" with real confidence. "I pledge allegiance to the flag... " ? Let's say allegiance means loyalty and skip the flag part. "I promise loyalty to the Republic..." Okay. But it's just not as clear as the oath I took to "protect and defend the Constitution." I understand that and I understand the Constitution and that's a promise I have no trouble making.

September Board Meeting

2007-09-14T10:43:00.000-04:00

Last night's meeting opened with a public information session about traffic in Etna. Joe Solomon and his wife have come to the board several times to talk about the problem of speeders on Lower Creek Road failing to make the 90 degree turn and crashing into the guardrail, his woodpile or his house. Last night Etna residents joined him to describe the problems. Everyone who spoke emphasized that the increase in traffic and especially in speeding makes it dangerous to walk on Lower Creek Road.

There are mixed opinions about whether or not stop signs at the sharp corner in front of Joe's house will help. The stop signs on the straight stretch in front of the post office are often ignored. And it's likely that stop signs at the corner will results in increased squealing tires, grinding gears and reving engines. Likewise there was little support for traffic calming devices or speed bumps. (Tho' there was some admiration for the culvert repair that created "The ditch that Jack built.") Everyone agreed that speed limit enforcement would help. Thanks to Sheriff Meskiill for coming to listen. I noticed that he was taking notes - maybe on the descriptions of vehicles that the residents recognize ad chronic offenders. Finally there was a suggestion that intrigued everyone: that section of the road could be made one-way.

Moving on in the agenda, we quickly passed a resolution authorizing the Ambulance Company to change their mileage reimbursement rate to match the rate set by Medicare.

In recognition of the fact that this was our last meeting in the old town hall, Mike Lane spoke about the history of the community's relationship to the building. For more than a hundred years the Town Board met in various houses and public places. Court was held in the homes of the Justices. (Particularly poignant because later Justice Valentinelli arrived with a deputy and a person in handcuffs to ask for the use of the room for an arraignment. He didn't go for our suggestion that he could have done it at home.)

The first part of the Town Hall was built in 1950 by town employees at an incredibly low cost. For twenty-five years this building sufficed with Court being held in the front room (which is now Henry's, Kevin's and Dan's office). In 1975 the addition which is now the Court and Meeting Room was built. And for another 32 years the building served us well as each generation of Supervisors and Board Members set aside money for the eventual building of a new Town Hall. We've arrived at their goal. We'll take possession of the new Town Hall next Wednesday and begin moving in on Thursday. The next Town Board meeting will be held in the beautiful new Court/Meeting Room. (There's now a separate room where Justices can conduct arraignments if the courtroom is occupied.)

Mike cautioned us that "the new space will invite expansion of government." We should resist the temptation to add new staff positions - the most expensive part of our budget.

Art Berkey spoke to thank the Town for striping Thomas Road making driving much safer in bad weather and at night. He also presented Varna Community Center's 2007 application for funding and asked for help resolving the 2006 request which is still in limbo. Our new process for supporting community centers is not without its bugs. But it's very close to working well. The deadline for this year's funding is September 30. The Recreation Committee (David Makar and Steve Stelick) will review applications and make recommendations to the board next month.

Martha Robertson reports that the County Budget is available for review. And the first public information meeting will be at 7:00 PM October 1 at Boynton Middle School. I know it's hard to find time to do everything. But a look at the budget may be worth your while. It includes a ton of information beyond the budget itself: Organizational chart and contact information, historical perspective on tax levy and rate, comparisons with surrounding counties. (Pity Cortland County with its $14.91 per $1,000 tax rate - more than double Tompkins County.)

The document defines countywide services as follows.

County government is the local deliverer of state and federally-regulated welfare, mental health, and public health services. County government is the main repository for public records. County government maintains an extensive network of roads and bridges. It provides police protection through a sheriff’s office, and is responsible for prosecution of criminals and the disposition of offenders. It assures that election law and the right of every citizen to vote
is assured.

Still this leaves out Emergency Response and Planning for $1.6 million, TC3 for $2 million, the public library for $2 million and many more smaller programs. Go ahead. Look at it (pdf). It's interesting.

Back to the town board agenda. Recreation Commission Chair, Don Scutt, introduced new recreation Department Coordinator, Melissa Bianconi and announced that the next Recreation Commission meeting is scheduled for 6:30 PM October 2 at the Ellis Hollow Community Center. Melissa said that her transition into this job has been smooth. Fall programs are going well. Tackle Football starts Saturday with games at 3:00 and 5:00.

Environmental Planner, Dan Kwasnowski, introduced the seed manager from RPM the new enterprise on Route 13 which grows trees for restoration projects. Dan had noticed a spectacular Bur Oak tree on town land and contacted RPM to ask if they were interested in collecting seeds from it. Indeed they are and we agreed to allow that in exchange for some trees.

Dan went on to talk about the Stormwater legislation and the Farmland Protection grant application and the Conservation Boards plans to update the open space inventory and to develop guidelines for accepting and managing property donated for conservation .

Bambi Hollenbeck, Town Clerk, reported on a meeting of town clerks in Tompkins County to discuss alternatives to the SPCA contract for dog control. SPCA is planning to double the price of the already expensive contract and the town clerks who met think there are good, less costly alternatives.

Are you still with me? We're up to the Discussion section of the agenda where interesting things sometimes come up. But I'm running out of time so I'll try to make it brief.

The Emergency Services Committee reported that we've been meeting with the fire departments to review their budget requests in order to understand their needs and advocate on their behalf in budget meetings. The fire department contract has been revised with two proposed changes regarding incident and finance reporting. The draft will be circulated among the departments for comments before it is adopted. We've been working on a definition of "active firefighter" which we'll bring to the board for consideration next month. And I'm happy to report that the Etna Fire Department has submitted the reports required for payment of the balance of their contract.

On behalf of the Finance Committee I submitted a report of the Internal Audit Supervisor Trumbull and I conducted with the bookkeeper, town clerk and court clerk. The only concern noted is that capital assets are only tracked in the Highway Department. With the opening of the new town hall, it may become more important to track other assets.

On behalf of the Personnel Committee I reported that I met with Attorney Perkins to review the first section of the proposed personnel policy. We have to arrange a meeting to review his suggestions and finalize the rest of the proposal for his review.

David Makar proposed establishing relationships with Tompkins County Area Development, Alternative Federal Credit Union and Better Housing of Tompkins County to resume lending programs using the HUD money repaid from grants in past years. David recommends using part of the economic development funds for microloans up to $2,000 for small businesses.

David also presented a Request for Proposal from the Technology Committee for revising the Website. We accepted the proposal for telephone and internet access for the new town hall. The new phone number is 844-8888 with a short automated menu for access to each department.

From the Recreation Committee, David announced receipt of two applications for Community Center Funding. And we discussed a third application from the OURS program. The deadline for applications is September 30 following which the committee will review applications and make recommendations to the Board.

[These were all interesting discussions, but I'm really running out of time. Next month maybe I'll start with the end of the agenda and work backwards.]

We had some fun discussion a dedication plaque for the new town hall. We twisted Bambi's arm to plan a dedication ceremony and open house in October.

Supervisor Trumbull asked for and received approval of temporary appointment of Deb Hattery as part-time typist through December 31, 2007.

We agreed to re-appoint Stan Marcus as representative to the Environmental Management Council and Dan Karig as representative to the Water Resource Council.

We discussed Attorney Perkins report on gas lease proposals and decided to take no action at this time.

Henry Slater said he met with a representative of the Murray Center regarding their proposal for cleaning services for the new town hall.

Finally, we reviewed data from the new meters measuring total waste water flow into the Village waste water treatment plant and meters measuring flow from the Cortland Road Sewer District. Comparisons to metered water, it seems that a great deal of infiltration is taking place. That is, stormwater must be flowing into the sanitary drains and this may be part of the strain on the waste water treatment plant. Steve Trumbull, Steve Stelick, Dan Wakeman, Mike Hattery and Reba Taylor are meeting to discuss long range plans for sewer district development. At the next meeting Attorney Perkins will provide the report from the last discussions in 2002.

That's it. If anyone actually made it all the way through this with me, please leave a comment.

Congressman Hinchey

2007-08-26T20:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Tompkins County Democrats hosted a reception to express appreciation to Congressman Maurice Hinchey for his work on behalf of his constituents in District 22.

Hinchey spoke at length about the grim realities of Bush administration, referring to Bush often as "the most impeachable president" ever. His speech was painfully reminiscent of the one he gave two years ago at Cornell Law School. Then, as now, I listened hopefully through the long list of Bush's impeachable offenses I already understand only to be left hanging at the point that I wanted to hear what's going to be done. At that time Hinchey said Congress was too intimidated to launch impeachment proceedings. Yesterday Hinchey said simply "there isn't enough support..."

The idealist in me hates this. It's not enough to say "It's the right thing to do, but we're not doing it 'cause it can't be done." But I have this annoying memory of doing exactly the same thing last year on the Town Board with the Sustainable Energy Ordinance. I'd like to do whatever we can to encourage development of wind power, but there's not enough support on the Board or in the community, so I settled for a proposal making development of residential wind energy devices possible.

Congressman Hinchey has worked with Senator Feingold to introduce two censure resolutions in the House and Senate. It's not enough, but, distasteful as I find this phrase, it's better than nothing. In fact, it's a lot better than nothing.

Farm City Day

2007-08-12T09:17:00.000-04:00

It was beautiful weather for Farm City Day at Lew-Lin Farm. I was eager to see the farm because the Town of Dryden has been working with Tompkins County and farm owners, Lew, Linda, Steve and Lisa Stuttle for more than a year on a Farmland Protection grant for purchase of development rights. With this funding the Stuttles will be compensated for placing a permanent conservation easement on the farm's 419 acres assuring that this valuable farmland will continue in agricultural production for generations to come.

Farm City Day is intended to give city dwellers a look at farm operations. Hayrides took visitors on a guided tour of the farms beautiful pastures and cropland.

Just look at this beautiful cow.

I'm always drawn to border collie demonstrations. I used to have a border collie (and sheep.) She was much more skilled than I with collecting the sheep. If the sheep knew where they were going it worked out fine but I never learned how to communicate with her what I wanted her to do with the sheep once she had them. This dog is from a Border Collie Rescue group. I really, REALLY want to contact them to arrange to get a dog. But that would mean getting some sheep. And that would mean arranging some way to feed them separately from the horse. And that would mean... Sigh. I don't think I should do it.

I have pictures from displays of the Farm Bureau, Soil and Water Conservation, Cornell Farmworkers Project, Quality Milk Production Service and more. But I've run out of time.

One more. There was a hay bale toss contest. I challenged David Makar. But we went to get chicken barbecue instead.

2007 Budget Transparency, Part 2

2007-08-10T10:48:00.000-04:00

I'm putting this up even though it's not final. The numbers are accurate but the format will change.

The budget for expenditures is harder to illustrate than revenues. It's more complicated and understanding it depends on what you're interested in. I imagine you can't read the fine print so here's a summary.

The budget can be divided into:

Emergency Services - 20% (red and yellow)
Highway Department - 40% (green)
General fund - 40% (blue)

Breaking it down further:

Emergency Services

Fire Departments $791,869
Ambulance $311,100

Highway Department

Equipment & Machinery $670,000
Roads & Bridges, labor $535,500
Roads & Bridges, material $483, 000
Employee Benefits $347,000
Snow Removal $219,000
Other $148,000

General Fund

Public Works $482,424
Culture & Recreation $467,714
Administration $412,223
Employee Benefits $293,000
Building & Planning Dept $261,880
Court $135,128
Contingency $75,000

2007 Budget Transparency

2007-08-08T08:33:00.000-04:00

On the threshold of the 2008 budget process, I'm working on a report to make the town budget easier to understand. The trick is to make it simple enough to hold the reader's attention for a minute while including enough information to be informative.

Setting aside the water, sewer, lighting and emergency services districts, because they only affect people living in the districts, the graph looks like this. It seems self explanatory to me except, perhaps, for the Fund Balance - the money available this year from prior years' surpluses. Does that make sense?

I think I want to add in the ambulance district (the entire town) and fire district (entire town except the McLean fire district.) What do you think?

For the sake of simplicity and objectivity I'm using the dollar totals. I'm trusting that people who want to can calculate the total and the percentages.

Watch this space for corresponding coverage of expenditures.

Upcoming Meetings

2007-08-07T08:56:00.001-04:00

Okay. I have to ease back into this. The longer I'm away, the harder it is to get started again. It's like a conversation with a really, really long pause.

The August Town Board meeting is Thursday, August 9 at 7:00 PM. The agenda is here. It sounds like the meeting will be really, really dull. But you certainly never know. Most of the detail of what people plan to talk about doesn't make it onto the agenda. So, there are always surprises.

I'm working on a budget report and a couple of articles for the proposed newsletter. This is a good time to start making the budget understandable just as we move into the 2008 budget process. More about that later.

Next week the Conservation Board meets on Tuesday at 7:30 PM (probably about riparian buffer zones) and the Planning Board on Thursday at 7:00 PM will be talking about the current project to bring the zoning ordinance into conformance with the Comprehensive Plan.

Dryden Democratic Caucus

2007-07-17T21:28:00.000-04:00

"Our caucus will be held tomorrow, July 18, at 7:30 PM at Town Hall on East Main Street. All registered Democrats from the Town of Dryden are urged to participate, and please bring your Democratic neighbors. In principle, caucuses are more democratic than petitioning is--but not if nobody shows up."

Recreation and Community Center Planning

2007-06-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

My thanks to Dryden Democrats who met here Wednesday night. Special appreciation for their courtesy in not whining about the heat or humidity (or, frankly, the scent left by the stray cat before I got home.) This house, tho' it is not air conditioned, is only uncomfortably warm two or three days a year. Wednesday was one of them. The logs, thanks to thermal mass, take a long time to heat up. Tuesday, even tho' the outdoor temperature was 94, the house stayed at 72. But temperatures in the 90s Wednesday continued to warm the logs and by 7:30, it was awfully warm in the house.

Despite whatever discomfort people were feeling from the heat, we had a lively discussion of the split vote at Wednesday night's Town Board meeting - only the second non-unanimous vote in the year and a half I've been on the board. (The other was over the color of the tourism brochure - purple prevailed over green.)

This one is more serious. It was a follow-up on the lengthy discussion at the June 14 meeting (minutes will appear soon at minutes) regarding a proposed grant application for "parkland development." In May the Board approved $3,200 for Thoma Consulting to work with Environmental Planner Dan Kwasnowski on the application due June 30. I admit I misunderstood the purpose of the application. I don't know how much of the misunderstand is my responsibility and how much may be attributed to Dan's May presentation. But I thought we were still at a very early planning stage and that the planning for the site adjacent to the town hall would be part of a townwide planning process.

