Living in Dryden

And where's he gone?

I'm getting back into blogging, but right now I'm pretty distracted by the lunacy of our so-called New York State Senate. It's more a state topic than a Dryden topic (and Jim Seward has only played a bit part in it), so I'm mostly posting at The Albany Project lately.

If you want an easy place to keep up with my writings, Dryden and otherwise, my old simonstl.com domain shows the latest from here and elsewhere.

(I will be coming back to Dryden blogging sometime, really!)

Sungiva's fifteenth month

Sungiva's teenage months are flying by. She started the month with her grandparents visiting, then her aunt, uncle, and cousin arrived, and she's been busy ever since with friends, animals, toys, and us.

Reading with her aunt Mirjam, cousin Jonathan, and uncle Michael.

Posing for a picture.

Sungiva visits the chickens at Dryden Dairy Day.

Sungiva feeds her rabbit, Janet.

Once again, I've also posted a gallery, if you'd like to see more of Sungiva.

A fourteenth month of Sungiva

I know, I know. I'm late. We're almost halfway into her fifteenth month, and everyone wants pictures. Finally, here they are!

Sungiva's fourteenth month included lots of visitors and visiting. Her grandparents came from Germany, and we all went to see my parents as well. She just keeps growing, and smiling a lot.

Sungiva shows off her dress and jewelery.

Sungiva shows us how to eat properly.

Sungiva and her grandmother enjoy the lawn.

As always, I've also posted a gallery, with even more excitement.

Village of Freeville opens website

Freeville is now on the web, at http://freevilleny.org/, with a village site that includes both the basic contact information you'd expect, as well as photos, history, a list of businesses, and more. This piece of the introductory page really struck me:

Freeville (the only incorporated municipality in the nation with this name) is a stubborn village. It is within the Town of Dryden, but it has been an independent entity since its beginning. The first settler in what became Freeville arrived in 1798, and by 1810 the population had reached sixteen; almost two hundred years later, it is only 523. In some ways life here is reminiscent of village life a hundred years ago. People know one another and one another's children, they are familiar with the patterns of their neighbors' lives, they are likely to help each other regardless of any disagreements, and they enjoy village events.

Lane puts hat in; Hattery pulls hat out

It's starting to be County Legislature election season again.

I was delighted to hear that Mike Lane was running for the County Legislature seat representing the east side of Dryden. At the time I was guessing it would be a rematch with Mike Hattery, who won a close race four years ago. Hattery, though, isn't running. It'll be interesting to see who runs on the Republican side.

Varna Community Association meeting Monday

It's not quite as tasty as a pancake breakfast, but the Varna Community Association needs residents to come to its annual meeting on Monday, May 11th at 7:00pm. The meeting is at the community center, 943 Dryden Road, and will include a report of what the VCA's been doing and the election of new board members.

(And there will be a pancake breakfast Sunday, May 10th, from 8:00am to noon.)

Sungiva's thirteenth month

Now that Sungiva is over a year old, it was time for her to explore more of the world. She might have been happy just playing nearby, but we took her on a 3000-mile journey from Dryden to Biloxi, MS, where my father grew up. My parents were there for most of April, and we joined them for a great week of visiting with family and seeing the Gulf Coast. (I don't think I'd been there since 1981 or so, so there was a lot of catching up to do!)

Sungiva was amazing on the trip. I'd worried more and more that maybe we should fly, but it all worked out. She wasn't always happy to be in the car seat, of course, and there was some screaming, but generally she was far easier than I'd dared hope. Angelika stayed in the back seat with her, so even when she wasn't sleeping, she wasn't alone.

Sungiva reaches out from her car seat

She wasn't always stuck in the seat - she got to play in the sand and the grass, too. She seems especially fond of small stones.

Sungiva asks for the binoculars at the beach.

Sungiva enjoys the grass after a long day's drive.

It wasn't all travel, though. She also got to spend some time at home, enjoying her toys.

