Living in Dryden

Dryden Courier on schools, Lifton, more

This week's Dryden Courier includes detailed coverage of Monday night's Dryden School Board meeting, the forum Barbara Lifton had last week, Sertoma honors for Teresa Carnrike and Bill Deming, and Jaqueline Mathews, the teacher from England who has exchanged positions for a few weeks with Dryden teacher Cheryl Van Riper.

EPA speaker on Smart Growth

EPA Senior Policy Analyst Lynn Richards will be speaking at 7:30pm tonight at the Ramada Inn (map) on "Smart Growth: More Choices, Better Places". I'm especially interested in this, as Richards has written recently on Alternatives to Subsidizing Edge Development: Strategies for Preserving Rural Landscapes, and will hopefully talk about some issues relevant to situations like Dryden's current planning process.

(And yes, I'm working on creating a calendar for this site so I do less springing of events at the last minute like this.)

Examining the golf course purchase

Today's golf course article does what I'd hoped the Journal would do in the Our Towns section - take a deeper look at an issue that's been building for some time. The article captures some of the division on the Town Board over the issue, and talks with the architectural firm the board hired to examine its prospects as a course. It also, I'm afraid, gives town board member Steve Stelick a chance to make it sound like the purchase won't cost town taxpayers anything:

According to Stelick, funds for the purchase would be taken from the town's reserves.

"We wouldn't finance it and we wouldn't raise taxes for it."

That statement seems squarely focused on the short-term impact, as the reserves represent taxes already paid in, held as a buffer against the prospect of raising taxes later. It looks like I need to do some research on the level of the reserves held by the Town of Dryden over the past few years to see how much of a potential impact this would be. A $350,000 golf course might not seem like much compared to millions held in reserve, but when you compare it to this year's tax levy for the entire town of $846,000, it becomes a much bigger number.

At the same time, I'm very happy to see the town taking an active interest in buying and hopefully preserving green space in the town. It could potentially set a precedent that opens new possibilities for the future. The recreation possibilities are definitely also worth considering. This might be a case where the Town can take direct action to improve the lives of its citizens.

Premiere of Our Towns: Dryden and Groton

The Ithaca Journal's first installment of the "Our Towns" page on Dryden and Groton arrived today, on page 3B. Most of the section is available on the Journal's site.

The lead article is Dryden surveys golf course purchase (which I'll discuss in a separate entry). In features that will be regulars on the page, there are a Dryden Town Talk column called Exchange gives English teacher a new perspective (in which English means 'from England'), Briefly in Dryden, Ask Your Public Official, in which Dryden Environmental Planner Debbie Gross talks about issues facing the town, and a Family Fun section.

The print edition includes some additional statistics on educational attainment in Groton and Dryden, as well as a community calendar.

Turkey Hill and Monkey Run

Moving toward Varna from the last set of buildings, 1101 Dryden Road is the last house in the 1100 block, though it looks like it's on Turkey Hill Road. 2 Monkey Run Road, though it isn't precisely on 366, looks as if it is. (Its driveway seems to be on Forest Lane, complicating things further.)

1101 Dryden Road (map)

2 Monkey Run Road (map)

Tompkins County industrial development and wages

Dryden County Legislator Mike Lane is quoted a lot in an Ithaca Journal story about the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency and C&D Assembly in Groton, in his role as chair of the IDA's Board of Directors.

The questions are fairly complicated, but center on what's an appropriate use of taxpayer money, expressed through tax abatements. C&D seems to be doing well and growing, but the jobs they're creating start out at $6.42, well below the $8.68 most recently calculated as a 'living wage' for Tompkins County. Lane notes:

"It is an industrial facility providing jobs in a rural area. We would like to help them in their expansion. But we are concerned about the pay and benefits. If a business isn't approaching livable wage characteristics, we have to ask ourselves, 'Should we be subsidizing jobs at taxpayer expense?'... We are a conservative IDA.... We try to be careful with the abatements we give. They need to be effective for the local economy. They aren't some kind of gift. We expect some kind of return."

The company describes the lower-wage jobs as a way "to screen people," though they also note that employees they've trained have gone elsewhere to work because of a lack of opportunities in the company, something they hope to help with this expansion. The number of employees at the company has doubled in the last year, and the article concludes on a hopeful note that things can be worked out. The abatements received a preliminary approval, and the final vote is Friday.

Update: The tax breaks were approved.

Sustainable Tompkins salon meets

Thirteen people, including four Dryden residents, met last night at Rogues Harbor in Lansing as part of the Sustainable Tompkins project. This was the first meeting of the "salon", which will gather every Monday there through May 3. (There are salons every night of the week, but this is the one that seemed closest to Dryden.)

The meeting, which ran according to Conversation Cafe process, talked about a wide range of things connected to sustainability and making a smaller impact on the earth. Some attendees talked about national politics (like energy policy), others about state politics (like taxes being pushed on to the counties), others about local politics (like the complexities of the Town of Dryden Draft Comprehensive Plan), and others about the many things people can do without having to deal with the political process explicitly. Making sustainable choices affordable was a key concern throughout.

One attendee noted that he'd been worried that it "would be a group of yuppie tree-huggers" and was happy that didn't turn out to be the case. There were no instant answers, but it was a good gathering of people looking for better ways to do things.

The salons are open to the public, and there's no requirement of prior attendance to go, so you can show up any time in the next five weeks at one of these meetings if you'd like to see what's going on.

300 attend Dryden School Board meeting

Difficult issues seem to bring people to meetings, and the Dryden school budget has certainly been difficult. This morning's Ithaca Journal looks at last night's meeting, the attendees seeking mostly to save programs, and the options facing the board.

The Journal notes that the first speaker was one of the few to support budget cuts, and that most comments were in support of saving programs, even if it did mean greater expense. A contingency budget with a 5.41% tax levy increase, which would "cut the entire athletics program in addition to other staffing cuts", is a possibility if voters reject the budget. Board members support proposals ranging from a 12.5% increase to an 18.44% increase. Even that 18.44% increase involves cutting three staff positions funded by a one-year grant.

It doesn't sound like the district will be getting all that much help from the state, either, if the Zarb Commission report's recommendations for increasing education spending comes to pass, as it offers a smaller amount of money than many proposals (though more than is in the current budget) and sends over three-quarters of it downstate. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which began the lawsuit leading to this year's emphasis on education funding, has a fairly tepid response to the Zarb report, and will be issuing its own report in a few days. The New York Times (registration required) has several stories on the report (1 2 3 4).

Ithaca Journal meeting

I went to the Ithaca Journal's "Coffee with the Journal" session today, and came away pretty impressed. I'm not always thrilled with either the Journal's reporting or their editorial at times, and mentioned it, but the people there - Managing Editor Bruce Estes, Metro Editor John Carberry, and Opinion Page Editor Joseph Schwartz - had lots of good ideas and interest in doing more and better in the future, especially as they launch the "Our Towns" section.

The opportunity for "Our Towns" seemed to come from some reorganization in the shape of the paper, especially around the classifieds, and the Journal sounds ready to take advantage of that opportunity. Every Wednesday there will be a section focused on Dryden and Groton, and it sounds like they'll be using the space in part for articles on news stories with the kind of analysis that's hard to do when covering a meeting for the next day's paper. Other parts will be dedicated to profiles of people, businesses, and events in the community. Breaking news will still appear in the regular local section.

I did pester them about their earlier obsession with the County Executive proposal and had some questions about the fairly chaotic way the fire company issues were handled, not to mention their fluctuating editorials on that subject, and they had reasonable and polite responses.

Apart from Journal staff, only three people attended - myself, Dryden Central School Board President Rachel Dickinson, and Dryden Superintendent Patricia Archambault. Having it during working hours makes it hard to get people out, but I'm glad they had it in any event.

I also liked this tree behind the Dryden Central School District office building:

A complicated tree behind the Dryden Central School District office

Public hearings at April 8th Town Board meeting

Today's Ithaca Journal contains lots of notices for public hearings to be held at the Town Board's April 8 meeting. The full text of the notices follows, but a quick description of the hearings is:

• There are two hearings on property tax exemptions, one for people with disabilities that affect their incomes, and one for senior citizens. The Ithaca Journal had an article on these exemptions March 5th.
• There are two hearings on sewer system issues. One regards the Cortland Road Sewer District that has been the source of complex issues between the Town and Village of Dryden, while the other affects Dryden residents in the sewage districts around Varna and Route 13, and is related to phosphorous removal at the City of Ithaca Sewage Treatment Plant.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED TOWN OF DRYDEN LOCAL LAW

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Town Board of the Town of Dryden will hold a public hearing on a proposed local law which will provide for an increase in the partial exemption for real property owned by persons with disabilities whose incomes are limited by reasons of such disability. Copies of the proposed local law are available at the Town clerk's Office. The proposed local law will increase the amount of the exemption to the maximum amount permitted by Real Property Tax Law Section 459-C.

The public hearing on the proposed local law will be held at 7:30 p.m. prevailing time, at the Dryden Fire Hall, Neptune Drive, Dryden, New York, on April 8, 2004 at which time interested parties will be heard.