From the May meeting minutes:

Thoma Development has informed us there is a state grant opportunity for park land development. This is very competitive and the application is due June 29. Thoma's proposal is for $3,200. D Kwasnowski said if the municipality is already willing to spend some money on this, that works in our favor and is an instant match. We have the natural and historical features
that the State is looking for. The maximum award is $500,000. The need for parkland is well outlined in our Comprehensive Plan. We've done surveys and know what we need.

The unanimous resolution of the Board at the May meeting.

RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Town Supervisor to accept the proposal from Thoma Development to prepare a grant application for park land at a cost not to exceed $3,200.

At the June 14 meeting the town engineer described preliminary work he was asked to do assessing grading and drainage needed for the site behind the town hall. This suggests a commitment to a certain style of development. While there's been a good deal of chatter about recreation and ball fields on this site, the planning process is pretty firmly stalled about an inch from the very beginning.

In late winter 2006 we held a meeting, including several representatives from the public, at which many interesting ideas were discussed. Dan developed a "Proposed process for preparing and Conceptual Use Map and Plan." [The caps are from Dan's report - should that have been a red flag?] The six month time frame seemed unrealistically short. Even so, phase I, planned for March and April 2006, included development of a base map and photos, establishment of a Town Parkland Advisory Board and hosting community workshops. Dan has developed a sketchy map but the other suggestions have not been acted upon - not to mention phases II, III, IV and V of the proposal. In other words, we're stalled halfway through the first point of the first phase of a five phase process.

And townwide planning for recreation is, if possible, even further behind than planning for the town hall site. The Open Space Inventory completed in 2003 includes a map of "Managed Open Space Assets." A Recreational Needs Assessment was undertaken by a SUNY Cortland class and their professor in 2005 (prior to the acquisition of the town hall site) and completed in June 2006. Last year Thoma made a modest proposal to complete a townwide recreation plan. We included funding for it in the 2007 budget. In May Councilpersons Makar and Stelick, speaking as the Board Recreation Committee, asked Dan to speak with Thoma about proceeding with that proposal. But it hasn't begun yet.

I know that Supervisor Trumbull and Councilpersons Christofferson and Stelick want to develop recreational facilities on the town's property in the Village. And I'm not particularly opposed to the idea. But also at Wednesday's meeting we were approving $25,000 change orders for the town hall construction caused by our rushing through one phase of the town hall planning. And suddenly we're talking about engineering for a site we've barely planned for at all.

In fact, the more I read the May minutes, the hotter I get. When Helen Mandeville, from southwest Dryden said she wondered whether the board was aware of the issues in her neighborhood and she would like to help start some informational meetings, did we not hear her? When Councilperson Stelick said he understands there is a divide between the east and west sides of town but it is going to take time to heal it, I want to remind him it's going to take more than time. It's going to take a good deal of effort and maybe a little money. When Councilperson Makar described requests from community groups to host town board meetings in locations other than the town hall and Supervisor Trumbull suggested instead that two board members every few months could go to different communities and see what the issues are, I imagine I know which two board members he's thinking of (hint: they don't live on the east side of town.)

And when Councilperson Christofferson said, at the June 27 meeting, that we need to develop the town hall site 'cause "we don't have a community center on that side of town," I should have reminded him, as Martha Robertson reminded me, that the reason Ellis Hollow, Etna, Bethel Grove and Varna have community centers is that neighbors got together and raised some money and put in countless volunteer hours to create them.

Okay. This is verging on a rant. I'm going to go work in the garden.

July Town Board Meeting

2007-06-28T17:00:00.000-04:00

The Town of Dryden July 2007 meeting will be held at the Varna Volunteer Fire Company on Wednesday, July 11th at 7pm. The fire company will have a tour available to town board members and the public starting at 6:30pm.

The location of this meeting on the western side of Dryden is to help bridge the gap of communication and activity from the west side to the east side. Initially the meeting was to be held at the Varna Community Center, but it had to be moved to the Fire Station for scheduling reasons.

The station is located at 14 Turkey Hill Road in Dryden. Here's a link to a map (the Varna Fire Company has an Ithaca mailing address - and map address - but it IS in Dryden!).

It is my hope that you attend the meeting to see what happens. There is a lot going on in Dryden and public participation is welcome.

Town Board Meeting

2007-06-15T09:44:00.000-04:00

Another five hour, two-page agenda meeting last night. Let me just list the issues. I'll write more when I have time or, if someone asks for information, I'll make time.

Public hearing on an unsafe structure on Dryden Road.
Presentation on the work of the Tompkins County Area Development Agency.
Update on the condition of Varna Fire Chief Natan Huffman following a two car crash in which he was involved last Friday while responding to an emergency call.
Approval of the new 284 agreement specifying planned highway department work.
County Briefing on plans to collect countywide water and sewer information and on the Recreation Partnership.
Engineering report on possible remedies for the dangerous turn on Lower Creek Road and on preliminary investigation of grading and drainage issues involved in developing the property behind Town Hall for recreational use.
Acceptance of the resignation of Recreation Coordinator, Jen Dube.
Approval of the new code enforcement agreement with the Village of Dryden.
Approval of payment of $284 to ASCAP to indemnify us in the event copyrighted music is inadvertently used without permission at a town function.
Approval of an agreement with Cayuga Press to modify our HUD loan agreement raising the interest rate.
Request that Attorney Perkins notify the Attorney General that we wish to be excluded from legislation rescinding authorization for a local Industrial Development Agency.
Approve $23,000 change order to correct design flaws in the sprinkler system.
Discussion of details of proposed furniture purchase for the new town hall. Request that the building committee continue to seek ways to bring the total cost of the new furniture down.
Lengthy discussion of whether or not to apply for a grant for development of the property behind the town hall. Very lengthy discussion of whether or not we've solicited sufficient public input to begin planning for the development of the land for recreational uses. Further discussion of whether or not we can make plans for that property without completing a plan for townwide recreation development.
Approval of the Planning Board's request to contract with Behan Associates for consulting on the zoning code update process.
Introduction of the Fire Department Info book.
Presentation of a preliminary draft of the planned 2006 Annual Report and August 2007 Newsletter.
Update from the finance committee reporting that the internal audit is nearly complete. Only information from the Court remains to be collected.
Discussion of whether or not the finance committee should approve the abstract of expenditures and report to the board rather than reviewing it and approving it at the Board meetings.
Report from the Technology Committee that companies planning to bid on the phone system for the new town hall toured the building and will submit bids by June 24. A board meeting is scheduled for June 26 to review the bids and "for other purposes."
Recreation/Youth/Community Center Committee report on plans for the application process for community center funding.
Discussion of a proposed resolution supporting legislation sponsored by Senator Schumer restricting long haul truck traffic to interstate highways as much as possible.
Agreement to switch to Municipal Electric & Gas Alliance power supplier.
Update on yet another delay in the installation of the flow meter intended to measure waste water piped from the Cortland Road Sewer District to the Village of Dryden waste water treatment plant.
Discussion of a noise complaint and whether or not to consider developing a noise ordinance.
Agreement to provide storage space for Friends of the Library books after moving to the new town hall.
Agreement to decline an offer request from HSBC to discuss banking opportunities

Democrats Have More Fun

2007-06-10T11:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Dairy Day in Dryden and Dryden Democrats entered a float in the parade. We weren't going for any prize for originality obviously. We just went to have fun. In the center are Don Barber, Supervisor in Caroline, Barbara Lifton, NYS Assemblyperson and Mike Lane, former County legislator and former Dryden Mayor.

David and I compete for blog photos. There may be a mirror image photo at Dryden is Home.

There are fire trucks. I wish I had pictures of all of them. But they were at the very front of the parade, the better to return promptly to their respective stations to stand by.

The Belgians from the Marquis farm always pull a wagon with a sign for the First National Bank of Dryden.

My personal favorite was the Dryden Hotel float. I like the town committee meetings that adjourn early enough to meet after at the Dryden Hotel. If you zoom on the photo you'll see milk cartons on the float's bar table. Good for the Dairy Day theme, "Hay, hay, it's Dairy Day." But in all honesty, I can't imagine that the Hotel really serves much milk.

Along the parade route we passed three other Town of Dryden elected officials. No need to name their party. All Dryden Democratic elected officials were in the parade. Too bad the Dryden Republicans didn't enter a float. But maybe they're having more fun as spectators.

[ed. 6/11/07 Dryden Democrats marching in the parade: Mike Lane; David Makar, Town Councilperson; Martha Robertson, County Legislature; Mary Ann Sumner, Town Councilperson; Dan Lamb; Jason Leifer and son; Mary Ellen Bossick, Village Trustee and granddaughters;. Not pictured: Kathy Zahler (who took this picture), Nancy Suci, Barbara Lifton, NYS Assemblyperson. Did I miss anyone? Dryden Republican elected officials on the sidelines: Steve Trumbull, Supervisor; Steve Stellick, Town Councilperson; Marty Christofferson, Town Councilperson; Jack Bush, Highway Superintendent and Chris Clauson, Justice. Also on the sidelines, Democrat Henry Slater, Town of Dryden Code Enforcement Officer. Maybe next year we can get him in the parade.

Thinking Like a Republican

2007-06-01T11:09:00.000-04:00

Someone told me yesterday, with a sly grin, that he didn't know I could think so much like a Republican. I was taking a surprisingly pro-management view in our discussion. So, I took his comment as the compliment he intended. But I must say, tho' I joke about it, I'm not as rigidly partisan as some Democratic colleagues might wish. In the spirit of open mindedness and a serious effort not to overgeneralize, I respect many Republican individuals and policies, tho' I often disagree with them.

I think about differences between Democrats and Republicans a lot. Nobody has enough time or resources to work on all the issues that matter to our communities. I often wonder how people chose what to care about. So, here are a couple of huge generalizations.

Republican rhetoric about small government only applies to economic issues. As Stephen Colbert once explained: if it's about what you can do with your property, we're for small government (less regulation); if it's about what you can do with your body, we're for big government (more regulation.) Think about it.

On the local level the small government/big government dichotomy turns out to mean: if you ask us a question, we'll eventually come up with an answer. But we don't have time for much long range planning or going out and finding the questions that need to be answered.

But on a global level, where I really depart from Republican rhetoric is personal responsibility and authoritarianism. Personal responsibility seems only to mean we don't want tax supported programs to help people who can't earn enough money to support themselves or their families. It doesn't extend to personal ethics in business - recently particularly in banking and environmental protection.

And finally, authoritarianism. I value loyalty very highly but I will never understand blind loyalty. I'm happy to see that many Republicans also question this. But there seems to be a parallel with a religious paternalism that clings to rules and authority figures no matter how absurd. It's easier to follow rules than to think through decisions based on personal ethics. And it's easier to issue directives to constituents (or children) than to educate them to make good decisions. And I admit that sometimes I want to fall back on "Because I'm the Mom." But it's short-sighted in the extreme. We really must make the effort to have the conversations that lead to decision making by consensus.

In short:

A gathering of Democrats is more sweaty, disorderly, offhand, and rowdy than a gathering of Republicans; it is also likely to be more cheerful, imaginative, tolerant of dissent, and skillful at the game of give-and-take. A gathering of Republicans is more respectable, sober, purposeful, and businesslike than a gathering of Democrats; it is also likely to be more self-righteous, pompous, cut-and-dried, and just plain boring.
CLINTON ROSSITER, Parties and Politics in America

Building Code

2007-05-15T10:04:00.000-04:00

I interrupt coverage of last week's Board meeting to bring you some thoughts on building/zoning codes.

Thursday the planning board will be interviewing candidates for consulting on the zoning ordinance revision process. One of the proposals received included a suggestion that board and committee members take pictures of examples of good and bad examples development in Dryden. That firm has not been invited to interview, but I like the suggestion. So, watch this space for photos reflecting my perspective. If you have photos to add, feel free to send them to me or create links in the comments section of this post.

Aside from my personal preference for undeveloped land, it seems to me that this view from the highest point in the town is indicative of the town's character. This panorama is about 110 degrees. But I could have done 360 degrees with the same result.

One thing I've noticed is that many unattractive areas that could be improved by the addition of some trees. Here, on the corner of Rt 13 and Johnson Road the veterinary office on the northeast corner has no landscaping.

The dentist's office on the northwest corner has made a better effort.

This is my favorite kind of view - note especially no electric wires in view. This is looking north on Ringwood Road.

So you can understand the disappointment when you wind up staring at this while you wait at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill.

And perhaps one of those people who object to the appearance of windmills can tell me what's so lovely about these behemoths. (That second one is on my property .)

May Town Board Meeting, Part I

2007-05-11T10:16:00.000-04:00

It was a long meeting again last night - 7:00 PM to 12:30 AM. But I think it was Councilman Makar (thank you, David) who suggested that we take a short break around 10:45 PM. Under the heading of "misery loves company" I was pleased to find when I got home at nearly 1:00 AM and switched on CSPAN, that the House of Representatives was still in session and having a lively debate about intelligence funding - so lively that it sounded more like the House of Commons than the House of Representatives.

The Town Board meeting began with Public Hearings regarding unsafe structures on two different properties. The owners of 1195 have expressed no interest in dealing with the collapsed garage. When the time period for them to respond expires the Board will act to have the building demolished and add the cost to the tax bill for the property. Evan Carpenter, co-owner of 2242 Dryden Road, was present at the hearing. He reports that he has received a Historic Preservation grant for the restoration of one of the barns in question and wants to salvage materials from the other for use in the restoration. We agreed to allow him to continue working on it providing he will be finished by November 1, 2007.

Kris Bennett, representing the Dryden Youth Commission, presented their 2006 annual report. DYC's $82,000 budget is funded by the county and state with matching funds from the town. Take a look at the annual report for descriptions of the many programs offered by DYC. Dave Hall and Tom Archibald discussed Dryden Youth Services available in cooperation with Cornell Cooperative Extension. With them were two young people who enthusiastically described their participation in the programs, particularly "Primitive Pursuits" which helps develop self-responsibility and leadership through wilderness activities. Finally, Linda Schoffel described the work of Tompkins County Rural Youth Services.

Ann Grant, on behalf of the Southworth Library Booksale, described the benefits to the library as a result of the booksale fundraising. Booksale funding has increased the library's DVD and large print book collections. Ms Grant asked us to consider providing storage space to facilitate the volunteers work for the booksale. Ms Grant also spoke on behalf of the Sleeping Bag Ladies. (Turns out that's Sleeping-Bag Ladies, not Sleeping Bag-Ladies.) They are part of a nationwide movement to provide sleeping bags to homeless people. They've received a grant and are asking the Town to allow them to donate a memorial bench to honor members of the group.

Mr Perazone, from Mason Dixon Energy, representing Ansbro Petroleum, described the company's natural gas exploration work in the area. Some town owned land is within their "area of interest" and they want to talk to town officials about mineral leasing. Supervisor Trumbull will meet with him.