Sungiva plays with her panda.

She got up to much, much, much, much more of course. I've posted a gallery.

Hyperlocal news

I do hope to return to writing hyperlocal news at some point, especially as the Ithaca Journal seems to have become the incredible shrinking paper. In the meantime, it's nice to know that I was ahead of the trend. As local newspapers collapse, their successors seem to be picking out smaller areas to cover.

Sungiva's birthday is tomorrow

It's almost been a year!

Sungiva wonders how that chicken snuck in. (The back door blew open, but still...)

Sungiva and Angelika watch ducks where they belong - outside.

Mother and daughter in heavy-duty outerwear.

Sungiva and her friendliest pet, Puschelwuschel.

As always, I've posted a gallery. And if you want to look back to when she was tiny, see these pictures from her first month.

Village elections today

It's election day, even though it's a Wednesday in March. Dryden and Freeville hold their elections in March, and New York State considers St. Patrick's Day a good reason to hold elections a day later. Polls are open from noon to 9:00pm today at the village halls.

In the Village of Freeville, it sounds like yet another uncontested race, with incumbent trustees Rachel Dickinson and Marco Cestaro running for re-election.

In the Village of Dryden, it's the busiest race we've seen in years, with full slates running for both the Democrats and the Republicans, signs everywhere, and candidates out and talking with people.

I'm especially happy with the Democratic slate this year. We managed to combine our most successful candidates from past trustee races with a mayoral candidate who's already demonstrated her ability to get things done on Main Street. I marvel at their unique combination of energy, experience, and deep connection to the Village.

I first met Wendy Martin when she was first presenting the idea that would become the Dryden Community Center Cafe. She came to the Dryden Town Historical Society trustees to present the idea, which was happily received. Her energy, conviction, and love of her community were already obvious then, and have only grown since. The Cafe took root, a first small step toward reversing the past few years' collapse in downtown Dryden, and a big step toward bringing together many people who hadn't known each other before.

I was delighted when I heard that she was considering running for Mayor, and it was very clear that she'd done her homework when she first started coming to meetings. She'd examined the Village budget, the sewer plant, the recent history of Town and Village politics, and talked with neighbors, elected officials past and present, and neighbors. Since then she's continued to reach out, knocking on doors, going to meetings, and sharing her vision for the Village.

Our two trustee candidates, Mary Ellen Bossack and Lisa Valentinelli, bring their own deep connections with the Village. Bossack has worked as a schools counselor in the Dryden schools for decades, and served as a Village Trustee for three terms before. Lisa Valentinelli teaches at the MacCormick Secure Center in Caroline. She grew up in Dryden, and as she puts it, "she's always come back to Dryden." She's been involved in Dryden politics before, both through her father's campaigns for Town Justice and through her own campaign for Village Trustee, which we thought she'd won until the absentee ballots put her down by 3.

Together, the three of them are an incredible combination of vision, energy, and experience, and I hope Village of Dryden voters will elect them today!

Sungiva's eleventh month

She just keeps growing, and exploring more and more. She figured out crawling, is working on standing, and seems to be getting ready for walking.

Sungiva explores the contents of her changing table.

Sungiva chooses seeds for the garden.

Sungiva rests.

If you'd like to see more of this sweet little girl, I've posted a gallery.

From Staff Reports

I noticed Saturday that the Journal seemed behind on reporting the approaching conclusion of the Shirley Kinge case.

I picked up this morning's Journal, and noticed the headline at the top of the front page: "Judge to decide damages owed by state to Shirley Kinge". Good. It's an ugly 20-year-old story whose conclusion should be noted.

Then I noticed the byline - "From Staff Reports". "From Staff Reports"? In the past that's often meant a gently reheated press release. This article is all right, and to be fair it's announcing the start of a hearing, but it's really strange to see the "no real reporter covering this news" byline on the top line of a local front page story.