March 29, 2004

By Order of the Town Board of the Town of Dryden.

By Bambi L. Hollenbeck Town Clerk

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED TOWN OF DRYDEN RESOLUTION

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Town Board of the Town of Dryden will hold a public hearing on a proposed resolution pursuant to Real Property Tax Law Section 467 which will provide for senior citizens or aged exemptions based on income eligibility levels.

Copies of the resolution are available at the Town Clerk's Office. The proposed resolution will be held at 7:15 p.m. prevailing time at the Dryden Fire Hall, Neptune Drive, Dryden, New York, on April 8, 2004, at which time interested parties will be heard.

March 29, 2004.

By Order of the Town Board of the Town of Dryden

By Bambi L. Hollenbeck

Town Clerk

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED TOWN OF DRYDEN LOCAL LAW

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Town Board of the Town of Dryden will hold a public hearing at the Dryden Fire Hall, Neptune Drive, Dryden, New York, on April 8, 2004, 7:00 o'clock p.m. prevailing time, to hear all interested persons for or against a proposed Local Law entitled "A Local Law repealing Local Law No. 4 of the year 1983 and re-establishing the Cortland Road Sewer District Sewer Rent Law." The proposed local law would provide the basis of the charge of sewer rents, establish payment dates, penalties for late payment and a method for enforcement and collection of sewer rents, establish a formula for the calculation of sewer rents including minimums thereof and provide for the use of the revenues from sewer rents. This local law also repeals Local Law No. 4 of the 1983 and will apply to the Cortland Road Sewer District and to any future sewer districts which utilize the wastewater treatment services of the Village of Dryden wastewater facility. The complete text of the proposed Local Las is available from the Town Clerk.

March 29, 2004

By Order of the Town Board of the Town of Dryden

By Bambi L. Hollenbeck

Town Clerk

TOWN OF DRYDEN NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Town Board of the Town of Dryden adopted an order on March 11, 2004 calling a public hearing on a plan, report and map prepared in connection with a proposed phosphorous removal project for the sewage treatment plant in the City of Ithaca serving the Town of Dryden. The public hearing will be held at the Dryden Fire Hall, Neptune Drive, Dryden New York at 7:45 P.M. prevailing time on April 8, 2004. The order calling the public hearing as follows:

ORDER CALLING PUBLIC HEARING

IN THE MATTER OF THE PROPOSED PHOSPHOROUS REMOVAL PROJECT FOR THE SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT IN THE CITY OF ITHACA SERVING THE TOWN OF DRYDEN TO BE KNOWN AS THE JOINT SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT PHOSPHOROUS REMOVAL IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT PURSUANT TO TOWN LAW SECTION 202-b

WHEREAS, a plan, report and map have been duly prepared in such manner and in such detail as heretofore has been determined by the Town Board of the Town of Dryden, Tompkins County New York, relating to the construction, pursuant to Town Law Section 202-b of sewer system improvements to be known and identified as the Joint Sewage Treatment Plant Phosphorus Improvement Project, and hereinafter also referred to as "improvement,' to provide such sewer improvement to the present sewer treatment plant in the City of Ithaca managed jointly with the Towns of Ithaca and Dryden and providing sewage treatment services for the Town sewer districts served by such sewage treatment plant, such sewer system improvement to be constructed and owned by the Town of Ithaca, Town of Dryden, and the City of Ithaca, and

WHEREAS, said plan, report and map have been prepared by Stearns and Wheler, Professional Engineers, duly licensed by the State of New York and have been filed in the office of the Town Clerk where they are available for public inspection, and

WHEREAS, the area of said Town determined to be benefited by said Joint Sewage Treatment Plant Phosphorous Removal Improvement Project consists of the entire area of said Town sewer districts served by the sewage treatment plant in the City of Ithaca, and

WHEREAS, the proposed Joint Sewage Treatment Plant Phosphorous Removal Improvement Project consists of the sewer improvements set forth below, as more particularly shown and described in said map, plan and report presently on file in the Office of the Town Clerk:

Construction and installation of a teritary high rate settling process and associated reinforced concrete structure on piles at the end of the current process stream, adjacent to the final effluent channel at the jointly operated sewage treatment plant located at 525 Third Street, Ithaca, New York, together with associated controls, piping, and other structures, and

WHEREAS, a public hearing on said plan, report and map was held by the Town Board of the Town of Dryden on July 9, 2003 at which hearing all interested persons in the subject were heard on the questions of providing of said Joint Sewage Treatment Phosphorous Removal Improvement Project, and the question of executing any related agreement, and

WHEREAS, following said public hearing the Town Board of the Town of Dryden adopted a Public Interest Order on July 9, 2003, approving the improvement with a maximum proposed amount to be expended of $4,115,000 of which the Town of Dryden's share was not to exceed $81,477.00, and

WHEREAS, following the construction bid opening for the improvement, the lowest responsible bids exceed the project budget resulting in a revised total project cost, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board of the Town of Dryden adopted an order on September 11, 2003, calling a further public hearing upon said plan, report and map including a revised estimate of cost and the question of providing of said Joint Sewage Treatment Plant Phosphorous Removal Improvement Project, and the question of executing any related agreement, and to hear all persons interested in the subject thereof, all in accordance with the provisions of Town Law Section 202-b and applicable provisions of the General Municipal Law and Local Finance Law, and

WHEREAS, the Town Board of Town of Dryden held a public hearing on October 1, 2003 to further consider the aforesaid plan, report and map, and the question of providing said joint improvement project and the question and the question of executing the related agreement, and

WHEREAS, following said public hearing the Town Board of the Town of Dryden adopted a Public Interest Order on October 1, 2003 which approved the joint improvement with a maximum proposed amount to be expanded of $4,448,500.00 of which the Town of Dryden's share is not to exceed $88,070.41, and approved a plan for payment of the Town of Dryden's share, and

WHEREAS, due to delays in receiving a satisfactory commitment from New York State for its anticipated funding share, the time in which the bidders on the project could be held to their bids expired and such bidders will no longer honor the amounts of their previous bids, and

WHEREAS, newly revised estimated of the total project cost result in a higher estimated maximum amount proposed to be expended, and

WHEREAS, it is now necessary to consider approving a revised maximum amount to be expended by the Town of Dryden for the aforesaid improvements, and

WHEREAS, the revised maximum proposed to be expended for the aforesaid improvement is now $4,975,000.00 of which the Town of Dryden's share is not to exceed $98,505.00, and the proposed method of payment of the Town's share consists of payment of said Town's share out of the surplus funds and current revenues in the Town of Dryden Sewer Districts, and

WHEREAS, the implementation of this project will be through a joint agreement with the City of Ithaca and the Town of Ithaca.

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, by the Town Board of the Town of Dryden, Tompkins County, New York, as follows:

Section 1. A public hearing will be held at the Dryden Fire Hall, Neptune Drive, Dryden, in said Town, on the 8th day of April, 2004 at 7:45 o'clock P.M., to consider the aforesaid plan, report and map and the questions of the providing of said Joint Sewage Treatment Phosphorous Removal Improvement project, and to hear all persons interested in the subject thereof, all in accordance with the provisions of Town Law Section 202-b and applicable provisions of the General Municipal Law and Local Finance Law.

Section 2. The Town Clerk is hereby authorized and directed to cause a copy of this order to be published once in the official newspaper of the Municipality, and also to post a copy thereof on the Town signboard maintained by the Clerk, not less than ten nor more than twenty days before the day designated for the hearing as aforesaid.

Section 3. This order shall take effect immediately.

The question of the adoption of the foregoing order was upon motion of Councilperson Stelick, seconded by Supervisor Trumbull, duly put to a vote on a roll call, which resulted as follows:

Supervisor Trumbull Voting Yes

Councilperson Michael Voting Yes

Councilperson Stelick Voting Yes

Councilperson Christofferson Voting Yes

Councilperson Hattery Voting Yes

The order was thereupon declared duly adopted.

March 29, 2004

BY ORDER OF THE TOWN BOARD

Bambi L. Hollenbeck, Town Clerk

More on Sustainable Tompkins

Today's Ithaca Journal includes a guest column on the Sustainable Tompkins initiative:

Its aim is to consider what this region would be like if it were better designed to assure economic stability, social well being and the continued integrity of our ecosystems.

As noted last week, they're holding "Sustainability Salons" for the next six weeks. None of those are in Dryden, though there's one in Lansing tonight at Rogue's Harbor (map) from 5:30pm to 7pm, continuing Mondays through May 3.

Gilesville: tales of a lost hamlet

George Goodrich's Centennial History of the Town of Dryden includes a chapter on "Isaiah Giles and Gilesville". There was no Gilesville on any of the maps I had (including the one in Goodrich's book), so I asked about it last Saturday at the Dryden Historical Society. They pointed me to W. Glen Norris' The Origin of Place Names in Tompkins County, where the sad conclusion is:

the little settlement, which was situated between Etna and Freeville where the main road crosses Fall Creek, disappeared years ago and the name has been forgotten. (23)

Rachel Dickinson, in the Dryden section of The Towns of Tompkins County, described the area as 'Werninckville', presumbably after the furniture store (map) in the area, while discussing the 1996 flooding there.