Under Citizens' Privilege, Helen Mandeville, who lives in the far southwest corner of the town (not far from Councilman Makar), asked the board to find ways to make more information about town activities available to the public. Joseph Solomon, from Etna, asked the board to find a way to make the right-angle turn in Lower Creek Road safer.

Highway Superintendent Jack Bush reports that work on the sewer extension to the new town hall site is complete much to the satisfaction and relief of the people who worked on it. Jack also discussed the need for changes to the "284 Agreement" which describes roadwork the department will undertake this season. The agreement is considered by the board in January and spring inspection of roads often reveals different priorities. Some of the roads scheduled for surface treatment this season actually need replacement crossover culverts. So, surface treatment will be postponed 'til culverts replacements are complete and a group of roads next on the list for surface treatment will be moved up to this season. The goal is to surface treat all roads once every five years to prolong the useful life of the surface. Though the department continues to try, they are not yet meeting that goal partly because of budgetary constraints and partly because the crew has spent more time than usual on public works tasks associated with the construction of the new town hall.

With apologies to County Legislator Martha Robertson, I don't have any notes on the County Briefing. But I remember that it was very brief.

T G Miller engineer Dave Putnam reported that he's very pleased with the quality of work recently completed by the Public Works department on the sewer extension to the new town hall site.

Recreation Coordinator Jen Dube presented a request which the board approved to hire six summer recreation assistants to staff the new skateboard park. This year funding for this staff comes from the Dryden Youth Commission. Jen asked for authorization for Supervisor Trumbull to sign contracts for artists scheduled to appear in the Music in the Park series. This year there will be eight concerts at Montgomery Park in the Village of Dryden and six at the Ellis Hollow Community Center. I hope the schedule will appear on the Recreation Department website. I hesitate to provide the link to that page 'cause, well, it's a mess right now. In further news, Jen and one of her assistants will now be listed as authorized Red Cross training providers and the board approved a raise for Recreation Assistant Amanda Christofferson who has recently completed her associates degree.

Attorney Perkins asked for the sense of the board regarding keeping Cortland Road Sewer District rates and the amount quoted by the Village earlier this year although the Village is actually charging a tiny bit less than the original quote. The board agreed to let the rate stand. Any resulting surplus will be applied to future district costs. Perkins reported that negotiations with Hunt Engineering and DiVincentis contracting have resulted in a potential agreement to complete the CRSD flow monitoring for $90,000, somewhat less than the original bid. The equipment has been received and this agreement will allow the work to proceed.

That was item #11 on the agenda and it was 10:45. We took a break which I'm going to do, too. You may be as tired of reading this as I am of writing it. I'll finish tomorrow.

Community Preservation Fund Legislation

2007-05-09T10:17:00.000-04:00

At last night's Conservation Board meeting, former environmental planner Debbie Gross brought to our attention legislation pending in the NYS Senate to enable towns to create a Community Preservation Fund and to fund it with a new tax on transfers of real estate above the local median price. Sounds like a good idea to me. So, this morning I started looking for more information and ways we might encourage legislators to act.

First, browsing the New York State site I started to see why it's hard for the legislature to get anything done. More on that in a minute.

There is a bill, S716, apparently introduced in 2005. It is one of about fifty bills sponsored by Senator Neil Breslin, a democrat in his sixth term representing district 46 in Albany County. The bill remained in the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations until January 8, 2007 when it was referred to the Environmental Conservation Committee where it now sits.

Here's the part I find interesting. It is currently possible for a municipality to establish a Community Preservation Fund, as described above, only by seeking state legislation specific to that municipality. In this way, five Long Island towns have established CPFs. But, as the sponsor's memo says, "This can be a difficult and time-consuming process, and in the recent past, several localities have not been able to secure State legislative approval despite local public support for the initiative."

There are 932 towns in the State of New York. Why would it be necessary to pass separate legislation for each and every one? If S716, enabling all towns to establish CPFs, has taken more than a year to make it to its second committee, how long will it take to pass it? How long (and how many man hours) would it take to pass 927 such bills? The web pages for committees only list members and scheduled meeting times, so I have no idea what discussion of the bill may be going on in the Environmental Conservation Committee.

This is the same procedure required for local governments to enact property tax exemptions for volunteer firefighters. Several dozen towns or counties have enacted such exemptions but it looks like there are several hundred to go. And each one is going to require separate state legislation.

[ed. 5/10/07 This morning Debbie sent me a link to a page of Environmental Advocates of New York advocating for another version of this bill. S3836, introduced by Marcellino, Lavalle, Leibell, Little, Morahan and Robach this year (formerly S6949-A in 2004 and S3153 in 2005-2006) was referred to the Environmental Conservation Committee on 3/16/07. While it has a great deal in common with S716, there are substantial differences.]

Development Incentives

2007-05-07T06:34:00.000-04:00

An article in the Saturday Ithaca Journal describes the decision of the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency not to revoke tax abatements for Emerson Power Transmission. In 2002 the IDA granted sales and property tax abatements totaling an estimated $428,000 to help Emerson move a subsidiary to Ithaca. The move was expected to bring 137 new jobs to Ithaca. It has resulted in 129 new hires and Emerson is still planning to hire six more people.

Two weeks ago Emerson announced plans to move 55 corporate jobs out of state. IDA has decided that, in view of recent recession in the industry, the 135 new jobs meets the goal of the tax incentives. The loss of the 55 corporate jobs is unrelated to the tax incentive plan.

A similar decision making process is ongoing in the Town of Dryden. In 2001 the Town of Dryden gave Cayuga Press a low interest HUD loan of $385,000 for a term of 15 years to finance a new press expected to create 15 new jobs. They met the hiring goal promptly. They have consistently made timely payments and have repaid more than a third of the loan plus 2% interest.

In 2006 Peter Schug, owner of Cayuga Press, announced that they are expanding. Because they were unable to find an adequate existing building Dryden and the cost of a new building was prohibitive they planned to move the entire company to the Empire Zone in Cortland and they have now completed that move.

Schug appeared before the Town Board to requests permission for the move as stipulated in the loan agreement and the Board immediately voted to allow the move.

The loan agreement further specifies that if the company moves out of the town a default condition is created under which the Town may decide change the terms of the loan. But since the announcement of the planned move, the Town Board has been dragging its feet through a discussion of the terms of the loan. See discussions in Town Board minutes of 9/14/06, 11/15/06 and 12/7/06 among others. Some board members think Schug, as a long time resident of Dryden, deserves special respect. And that since all employees of Cayuga Press who live in the Town of Dryden are expected to keep their jobs and commute to Cortland, the company has, in fact, met their obligation. And that Cayuga Press is a respectable company and we should continue to support them.

Others, including myself, think that jobs in Cortland are not the same as jobs in Dryden. And that, especially in light of tax incentives available to Cayuga Press in the Cortland Empire Zone, we need not continue to support them. We should make the low interest loan money available to businesses in Dryden. We are willing to extend the loan to Cayuga Press at a competitive interest rate while we recruit other businesses who could expand if they had this low interest loan available. This extension would give Cayuga Press time to arrange other financing.

It seems pretty clear to me. What do you think? Maybe we should have a public hearing.

Town Board April Meeting News

2007-04-13T10:26:00.000-04:00

My apologies for neglecting this space. I'm going to do better.

Last night's town board meeting was long and crammed with ideas and actions. Based on my meager one and a third years of experience, I wonder if meeting length is correlated with daylight hours. We had many long meetings last summer but winter meetings ended at reasonable times.

The meeting opened with a public hearing on Advanced Design Consulting's proposed development across Route 13 from TC3. The hearing seems poorly timed because ADC's plans are incomplete and not much information has been available to the public. ADC designs, engineers and produces "precision robotics, sub-micron positioning systems, and optical subsystems to enhance the capabilities and productivity of its customers' manufacturing, engineering, and research applications." I admit I have only the vaguest concept of Precision robotics and optical subsystems and absolutely no concept of sub-micron positioning systems. But the point is that ADC doesn't fit the smoke belching, high truck traffic image of manufacturing. They make a relatively small number of very expensive, highly specialized machines.

The owner of The Book Barn, adjacent to the proposed development, expressed strong opinions about preserving the neighborhood character. We'll have to look seriously at that, but I hope we'll find that the project is suitable 'cause it seems like a good business development for that part of the town if business development is desirable at all. The Zoning Office and the Planning Board have been working with ADC on and off for a long while. I'm pretty confident that their work will result in a successful project.

Todd Miller made a fabulous presentation about the USGS study of the Virgil Aquifer.

Highway Superintendent Jack Bush, reported on plans to replace a grader. Bids have been received and the lowest is higher than the estimate we approved. But another piece of equipment recently replaced was significantly under budget and the difference covers the additional cost of the grader. Jack also reports that our thirty-five year old bulldozer is sadly in need of $11,000 repairs. We discussed the fact that the department is less involved in highway construction than it was thirty-five years ago and accepted Jack's recommendation that we sell the bulldozer and not replace it. Jack thinks, and I agree, that for the number of hours we use a bulldozer, it's more economical to rent one as needed than to own one.

In further good news from the Highway Department, the request to lower the speed limit on Baker Hill road was accepted! It will now be posted at 40 MPH.

The briefing from County Legislators included information on an Open House April 25 at 6:00 at the Village Hall to present information from the Route 13 Corridor Study.

Attorney Perkins and Zoning Officer Kevin Ezell reported on communication with six owners of unsafe structures. Four of them are dealing with removing or repairing the structures. Two have not responded to notices from the Zoning Office and will now be notified that if they do not respond, the town will arrange for the structures to be removed and the cost will be added to their tax bills.

Perkins also reported that the Dryden Ambulance Contract has finally been sent and the Etna Fire Department contract has been modified to include, with restrictions, the $40,000 reserved in the budget and a public hearing will be held 4/19/07 at 6:00 at the Village Hall.

Zoning Officer Henry Slater, described progress on plans for furnishing the new town hall. Henry also asked the Board to designate someone to review training requirements for Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals members. I agreed to do that on behalf of the Board.

Environmental Planner Dan Kwasnowski, reports that six proposals for consulting on the zoning ordinance update were received and are being reviewed by the Planning Board. (This was a record short report from Dan.)

Councilperson David Makar asked the Finance Committee to review samples of annual reports from other towns and formulate a process for producing a similar report for the Town of Dryden. Such a report would go a long way in making town information available to the public. Along the same line, Supervisor Trumbull again brought up the idea of a Town Newsletter. We repeatedly agree that this is a good idea. But once again fall short of finding a point person to make it actually happen.

We finally approved the establishment of clerical positions - one for the Zoning Office and one for the Supervisor's office. Face it, the town is growing. There's more and more work to do. And we don't want staff members earning professional salaries to be spending their time on clerical tasks.

Discussion of a Board Liaison to the Court was postponed 'til next month when, presumably, Councilperson Christofferson will be back.

We discussed, again, handling of the Cayuga Press HUD economic development loan. Cayuga Press's recent move to Cortland triggers default conditions for the loan. The town has the option of calling the loan or extending it. We finally decided to extend the loan to at least April 2008 and increase the interest rate. Meanwhile, we'll be looking for other possible applicants for economic development loans. When we find a good opportunity for economic development in the Town of Dryden, we'll be able to recover the loan funds from Cayuga Press and encourage another business to develop new jobs in the Town of Dryden.

So, this covers most of the agenda items, but only scratches the surface of the printed material available for this meeting. There's also:

data to analyze relative costs of MEGA and NYSEG electricity
notice of a workshop on Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination in Brooktondale April 16
2007 Tax Reconciliation from the Town Clerk
a proclamation of Emergency Medical Services Week May 20 - 26
Brad Prentiss's resume and recommendation to fill a Conservation Board vacancy
a report from the Tompkins County Council of Governments
an invitation from Onondaga County executive, Nick Pirro, to an event discussing Sustainable Policies for Municipalities.
a proposal from Councilperson David Makar to hold Town Board meetings in locations other than the Town Hall
the bookkeeper's report of cash flows
a letter describing concerns of property owners near the new town hall regarding construction of an access road between the old and new town halls
the Town Clerk's monthly and annual report of income from processing of marriage licenses, SPCA fees, passport applications, building permits and much, much more.
a model resolution in support of Senator Schumer's plan to regulate long haul truck traffic and transportation of hazardous materials
Notice of the Board of Assessment Review Hearing date: May 17, 2007 3:00 - 5:00
a report from the McLean Community Council
regular monthly report from the SPCA
newsletter from the New York Planning Federation

I grossly underestimated when I was talking to Dawn about how long it takes to write about the Town Board meetings. It's actually taken about two hours. Hmm... I can only hope that somewhere at least one person's glad they didn't have to go to the four hour meeting to find out what's going on in town.

Dryden Dems Discuss 2008

2007-03-26T15:41:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday night the Dryden Democratic Committee gathered to discuss the 2008 presidential election. Sure it is 20 months away, but the media is abuzz and the 20 or so Dryden Democratic Committee members who appeared had something to say about the candidates and the issues. Simon and I rigged up a whiteboard to list the candidates, issues and other factors.

Candidates were:

Senator B. Obama
Senator H. Clinton
Former Senator J. Edwards
Representative D. Kucinich
Senator J. Biden
Governor B. Richardson
Former Senator Mike Gravel
Senator C. Dodd

Dark Horse Candidates: Wes Clark and Al Gore

Issues for the election:

Iraq War
Social Security
Healthcare
Climate Change
The Economy
Shrinking Middle-Class
Globalization
Immigration

Other Factors in 2008:

Money (This will be the billion dollar presidential election)
Star Power
Internet
Communication
Fund Raising
Bill Clinton
Experience

We finished up without a straw poll, but did decide to revisit this discussion topic in the summer.

For more information about the Dryden Democrats contact Simon St. Laurent: simonstl@simonstl.com, http://drydendems.blogspot.com/, or http://drydendems.org/

Cross-posted to Dave's personal blog: Dryden is Home

A Primer for Broadband in Dryden

2007-03-21T18:22:00.000-04:00

I've been working for the last few months gathering information on Broadband Internet Access.

It has been a challenge and a goal to overcome since I moved to Dryden in 2004. I've put together a draft of information regarding Broadband Internet Access for Dryden. If you have anything to add, please email me (dave@davidmakar.com) or leave comments on this post. I'll be cross-posting to davidmakar.com and to Dryden Democrats.

http://davidmakar.com/broadband/

Check it out, learn, share information, get hooked up! Maybe there's a way for you to get a faster connection today!

Fire Department Contracts

2007-03-14T13:25:00.000-04:00

[This started as a comment on Living In Dryden's link to the Ithaca Journal article about the Enfield Department. But it's important enough to rate its own front page space.]

