August 19, 2004

Volunteers needed, budget, TCAT

The most Dryden-specific news in this morning's Ithaca Journal is a notice calling for volunteers to help Project CARE, a volunteer program of the Tompkins County Office for the Aging. There are two opportunities to help people in Freeville and one near NYSEG.

At the county level, the Journal has an article on the many capital projects competing for space in the county budget. Emergency communications, roads, a possible new jail, and county offices are all on the list, though not all of them will be happening any time soon.

The Ithaca City School District and its staff are in contract negotiations, hoping to replace a contract that expired June 30th with a new one by September 1st.

The Journal's editorial makes clear that the concentration of leadership in New York's legislative leaders has local consequences:

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-125th Dist., said she was informed by the speaker's senior staff that, "this bill would not go through the Assembly as written." Lifton said that she tried to make the case for the TCAT legislation but eventually concluded that introducing the bill under those circumstances would have been "an empty political gesture."

The Speaker apparently opposed the bill because it would have resulted in the likely merger of a CSEA local with a larger UAW local.

Posted by simon at August 19, 2004 8:02 AM in , , , ,
Note on photos