The actual story is one of Goodrich's better ones, I think. The Giles family seems to have been an impressive group of people, though one regularly tried by difficulty, and which had largely disappeared even by 1897. Goodrich notes that in addition to being a pioneer of the town, Isaiah Giles was a pioneer of the separation of government and religion, despite his strong religious beliefs.

Chapter XXXIV.

Isaiah Giles and Gilesville

Early in the history of the country there came to New England from the mountains of Wales three sturdy brothers with their families, bearing the name of Giles or Gyles. They bore the characteristics that marked the sturdy and and determined followers of Owen Glendower. Courageous, thrifty and resourceful, they regarded nothing better in man than honor and self-reliance. One of these families or their descendants came early into Eastern New York, and it is from this branch that sprang the family that forms the subject of the following sketch. Owing to a serious misfortune that befell the family early in the present century, mention of which will hereafter be made, many records of the history of the family were totally lost, so that much pertaining to such history, prior to that event, has been perpetuated more by tradition than otherwise. But in the preparation of this paper all the care that the time would permit has been taken to reject everything that did not seem well authenticated.

In the summer of 1801 Isaiah Giles came from Orange county to begin a home for himself and family in the town of Dryden upon lands that he had recently purchased on Lot 15. He began his little clearing about, and built his log cabin near, the spring that in later years has been known as the Cheese Factory spring, just northwest of Freeville. After building the cabin he extended his clearing sufficiently to put in a piece of corn the next spring. He then returned east and early the next year, in the month of March, he came back, bringing his wife and children. He did not have time when putting up his house to put on the roof, so that one of the first things to be done, when moving in, was to shovel out the snow, and then cut and put up basswood bark for a roof. Then, with a blanket hung up at the doorway the home and castle of the Giles family was complete, for the time. From that time until the opening of spring, he was engaged in splitting and smoothing up puncheons for a door and flooring, and in building bunks for sleeping. In all the toil and care incident to such a beginning he had an earnest and efficient helper in the person of his good wife, Sarah Lanterman, whom he had married some nine years before. Their family then consisted of seven children, including two pairs of twins. There were subsequently born to them two sons and a daughter. To these children we shall have occasion to refer farther on.

Isaiah Giles and his wife were earnest, thrifty, pushing people, and about them soon began to cluster the evidences of their industry and economy. In the fall of 1802 they harvested their first corn and potatoes. The winter brought many privations and discomforts, but they passed through it without serious sickness or mishap. In the summer of 1803 they harvested their first crop of wheat, and threshed it in the little log barn that they had built the year before. They winnowed away the chaff, and carried the grist to the mill of Elder Daniel White, at Freeville, to be ground, and then had their first wheat bread in the town of Dryden. The clearings and improvements were extended each year by dint of hard labor and good management. But in spite of the energy and thrift of Mr. and Mrs. Giles a great misfortune was in store for them.

About 1806 there came a man by the name of Thompson who laid claim to the land which Isaiah had bought. Investigation showed that Thompson's title was good and that Giles had been defrauded in his purchase. Instances of this kind were not uncommon in the early history of Dryden. But the same spirit that had begun the first home in Dryden was ready to begin again. Gathering together his effects he went down upon Fall Creek at the point afterwards for years known as "Gilesville" and bought another tract of land and began anew. It was here that he, with his sons, built a saw-mill and a carding and fulling mill, and subsequently his sons built an extensive tannery.

Isaiah Giles was a man of considerable prominence in the affairs of the town, at one time serving as magistrate. In this connection a funny circumstance occurred. The writer repeats it as it was told him by Samuel Giles in 1870. Squire Giles, as he was then known, was an ardent Methodist withal, and one dark night a man by the name of Pipher, from the town of Groton, came with his wife to the Giles house and aroused the family, saying that they wanted to be baptised, and that the Lord's business was very urgent. They seemed to have the impression that the civil magistrate was the proper one to administer baptism. Esquire Giles explained the matter to them and directed them to Elder Daniel White, at Freeville, whom they aroused, and who administered the ordinance of baptism and sent them on their way rejoicing.

Although a strong Methodist and feeling the interests of the church of paramount importance, it is said Mr. Giles presented a resolution or notion at town meeting, "that the income from the gospel and school fund should thereafter be used wholly for school purposes." The resolution was carried through his influence, and that of some others.

Mr. Giles died when comparatively a young man, in 1822. His sickness was short and his death unexpected, but he died as he had lived, "diligent in business, fervent in spirit," and a firm believer in the tenets of the church of his choice. His wife survived him forty years, dying in 1862 a woman of great force of character, combined with very good judgment. These qualities were manifested in the manner in which she managed her household after the death of her husband.

Of the ten children of the family six lived to manhood and womanhood. Polly, the oldest of these, married John Van Nortwick, and died in 1823 at the age of twenty-six years. The other surviving daughter married Samuel Mead, and afterwards in 1857 moved to Iowa, where she died at the age of eighty years. It is of the sons that what follows will pertain more particularly.

Samuel and John Giles were twins born in Orange county in 1798. James Giles was born in the same county in 1800. These came with their parents to Dryden in 1802, and may be justly classed among the pioneers of the town. Samuel Giles learned the trade of cabinet making, and John served his time as a tanner and currier with Burnett Cook, late of Ulysses. It was here that he first saw her who was destined in after years to become his wife. She was then but a child in the cradle, and he a lad in his teens. Samuel and John, having finished their apprenticeships, worked as journeymen for some years. James in the meantime had staid at home with his mother and carried on the saw-mill and fulling mill, assisted by an adopted brother, George Van Horn, whose family was in after years well known in the Town of Dryden.

About 1823 Samuel and James went west to seek their fortunes, going as far as Indianapolis, Ind. After prospecting for a time and working at intervals, they concluded that while the soil was wonderfully fertile and the country presented many inducements to young men, the "shakes," as they termed it, more than offset the advantages. So at the beginning of winter they started for Dryden on foot. It was on this journey that their knowledge of mechanics stood them in good stead. They had the opportunity of putting into operation for different parties several carding machines, and when they reached home each had more money than when they started.

It was just after this that Samuel and John decided to build the tannery at Gilesville. This business they carried on with considerable success until 1832, when they built the Tompkins House, a historic hotel in the city of Ithaca. John in the meantime had waited until the child whose cradle he had rocked when an apprentice boy had grown to young womanhood, and in 1828 he was married to her (then Miss Mary A. Cook.) The union was a happy one. Samuel was married in 1832 to Miss Susan Depew.

In 1843, tired of hotel-keeping, they bought the Eddy property on East Hill, at Ithaca, on which they afterward built them a home, which they occupied until their deaths. These twin brothers during all their lives after beginning the tannery business at Gilesville occupied the same house and did business in partnership. John died in Agust, 1862, and Samuel in July, 1871, and his wife in February, 1872. The widow of John is still living at Trumansburg, N. Y.

James Giles was married to Barbara Raymer and shortly after bought one hundred acres of land on Lot 34, of Dryden. By subsequent additions thereto he owned three hundred and twenty acres. He was a man of unusual force of character, and possessed rare mechanical ability. He was a thorough farmer and early turned his attention to dairying, and was among the first in the town to realize what was then known as fancy prices for butter. He early saw that machinery must play a prominent part in farming, and he began fitting his meadows for the mower, and it was upon his farm one of the first, if not the first, mowers was used in town. For many years he was actively engaged in selling mowers and reapers, and in buying and selling butter, of which article he was long known as being a competent judge. In his good wife he found an efficient helpmate and a wise counselor. They were the parents of eight children, one son and seven daughters. In 1867, feeling the weight of years bearing upon them, they arranged to give up the hard work of life, and passed the management of affairs to the son, Capt. J. J. Giles of Freeville. Mrs. Giles died in November, 1887, and Mr. Giles in October, 1890, at the age of 90 years and 28 days. He had lived as long if not longer in the town of Dryden than any other person. Of the family of James Giles there are still living one son and four daughters.

Sarah Lanterman Giles, the wife of Isaiah Giles died in 1862 at the age of 91 years and 13 days.

In speaking of the misfortunes that befell the family of Isaiah Giles it may be mentioned that soon after moving to Fall Creek an event occurred that ever afterward cast a shadow over the life of James. It occurred during the time in the year when the latter was engaged in running the saw-mill. The little brother, Weyburn, some four or five years old, had been down to the mill, and, as his brother supposed, had gone to the house, as he saw him go down the path and across the foot bridge spanning the race leading from the mill. But it seems that something in the race had attracted the child and he had either climbed down or fallen into the race, just as James hoisted the gate. The rush of the waters and the noise of the mill drowned his cries, but the brother caught a glimpse of his clothing as he was struggling in the water. To shut the gate was but the work of a moment and he rushed to his rescue, but it was too late; as he carried the dripping form to the house he found that life was extinct.

It was when the creek farm was nearly paid for, and at a time when Isaiah Giles had gone to Dryden to make the last payment, the family home was burned. Little or nothing was saved from the house. Then it was that the family records afore-mentioned were lost.