I'm only superficially familiar with the Enfield fire district conflict, but it certainly illustrates the importance of cultivating cooperative relationships with volunteer fire departments. I don't understand the reasoning behind a proposed 20% cut in the Enfield contract. As you know, fire district taxes are levied separately from town taxes. While it's important for the Town Board and the Fire Department to exercise fiscal responsibility, the town doesn't want to be without fire protection any more than the fire department wants to stop responding to calls. It's a lose-lose situation.

The situation in Dryden, particularly with regard to the Etna contract, is a little different. While it was careless of the Town Board not to have contracts in place on time, contracts with Varna, Dryden and Freeville have been signed and the problems with the Etna contract will probably be resolved this month. Because the contract is in negotiation, there is not yet any liability problem and the Etna department has agreed to continue responding to calls. The Etna budget was not cut permanently. But the Board proposed to withhold a substantial portion of the department’s budget request while we consider performance standards the department must meet to qualify for the total amount of the proposed budget. We didn't make this clear in the contract and the Board of Directors of the Etna department understandably declined to sign the contract without this clarification.

It's worth noting that the Enfield conflict is over $40,000 of the $240,000 request. The Etna issue involves $40,000 of the total $791,689 fire district budget. Enfield's 2005 fire tax rate(the last year for which I have figures) was marginally lower than the combined fire/ambulance tax rate in Dryden (1.78 per $1,000 vs 1.87 per $1,000.) The Dryden Board, like the Enfield Board, sometimes questions allocating large sums of money when we have no control over how it's spent. But it's little different from health insurance rates or the price of salt for the highway department. Fire protection is expensive and it would be astronomically more expensive without the thousands of hours of volunteer time the fire departments donate. Do I mind paying $186 a year for fire protection for my $100,000 house? No! Let's do what we can to support the volunteers.

Association of Towns Conference

2007-02-23T09:16:00.000-05:00

David and I are just back from the Association of Towns of the State of New York Conference, held for three days in New York City. In addition to hearing speeches by Governor Spitzer, Attorney General Cuomo and Senator Schumer, we each had the opportunity to choose ten seminars from a long list of topics. Supervisor Steve Trumbull and Bookkeeper Dawn Bogdan were there, too. I only overlapped with David once, Steve once and Dawn once. So, among us we probably attended thirty or more seminars. Allowing that a couple of the seminars weren't very useful, we still probably came back with at least twenty good new ideas.

Here are two of mine.

In October 2006 the Office of Court Administration announced "Sweeping Reforms of New York’s Local Justice Courts." Plans include audit controls, training programs, enhanced security and funding for improved computer systems. Just a couple of weeks ago I asked Steve why we don't have a Board liaison to the Court. As a very active Board member, the only information I've seen from the Court in the past year is a notice in the late spring that records were available for review and their budget request in August. The Court received information last October that the Office of Court Administration would be providing technology upgrades at no cost to localities. Yet near the end of the year our court bought new computers from our own budget. In fairness, I don't know yet how the equipment purchased differs from equipment the OCA plans to provide.

In addition, the OCA is providing funding for enhanced Court security. I wonder how useful this may be for our new Town Hall. Training will be available, not only for security officers but for facilities managers. This sounds like something we should definitely take advantage of. We'll definitely be discussing the appointment of a Board liaison to the Court.

The New York Data Center is spearheading the effort to make the 2010 census as accurate as possible. It is predicted that following the 2010 census, New York will lose two Congressional seats. It's possible that the second will be lost by under counting just 50,000 people. The census is address driven. That is to say, census forms are mailed to every known address. That may sound simple, but there are many ways households can be missed. For example, new construction, multiple households at one address, households who received their mail at PO boxes. The census bureau estimates that each missed household may mean a loss of up to $2,000 in federal funding to the locality. So, Towns are asked to help confirm the accuracy of the census bureau's address master list. This responsibility falls primarily to the Code Enforcement Office. But I understand some Towns have enlisted the help of their volunteer Fire Departments. I wonder if this is something we could interest our Fire Departments in.

That's all I have time for now. It's clearer than ever that there's a lot of work to do.

Legal Issues for Volunteer Fire Departments

2007-01-28T11:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and the day before I spent twelve hours at a NYS Fire Academy seminar titled "Legal Issues for the Volunteer Fire Service," sponsored by Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response and Tompkins Cortland Community College. The instructor was knowledgeable and entertaining. Participants included Fire Commissioners, Chiefs, Firefighters, and Town Board members.

Lawyers live in such a world of their own. While some of us are thinking, "Just let us collect the taxes and fight the fires," the lawyers are out their somewhere trying to impose some structure on the various ways we organize ourselves and anticipating the infinitely varied ways things can go wrong. Do the lawyers make our lives complicated? Yes. There were thirty-five new laws affecting volunteer firefighters in 2006. Do the lawyers help when things go wrong? Sometimes.

Incidently, the instructor is a volunteer firefighter, as well as a lawyer. I was happy to see several members of departments in Dryden participating including Andy Down, Freeville Fire Chief, who was at the Friday night session of the seminar from 6:30 to 10:30PM, went to work at Cornell Life Safety 11:00PM to 7:00 AM and returned to the seminar on Saturday 8:00AM - 4:30PM. One can only hope, for his sake, that there are no emergencies in the Freeville area this weekend.

A ton of information was shared in the twelve hours of the seminar - fortunately, a lot of it in print. Dave Makar and I, the new Emergency Services Committee, will be sifting through it with the help of the fire departments, the town lawyer and our insurance agent, prioritizing policies we need to create and procedures we need to modify.

Town Board Meetings

2007-01-22T21:55:00.000-05:00

It's not that we're not working. We're just working more than writing about it.

Here are some quick notes about the last Town Board meeting.

We agreed to let the Snowmobile club continue using a bit of land recently purchased by the town over which their trail passes.

Tompkins County historian Carol Kammen showed us an attractive "Destination Dryden" brochure produced as a part of a county wide project by the Tompkins County Historical Society.

We agreed to provide a cell phone for Recreation Coordinator, Jen Dube.

We discussed options for the Tuttle property recently purchased by the Town. The property, adjacent to the new town hall site was acquired, primarily, to provide extra room for the parking lot. In addition to the acreage, the property includes an old house and barn and our original intention was to clean it up and put it back on the market. Our application for a state grant to restore the house was unsuccessful. Since we found that the house is in worse condition than we expected, it has been suggested that the house be demolished and the property divided into two lots for sale. I haven't seen the inside of the house yet, but I'm always inclined to try to save old house. Furthermore, we've been told the barn is an English style, historically significant and rare in this area. So, there is now some consideration of restoring the barn and using it for historical displays.

There were the usual reports from Highway Superintendent, Jack Bush; Town Lawyer, Mahlon Perkins; County Representative, Martha Robertson; Zoning Officer, Henry Slater; and Environmental Planner, Dan Kwasnowski. Keep an eye on the Town website. At the moment Town Clerk, Bambi Hollenbeck, is hip deep in tax payments. As soon as she catches up, the minutes will show up on the website.

But I was disappointed that three of the topic listed for discussion (County Resilution for Non-interference of New Emergency Communications System, Recreation Partnership Resolution and the Beautification grant) never came up. The only item in the discussion section of the agenda (other than the Tuttle property) that was raised was the continuation of Fire Department OSHA grant reimbursement. And that was raised only long enough to refer it to the newly formed Emergency Services Committee (that's Dave and me.)

So, join us, if you can for a special meeting January 25 at 7:00 in the Town Hall for discussion of formation of a special commission to coordinate review and updating of the zoning ordinance.

The next regularly scheduled Town Board meeting is February 8 at 7:00 at the Town Hall.

Organizational Meeting: Official Minutes

2007-01-11T11:28:00.000-05:00

Here are the official minutes (draft, unapproved) of the January 3rd Organizational Meeting.
www.davidmakar.com/agendas/Jan_03_2007_Minutes.doc
www.davidmakar.com/agendas/Jan_03_2007_Minutes.pdf

Dryden Democrats: Two Meetings

2007-01-10T15:41:00.000-05:00

There are two meetings to consider attending this week if you are a democrat and live in the town of Dryden. You might have an Ithaca mailing address or live in the Village of Freeville or Village of Dryden, but if you live in the town of Dryden please consider attending!

Dryden Town Board, January Meeting
Come just to see what happens at a monthly town board meeting. Mary Ann Sumner and I will be your democratic representatives at the meeting. Here is a link to the official agenda:
http://www.davidmakar.com/agendas/Jan_11_2007.doc
http://www.davidmakar.com/agendas/Jan_11_2007.pdf

Contact us with questions, comments or complaints! The meeting is tomorrow, Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 7pm at 65 East Main Street, Dryden, NY (in the town hall).

Dryden Democrats January Meeting
The Dryden Democrats will be having another gathering on Sunday, January 14th, at the Candlelight Inn (49 West Main Street, Dryden) from 4:00pm to 6:00pm.

It won't be a meeting, but there will be political conversation, much of it focused on the Village of Dryden's upcoming elections. This was a fun event last year, and I'm hoping to repeat its success.

If you'd like to come, please bring something you'd like to eat. Drinks will be provided.
Thanks,
Simon St.Laurent
Chair, Dryden Democrats

The Organizational Meeting - Committees

2007-01-05T19:10:00.000-05:00

Truck Check on Thursday night at the Varna Volunteer Fire Company

I'd like to continue with my own reporting on the Wednesday, January 3rd Town of Dryden organizational meeting that I started discussing here. Beyond discussions of the resolutions we also spent some time reviewing and modifying the existing committees.
The assignments:
Appointment and committee assignments for 2007 by the Supervisor as follows:
Bookkeeper to Supervisor-------------------------------Dawn Bogdan
Deputy Supervisor-----------------------------------------Cl Stephen Stelick, Jr.
Town Hall & General Fund Bills Committee--------COMBINED TO NEW FINANCE COM.
Highway & Hwy Fund Bills Committee---------------COMBINED TO NEW FINANCE COM.
FINANCE COMMITTEE: Cl Mary Ann Sumner, Supv Steven Trumbull
Highway & Public Works Committee------------------Adhoc committee, Cl Stelick, Cl Sumner
Assessment Review Committee-----------------------Cl Stelick, Cl Sumner
Insurance Committee------------------------------------Cl Sumner, Cl Marty Christofferson
Representatives to Planning Board--------------------Cl Sumner
Representatives to Zoning Board of Appeals---------Cl Christofferson
Representatives to IAWTF-------------------------------Cl Dave Makar
Representatives to Fire Depts & Emergency Services-----Cl Sumner, Cl Makar
Representative to Recreation & Youth Services Comm---RENAMED to include Community Centers: Cl Stelick, Cl Makar
Community Block Grant Review Comm--------------COMBINED with GRANTS COM.
Rep to MPO Policy Comm---------------------------------Supv Trubull
Human Resources Committee--------------------------Dawn Bogdan, Cl Christofferson, Cl Sumner
Town

Hall

BuildingCommittee--------------------------Cl Stelick & Cl Christofferson
Representative to Conservation Board-----------------Cl Sumner
Representative to
Cayuga LakeWatershed IO-------Dan Kwasnowski
Liason Officer to Bolton Point (SCLIWC)----------------Supv Trumbull & Steve Lipinski
Grants Committee-------------------------------------------Cl Stelick, Cl Makar
Telecommunications, Cable TV & Internet Committee---RENAMED "Technology": Cl Christofferson, CL Makar
If you are keeping score at home:
Cl Christofferson: Technology; Insurance; Town Hall Building; Human Resources; Zoning Board of Appeals
Cl Makar: Recreation/Youth Services/Community Centers; Grants; Technology; Emergency Services; IAWTF
Cl Sumner: Finance; Human Resources; Emergency Services; Conservation Board; Assessment Review; HWY/Public Works, Planning Board
Cl Stelick: Recreation/Youth Services/Community Centers; Grants; Town Hall Building; Assessment Review; HWY/Public Works
Supv Trumbull: Finance; MPO; ITCTC; Liason to Bolton Point
I was fortunate to be accepted to every committee I wanted to get to work on. The platform from the campaign included improving cell phone coverage and broadband internet access - both of which may be covered by the technology committee. I also want to support the community centers which the Recreation/Youth Services/Community Centers will be working with. In addition I was hoping to be involved in economic development which the grants committee will be responsible for. Finally, for my interested in the fire companies as well as the emergency plan discussed with the Varna Community Center the Emergency Services committee looks like a good fit.
I have a lot to learn, a lot of people I'm interested in meeting with and hopefully a lot will get accomplished. I'm excited and hopeful going forward with this process.
Cross posted at DavidMakar.com and Dryden is Home

The Organizational Meeting - Resolutions

2007-01-05T18:12:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night the 2007 Dryden Town Board met for the annual Organizational Meeting. The meeting's purpose is to officially approve of the operation of the town of Dryden (TOD) and to assign members of the town board to committees and as representatives to other boards.

