In today's Dryden Town Talk, Cathy Wakeman reports that Adam Pamel's Eagle Scout project, raising money for school supplies for 33 children, was a success. Pamel set up collection boxes, held a car wash, and was noticed by Cayuga's Helping Hands and Cargill, which both made donations. The children each got a backpack as well as supplies. Wakeman also notes that the CROPwalk will be in Dryden this Sunday fron noon to 3:00pm along the Dryden Lake Park Trail.
Briefly in Dryden includes requests for applicants for both a Zoning Board of Appeals position and a Planning Board position.
At the county level, legislators added $950,000 to the capital funds budget, including money for designing a new jail, for the emergency communications project, and for roads. ($600,000 for the jail, $500,000 for emergency communications, and $250,000 for roads doesn't add up to $950,000, so I'm guessing there's some financial subtlety the Journal didn't explain.) The change takes the tax levy from a 3% planned increase to a 5.29% increase. The budget isn't yet finalized, however, so that number may yet change.
The county legislature also approved $38,000 of funding to the Recreation Partnership on a permanent basis, removing one of the financial issues driving questions about that organization. In the article, County Legislator Martha Robertson says that "the importance of maintaining a countywide recreation partnership cannot be underestimated." It doesn't look like the Rec Partnership will disappear as an issue, however, as Ithaca Town Supervisor Cathy Valentino said that "there are concerns we feel need to be looked at."
On the opinion page, Nancy Suci of Dryden asks "How did 'commander-in-chief' become the most important qualification for being a U.S. president?".
The Journal's editorial focuses on the reform proposals in the state Assembly, noting former Assemblyman Marty Luster's 2000 efforts at reform and suggesting that "Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-125th Dist., has supported budget reform and favors some of the proposals in this new resolution" - though that's an opinion I'd really like to see coming from her office and acted on, not just suggested in the Journal's editorial.
(Hmmm... I was really hoping they'd have an article where they talked to Lifton and maybe our state senators about reform in response to this latest proposal. Perhaps later this week?)
Posted by simon at September 29, 2004 8:53 AM in Ithaca Journal , politics (local) , politics (national) , politics (state) , public finance , recreation