Ai W. Giles, born in 1810, was the youngest child. When he came to man's estate he worked for and with Samuel Giles until they left the Tompkins House. He then took charge of it and for some time conducted the business alone. He at one time had charge of the tannery at Gilesville for a short period. He was engaged in the shoe business for a short time at Ithaca, and occupied the property known as the Half Way House, on the Bridle Road. He was afterward connected with the milling business at Free Hollow, as it was then known, and kept a flour and feed store in Ithaca. He was married in 1846 to Miss Nancy Leach, of Chenango county, N. Y. He died childless in Ithaca in November, 1889. His wife survived him some three or four years.

In matters of politics the Giles brothers were Democrats until 1856, when they became Republicans and remained such until the end. They never took any active part in political matters and none of them ever held any public office save Samuel, who in 1835 was trustee of the village of Ithaca, and in 1845 was supervisor of the town of Ithaca. In 1854, Samuel Giles was named by the Legislature, with Stephen B. Cushing and Horace Mack, as a building committee in the act authorizing the building of the Court House at Ithaca. S. & J. Giles was a firm name known and honored among business men of Central New York. Unlike in temperament, yet they lived and worked together without friction. John died childless and Samuel lived to bury his last child, Miss Sarah Giles, in 1866.

The records of Tompkins county show that the first will proven in the county, September 6, 1817, was witnessed by Isaiah and Sarah Giles, being the will of John Morris, of Lansing, and presumably drawn by Isaiah Giles. The family name has now but one representative, and when Capt. J. J. Giles shall have been gathered to his fathers, a name for nearly one hundred years so well and favorably known in the town will be known only as a matter of history.

Goodrich, George B. The Centennial History of the Town of Dryden, 1797-1897. Dryden: Dryden Herald Steam Printing House, 1898. Reprinted 1993 by the Dryden Historical Society. Pages 144-9.

(The Dryden Historical Society, which sells this book, may be reached at 607-844-9209.)

Freese Road bridge closed Monday to April 15th

I missed a Dryden item in today's Journal, announcing that the the bridge on Freese Road, between Route 366 in Varna and Hanshaw Road, will be closed from March 29th to April 15th. The Tompkins County Highway Department will be repairing the bridge.

(The Town of Dryden is also doing work in the same area, on the Varna side, replacing a sewer pump, which the Town Board approved in February.)

"Our Towns" coming to the Journal

The print edition (but not the online edition) of today's Ithaca Journal announces that starting Tuesday, the Journal will include a new section called "Our Towns", which covers town news Tuesday through Thursday. Tuesdays will include Ulysses and Enfield, Wednesdays will include Dryden and Groton, and Thursdays will cover Lansing and the Town of Ithaca. (Newfield, Danby, and Caroline coverage is in the works.)

The Journal will also be having a "Coffee with the Journal" session at the Dryden Central School District offices (map) on Monday, March 29th from 3:30 to 4:30pm. They note:

At these coffees, readers often offer suggestions for future coverage, an idea for an improvement, or a beef or a compliment on past coverage.

Dryden laurels

It's been a very quiet week for Dryden news in the Ithaca Journal, and today continues that trend. In Darts & Laurels, there are three laurels to or from Dryden residents and businesses:

• Mary Chapman of Dryden thanks "patient, knowledgeable and selfless volunteer seniors who assist the anxiety prone through the annual maze of tax preparation."
• the Dispositional Alternatives Program of Family & Children's Service thanks a lot of businesses for their participation in a spaghetti dinner fundraiser, including Dryden businesses Autoworks, Dryden Dollar Store, Hydroponic Lettuce Project, Ludgate Farms, and Todi's.
• the Day Care & Child Development Council similarly thanks a lot of businesses, including Eagle Broadcasting and Ludgate Farms.

Jobs and lifestyles big issues at Lifton forum

New York State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton held a public forum last night at Dryden Town Hall, and the audience brought issues very different from the ones I've seen at the Town Board and Planning Board meetings in that same room. The audience was focused on jobs, pay, and making sure that people could enjoy their lives, whatever income they might have.

Lifton began with a presentation on "another critical year in Albany," noting in particular the impact of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity's lawsuit against the state over school funding. There are still lots of challenges to be faced, and the courts may end up appointing a special master to tell the state how to fix its inequities if the legislature and governor can't come up with a plan that meets their expectations. Lifton hopes to have it solved through legislation, as the initial case was only about New York City schools, while inequities in funding are all over the state.

On the budget more generally, she noted that while there is some agreement, it seems "less and less likely that we'll have a budget next week on time." Lifton noted some improvements in the process, like public conference committees, and a proposal to shift the state's financial year by a month from April 1 to May 1. (New York lawmakers only have six weeks for the entire budget process if they hope to be on time.) School funding could be agreed - at least in principle - a year ahead, making it easier for schools to plan.

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton talks about the state budget

Lifton said that while SUNY funding had stayed flat this year, the overall effect of that has been a cut in the long term. She said that while the state once underwrote 75% of SUNY expenses, that fell ten or fifteen years ago to 50%, and it's now 26 or 27%. The SUNY system is going, according to a joke she told, "from being state-supported to state-assisted, and now it's state located."

She also suggested that people who think government just needs to trim the fat should take a look at what the impact of years of cutting has already done, pointing out that state income and corporate taxes have fallen 50% in the last ten years.

The first question from the audience was about lottery money and whether it goes to education. While Lifton said that lottery revenues represent about 10% of education spending, they aren't a dedicated fund that goes only to education. They flow into the general fund, and the state spends some of the money in that fund on education. There was a long discussion about accountability, auditing, and where the money goes, from which my conclusion was that you shouldn't buy lottery tickets to increase state spending on education.

County Legislator Mike Lane asked Lifton whether there was any chance of the state putting a consitutional convention on the ballot again in the hopes of resolving Albany's three-way division of power. Lifton made it clear that there wasn't interest in Albany for that kind of change.

Tony Hall, reporter for the Dryden Courier, asked about the prospects for same-sex marriage. While Lifton emphasized the importance of "equal protection for all New Yorkers" and felt that "government ought to get out of the wedding business", she didn't think there was much hope for the civil unions bill currently being worked on, though she plans to co-sponsor it.

I asked how mental health spending looked this year, given past years' battles over things like keeping the Elmira Psychiatric Center open. Lifton said that while it wasn't getting slashed, it wasn't getting the kind of investment it needs either. Planning ahead seems to be a consistent problem, with sudden changes in budget seasons.

A wide variety of questions about increased fees, from handguns to vehicle registrations to proposed tolls on interstate highways (that one is now off the table) came up, as did the issue of regressive taxation. Near the end of the session Lifton noted that the top 20% in income of New Yorkers pay an average of 9% of their income in state and local taxes, while the bottom 20% pay an average of 16% of their income in those same taxes. The rich are paying more in absolute dollars, but they're not paying nearly as much relative to their ability to pay. Medicare has been pushed down from the state to the counties, putting more burden on their property taxes, and Lifton found Governor Pataki's ten-year play for putting the county share of Medicaid back on the state's rolls inadequate, especially in this first year's tiny changes.

The prospect of an Empire Zone came up, though Lifton suggested it was unlikely that Tompkins County, which has the lowest unemployment rate in the state, especially when the program generally is plagued with questions of mismanagement. Lifton does support current efforts for Tompkins to lease some Empire Zone acreage from Schuyler County, however.

One large issue, made clear by the number of people wearing SEIU Local 200 hats and T-shirts, was the current state of labor negotiations at George Junior Republic. Bob Tompkins described the school, which employs 400 people, 200 of them union, and has $10-11 million in revenue on the agency side, as being "in the midst of potential disaster."

Some of the issues, Tompkins said, were strictly between the union and their employer, but others were caused at least in part by the state. Pricing issues, like the situation where the agency can charge more per day but faces a cap on the overall charge, has limited revenue. The state denied a cost of living adjustment pay increase for employees. The turnover rate for employees there has improved from eight months six to eight years ago to two to three years today, but that's likely to fall again given issues in current bargaining, notably management's wanting to halt payment of family health insurance. As one employee said, "this place has been paying people poverty level and then wondering why turnover is so high."

Other George Junior Republic members noted that $8.88 an hour, with minimal raises, just isn't enough for the work. State employees who do similar work get paid better, as do employees at newer agencies, like KidsPeace in Seneca County.

Lifton agreed that George Junior Republic is crucial, reaching kids to keep them out of expensive prisons and treatment later, and promised to look into what was happening. She noted that "we say we value work, but we don't want to pay for it, and we say we value children, but we don't pay people who work with children very well."

There were also concerns about cuts to vocational education. Lifton agreed that the governor "has a thing about BOCES", but said that this is something that needs to go forward, and noted that BOCES does a variety of different projects that districts can't do on their own. She said both she and the Assembly were opposed to the governor's proposed cuts: "He calls it flex-aid, we call it flex-cuts."

Lifestyle issues brought up near the end of the presentation had the audience buzzing: the smoking prohibition in bars and restaurants and possible repeal of the motorcycle helmet law.