At least they reported it, I guess. Maybe they've run out of ink and energy from years of covering it in depth?

Local elections an opportunity

I'm not sure why the Ithaca Journal seems to have left this letter off its online opinion page for Thursday, but Village of Dryden mayoral candidate Wendy Martin wrote a piece that feels just right to me:

Dragging on my coat and gloves, leaving the warmth of my kitchen and family, facing the bitter cold dark nights to knock on the doors of friends and strangers alike these past few weeks, I have often had to remind myself why one runs for a political office in the depths of winter!

It is because I know that the issues facing my community will not go away if I sit home in my slippers watching reality shows, tracking our diminishing retirement accounts, or planning on what flowers I will plant in the spring.

Local off-season elections matter because the people you vote for will be the ones who care enough to spend countless hours away from their homes and families so that they can find ways to make your neighborhood a safe, sound, and enjoyable place to live. They are the ones who will work to hopefully keep your taxes low and community spirit high. They understand the need to find solutions for the challenges we are all facing.

These people need to know you care enough about what they are doing to be familiar with the issues and the candidates' platforms, put on your winter coat, and get out and vote on March 18th. See you there!

Every vote counts in local races, especially when elections are in March. The results make a huge difference, as there is much more opportunity for immediate change at the local level, and this year especially!

The Journal does, fortunately, have Dryden Town Talk online, taking a look back to 1898 and returning to the present... though the dinner was a few days ago, and I should have posted this sooner. Cathy Wakeman does list a number of events that haven't happened yet, though.

And finally, there are also the continuing echoes of long-ago crimes that I'm surprised not to have seen reported in the Journal. Maybe I missed it?

Member item power play reaches Dryden

Sometimes Democrats screw up just as badly as Republicans.

Member items, basically money handed to municipalities and organizations on the say-so of legislators, have been an ugly spot in New York State for a long long time. We've seen the majority parties in both houses outspend their minority brethren, using pots of money to help seal their reputation for bringing pork to their districts.

While it is, I think, a corrupt system, and the Senate Republicans played it for all it was worth, Democrats seem to have fumbled an opportunity to end it with style. This morning's Ithaca Journal carries a story about local local member item losses, with a list of specifics, that's just guaranteed to make the Democrats look bad. Turning the mike over to one of my least-favorite State Senators:

"The reason why it's partisan is because the only people impacted are Senate Republicans," Winner said. "And while there is technically Democrat money that was swept up, (state Assembly Speaker Sheldon) Silver has significant reserves to cover (them)."...

"In the deficit reduction package that was just passed, (Democrats) swept the member-item account of any cash," Winner said.

And, of course, on the Assembly side, there is no local damage:

State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-125th Dist., said none of her $200,000 of member items is in jeopardy....

"There is politics with member items. There always has been," she said.

There certainly is Republican precedent for this - Republican Senators stripped Syracuse-area member items Nancy Larraine Hoffman had promised after Democrat Dave Valesky defeated her. Precedent, though, doesn't make it look any better. "Just as ugly as the Republicans" is not a good campaign slogan.

The local impact is real, and well-worth complaining about. Dryden Mayor Reba Taylor is right about this:

"We had a signed contract with the state of New York for $20,000 for the generator. The voucher has been sitting up in Albany since November. Then I got a letter from Sen. Seward on Jan. 29 saying the governor killed the grant," said [Village of Dryden] Mayor Reba Taylor, a Republican.

"As far as we're concerned it's a done deal. Now the governor has said 'No, we're not going to pay for it," she said.

I know it's a rough year, and I'm not at all surprised when Albany politicians act like power is all that matters. But this is counter-productive, basically rubbing people's faces in it by pulling funding already agreed to. People, including Democrats, will get even more disgusted with Albany because of this.

Yes, let's fix member items. Let's abolish them as a separate category, or set fixed amounts per legislator. Let's not use them for a power play when times are already looking bleak.