In the next hour and forty minutes we passed 27 of 28 resolutions and redefined a few committees.Resolutions passed included:
RESOLUTION #1 - APPROVE BUDGET MODIFICATIONS
RESOLUTION #2 – RULES OF PROCEDURE
RESOLUTION #3 – MILEAGE
RESOLUTION #4 – DESIGNATE OFFICIAL DEPOSITORIES
RESOLUTION #5 - AUTHORIZE SIGNATURES ON ACCOUNTS
RESOLUTION #6 - OFFICIAL ADVERTISING
RESOLUTION #7 - ADVANCE PAYMENT OF UTILITIES
RESOLUTION #8 - PETTY CASH
RESOLUTION #9 - APPOINTMENTS
RESOLVED, that this Town Board appoint the following:
· Town Supervisor as Service Officer and Fire Warden
· Town Supervisor has the power and duties of administration and supervision of the Town of
Dryden
on Special Assessment Fund functions to be performed on behalf of the Town Board.
· Town Supervisor is authorized to pay Fire & Ambulance Contracts
· Town Supervisor has the power and duties of administration and supervision of the Town of
Dryden
on Special Improvement District functions to be performed on behalf of the Town Board.
· Bambi L. Hollenbeck as Receiver of Taxes and Assessments
· Bambi L. Hollenbeck as licensor for Games of Chance and Bingo.
· Henry Slater as Subdivision Control Officer and Multiple Residence Inspector.
· ________________ as Bingo Inspector ($150 annual salary)
· Patricia Millard as Secretary for Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and Conservation Board
· Barbara Caldwell as Planning Board Chair ($400 annual salary)
· Oers Kelemen as ZBA Chair ($400 annual salary)
· _________________, Historian, ($400 annual salary)
RESOLUTION #10 - APPOINT TOWN ENGINEER
RESOLUTION #11 - ANNUAL SALARIES FOR TOWN OFFICERS
Town Supervisor $16,224
Council (4) $5,682
Town Clerk $24,813
Highway Superintendent $56,809
Town Justice (2) $16,863
RESOLUTION #12 - 2007 ANNUAL SALARIES
RESOLUTION #13 - CONTRACTS
RESOLVED, that this Town Board contract with the following:
Mahlon Perkins as the Attorney for the Town at an annual contract amount of $27,600 (paid monthly) to do regular agreed upon Town business, with other business and reimbursable business at the rate of $180 per hour, when signed contract received.
Randall Marcus – Attorney for Zoning Board of Appeals – paid monthly at a rate of $210-225/hr
S.P.C.A. - $18,751.78, paid monthly.
Gadabout at a rate of $6,500 – when funds are available, when signed contract received
T.C. Seniors - $3,600 – when funds are available, when signed contract received
Dryden Seniors - $500 – when funds are available, when signed contract received
Southworth Library - $11,500 – when funds are available, when signed contract received
Learning Web – $1,100 - when funds are available, when signed contract received
Women’s Opportunity of Tompkins Center - $500 – when funds are available, when signed contract received
Dryden Historical Society - $1,100 – when funds are available, when signed contract received
RESOLUTION #14 - APPOINT BUDGET OFFICERS
RESOLUTION #15 - APPOINT PLANNING BOARD MEMBER
RESOLUTION #16 - APPOINT ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS MEMBER
RESOLUTION #17 - APPOINT RECREATION COMMISSION MEMBER - not passed on 1/3/07
RESOLUTION #18 - APPOINT CONSERVATION BOARD MEMBERS
RESOLUTION #19 - APPOINT RECREATION PARTNERSHIP REPRESENTATIVE
RESOLUTION #20 - APPOINT YOUTH COMMISSION MEMBER
RESOLUTION #21 - VOUCHER/INVOICE SUBMISSION DEADLINES
RESOLUTION #22 - MANDATORY JUSTICE SCHOOLING
RESOLUTION #23 - INVESTMENT POLICIES/GUIDELINES FOR TOWN OF DRYDEN
RESOLUTION #24 - TOWN OF DRYDEN FAIR HOUSING OFFICER
RESOLUTION #25 - TOWN BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE
RESOLUTION #26 - VEHICLE BENEFIT
RESOLUTION #27 - REQUEST EXTENSION TO FILE ANNUAL REPORT
RESOLUTION #28 - APPROVE ABSTRACT #13
What parts of this do you have questions about? I will do my best to explain what is what (as it was explained to me).
Specific Notes on Resolutions:
Resolution #3 - Mileage: The IRS/Federal Government has different rates for cars than motorcycles. Town employees that report mileage on personal vehicles should specify if the miles are for an automobile or motorcylcle so they can be paid the legally correct amount. The cost to the town for this is minimal as discussion came up that there is just one town employee that might use a personal motorcycle for town business travel. To be fair and legal this will need to be distinguished and reviewed.
Resolution #9 - Appointments: The Town Supervisor as the "Service Officer and Fire Warden" -- as of the meeting time noone knew what the service officer did. Steve Trumbull was planning to ask the town attorney. The "Special Assessment Fund" was also unknown. Mary Ann Sumner agreed to look it up. The "Special Improvement District" includes water and sewer (as well as lighting I'm guessing). The Bingo Inspector's position is open and there was some discussion as to filling it. The town's Historian position is available and the tentative thought was to increase the annual salary from $400 to $1000 as the county recommends.
Resolution #13 - Contracts: "Learning Web" has been contacted and there has been no year end report furnished in the recent past. All other contracts have been authorized. Once "Learning Web" makes contact with the town board their contract will be signed and money will be dispersed. Do you know what Learning Web is and are you involved at all? Here is their website: http://www.learning-web.org/ I can't seem to find out what they are doing for the people of Dryden. I am hopeful we will get some details.
Resolution #26 - Vehicle Benefit: There was some discussion over the benefit add on to income tax. If your vehicle benefit in one year is $10,000 then you will need to pay taxes on that vehicle benefit. Obviously we have to follow IRS rules on this and it is primarily up to the employee gaining the benefit to take care of this. Dawn will need to look to see if they need to pay.
Resolution #28 - Approve Abstract #13: The town spends a lot of money each month as does any business. At the beginning of each meeting a stack of reciepts about two phone books high is available for review by the board and then the vote on the abstract is the final resolution of the evening. While the town board members are reviewing the abstract they are unable to listen to everything else that is going on with their undivided attention. A finance committee that reviewed the abstract ahead of the meeting may make more sense, but more of that in the next post.

Cross posted at DavidMakar.com and Dryden is Home

Public Works.

2006-12-29T08:14:00.000-05:00

Dryden Highway Department and Public Works have been busy despite little need for snowplowing. Among many other things, they've been extending sewer lines along East Main Street toward the site of the new town hall.

I talked to Superintendant Jack Bush recently about how they handle soil removed from such construction projects. I was happy to learn that all topsoil is stored for future use. But they often have to dispose of subsoil. Some is stored on Johnson road. The department also keeps a list of residents' requests for fill. So, rather than paying to dispose of fill or trucking it to Johnson Road, they are often able to deliver fill to a site closer to where they're working.

The same is true for woodchips generated by all those roadside trimming projects in the spring and summer. Any Dryden resident can ask to be included on the list by calling the Highway Department at 844-8620. I was happy to get a load of woodchips last summer and now I'm thinking of all the ways I might use a load of fill.

A resident recently asked me if the community could be involved in the spring clean-up at Dryden Lake usually done by the Public Works Department. I'm a great believer in volunteer efforts and Jack agrees that it could work. If other people are interested, I'll find someone to coordinate the work. The Town is not responsible for maintenance of Montgomery Park, but I must say the landscaping there could use some sprucing up. Anyone want to take that on?

Dryden Democrats January Meeting

2006-12-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

From Simon, our Committee Chair:

The Dryden Democrats will be having another gathering on Sunday, January 14th, at the Candlelight Inn (49 West Main Street, Dryden) from 4:00pm to 6:00pm.
It won't be a meeting, but there will be political conversation, much of it focused on the Village of Dryden's upcoming elections. This was a fun event last year, and I'm hoping to repeat its success.
If you'd like to come, please bring something you'd like to eat. Drinks will be provided.
Thanks,
Simon St.Laurent
Chair, Dryden Democrats
_______________________
drydems mailing list
drydems@lists.simonstl.com http://lists.simonstl.com/mailman/listinfo/drydems

Dryden Emergency Services

2006-12-15T12:36:00.000-05:00

I wish I'd reported on the last Town Board meeting before this article was published. In fact, I wish I'd followed my instinct and invited the fire chiefs to the meeting. The reporter, Tiffany Edwards, seems like a nice enough person whose main handicap is being very new in town. But she has described the fire department issue using several concepts that I specifically told her were not what we're talking about. We're not talking about mediation. It's really not a dispute. And we certainly haven't decided anything.

As the fire chiefs know, the Town Board has been considering for more than a year, creating a staff position for an emergency services coordinator. Emergency services are hugely important in the town and are a major budget item. It's difficult for Board members to make long range plans for emergency services and we rely heavily on the expertise of the chiefs of the four departments. When they disagree it becomes impossibly time consuming to collect enough information to reach a reasonable solution.

So, it seems like a good idea to hire someone to help sort this out. And it seems like this person could help save time and aggravation for the chiefs as well as for the board members. But I think it's important to remember that the chiefs are the chiefs. They're the ones with the information necessary for any decision making. (I will say, the Town could have collected and synthesized better information over the years this discussion has been going on - but we didn't)

I've had more than enough of "He said..." "She said..." (although there isn't actually any "she" except me.) The Town Board meets on a regular basis and the Fire Chiefs meet regularly. But at least in the past year we've never met all together. The chiefs have all been present at public Town Board meetings a couple of times. But those meetings are not conducive to discussion.

I think we all have the same goal: to provide the best emergency services we can for the most reasonable cost. Now we need to clarify that and begin working on how to achieve it. A paid coordinator won't help if the chiefs won't talk to him or her or if they don't agree on the goal or if they have conflicting sub-agendas of their own.

I've worked with Community Dispute Resolution Center facilitators on other projects. They are excellent at keeping meetings focused and assuring that everyone is heard. I want them to help board members talk to and listen to chiefs. I don't go to chiefs meetings, but just for once, I want to be sure the chiefs are talking and listening to each other. If we go forward with the paid coordinator position, that person will be responsible for making recommendations to the board. We need to be sure that the chiefs feel they are fairly represented or we'll only be adding a new layer to an already contentious situation. Before we hire someone and throw them to the lions - well, I want to say something about feeding the lions, but that sounds condescending. I just want to be sure the Fire Chiefs think it's a good idea and will try to work with him/her.

Committees

2006-12-13T10:14:00.000-05:00

I'm often surprised by the names of Committees in the House or Senate. This morning CSPAN is repeating a press conference with Rep George Miller (D-CA), incoming chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee. We haven't heard enough recently from this Committee, whose slogan, if not mission, is Protecting the Interests of Students, Workers, and Retirees. Committee structure, like budget structure, reflects what we think is important enough to command our time or money.

The next Town Board meeting, Friday January 5, 2007, is an organizational meeting. Many ritual actions required by Municipal law will be taken. Check out the minutes of last year's meeting to see what I mean.

Nearly the last item on the agenda will be the Supervisor's appointments. Of the ten committees listed in last year's minutes, five never met and most of the others only met once in 2006. Given that committees are where the work underlying policy decisions should be taking place I think this is a problem.

So, I'm planning to put together some suggestions for a but more rational committee structure and some goal setting ideas. Anyone want to make suggestions?

Iraq Study Group

2006-12-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

I would not have thought it was possible to feel as optimistic about national policy as I do this morning. I have a whole new list of names to research for possible inclusion in my list of heroes. One of the most wonderful aspects of yesterday's news about the report of the Iraq Study Group is the surprise factor. It's been a long time since Congress and the President accepted an independent report with such apparent open-mindedness as they have received the report of the Iraq Study Group. That indicates that the Iraq Study Group has done its job thoroughly. It's not enough to write the report if you can't get anyone to read it.

I'm comforted by the mere existence of United States Institute of Peace, facilitator of the Iraq Study Group; by the knowledge that not so long ago Congress acted on an idea, first stated in 1792, to establish "an office for promoting and preserving perpetual peace in our country." I am similarly comforted by the roles played by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Center for the Study of the Presidency (CSP.)

From the Timeline page of the Institute of Peace:

In March, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) asks USIP to coordinate the Iraq Study Group and appropriates funds for its administration. Three other organizations are asked to assist: the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Center for the Study of the Presidency, and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. Congressional organizers select former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, and former chairman of the House International Relations Committee Lee Hamilton as co-chairs of the ISG. The co-chairs, in consultation with the supporting organizations, choose the other members of the ISG.

I recognize problems with the process. Why did we wait three years to start the study? Why did we wait 'til after elections to release the results? I question the use of the term "bipartisan" instead of "non-partisan." I'm horrified at even the suggestion of committing more troops to Iraq. But at some point I'm prepared to accept the work of well qualified people who seem to done a thorough job of collecting the facts and exploring the alternatives. I haven't read the entire report yet. I'm printing it out now. So far, it seems to be an example of the clearest thinking and clearest writing I've seen in a long time.

This image is a tile I've had since I was in high school. I bought it at the drug store around the corner from my best friend's house. On the back it's got sticky tape with remnants of sheetrock from someplace I lived in the past.

Picasso painted many versions of peace doves. This one, with the many colored people dancing, has always been my favorite. Doves are not enough. In fact, as Bill has explained to me, doves are not inherently peaceful at all. Having no meaningful weapons, they haven't developed any behavioral inhibitions for aggressive behavior. You may have seen them beating on each other at your feeder. In fact, in captivity, they engage in bloody battles. (Sidenote: For some reason Bill met the Postmaster General of the United Nations in the fifties and this dove issue came up in conversation. The Postmaster was so impressed that he declined to use any dove designs for UN stamps for the duration of his term in office.)

So, with fervent hope and a grain of optimism, today I'm hanging the peace dancers where I'll see them every day. Perhaps in some magical way, the energy of being reminded daily of the possibility of peace will coalesce and contribute to the peace effort. Or perhaps it will remind me to talk to everyone I know and lots of people I don't know yet, about the possibility of peace and the importance of working for it.

(Cross posted at Five Wells)

First Post: Roads and Stripes (DMM #1)

2006-11-17T16:03:00.000-05:00

Hello to the reading audience of Dryden Democrats (I'll have to ask Mary Ann to update the header)!

A few hours after the election results were made public I received my first constituent phone call. I quickly started to search for the answer and here's a brief synopsis for the public.

Issue: Stripes on roads faded and missing from some town roads

Notes: In the last week with all of the precipitation and changes in temperature we in Dryden had a lot of fog roll in. The most noticible fog was on the roads and driving visibility was around 20 feet in some places (sometimes less!).

Answers (via Mary Ann Sumner, Town Board Member and Jack Bush, Dryden Highway Superintendent):

When a municipality decides to stripe a road it then has to continue to maintain the striping
There was a time when none of the Town roads were striped
As with everything in the Highway business it is expensive
Last year approximately 18 miles were striped and the year before 22 miles (There are 163 named roads in the Town making a total of 117.3 miles of Town highways)
Every year it is difficult to get the striping companies to stripe Town roads
They are limited to their window of time to apply paint to the roads because of weather conditions & equipment failure
State & County roads become higher priority obviously because of higher traffic counts and miles being painted
The Town does not own a paint striping truck & it would not be cost effective to buy one
The Town uses the contractor that has the Bid with Tompkins County
This year has been a difficult one for the contractor who received the bid because of rainy weather & a truck breaking down & it looks like they may not ever get to us
Three other contractors have been contacted by the highway department and they are all behind because of the weather
The weather will continue to get colder & snow will fall; this probably will mean no striping this year

Jack mentioned that he recieved 5 phone calls on Tuesday because of fog on Monday night. When he personally was driving through the fog he knew he would be getting calls. He tries to be proactive with highway issues however he is at the mercy of both the striping contractors & mother nature.

For a complete set of Town highway projects completed in 2005 and the goals for 2006 see the Town of Dryden Highway Department homepage and scroll down:
http://www.dryden.ny.us/hiway.html

Welcome Dave Makar

2006-11-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

In my enthusiasm for the local Democratic sweep, I glossed over the election of Democrat Dave Makar to the Dryden Town Board. I'm bowled over by the amount of work Dave did to get to know people and issues in Dryden. I'm looking forward having him on the Board. With his help I won't feel like I'm swimming upstream all the time.

Dave has offered to share his thoughts here at Dryden Democrats. Welcome, Dave, and congratulations!