Dirk Galbraith, one of the owners of the Moonshadow Tavern on the Ithaca Commons, noted that his business had shrunk from 11 employees to 8, and expected to pay less in sales tax in the future. He described it as "a draconian solution to the perceived problem" and noted that some bar owners had pretty much given up, concluding that they had to break the law to stay in business, and would likely be heading out of business soon. He noted a possible reprieve in a law being considered for proposal in the legislature which would permit smoking in places using new kinds of ventilators, suggested that restaurants and taverns should be looked at different, and encouraged Lifton to keep an open mind. Lifton, though defending her vote on the smoking ban on grounds of employee health, said it had been a difficult decision and agreed to look at the issue again. As he left, Galbraith gave Lifton a small stack of free drink tokens, and Lifton checked to make sure they were worth less than the $75 limit for gifts to legislators.

(Questions about the drinking age also came up during this discussion, with an audience member questioning our denying people old enough to serve in the military the right to have an alcoholic drink. Lifton agreed that our laws on the matter are hypocritical. It doesn't seem likely that the drinking age will come down any time soon, however.)

John Steele of Tompkins County ABATE, American Bikers Aimed Toward Education, brought up both a right of way bill that Lifton said sounded good and the prospect of repealing the law requiring motorcycle helmets. He (and others) said they do wear helmets, even in states where they aren't required, but would prefer to have a choice. Steele noted that many New York motorcyclists are now attending events in Pennsylvania, where the law has been repealed. Lifton agreed to look into it and get back to him.

The evening at Town Hall ended on a strange note, with a State Policeman escorting a man through people leaving the meeting for arraignment in Town Court.

Water and sewer issues between town and village

The town has posted minutes for the joint meeting of the Dryden Town Board and the Village of Dryden Board of Trustees. Most of the minutes focus on the remarkable complexities of the Cortland Road Sewer District, north of the Village, and water service in the area, though later parts of the meeting reflect a separate Town Board meeting that discussed annexation and fire contracts.

Some of the difficulties in the sewer and water situation include:

• A contract for the Cortland Road Sewer District with a duration of no less than 20 and no more than 40 years, which appears to have expired in 2002, as the town didn't do any bonding for the work
• A main line in that district which is too small - it was built before TC3 appeared - and which runs directly under Route 13, making it difficult to replace
• Infiltration problems in both the town and village portions of the sewage system, letting rainwater get into the lines and overloading the system
• Concrete tanks at the village wastewater plant which are nearing the end of their lifespan
• Questions about who owns the pipes from the high school and TC3 to the village
• "a pipe of clear water coming into the Village system from TC3, and it is obviously not waste, but groundwater," adding to the load on the sewer system
• Billing questions about basing sewer charges on water usage and differences in billing between the village and the town
• Town usage of the sewer system that is somewhere between 30% and 44% of the total

Proposed solutions aren't cheap - "the sanitary sewer improvements that are needed to handle the anticipated flows from the Cortland Road Sewer District total just over one million dollars," just for the costs in the village. The village plans to upgrade its plant to use " a process called sequencing batch reactors and the advantage of that type of treatment system is that it is controlled by electronics that allow the system to know how much flow it is seeing, how fast it is coming in, and it will actually change its own process to accommodate flows during the peak," which comes with a three million dollar price tag "for renovating and rebuilding the plant", though they hope to deal with some of that in grants.

The village is also not excited about extending water service to areas which remain in the town - "Mayor Taylor said that the Village had always been interested in doing water based on annexation."

The two boards parted agreeing to meet together to figure out ways to handle these issues.

The Town Board meeting that followed largely discussed the findings of fact for the annexation, and reflects opinions that stayed constant through the final vote.

There were two questions about the fire department contracts, one about what would happen to town money if a company disbanded or stopped replying to calls in the town, and one about whether annual audits (and the budget to pay for them) was necessary. The first question was put off until next year's contracts, while the audits seem to have remained in place, as Councilman Michaels said that he "believes yearly audits need to be done until we have a few years where there are no major issues in the management letter".

Two Charlie Harts

Today's Ithaca Journal has a letter from Nancy Hart of the Town of Dryden, noting that there are two Charlie Harts in the town. Her husband, the Charlie Hart on Lee Road, is not the same person as the Charlie Hart who's been writing letters (for instance, this and this) to the Journal:

While my husband has very high standards and values and follows his conscience when it is time to make political decisions, it is highly unlikely that he would be inclined to share political opinions in any public forum. His name and our full Lee Road address is in the phone book and therefore has been assumed to be the "letter writing Charlie Hart."

We would like that there be no mistaken identity in this matter.

There's also an article on Lansing resident Brian Goodell, who's running for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 24th District, which includes Dryden.

More on school, village budget pain

Once again I'm wishing that the Dryden Courier was available on the Web. This week's issue leads with detailed articles on the impact of budget difficulties on both the Dryden Central School District and the Village of Dryden, in greater depth than the Ithaca Journal provided on either the school or the village.

County Comprehensive Plan examined in Varna

Senior Planner Heather Filiberto and Planning Analyst Tom Mank of the Tompkins County Planning Department presented work on the Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan last night at the Varna Community Center.

The scope of the county plan is very different from the Town of Dryden Comprehensive Plan. The county is not specifying details of how to build in the county, as that's the job of local municipal governments, but rather performing tasks like "coordinate existing plans", "foster intergovernmental collaboration", and "address regional issues". The county plan will include some development scenarios, but Filiberto noted that "you will not see a land use map in our plan."

Attendees listen to Heather Filiberto describe the upcoming county plan.

The plan focuses on three clusters of issues: housing, transportation, and jobs; the environment; and neighborhoods and communities. Tompkins County has advantages and difficulties in all three clusters.

Tompkins County has had the benefit of better job growth than either New York State or the United States more generally over the period 1997-2003. While this job growth, derived largely from high tech and light manufacturing, is wonderful to have, it has created a new set of pressures.

Housing costs in Tompkins County are high and rising quickly, as the median cost of a home in Tompkins County has climbed from $100,000 to $134,000 in the last three years. The lower cost of housing in the rural areas of the county, as well as in surrounding counties, has encouraged more and more people to commute. The number of people paying more than 30% of their income for housing in the county, especially among renters, is high (even if students aren't included).

The high cost of housing in Tompkins County, compared to surrounding counties. (Click the picture for a larger version.)

This commuting then puts extra pressure on roads in the county and the neighborhoods through which they pass, a large issue in Varna particularly. The Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council is working on road planning, including a Route 13 Corridor Access Plan. (Tompkins County Area Development is also doing economic planning.)

The environment is another area needing attention. While Tompkins County has the benefit of some beautiful scenery, attendees of prior meetings have emphasized the need for a clear "scenic resource inventory and preservation plan", that sounds likely to become part of the county plan. Water quality needs to be preserved, and Jim Skaley asked later if septic system issues would be addressed as part of this.

It was hard to avoid contrast between the discussion of "strong neighborhoods" and the actual conditions in Varna, especially as trucks rolled by periodically. The slides presented people walking on sidewalks without cars everywhere, and the emphasis on the pedestrian nature sounded good, but doesn't reflect current reality, as came up in questions. Neither 366 nor Turkey Hill Road is a pleasant place to walk or bicycle. There was some discussion of walkability studies, and some hope of having one done in Varna.

Though there were only five members of the public attending (admittedly better than last week's Town Planning Board meeting with two), there were lots of questions, from septic tanks and water quality to managing car and truck traffic, to hope for the creation of a revolving fund for rehabilitating housing to revive communities and concern that proposals for infill at transportation nodes needs to fit with existing communities and not overwhelm them with sudden changes in density.

They also handed out a set of principles, policies, and action items. While not a plan in itself, it provides a rough guide to the kinds of things the plan is meant to accomplish and how they hope to get there.

On April 29, the Planning Department will be holding an open house from 3pm to 7pm and a public meeting from 7pm to 8pm at Dryden Town Hall (map).

Dryden schools issues in The Shopper

Today's Shopper includes two pieces from the Dryden Central School District: a new Board Briefs about a meeting with bleak budget news and a repeat of the invitation to run for the school board noted earlier.

Two other items in The Shopper reflect school concerns - there's an ad from the Dryden Faculty Association that's brief enough to cite in full:

A contract settlement for Dryden Teachers has been proposed by a State Appointed Fact Finder. The Faculty Association is willing to accept these recommendations.

The facts speak for themselves. Ask your School Board member to accept the Fact Finders' recommendation NOW! We have asked for less and waited for longer than necessary for a reasonable settlement.

Dryden Teachers... Working 628 Days WITHOUT A CONTRACT.

There's also an ad from Gary Shelhamer, a middle school technology teacher, encouraging residents to call their board members (phone numbers provided) and attend the March 29th meeting of the board to encourage them to keep the technology program.

Choose your type size

I've had a few complaints that the type on this site is too small, and my 33-year-old eyes have trouble reading it on one of my smaller monitors. Fortunately, at least for users with newer browsers, there's an easy answer: a stylesheet switcher. (It works in Mozilla, Safari, and recent versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers. It does not work in Netscape 4.x or earlier browsers.)

All of the pages on this site now reference three different stylesheets. The default stylesheet is still the same, but you can choose from small type, Medium Type, or Large Type at the bottom of the left-hand menu. (Clicking on them in this story works too - give it a try.)

When you choose one of these, the browser will save your choice to a cookie named "style". This cookie, accessible only to this web site and containing only the style information, will be read when you visit pages on this site, and used to set the size of the text to your preferred size.

(This site also uses cookies if you post a comment and select "Yes" under "Remember personal info?" Cookies are not used to track users in any way, however. And yes, I wrote a book about cookies a few years ago, so I feel confident talking about what they can and cannot do.)

The code for doing this derives from this excellent article with tweaks listed here under "Gecko debugged", if you're curious about how this operates.

It's not a major change, and I'll put a nicer interface on it at some point, but hopefully it will make visiting the site more pleasant.

Journal praises Trumbull on fire companies, annexation

Today's Ithaca Journal editorial praises Town Supervisor Steve Trumbull for improving relations with the fire companies and for the recent annexation of land to the Village for a DOT facility.

There certainly does seem to be much less strife with the fire companies, though some of achieving that is reflected in this year's 31.8% tax levy increase and the things it made possible. The amount of rancor has declined, certainly, even as some of the issues that raised controversy, like audits and quarterly payments, remain in place. Departments seem to be making active efforts to coordinate their equipment and practices.

The impact of annexation is pretty foggy, however, except as it concerns the DOT facility being built on that parcel of land. Board members Christofferson and Michaels objected to the nature of such a 'spot' or 'surgical' annexation in the absence of larger planning, and there are still contentious issues around water and sewer that the village and town have to work out for the entire area north of the Village of Dryden. Perhaps this is a first step toward solving those issues, but in many ways it seems like annexation was the only option for getting the DOT on this parcel because those issues remain unresolved.

I think I'd be more comfortable with the Journal's praise on annexation if Trumbull (admittedly sick, but happy to comment on other issues) had said anything at the meeting about why he voted in favor of it after weeks of uncertainty. The March 17th Dryden Courier article, written after the meeting, doesn't include much more insight into the matter, except for citing Village of Dryden Mayor Reba Taylor that "He called everybody. He talked to everybody. He did his homework."

The Journal didn't find these controversies nearly as unsettling before the election, when it endorsed Varvayanis despite the discontent in the fire companies. Perhaps Dryden's incumbent supervisors are all good?

Oh well. At least they haven't haven't written on the greatness of the county executive idea in a while.

Republican congressional primary?

The Auburn Citizen reports that Dr. David Walrath may be running against Congressman Sherwood Boehlert again. Walrath, who nearly defeated Boehlert in the 2002 primary, is well to the right of Boehlert.

It looks like there will also be a Democratic primary in this district, between Jeff Miller of New Hartford and Brian Goodell of Lansing.

John C. Lacy

Here's a biography of an early Dryden resident that's quite different from George Goodrich's earlier portrayals of John Southworth or George Robertson. It's also somewhat funny to note that Goodrich earlier cited the Lacy family for its regular fighting at town meetings.

Goodrich makes occasional typos, and I've tried to preserve them, though no doubt I'm adding my own along the way. In this case, he has a date of 1520 that should be 1620.

Chapter L.

John C. Lacy.

The Lacy (or Lacey) family is of ancient English origin, being known as DeLacey when they came with William the Conqueror from Normandy to England. Richard, the grandfather of John C. Lacy, was born in England. Benjamin, his father, was born in Mausfield, Morris county, New Jersey, October 1, 1768, and died in Dryden October 1, 1820. He came to this township, as a pioneer, in the fall of 1801, with his wife, who was a daughter of Captain Cornelius Carhart, of English and German descent, who commanded a company of sixty men in the battle of Monmouth, June 18, 1778. She was a woman of sound mental qualities, as well as of industrious, frugal habits. She survived her husband thirteen years, keeping her family of six children together on their farm in what is now Dryden village, until her decease.

Benjamin was a farmer, a man of sturdy character and one of the most enterprising and public-spirited pioneers of Dryden. He did much for the cause of education, which was then in its infancy in the new community, Daniel Lacy, the son of his brother Richard as we have seen, having been the first school teacher in Dryden in 1804. In 1819 he erected the first clothing works in Dryden, almost on the present site of the Dryden Woolen Mill, and in the next year, which was the last of his life, he and two of his brothers developed the Dryden Mineral Springs, where the Sanitarium is now located. They had discovered the value of these springs while prospecting for salt. If, in their search for salt, they had possessed the modern means for boring deeper, their search would doubtless have been successful, since extensive beds of this mineral are now found in the adjoining towns of Ithaca and Lansing and in other places in the county where great depths have been reached.

John C. Lacy was born on his father's farm in Dryden near the location of the present stone grist mill, October 21, 1808, and was, consequently, only twelve years of age at the time of his father's death. His means of education were very limited and two years later he commenced, with his older brother Garrett as his partner, to carry on the farm and to pay off the incumbrance which existed upon it. Their efforts were successful and enabled them to eventually buy out the interest of the other children. The partnership of the two brothers continued until 1857, when Garrett decided to remove further west, selling out his interest here to the subject of this chapter, who was thus the only representative of the Lacy pioneers of 1801 to remain in Dryden. About that time, or soon after, he married Maria A., daughter of the late Asa M. White, of Candor, N. Y., whose ancestry is also worthy of special notice. She was in the direct line of descent from Peregrine White, who was the first child born in New England of English parentage, being born on board the Mayflower in the harbor of Cape Cod about December 10, 1520.

Mr. Lacy died October 4, 1893, and his wife, July 18, 1895. Their only child, Ada Belle, is the wife of D. F. Van Vleet, of Ithaca, one of the leaders of the Tompkins County bar. Their son, De Forest Lacey Van Vleet, is the only grand-child of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Lacy.

While Mr. Lacy was a man of conservative judgment and thoughtful, prudent disposition, he was always one of the substantial and reliable men in the community in which he resided. The reminiscences which he wrote on his eightieth birthday, from which we quote on page 74 of this volume, illustrate the thoughtfulness of the man, and preserve for our benefit the knowledge of events which would otherwise be lost. His literary taste, for one brought up without educational advantages, was also very commendable, and the writer remembers from his childhood with what skill and enthusiasm Mr. Lacy used to take part in the debates at the old school-house, forty years ago, with J. W. Dwight, T. J. McElheny, Dr. Montgomery, and others. In 1862 he served as president of Dryden village, and was chosen at other times as assessor and as highway commissioner of the town. He belonged to the first temperance organization in Dryden and, in 1861, he joined the First M. E. church of this village, of which he was always, from that time, a stable and constant member, contributing largely of his time and means to its management and support. While others were more headstrong and impetuous in the pursuit of their undertakings, Mr. Lacy was always deliberate and judicious. He was a man who would have commanded success in any sphere of business to which he might have been called, a thorough and persistent reader and thinker, and possessed an accurate estimate of men and things. His natural kindness of heart and his benevolence endeared him to the community in which he lived, and his pure integrity and honesty of purpose in whatever he did has never been questioned.

Mrs. van Vleet has recently given a beautiful tribute to the memory of her father and mother by placing in the tower of the Southworth Library building a clock, which has already been mentioned. The accuracy and precision of Mr. Lacy, in all of his course of life in the past, is well-symbolized by this time-piece, which is so located as to guide and regulate in Dryden village the affairs of men in the future. Mrs. Van Vleet is also devoting some of her thoughts and leisure time to the improvement of the little farm in Dryden village, upon which her father was born ninety years ago, planting it with nut-bearing trees and orchards, and grading and laying out avenues and walks in such a manner as to stimulate and develop the taste for the beautiful, which she is thus disposed to cultivate in connection with the memory of her parents.

Goodrich, George B. The Centennial History of the Town of Dryden, 1797-1897. Dryden: Dryden Herald Steam Printing House, 1898. Reprinted 1993 by the Dryden Historical Society. Pages 218-220.

(The Dryden Historical Society, which sells this book, may be reached at 607-844-9209.)

Local giving to presidential candidates

Thanks to Fundrace, a site keeping track of election donation records, you can explore political donations by what location they came from. It's a little limited, in that it chops up information by zip codes, and the Town of Dryden contains both 130-- and 148-- zip codes, but you can get a picture by looking at donations by distance from Dryden Town Hall, or donations by distance from my house, which is near the eastern edge of 14850.

For a very different picture, using zip code only sorts the donations by dollar amount rather than locations - the results for 13053 and 14850 are pretty different.

They also have a national map. It's strange to see counties in the southern tier of New York trending Democrat blue, while the Thruway zone trends more Republican red and neutral white.

I haven't given yet, but this year I definitely will.