Theocracy

2006-11-09T09:25:00.000-05:00

The Senators and Congressmen who lost their seats in this election are not just a random group. Five of the six losing Senators have 100% approval ratings from the Christian Coalition. And three of those also have 0% ratings from the League of Conservation Voters.

Of twenty-three Republican Congressmen who are being replaced by Democrats because they either lost or retired, seventeen (74%) have Christian Coalition ratings of 80% or more. All but two (69%) of those have League of Conservation Voters ratings of 20% or less.

The Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University has a website called Theocracy Watch. Both Republicans and Christians should try harder to distance themselves from the Christian Coalition. Not because they oppose reproductive rights and clean air, but because they reject facts and believe they can create their own reality.

Republican's Wake Up Call

2006-11-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Democrats for sweeping every contested race on the ballot in Dryden: Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, State Assembly, US House and Senate, Sheriff, NYS Supreme Court judge and Town Board.

Republicans have allowed religious fundamentalists to drag their party to an incredibly dangerous position. I hope the results of these elections energize conservative and moderate Republicans to regain control of their party. I'm happy to work with and compete with honest Republicans. But the arrogance and authoritarianism and irrationality of a large part of the Republican Party are way over the edge. What I don't understand is why so many people started recognizing this the day after the 2004 election and not the day before the election.

Election Day Reading

2006-11-07T08:05:00.000-05:00

This morning I spotted a couple of Carnivals new to me. A Carnival in the blog world is a collection of posts on a particular subject. There are Carnivals on every topic under the sun.

The Carnival of Divided Government makes a strong case for the importance of a balance of power in the legislature.

The Carnival of the Decline of Democracy is interesting, though more partisan. Why is it that only Democrats are concerned about recent threats to Constitutional checks and balances?

There's a Change in the Air

2006-11-05T10:35:00.000-05:00

It's been a tough month with campaigning, town business and the change of seasons at home. Dryden Democrats have been much busier than this blog suggests.

It snowed during the Town Budget hearing last week. My thanks to whomever left this adorable little snowman on my car. I turned off the heat and moved the little guy to the floor of the back seat and rushed home to put him (or her) on the deck outside my window where he lifted my spirits for hours and into the next day before he succumbed to the sun.

I want to write more about the town budget, but I won't have time today. Let me summarize by saying the bottom line is no increase in the tax rate. There is a 4% increase in the tax levy because of increasing assessments. That 4% is a comfortable amount to cover 4% cost of living salary increases as well as some new projects. In 2007 we will begin a lengthy review of a very old and awkward zoning ordinance. We'll undertake a review of some personnel policies and a townwide assessment recreation facilities, programs and needs. We're planning for a public audit for the first time in several years. We'll be moving into the new town hall, continuing work on the Freeville-Dryden trail and much more. It will be an exciting year for the town.

All this will begin approximately the day after elections. This month's Town Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 15 at 7:00 PM. This is a change from our usual Thursday meeting time. There is also a meeting of the Conservation Board Tuesday, November 14 at 7:30 PM and a meeting of the Planning Board Thursday, November 16 at 7:00 PM.

Speaking of elections... Of course, you know Tuesday is election day. If you're not sure where or when to vote call me. I'll help you find out. If you'd like help getting to the polls, call me. I'll help you get a ride.

It's no secret that I'm supporting Dave Makar for Town Board. I've worked well with his opponent, Dan Tier, and his thinking about fire department issues has been interesting. But Dave's business experience, commitment to the community, basic good sense and incredible hard work are irresistible to me. And besides, he's a Democrat. Read Barack Obama on Democrats' sense of obligation to the community.

I've also campaigned with Mike Arcuri for Congress in the NY 24th district. I disagree with him on a couple of issues and I've talked to him about it. I don't know yet if I've influenced him, but I know he's heard me. I wanted to meet his opponent, Ray Meier, but at the last minute Meier cancelled his appearance at the reception I'd been invited to.

I feel strongly about re-electing sheriff Meskill. His professionalism has brought strong improvements in fiscal policy and effectiveness to the department.

Don't forget Hillary Clinton for Senate, Barbara Lifton for NYS Assembly. And if you haven't met Elizabeth Garry, take my word for it. You'll like her and she'll be an excellent NYS Supreme Court Judge.

Barack Obama

2006-10-27T11:13:00.000-04:00

This morning Washington Journal referred to the Time cover article on Barack Obama and asked "Should Obama run for president in 2008?" Most people calling in said they didn't know enough about him even to have an opinion on whether or not he should run - several people even slamming the media for making a big deal about Obama when nobody's heard of him. I have to wonder why someone would call in to a talk show just to say how completely ignorant they are. But let's set that aside for a moment.

You've already heard me making a big deal about Obama and slamming the media for ignoring him. So as you can imagine, I'm please with the recent flood of coverage following the release of his book, The Audacity of Hope. If you know people who need some help getting to know Obama, try Americans For Democratic Action. Their 2005 scorecard evaluates voting records on twenty issues important to Democrats last year. Obama, along with twenty one other senators including Clinton and Schumer, voted for Democratic values on all these issues. The League of Conservation Voters ranks Obama 100% on seven key votes in 2006. The National Education Association gives Obama an A on 14 key votes in 2005 and 2006. Obama's Senate website and his professional website both include links to many of his speeches (but not the Iowa speech that so impressed me.)

Should Obama run for president? That's really not the most important question. Just listen to him. If you can't remember what the Democratic Party is about, if you have trouble explaining the Democratic Party to your relatives around the Thanksgiving table, if you're tired of hearing "Democrats don't have a plan," listen to Obama and follow the link on his website to Do More Than Vote.

Community Science Institute

2006-10-04T09:57:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to a presentation by the Community Science Institute. (At the moment their old website, featuring contact information and a "Welcome" link, is still up. But I hope by the time you're reading this the new one they were demonstrating last night, with links to each watershed feeding the southern end of Cayuga Lake, will be up.)

CSI coordinates an extensive volunteer effort to test and monitor water quality of Virgil Creek, Fall Creek, Six Mile Creek, Taughannock Creek, Trumansburg Creek, Salmon Creek and the Cayuga Inlet. About eight times a year, volunteers measure temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen, phosphate and nitrate levels at several specific points on each creek. Water samples are submitted to CSI's certified professional lab for verification and analysis of additional parameters including E. Coli, Phosphorus and Nitrate.

In addition to water sampling, which provides a snapshot of a specific moment in the life of the creek, once a year volunteers sample Benthic macroinvertebrates (BMI) present in stream water. BMI are collected and identified to order and family and compared to a model developed by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Each type of BMI is sensitive to different characteristics of water quality. So analysis of the number of each type of BMI reveals a useful picture of the water quality over the recent past history of the creek.

In the past government agencies have not used data collected by volunteers because the accuracy of the data was not verifiable. CSI has developed "simple yet effective protocols for volunteers that were field-tested and shown to assure data quality when they were applied consistently." Extensive volunteer training as well as independent verification by CSI's lab have resulted in a high degree of confidence in the data.

Data collected over the past few years show streams in the Cayuga Lake watershed to be healthy. Scored on a ten point scale, local streams score around 7.5 - about what would be expected on a body of water with a moderate amount of human activity around it. As executive director, Stephen Penningroth, put it, Six Mile Creek is "not wilderness, but it's not New Jersey either."

Community water quality testing often only begins when there is a known problem. This project provides useful data on a healthy watershed. In addition, it provides baseline data for the Lake Cayuga watershed so that problems can be recognized as they begin to develop and mitigated in the early stages. Finally, extensive involvement of community volunteers helps educate the public and encourages residents to get to know their streams, develop a sense of protectiveness and take pride in their quality.

[Cross posted at Five Wells.]

Tax Dollars at Work

2006-09-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

I wanted to talk to Highway Superintendant, Jack Bush, about some details of his 2007 budget request. Neither of us wanted to be stuck in his office in the town garage yesterday, so I met him on the job at the new Town Hall site. Work is well underway and the open meadow where we met last month to break ground is already a distant memory.

Dryden Public Works crew and a private contractor were at work removing an underground fuel tank on the adjacent property recently purchased by the Town. The bad news was that the tank was nearly full. The good news was that it wasn't leaking. Three or four hundred gallons of fuel and water were pumped out of the tank. The tank will be cleaned and recycled and the fuel will be processed for recycling.

Jack and I talked about the budget in the truck on the way to where rock was being delivered for the Virgil Creek Stabilization Project. Flooding caused the creek to shift course a few years ago bringing it up against the base of the hill in the background. At the top of the hill the road is just a few feet away. So moving the creek back to its original course away from the hill was important to protect the hill and the road above. The relocation of the creek has been accomplished but placement of enormous rocks to stabilize the current course is ongoing.

We went on to visit the Virgil Creek Flood Control Dam. My crude composite photo doesn't begin to show how beautiful this area is.

I don't normally favor tampering this much with natural features. But if the village of Dryden must be protected from flooding, this seems like a good way of doing it. Above the fish ladder you can see the original course of the creek.

The earthen dam is the hill in the background of this view of the restricting culvert. During a "heavy rain event" the five foot diameter culvert restricts the amount of water flowing downstream and the water is held in the huge, man-made basin. A high water marker can be seen (barely) in the panorama above just to the right of the trees in the center of the photo.

And from atop the dam, this is the view of the Creek going more or less happily on its way. This 90 acre area is open to hiking and the dreaded snowmobiling. Seems to me it would also be good for cross country skiing.

Ithaca Journal

2006-09-25T08:32:00.000-04:00

Simon's on vacation so I'll be reading the Ithaca Journal - at least the online version. This morning the Ithaca Journal reports on Dryden's application for funding to restore a house on East Main St. The town recently bought this property, adjacent to the new town hall site, to facilitate design of access to the new town hall. Funding from Restore NY will make it possible for the town to restore the house on this property and return it to residential use. A public hearing on the town's application for Restore NY funding is scheduled for 7:30 AM (yes AM) Tuesday September 26.

Barack Obama: Had Enough?

2006-09-21T08:43:00.000-04:00

I wish news coverage of Barack Obama's speech in Iowa focused on what he said and not on speculation about his 2008 candidacy. And I wish that more reporters had actually heard the speech. The speech was televised. You can see it here. (Fast forward to about 23 minutes for the section of the speech quoted below.) How hard would it be to write an original article about it? Yet dozens of newspapers and TV and radio stations carried the AP story with the headline "Dems Need Tough Security Stance" and the quote "What Democrats have to do is to close the deal." And dozens more carried the Chicago Tribune article with the headline, "Obama greeted like a rock star in Iowa" ('though the Tribune's headline was "Iowa Democrats see contender in Obama.")

The New York Times at least picked up the line that caught my attention. Obama says, "I don’t think that George Bush is a bad man.” He goes on to say that Bush and Republicans "believe in different things” and to underscore the party’s agenda by explaining the variety of ways Americans have “had enough” of Republican and Bush administration policies.

In case you don't have time to listen to Barack Obama, here's part of the speech:

I don’t think George Bush is a bad man. I don’t. I think George Bush wants to do right by America. I think he’s a patriotic person. I don’t think the people who work for him are stupid people. I think a lot of them are smart - in their own way. I think the problem is that they’ve got a different idea of America than we’ve got. They believe in different things.

They have a sense that, in fact, Government is the problem, not the solution. And that if we just dismantle government piece by piece, if we break it up in tax cuts to the wealthy and if we make sure we privatize social security and we get rid of public schools and we make sure that we don’t have police on the streets, we have private security guards and we don’t have public parks, we’ve got private parks, if we just break everything up that, in fact, everybody’s going to be better off. That we don’t have obligations to each other, that we’re not in it together but, instead, you’re on your own. That’s the basic concept behind the ownership society. That’s what George Bush and this Republican Congress have been arguing for, for the last six years. And it’s a tempting idea. Because it doesn’t require anything from each of us. It’s very easy for us to say that I’m going to think selfishly only about myself.

That I don’t have to worry about the fact that 46 million people don’t have health insurance. I don’t have to make any effort to deal with the fact that our children don’t have opportunity to go to college because student loans have been cut. I don’t have to worry about the guy just who lost his job after working 30 years in a plant because his plant’s moved to Mexico or out to China, despite the fact that he has been producing profits on behalf of that company this whole time and he’s lost his health care and he’s lost his pension as a consequence. I don’t have to worry about those things.

But here’s the problem. The problem is that that idea won’t work. Because despite the much vaunted individual initiative and self reliance that has been at the essence of the American Dream the fact of the matter is that there’s always been this other idea of America. This idea that says we have a stake in each other. That I am my brother’s keeper. That I am my sister’s keeper. That I’ve got an obligation. Not just for my self, not just for my family, but also for you. That every child is my child and every senior citizen deserves
protection.

That simple notion is one that we understand in our churches, in our synagogues, in our mosques. It’s an idea we understand in our own families, in our own blocks, in our workplaces. But it also has to reflect itself in our government.

You know, nobody here expects government to solve all our problems for us. We don’t want government to solve our problems. What we do expect is that government can help. The government can make a
difference in all of our lives. And that is essentially the battle that we’re going to be fighting in this election. It is a battle about education, it is a battle about health care. It is a battle about energy. But it is also a battle about what America is going to be about, America’s future, about how we relate to each other and how we understand our place in this world.

Now the fact is, if you look at the record of the last six years, we shouldn’t have a problem in this election. I know, Tom, you wouldn’t normally hear this quoted at one of your steak fries. But, you know, the other day I heard Newt Gingrich speak. I don’t normally quote Newt Gingrich – at least at Democratic events. But I’ve gotta say Newt caught my attention. ‘cause folks were asking him, you know, given all the problems Republicans have had managing the country, managing the economy, managing the war in Iraq, what do you thinks going to happen in this election? And Newt Gingrich said to the commenter, “If I was advising the Democrats, I gotta admit I would just use two words to campaign.” And the reporter said “What are the two words?” and he said “Had enough.”

Had enough! And I don’t know about you. But I think old Newt’s on to something. Because I’ve had enough…

Of Drug companies writing the prescription plan….
Of Oil companies writing the energy bill…
Of A Bill like no child left behind that left the money behind…
Of a do nothing, not even trying, effort to deal with the health care crisis that every single American is affected by…

And let me tell you something else I’ve had enough of. I’ve had enough of using terrorism as a wedge issue in our politics. I’ve had enough of that.

Cross posted at Five Wells
[ed. 9-22-06 Corrected link to the speech.]

Town Board Meeting

2006-09-19T08:03:00.000-04:00

Councilperson Stelick was well prepared to run the Board meeting in the absence of Supervisor Trumbull. The meeting opened with a statement from Peter Schug appealing to the Board to consider extending the current repayment schedule for Cayuga Press's economic development loan as he prepares to move the business to the Empire Zone in Cortland County. Schug expects to be moving in January and the Board plans to reach a decision about the loan by then.