Marriage, jails, economy

Today's Ithaca Journal, like yesterday's, is very quiet on Dryden, though it covers some county and state issues that have an effect. Today's paper includes:

• a letter from Pat Ober of Dryden opposing gay marriage,
• discussion of the county jail situation,
• Senator Schumer on Tompkins County's prospects and the possibility of the federal government limiting the local share of Medicaid,
• an article noting that Sustainable Tompkins will be hosting 6-week "salons" designed "to share ideas on ways to move toward a more sustainable future", though the nearest ones are in Lansing and Ithaca,
• and an editorial on Tompkins County's possible 'importing' of 13.665 acres of Empire Zone from Schuyler County.

Comprehensive County Plan at Varna Wednesday

The Tompkins County Planning Department will be presenting the Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan on Wednesday, March 24th, at 7:30pm at the Varna Community Center (map).

The plan hasn't yet been released to the public, and this meeting (along with others in the county) "is designed to give Varna residents an opportunity to view key maps and information, and contribute ideas for the draft plan before it is released to the general public."

Assemblywoman Lifton in Dryden Thursday

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton will be holding a public meeting on March 25th at the Dryden Town Hall (map) at 7pm.

Lifton represents all of Tompkins County and the towns of Virgil and Cortlandville as well as the city of Cortland in Cortland County. She is a member of Assembly committees on agriculture, economic development and job creation, environmental conservation, higher education, and mental health.

Six Mile Creek monitoring to begin

The Ithaca Journal reports that the volunteer program monitoring the water quality of Six Mile Creek is set to start in April. If you're interested in volunteering, "contact the Tompkins County Soil and Water District at 257-2340."

Dryden approved participation at the March 18 Town Board meeting.

Fire department contracts, audits

Fire department issues came up repeatedly during the Town Board meeting on March 18, ranging from fire hydrant painting to contracts and audits.

Fire hydrant maintentance came up during the engineering report, with questions about painting, flushing, and flow-testing. Much of this work may be done this summer. Bolton Point requires that their active hydrants be painted orange. (There is one black hydrant, in Lansing, used only for flushing the end of a line.) It sounded like the last major testing was in 1989 or 90.

Councilman Steve Stelick brought up a number of fire-related issues during his privilege of the floor, noting that he had attended the February 25th fire chiefs meeting. Mutual aid and dispatch issues were getting sorted out with the county, and there was discussion of FAST (Firefighter Assist and Seach Team) teams. Freeville offered to share $18,000 of rope with other departments. The accountability system, an OSHA requirement, is getting standardized and implemented across local departments (though it varies across departments and especially counties). Neptune has a laminating system for the color-coded tags used to identify which firefighter has which certificates, and is letting other departments use it. Stelick and Michaels also met with the Neptune and Varna departments in what Stelick described as successful meetings.

The nature of that success became clearer later, in discussion about contracts. This year's contracts are based on last year's contracts, with some key changes. The amounts are changing to match this year's budget, and the departments are required to put capital investment funds into restricted capital reserve accounts. The controversial quarterly payment system, in which the town paid departments 50% of the annual budget at the beginning of the year and the remainder of the money disbursed at quarterly intervals, remain in place, but with one large modification: the capital funds are all paid at the beginning of the year, and only operating funds are disbursed this way.

Three of the company contracts - for Neptune (Dryden), W.B. Strong (Freeville), and Varna were ready for signing, as was the unchanged contract with Brooktondale, which Dryden pays to cover the section of Dryden along 79. Etna's contract is still being held up by reporting issues.

Councilman Michaels noted that their meetings showed that the departments are consistently working to improve the compatibility of their equipment, "getting a great deal of attention." The one area of concern is that Etna has a lower number of volunteers and, according to the call logs, their response time is declining. Michaels noted the possibility of automatic mutual aid to call out Varna or Freeville rather than waiting nine to ten minutes to see if Etna can respond, and all of the departments are interested in automatic mutual aid for certain types of calls.

All of the departments, even the very very healthy ones, are having recruitment troubles - "departments are not regenerating that core group of volunteers." Neptune ran an insert in The Shopper that week looking for volunteers, and there was some discussion about ways for the town to promote volunteerism.

Neptune Hose Company needs volunteers

The audits, except for Etna's, are underway, and copies of the final audits for Neptune, W.B Strong, and Varna (2.6MB PDF) were distributed among the board. (The Dryden Courier has reported on some of the audit findings.)

The Town Board's April 8th meeting will be held at Dryden Fire Hall (map), and will be discussing an incentive retirement plan for firefighters as a recruitment and retention tool.

New comments form

It's not much yet, but I've added a form for general comments about the site. Unlike the regular comments for stories, these comments just go to me, and aren't published on the site.

Whether you have suggestions for the site, news or events you'd like announced, or just want to say hello (or good-bye), you can do so now.

Hopefully it's the first small step toward some more interactive features around here.

Getting closer to Varna

The last few houses pictured cluster around Oak Brook Drive, and then the houses get sparser, more generally hidden.

1124 Dryden Road (map)

1113 Dryden Road (map)

1102 Dryden Road (map)

That bring us to the intersection with Turkey Hill and Monkey Run Roads.

March recreation report

Jennifer Glaab, Recreation Coordinator for the Town of Dryden, gave a detailed report at last Thursday's Town Board meeting, noting that winter events were wrapping up while spring events are getting started.

Contra dancing was starting up at Varna Community Center on March 14th, followed by Dryden Fire Hall on the 21st, Freeville Fire Hall on April 4th, and Bethel Grove Community Center on April 11th, all from 2:30-4:30pm, $3 per person and $2.50 for seniors and children under 12.

Contra dancing coming to Dryden Fire Hall

The recreation department has also set up a free April 3rd performance of the Shanty Band, from Ithaca College, at Dryden Elementary at 7:30pm, as well as a free Easter Egg Hunt for children eight and under in Montgomery Park on April 10th at 1pm. Neptune Hose Company and Specialty Trophy and Awards are co-sponsoring.

On the 24th of April, and also free, the Pepsi Pitch, Hit, & Run competition will be at the Dryden Middle School and High School fields. (The Dryden Courier notes that 10-year Howie Frisco, of Freeville, won there last year and won at the state level as well.)

Basketball finished in mid-March for both boys and girls. After-school ice skating (at The Rink in Lansing) had 72 attendees. The department was sponsoring a wrestling tournament on the 20th of March, while spring sports are just getting started.

Lacrosse is starting up, with a $25 registration fee, open to 8-year-olds through seventh graders. The Town of Dryden is funding a modified lacrosse program this year, in the expectation that fund-raising will cover this in the future, and the Dryden Central School District is administering it, though it's open to all residents of the Town of Dryden whether they live in the school district or not.

Kiwanis baseball and softball were just getting started, and registrations were still being accepted to April 1. New this spring is an eight-week after-school archery program with Klein's Archery, which costs $80 for one day a week of archery or $150 for two. It runs from April 12 to the first week of June. Children in grades 1-6 can participate. Klein's added the Town of Dryden to its insurance, and Klein's is paying the town $200 - four partial scholarships of $40, and $40 for promotion. The town is also coordinating transportation. Glaab noted that archery was popular on the recreation surveys the town has conducted recently.

County Legislator Martha Robertson asked if Town of Dryden activities were open to non-residents, and Glaab said that they were, at the same fees.

As the March 17 Dryden Courier notes, Councilman Steve Stelick concluded Glaab's report with a huge thank you, noting that "no one could imagine what you could accomplish in a year."

(If you'd like a detailed schedule of recreation events in Dryden, the town site includes a calendar of events, complete with details and forms, as well as a list of events.)

Looking back at a year of war

Today's Ithaca Journal looks back over the year of war in Iraq, featuring two stories with a Dryden perspective. The easier of the two to read, "Bush's Iraq policy finds support in Tompkins County", includes comments from Dryden resident Richard Jorgenson and Freeville resident Charlie Hart, both supporting the war.

The more difficult article - actually one of the most difficult articles I've seen in the Journal - talks to the parents of Air Force Staff Sergeant Patrick Griffin Jr., who grew up in Dryden, was killed in an ordnance explosion near Diwaniyah, Iraq, and is buried in Willow Glen cemetary.

Planning Board meets, modifies Draft Comprehensive Plan

This month's Planning Board meeting had a quorum, unlike last month's meeting, and was able to move forward with changes to the plan, though only two members of the public (myself included) were in attendance.

Four planning board members, Dryden's Environmental Planner, and two people attended the meeting.

The Board started with discussion about training possibilities, some on storm water management and others on planning board duties and SEQR review, and talked about the possibility of an April 29th meeting that the County wants to have to discuss the Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan, currently in progress. They also discussed the recent conversion of the Conservation Advisory Council into a Conservation Advisory Board and voted to send subdivision plans on Wood Road and Yellow Barn Road to the CAB for their input.

The Board then picked up on conversations from the last meeting, taking action on ideas that had been discussed before but couldn't be voted on.

After much discussion on the hamlet zoning and how to increase density without changing the hamlets suddenly (in which I pointed out that Varna's population would roughly quadruple, to 2400, if built out the way the current draft of the plan is written) the Board adopted David Weinstein's proposed changes to the hamlet section, with some changes based on conversation at the last meeting, notably:

• A suggestion that zoning be written to put the onus on developers who want to build multi-unit projects to demonstrate that it does fit in the community rather than requiring the board to demonstrate that it doesn't fit
• The use of "floating zones" that permit high-density development but require it to be scattered through the hamlet area
• A few paragraphs will be added to an earlier section of the document encouraging the town to pursue affordable housing through public-private partnerships

These changes to the plan will still allow for increased density in the hamlet areas, but should give the Town more control over how it happens.

There was also discussion about how to encourage owner-occupied housing, though monitoring that is difficult and some recent experiments, notably on Sanctuary Drive in the Town of Ithaca and on Observatory Drive above Varna, seem to be having large problems remaining owner-occupied.

In reponse to concerns that the area south of Mott Road was a wetland, the board extended suburban residential area to the south side of the road, and planned to use the wetland area as a buffer between that residential and commercial area further south.

Planning Board members and planner George Frantz modify plans for Mott Road area.

The Etna Industry / Office / Research area, a subject of controversy at last month's meeting, was substantially scaled back, with some portions converted to rural residential and others incorporated into the mixed-use Route 13 overlay. They also noted the existence of the Finger Lakes Land Trust's Etna Nature Preserve there, and suggested that maintaining a woodland buffer between Route 13 and the main portion of the Etna hamlet would be a good idea.

Also, in reponse to concerns voiced at the public meetings, David Weinstein suggested that:

This plan is not advocating the immediate construction of sewer and water into areas like those west of the hamlet of Etna, but rather that they should only go there as development intensifies.

George Frantz noted the cost and risk that "front-loading", building infrastructure in advance of development, can incur. The board approved the suggested change.

The board discussed farm issues briefly at the end of the meeting, noting both a general desire to strengthen language about preserving existing farms and New York State's more active interest in ensuring that municipalities don't make it too difficult for farms to operate. A Ulysses ordinance that made certain to provide for farmers' needs throughout had recently passed muster with the state's Department of Agriculture and Markets, though recent Town of Ithaca ordinances are facing hard questions from both farmers and the state.

Cayuga Trails Club hike Sunday

The Cayuga Trails Club will be hiking on Sunday at 1pm, starting from the Liddel Laboratory on Freese Road, between Varna and Hanshaw Road. It's a "Walk, look, and learn" hike, and contact information is available on their site.

This reminds me that I'm working on building an events calendar for activities in Dryden; if you have events you'd like to see listed, email me.

Village and school budgets

Today's Ithaca Journal reports on the 11% percent increase in the tax levy proposed in the Village of Dryden, driven by a 7% increase in total spending and reflected in a 4.5% tax rate increase.

Health insurance, retirement, legal, and gasoline costs have increased substantially, as did the need for some salaries to rise to stay competitive. Freeville also reduced their contracted number of hours for Dryden police. Mayor Reba Taylor notes that "we should still be able to operate and give everyone the same services they've always had."

The trustees also discussed the Cortland Road sewer district, which has become a growing source of contention with the town (water and sewer issues were a large part of what drove the annexation debate over the last few months).

The Journal also reports on an Ithaca City School District budget forum, with more details on the cost of benefits and concessions the teachers' union has made for future employees, and prints a letter from Murray Cohen of the Town of Dryden that suggests that "President Bush must be held accountable. If he doesn't have the courage to resign because of his inept leadership, he must be voted out of office in November of 2004."

Tonight's Planning Board meeting

Tonight's Town of Dryden Planning Board meeting will continue to examine the Draft Comprehensive Plan and proposed changes to it. The Draft Comprehensive Plan page on the town's site notes:

The Planning Board discussed the first three topics at its February meeting, however no actions were taken because a quorum was not present. At the upcoming March 18th meeting (Thursday at 7PM), the Planning Board will revisit these first three topics, and hopes to take action on some revisions. As time permits, the next four topics (housing, water/sewer, transportation, and agriculture) may be addressed. The Planning Board continues to welcome all comments in writing regarding the Draft Comprehensive Plan.

The last Planning Board meeting had lots of discussion, but only two members in attendance. The meeting will be held at the Dryden Town Hall (map) at 7pm.

School report cards, budgets

Today's Journal reports that New York State issued school report cards yesterday, and the news is mostly good for the Dryden and Ithaca districts:

"Ithaca City School District elementary and middle schools did significantly better on state tests than those the state deems as similar schools around the state, according to Russell. High school Regents exam performance also continued to be strong and consistent across the board.....

In Dryden, the focus will continue to be on middle school performance. Having made strides in fourth-grade test scores -- earning most-improved recognition from the state for its fourth-grade math scores -- the district hopes to bolster eighth-grade performance....

But in the high school arena, Regents scores suggested that any gaps in middle school education are minimized at the high school. In seven of eight available Regents test scores, more than 91 percent of students scored a passing 55 or higher. On the Mathematics A test 82 percent passed."

Dryden Superintendent Patricia Archambault wants to add support for middle school and and ninth grade students, but the Journal quotes her on the difficulties: "Given a tough budget year any staff reductions will really limit our abilities."

The Journal also has an editorial on citizen involvement with the school budget process. Finally, there's a another notice on an April 1 deadline for "residents of the Dryden Central School District who wish to have their children transported to a non-public school."

Health insurance for elected officials

Another issue that came up at the Town Board meeting last Thursday was the question of health insurance for full-time elected officials: the Town Clerk and Highway Superintendent.

The town pays the full cost of either single or family health insurance for appointed employees, but only the single cost for full-time elected officials. The elected officials can use the family plan, but have to make up the difference themselves, which comes to $159 per week. As Highway Superintendent Jack Bush noted at the February meeting, this effectively makes the Deputy Highway Superintendent better paid than the Highway Superintendent.

Town Clerk Bambi Hollenbeck (who doesn't herself currently use the family insurance) did a survey of surrounding towns, as well as a few towns with similar populations and tax bases, and presented the results.

Councilman Marty Christofferson said "it looked to me like we were kind of unique," in treating elected officials differently from appointed officials. Christofferson wasn't, however, "sure how to draft a resolution that does it", and wanted to hear from the town attorney, Mahlon Perkins, before moving ahead with this.

Bush pointed out that elected officials were on the same (Teamsters) health plan as appointed officials, and the only thing the board would need to do is authorize the payment. This raised questions about whether the town pays the full amount for other employees, which it does, without charging the employees a percentage. Stelick noted that other towns charge employees a percentage, and Christofferson noted that TC3 employees pay a percentage. The union contract specifies that, and it's practice at the town for other employees as well. Chris Michaels noted that he's happy board members can get insurance through the town, though the town doesn't pay for their coverage.

In the end, board members sounded like they wanted to take a long-term look at who pays for insurance for all employees, figure out where this would come from in the budget, and consult with Mahlon Perkins before taking action, though Christofferson said "in principle, I agree that full-time elected officials should be treated like full-time employees." Chris Michaels also asked when any such change would take effect if passed - immediately, retroactive to January 2004, or in 2005. Hattery wanted to see cost numbers before voting. Action was held to the next meeting.

There was a question a few years ago, which re-surfaced in the last election, over whether the Highway Superintendent should be elected or appointed. Whatever your opinion on that issue, it seems very strange that health insurance benefits would change as a side-effect of that. While elected officials often do their work with more controversy and more scrutiny brought on by the election cycle, it hardly seems reasonable to deny full-time officials who happen to be elected the same benefits they would have if appointed.

Song to a fair young lady, going out of the town in the spring

The first verse of this poem, written by Dryden's namesake, the poet John Dryden (1631-1700), seems especially appropriate as we approach the first official day of spring, but switch suddenly from mud with a few flowers starting to grow to seven inches of snow on the ground.

Ask not the cause why sullen Spring
So long delays her flowers to bear;
Why warbling birds forget to sing,
And winter storms invert the year:
Chloris is gone; and fate provides
To make it Spring where she resides.

Chloris is gone, the cruel fair;
She cast not back a pitying eye:
But left her lover in despair
To sigh, to languish, and to die:
Ah! how can those fair eyes endure
To give the wounds they will not cure!

Great God of Love, why hast thou made
A face that can all hearts command,
That all religions can invade,
And change the laws of every land?
Where thou hadst plac'd such power before,
Thou shouldst have made her mercy more.

When Chloris to the temple comes,
Adoring crowds before her fall;
She can restore the dead from tombs
And every life but mine recall.
I only am by Love design'd
To be the victim for mankind.

Dryden's poetry seems like a stark contrast with most of what I publish here. I wonder what he'd think of this place named after him. (He's not quite so distant as many of the Roman and Greek namesakes of places in upstate New York, certainly.)

Dryden and Freeville village election results

The Journal reports that unofficially, 211 people voted in yesterday's Dryden village election and 21 voted in Freeville's uncontested races.

In the Village of Dryden's only contested race, Republican Robert Witty defeated Democrat David Potter 132-76. In the uncontested races, Republican Daniel Wakeman received 121 votes, while Democrat Mary Ellen Bossack received 95.

In the Village of Freeville, incoming mayor Lotte Carpenter received 20 votes. Outgoing mayor Thomas Lyson received 18 votes for a one-year trustee seat, while Diana Radford and Penny Beebe both received 21 votes.