Several Beam Hill residents spoke about the conflict surrounding creation of a motocross bike track in the neighborhood. One group is proud of creating a safe recreation area for teenagers interested in motorbike racing while another group is concerned about the noise and dirt coming from the track. The groups have begun talking about limiting the times kids use the track and Councilperson Stelick recommended that they contact Community Dispute Resolution Center if they are unable to reach agreement among themselves.

County Legislator, Martha Robertson, announced upcoming meetings regarding the County budget. In order to meet the legislature's goal of a zero tax rate increase, "The Tentative Budget eliminates or severely reduces funding for agencies and programs including the Recreation Partnership, Rural Libraries, Cooperative Extension, the Tompkins County Public Library, Lifelong, the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance and the Human Services Coalition, as well as the County's Departments of Social Services, Personnel and Administration." Dryden residents are encouraged to read about the County budget and attend planned meetings if they have concerns about planned budget cuts. A public information meeting will be held Thursday, September 21 at 7:00 PM at GIAC. The public hearing will be November 14 with the final vote on the budget planned for November 21.

Dave Putnam reported that property owners in the proposed Pinckney Road water district have been contacted and two responses have been received - one for and one against formation of the district.

Recreation Coordinator, Jennifer Dube, reports that the agreement with the Village of Dryden for the Skate Park is ready. Dube also distributed results of the Recreational Needs Assessment conducted by a recreation class at SUNY Cortland. I expect to write more about this in the near future. I hope the report can be made available on the town website.

The Board approved a $2,000 payment to the Varna Community Association to fund recreation programming and agreed to endorse the association's search for funding for a generator to enhance the ability to provide emergency services at the Varna Community Center.

Zoning Officer, Henry Slater, reports that we have an opportunity to apply for funding from Restore NY to finance improvements to the Tuttle property adjacent to the new town hall site and recently purchased by the town.

The Renewable Energy Law proposal was accepted by the Board. That is, it was accepted as a proposal. Some objection to the proposal was voiced because the proposed law, intended to promote small scale residential and commercial use of renewable energy conversion systems, severely limits development of large scale production of electricity from wind energy. A public hearing was scheduled for October 5. Following the close of the public hearing the board may vote on the proposal.

Proposed Energy Law

2006-08-31T08:02:00.000-04:00

It feels like the proposed Renewable Energy Law is teetering on the threshold of bureaucratic purgatory. And it's getting hard to tell who's poised to push in which direction. Each new and improved version draws a flurry of responses from a new or revisiting stakeholder. Each proposed change has to pass through the eye of several needles.

I must say, the only corner from which no obstacles have arisen is the Town Board. All Town Board members have been supportive and willing to meet at any time to take the next step. Hurdles have been coming from the Conservation Board, the Environmental Planner, Zoning Enforcement and, yes, the town attorney. The Conservation Board has been silent for about a week. Dan K. has acquiesced. Henry's most recent request involved only the insertion of two words. And yesterday I got approval from Mahlon to correct a significant typo introduced last week by his office.

So once again, the final draft is ready to go out. It's actually FinalDraft.v6. And once again I have the feeling I'm throwing it into the fan. Since changes were still being kicked around, it could not be introduced at the August 23 meeting or yesterday's ground breaking meeting. Now it will be reviewed one last time by anyone still willing to reread it and, barring any further last minute objections, will be introduced at the September 14 Town Board meeting. If no substantial objections are raised, board members may set a public hearing date near the end of September. Once again barring substantial objection, the Board may vote, following the close of the public hearing, to pass the law.

Dave Makar

2006-08-16T08:58:00.000-04:00

At last night's caucus, Dryden Democrats nominated David Makar to run for Dryden Town Board. After nearly two years in his new home on Slaterville Road and building his website design and development company 544 Productions, Dave has been looking for ways to work in the community. He recently joined the Varna Volunteer Fire Department and after many conversations with Dryden democrats including Simon St Laurent, Martha Robertson, Mike Lane, Kathy Zahler and myself, he has decided to run for a seat on the Town Board. Among the issues Dave is concerned with are strengthening existing community centers, economic development, particularly around the Rt 13/Rt 366 intersection and affordable, universal high-speed internet access throughout the Town of Dryden. I didn't plant that last one. Remember Dave's a web developer. He gets it that internet access is an economic issue for Dryden residents.

Check out Dave's blog Dryden is Home for stories about his participation in Women Swimmin' (to benefit Hospicare), fishing, and gardening.

We'll be arranging opportunities for Dryden voters to get to know Dave over the next few weeks. If you can help with the campaign, please contact Simon St Laurent.

August Town Board Meeting

2006-08-11T10:42:00.000-04:00

Several issues were discussed in depth last night while some others were glossed over.

The Public Hearing on the development of a Dollar General store on North Street remains open pending further information on the lighting plan, traffic plan and more.

The Varna Community Association, taking the initiative on emergency planning, asked the Town to fund a generator which would enable them to provide shelter and meals in the event of a power outage presuming the outage does not affect the natural gas supply. The sense of the Board was that we cannot fund this project at this time, but we need to work on a town-wide emergency plan.

Jessica Houle asked for Town support for the OURS program helping youth in the Congers Trailer Park neighborhood. Environmental Planner, Dan Kwasnowski, agreed to meet with her to help develop a grant concept.

Highway superintendent, Jack Bush, has postponed replacing a grader 'til next year and will be replacing a sand/salt spreader and acquiring a 6' rotary mower. Jack estimates the cost of expanding the parking area at the Finger Lakes Land Trust's Ellis Hollow Creek Road property to be $2,500 in materials and $3,500 in labor. Etna Community Association thanks the Dryden crew for mowing the playground and asks for help repairing the post office parking lot. Jack will try to help with the request to lower the speed limit on Baker Hill Road later in the summer when summer road repairs near completion.

The big news from the Engineering Department is that bids for the new town hall have been received and opened. The total of low bids for construction, HVAC, electric and plumbing total by $31,132 (1% of the $2,965,000 authorized for the project.) Architect, Tony Egner, submitted a list of items totaling $108,450 which might be altered to bring the cost of the project down to the authorized amount. Egner, the low bidders and the Board town hall committee will meet to review the proposals. Following this meeting, the Town Board will call a special meeting to approve resolutions to issue contracts for construction of the new town hall.

Town Engineers have completed plans for Pinckney Road sewer and water districts. Property owners will be asked if, in view of the high cost, there is interest in continuing. Engineers also recommend purchase of a small building to house new radio telemetry equipment provided by Bolton Point, saving the town $190 a month in current phone service required for telemetry.

From the Recreation Department: action on the skateboard park will be delayed 'til the town attorney drafts the necessary agreement with the village. Fall sports schedules are available. Recreation coordinator, Jennifer Dube, on behalf of Varna Community Association, requested funding to replace mildewed carpet in the Community Center and replace old folding tables. After lengthy discussion of the community center budget line added to the 2006 budget the board concluded that the intent was to provide seed money to pursue grant funding for a larger capital project. We agreed to release enough money from that line for each community center to request up to $2,000 to fund recreational programs for residents. In this way, although the town cannot invest in privately owned facilities, some of Varna's program costs can be funded enabling the community association to afford to replace the carpet.

Code enforcement Officer, Henry Slater, submitted a request from New York Atlantic-Inland Safety Inspections to exempt one of their inspectors from new town regulations governing qualifications of electrical inspectors.

Environmental Planner, Dan Kwasnowski, introduced a proposal to begin work on updating town zoning regulations in accordance with the Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Board last year.

The final draft of the proposed Renewable Energy Law was distributed to Board Members. Since this draft was not available until 5:00 PM on the day of the meeting, no action is proposed at this time. Board members may comment and revisions may be made until the interim Board meeting expected to be scheduled before the end of August. At that time, if the Board agrees, the law will be introduced and a public hearing scheduled for September.

Glenn Wolford presented a proposal from the NYSDEC to acquire a 33 acre parcel of land near Irish Settlement Road. The parcel is landlocked and would make a valuable addition to the Yellow Barn Forest and would remain on the tax rolls (as does other Yellow Barn Forest land) and the Board endorses the proposal.

Councilman Tier said he'd like to talk to Etna Fire Chief, Tom Lobdell, before discussing the Etna Fire Department Contract.

Cayuga Press's HUD loan and Emergency Services coordinator were not discussed and will presumable appear on future agendas. Someday I'm going to look at items that continue to show up on the agenda month after month with little or no progress.

Dryden Democratic Caucus

2006-08-09T09:46:00.000-04:00

Let me bring KAZ's comment to the front page.

The Dryden Democratic Caucus is Tuesday, August 15, at 7 PM at Dryden Town Hall. All registered Democrats from the Town of Dryden are encouraged to attend. We select candidates to run on the ballot in November in one of two ways: via petition and by caucus. The latter is old-fashioned, but far more interesting.

There is one local contest this fall. Dan Tier was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Mike Hattery's resignation. Consequently, that seat is up for election this year.

Registered Democrats, please join us at the Caucus Tuesday. Meet with your neighbors. Show your support. Voice your opinion. Have some fun.

Upcoming Town Board Meeting

2006-08-05T10:09:00.000-04:00

The following items are scheduled for discussion at the next Town Board meeting, August 10 at 7:00PM:

a) Energy Ordinance
b) HUD Loan – Cayuga Press
c) Nita’s replacement for Dryden Youth Commission
d) Community Center at Conger Trailer Park
e) Dollar General Hearing Continuation
f) Town Supervisor’s Term
g) Emergency Services Coordinator
h) Etna Fire Department Contract
i) DEC Acquisition of Land for Yellow Barn State Forest
j) Pinckney Road Water & Sewer Hearing
k) Tompkins County Water Resource Council Representative
l) Dryden Ambulance Award
m) Telemetry NYSEG Tank Building

Discussion items are near the end of the agenda, so it's often 9:00 or later when they come up. Still, discussions are lively and frank. Though comments from non-board members are not routinely part of the discussion, residents may ask to participate and the supervisor may agree. Even if you don't wish to speak, consider coming to the board meeting to listen. It's really the only way to find out how things work.

Ask a Woman to Run for Office

2006-08-01T22:32:00.000-04:00

When I ran for the Town Board last year, I was focused on becoming the only Democrat on the board. Halfway through the election when a newspaper reporter asked me what I thought about becoming the only woman on the Board, I was momentarily stumped. Here in the Ithaca area, we're a tad further along the road to enlightenment than some others places. Women's issues were not uppermost in my mind.

Recently Irene Stein, from the Tompkins County Democratic Committee, invited me to participate in Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Campaign School. I felt like I'd been invited by Eleanor Roosevelt herself and I jumped at the chance. We met tonight for introductions.

The training, designed by people at Emily's List, is designed to encourage pro-choice, Democratic women to run for office and win. Emily's list was started in the 1980s at which time no Democratic woman had ever been elected to the US Senate in her own right. EVER! In fact, of 1,889 people who have served in the US Senate since its inception in 1789, only 33 are women. Of 10,546 members of the House of Representatives, 203 are women.

Why so few? According to a Brown University study (pdf) "women are significantly less likely than men to view themselves as qualified to run for office. In addition, women are less likely than men to receive encouragement to run for office from party leaders, elected officials, and political activists."

Does it matter? Well, more than half of eligible voters in the US are women. 15% of the 109th Congress are women. Let's find out if women can make a difference. People at Emily's List and the Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee are working hard to recruit qualified women and support their campaigns. If you're a woman, think about running for office. If not, donate to Emily's list and ask a woman you know to run.

Seriously, find out who your local, state and national representatives are and when their terms expire. If you need help with this, email me. Find your local Democratic Committee. Go to a town board, city council, county or state legislature meeting and see what they do. It's hard work but its not rocket science. So, run! Or help someone run. Really. We need you. Get going!

(Cross posted at Five Wells )

Barbara Lifton

2006-07-23T09:58:00.000-04:00

Saturday, July 22, I received Barbara Lifton's direct mail piece announcing "town meetings to provide legislative update." Sadly, four out of five of the meetings listed took place on July 19 and 20. The is still one upcoming one in Lansing August 1.

Compounding the problem of the late mailing, is the fact that it announced a July 19 meeting in Danby. On Monday, the 17th, Lifton put out a recorded phone call explaining that the meeting listed for July 19 at 4:00 in Danby was an error, and the meeting would actually take place in Dryden.

Let me point out that town meetings are not a good forum for "legislative update." One-way communication like that can be covered in print and is pretty much a waste of face time for everyone involved. In this case, thanks to the publicity errors, only five people in addition to Lifton and her assistant, were involved. For an hour and fifteen minutes (!) Lifton read budget figures from index cards, including the factoids listed in the mailing and at the website above. At 5:15, after 40% of the audience (read: two people) had left, Barbara set aside her index cards and said, "Let me tell you about a couple of big issues." She sat down and spoke from the heart for a few minutes about her work on voting machine selection and about proposed legislation to enhance Longview's cooperative program with Ithaca College's gerontology department.

Finally, there were a few minutes left for Brian June to express some concerns of the School Board and for me to mention issues under consideration by the Town Board. Lifton said she's interested in meeting with Brian and communicating via email with me.

Arcuri for Congress

2006-07-20T10:18:00.000-04:00

I met Michael Arcuri Tuesday and spent some time going door-to-door in Freeville. At the risk of "damning with faint praise," I find Arcuri to be smart, progressive and personable. While I do hold him accountable for the inadequacy of his campaign, I think it's time to rally support. 24 Democrat, who is as disappointed as I am with the campaign, has posted twenty solid reasons to support Arcuri at Take Back the 24th. I remind you, it's primarily the campaign I'm disappointed with, not the candidate.

Arcuri is in the unenviable position of having a day job while he campaigns. And he's serious about his work as District Attorney in Oneida County. So, it's more important than ever that staff and volunteers take up some slack. If Arcuri's time is limited, he has to have effective press coverage, a knock-your-socks-off website and direct mail campaign, an army of supporters speaking on his behalf and a manager who makes sure every minute he can spend in public pays off.

In addition to the overall importance of sending Democrats to Congress, we really don't want to be represented by Ray Meier with his "stay the course" in Iraq, continue cutting taxes for the rich, increase oil exploration, and hands off health care positions. We really don't. Even Republicans will find little in common with this dyed-in-the-wool Bush-Cheney supporter.

Arcuri supports a realistic strategy for ending the war in Iraq, Constitutional privacy rights, increased access to affordable health care insurance, energy conservation policies and development of renewable energy sources, stem cell research, improved transportation and lower energy cost to encourage business development and enforcement of existing gun control laws. He opposes unlawful wiretapping, tax cuts for the wealthy and "staying the course" in Iraq.

July Town Board Meeting

2006-07-14T11:12:00.000-04:00

It was a full agenda. And I missed seeing Simon in the audience. I think this is the first regularly scheduled meeting I've been at that Simon wasn't at.

The public hearing for Clifford Smith Electric & Realty's Dollar Store project was kept open 'til next month. They've decided to subdivide the property (that open field just north of A-1). Their overall plan includes another retail tenant, or perhaps office space. But the Department of Transportation won't review the plan with that part open-ended. Subdivision will allow them to proceed with plans for Dollar General while they continue seeking a tenant for the remaining portion. Presumably next month's hearing will include the Environmental Quality Review necessary for them to move forward with plans for Dollar General. Several concerns remain including traffic at the North Street intersection, the general appearance and landscaping of the site, and the Village of Dryden moratorium on sewer construction. This subdivision will not include the wetland portion of the property.

Tracy Kurtz presented the Dryden Youth Commission 2005 Annual Report. She also related efforts the Youth Commission is making with the middle school, the high school, police agencies and the Youth Bureau to identify youth needs in the Town of Dryden. Tracy also said that Jessica Houle will be nominated for a Youth of the Year award for her amazing work with young people from Conger's Trailer Park.

Raul Aguirre, from Finger Lakes Land Trust, presented information regarding a property left to them by Louise Park Dabes. The 50+ acre property, between Route 366 and Mount Pleasant Road does not meet Land Trust criteria for property they want to hold, but does include an important viewshed. As such, the Land Trust recommends that the Town accept the property with a deed restriction guaranteeing that it will remain undeveloped and be used for non-motorized recreation and education. The Board is generally supportive of the idea and will consider what will be needed to accept and administer the property. In exchange, the Land Trust would like help building a small parking lot for access to the Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve.

Duane Testut presented a petition from Baker Hill Road residents requesting a lower speed limit. Attached to the petition is a series of dramatic photos demonstrating limited visibility at the crest of a steep part of Baker Hill. Highway Superintendent, Jack Bush, will work with Duane to put together information necessary to increase the likelihood that a reduced speed limit will be approved by the state DOT.

Mike Lane recommended that the Board form a study commission similar to the one active in the 1980s to explore the feasibility of forming a regional waste water treatment district to include the Village of Dryden and the Village of Freeville both of which are facing huge problems upgrading their waste water treatment facilities. The projected $5 million cost of replacing the Village of Dryden facility would present a huge tax burden if financed by Village residents alone. One town sewer district, which includes the high school and TC3, discharges into the Village plant and development in that area is being stalled by the Village's sewer construction moratorium. Since state and federal funding for sewer construction is virtually non-existent (in contract to 87% funding that was available in the 1980s) a regional approach may make the project affordable and may enhance the prospect of getting outside funding. It's also possible that Tompkins County would participate because of the need to dispose of leachate from the Caswell Road landfill.

Highway Superintendent, Jack Bush, shared photos of the spillway at Virgil Dam following recent rain. The spillway is doing a good job accommodating flood waters and no doubt relieving problems downstream properties have had in the past. Jack also talked about construction and landscaping plans for the existing Town Hall site in conjunction with construction of the new Town Hall. Jack is eager to proceed with construction of the sewer extension across the existing parking lot east of the Town Hall so that will be complete and employees will have access to that parking lot while landscaping plans south and west of the town hall are put in place. Two possible designs for the sewer extension have been included in bid drawings for the new town hall, but the final design has not been determined. Jack anticipates that Highway Department and Recreation Department offices will move to the existing building when other town departments move to the new site next year.

Recreation Coordinator, Jennifer Dube, presented the recently issued Newsletter, which announced summer recreation programs, Concert in the Park artists and the newly revised recreation department website. Jennifer requested approval for a third part-time temporary assistant position, within the existing budget, to help cover afternoon hours when the two current assistants are not available.

Town Attorney, Mahlon Perkins, asked for approval of resolutions approving the Code Enforcement agreement with the Village of Dryden and the purchase of the Tuttle property adjacent to the new town hall site.

Environmental Planner, Dan Kwasnowski, asked the Board to approve a contract with Barton and Loguidice to proceed with engineering plans for rehabilitation of the railroad bridge near Springhouse Road. If you haven't seen the Barton and Loguidice Trail Study Report, you should ask Dan to lend you a copy. Over the years that the Town has been considering the project, the cost has risen to more than $700,000 (not including town overhead and the purchase of property). But the B&L report shows what an attractive asset the trail will be.

Sadly absent from Dan's report is the Renewable Energy Ordinance. Work on the grant proposal for the trail and other projects prevented Dan from drafting the ordinance. He assures us this will mean only a one month delay. The draft will be finished this month in time for the town attorney and the appropriate Board committee (me and Steve T) to review prior to the August Board meeting.

Town Clerk, Bambi Hollenbeck, asked for approval of the appointment of Patricia Millard as Deputy Town Clerk, filling the vacancy soon to exist due to the retirement of Nita Baldwin.

So, it was after 10:00 when we got to the "Goals and objectives that the Board wants the Fire Departments to accomplish." The discussion was lengthy and covered tiered response, Town planning for emergency coverage, plans for a new County dispatch system, and more. But I didn't actually hear any "goals and objectives" except that the fire chiefs should meet and work something out. Hasn't that already been tried?

I'm out of time here, and I want to write more about Fire Departments later. Also to consider Steve T's request that the Board consider changing the length of the term of supervisor. While this is an important question, in order to put it on the ballot this year, a decision would have to be made in August. Marty's impulsiveness aside, I don't think we've ever decided anything that fast except permission for Cayuga Press to move out of Dryden.

Women for Spitzer

2006-07-11T09:03:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday Eliot Spitzer's wife, Silda Wall, spoke to a group of about seventy Democratic women at a Ramada Inn brunch in Lansing. Ms Wall urged women in the audience to help more women get to the polls. "Set a goal," she said, "Five women." Sounds modest, but if we could all do just that, it would, well, quintuple the number of women voters.

Wall addressed Spitzer's position on issues important to women in New York including health care and the gender wage gap. Spitzer's website isolates the following topics: jobs, property taxes, education, reform, public safety, health care, transportation and environment. The site doesn't insult women by having a separate tab for "Women's Issues." They're all women's issues.

While Spitzer's "On Day One Everything Changes" speech is loaded with rhetoric suitable for the occasion of accepting the nomination, his statements on the website define specific achievable steps toward economic revitalization (including my personal favorite: universal broadband access - I should mention that not all the links work on Spitzer's website, but the pages load quickly. I appreciate that.)

Spitzer doesn't need a special flag for abortion issues. He's frankly pro-choice and a strong advocate for women's privacy. He doesn't need a special flag for gay rights. He plans to "draft and propose legislation to legalize gay marriage in New York State." (NY Times)

There are other single issues on which I don't agree with Spiter's position: the death penalty, the Iraq war. And I wonder why Spitzer's website is almost spectacularly silent about his running-mate, David Paterson.

Still, I support Eliot Spitzer. I thank Silda Wall for her work in spreading his message and for the "Women for Spitzer" mug - a gift for attending the brunch.

Communities

2006-07-05T09:19:00.000-04:00

Dave, at Ithaca Is Home, raises some interesting points about where he lives and how he identifies with his community. Dave lives in the southwestern corner of the Town of Dryden. His house is in the Brooktondale fire district but he's not eligible to join that fire department 'cause he lives in the town of Dryden. Happily for us, he's joining the Fire Department in the nearby hamlet of Varna in the Town of Dryden. Meanwhile he lives in the Ithaca school district and has an Ithaca mailing address. Confused yet? No, he doesn't have multiple dwellings. He just happens to live at the intersection of multiple overlapping jurisdictions.

I live in the northwestern part of the Town of Dryden and I have an Ithaca phone number and a Freeville mailing address. It's easier for me to identify with the Town of Dryden than it is for Dave, 'cause I live in the Dryden school district.

Former Tompkins County legislator, Mike Lane, makes a convincing case for eliminating townships and consolidating local jurisdiction in the county government. I think I understand the efficiency that might be possible in a consolidated government. But I cling to my sense of community and the feeling of belonging to Dryden.

In 2000 there were nearly 100,000 people in Tompkins County, nearly 30,000 of whom live in the city of Ithaca. 14,000 live in the villages of Dryden, Freeville, Groton, Cayuga Heights, Lansing and Trumansburg. The remaining 56,000, a majority of the county population live outside the incorporated city and towns and so, would be represented directly by the county government. Do I think that representation would be as strong for the unincorporated areas as it would for the city and towns? No, I do not. The Town of Dryden did not accept the Tompkins County comprehensive plan because it differs in some ways from our own comprehensive plan. There are still things we like to do for ourselves, 'cause we know our neighbors better than representatives from the other side of the county do.

Now I have to find out more about the differences between the Town and County comprehensive plans. And more about why Mike feels county government would be more effective. And whether or not we can strengthen town government. Dave, wanna join my study group?

Meetings and Entertainment

2006-06-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

Last night's public information meeting regarding the proposed new town hall drew not a single person other than reporters, town elected officials and staff. Oh, wait. There might have been one. I don't know the name of the person who thanked the board for the work on this project.

I don't know to what extent the zero public participation is caused by the town's inability to publicize meetings and to what extent it's just that people aren't that interested. If it's the latter, that's okay. It means people know what's happening and trust elected officials to do the work. If the former, well, that's just wrong and we should fix it.

I'm inclined to think we have a pretty good grip on publicity because following the meeting I stopped at Montgomery Park where more than a hundred people were gathered for the town sponsored Burns Sisters concert. I like the Burns Sisters and I love concerts in the park. We should do more of that.

Constitutional Amendment

2006-06-27T08:41:00.000-04:00

Senator Orin Hatch is on Washington Journal talking about the flag-burning amendment. The wording of the amendment doesn't specifically prohibit flag burning. It simply gives Congress the authority to legislate regarding treatment of the flag. So, the issue isn't just flag burning. It's also, perhaps primarily, an effort to limit the authority of the Supreme Court. It seems to me Hatch has a tough sell saying on the one hand that protecting the flag is important and on the other hand that this amendment doesn't actually protect the flag.

The discussion of the flag-burning amendment is full of terrible rhetoric. There's repeated emphasis on the "unelected justices" making laws. Do the Senators think we've forgotten that they confirmed the unelected justices? The justices, of course, do not make laws. They protect the constitutionality of laws enacted by Congress.

If the issue is the power of the court, I've got a better idea. Let's have an amendment to specify that if there's a voting irregularity that makes the electoral vote too close to call, the popular vote will be the deciding factor in the election of the president.

Varna Firefighters

2006-06-23T00:50:00.000-04:00

On my way home tonight, I was intrigued by a billow of black smoke from the direction of Varna. Having discussed the current ban on open burning with the Etna fire chief last night, I couldn't help wondering what was going on in Varna. I pulled into the Varna Fire Department to find this training going on.

Adding foam and water to the fire creates huge clouds of steam and smoke.

But, of course, the firefighters win. Thank you, Natan, Duane, Barbara and Nancy, for explaining the procedure and encouraging me to take pictures.

(Cross posted at Five Wells)

Meetings, meetings, meetings...

2006-06-20T12:02:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday, after a lengthy discussion of a proposed subdivision on Wood Road, the Planning Board considered the proposed Renewable Energy Ordinance. While Board all members agree that it's time to encourage residents to install renewable energy sources, some members have concerns about visual impact and safety of wind energy towers. The ordinance, as drafted by environmental planner, Dan Kwasnowski, addresses these concerns.

If you find yourself craving face time with Dryden neighbors, consider the Youth Commission meeting tonight at 6:30 at the Dryden High School library (Jessica Houle will introduce plans for a community center near Congers mobil home park) or the Village of Dryden meeting at 7:00 at the Dryden Village Hall (where the proposed skateboard pare is on the agenda)or the Dryden-Freeville trail meeting Thursday (check with Dan at envplan@frontier.net for time and place).

Conservation Advisory Council.

2006-06-14T10:54:00.000-04:00

One of the most difficult and most fun things I do for the Town of Dryden is to represent the Dryden Town Board to the Conservation Advisory Council. The difficult part is that the things the Council works on are somewhat technical and I have to do some research to understand the issues. The fun part is the lively open discussion among well qualified people taking positive action to protect natural resources and enhance the quality of life in the Town.

The main agenda item last night was to review proposed legislation to allow residential wind energy installations and other renewable energy sources. We were expecting some controversy and there was a bit of tension underlying the friendly banter at the beginning of the meeting.

Environmental Planner, Dan Kwasnowski, related the hiring of a new intern to work on updating GIS information and to research riparian buffer zones, purchase of the land needed to continue the pedestrian trail from Dryden to Freeville and some other small items as we eased toward discussion of the controversial renewable energy ordinance.

Stuart Davis and Judy Pierpont, who were active in the group that opposed the Cornell wind farm project on Mt Pleasant were in the audience. Happily, their presentation included a copy of the wind energy law recently passed in the town of Malone. That law was designed to allow residential wind energy use while explicitly excluding industrial wind farming. Davis and Pierpont provided a point by point comparison to the proposed Dryden legislation.

While some conservation Council members, as well as at least one Town Board member, favor exploring industrial wind farming as well as other renewable energy sources, the law we're working on now is explicitly intended to enable the safe installation of residential wind, solar and geothermal energy now, while research on the more controversial industrial scale wind farming continues.

The pace of the early part of the meeting was extremely slow. One member recommended that because of the gravity of the issue, we adhere to parliamentary procedure. We agreed to proceed point by point through the documentation Environmental Planner, Dan Kwasnowski, has prepared. It was 9:00PM by the time we reached the first line of Dan's paper. People started to relax as we discussed the Special Permit process and Short Environmental Quality Review vs Long Environmental Quality Review and other details that had been hashed out at last month's meeting. By the time we got to scenic/view impact, we were clearly all on the same team.

I should mention that scenic/view impact is only page 3 of 10. By 10:00PM people were starting to mention limiting the discussion. I've been planning to introduce the legislation at the July 13 Board meeting. So it was important to me that we get all the way through the proposal so that the language can be finalized and reviewed before it's introduced to the Board. At 11:00 a motion to adjourn was made and defeated. One member had to leave but we still had a quorum. Another member was planning to leave and give a proxy to the chairman. But she was persuaded to stay.

By midnight we had discussed and voted on each of the twenty-six details that will be included in the legislation that will be recommended to the Board. Consensuss was reached on most details. Differences of opinion and a need for further research were noted some. At midnight I believe we all felt that the recommendation the Conservation Council will make to the Town Board is a sound one. My heartfelt thanks everyone for plowing through this. I hope next month we can return to work on riparian buffer zones.

2006 Elections

2006-06-08T09:40:00.000-04:00

The best place I've found to follow news about 2006 elections is this NPR map. Separate maps for Senate, House and governors races identify states where elections are occuring in 2006, the party of the incumbents and mark states where NPR analysis indicates critical races are taking place. Clicking on any state yields a pop-up window with more information about the race.