Living in Dryden: Too little water, too much traffic

August 12, 2005

Too little water, too much traffic

Jennie Daley reports on last night's Dryden Town Board meeting, highlighting problems residents reported with their water systems and traffic. Cathi Calori and Art Berkey presented their work on a possible water district for Ellis Hollow Road from Game Farm to Turkey Hill Road, as wells in the area are faltering. They'll be collecting signatures on a petition and asking the town to investigate how best to get water to the area.

Art Berkey explains the water district petitioning project.

Meanwhile, in the northwest corner of the town, traffic concerns are growing along Caswell, Sheldon, Wood, Hanshaw, West Dryden, and Bone Plain roads. All of them are relatively straight and getting both more use as high-speed shortcuts and more development. Residents Greg and Sandra Busby spoke about the need to reduce speed and talked with the Town Board and County Legislators Martha Robertson and Mike Lane about how best to convince the state Department of Transportation to reduce the speeds. The board passed a resolution requesting the state look into it.

Greg and Sandra Busby talk about West Dryden traffic issues.

The article notes that board postponed a vote on the Comprehensive until next month, but did hear Zorika Henderson's concerns about the trails proposed in the district. (To go beyond the article,) Henderson asked the board take a stand that they would never use eminent domain for trails, but while the board clearly didn't want to use eminent domain, Town Attorney Mahlon Perkins warned that "Never is a very long time." Zoning Officer Henry Slater and County Legislator Mike Lane shared similar concerns about the effect that could have on negotiations. Town Councilman Mike Hattery felt that even if the current board said something like that, it wouldn't be binding on future boards.

The article also notes Slater's mention of good (and hopefully neighborhood-compatible) prospects for the buildings Ithaca Produce and F & T Distributing left empty when they moved to other sites within the town.

Elsewhere in the paper, a charity motorcycle ride for Ronald McDonald House will start from McDonalds in Dryden on Sunday, and a Spencer resident was charged with a DWI on Route 13 in Dryden.

It's been hot this summer, but also dry; the Ithaca area is in mild drought, experiencing our third driest summer in 111 years. The average is 4.83 inches from July 1st to now, but there have only been 1.47 inches this year. Meanwhile, Albany's received 7.55 inches, for their fifth-wettest summer. Ithaca's apparently the driest place in the Northeast this year. (So much for that "Ithaca Rain Festival: January 31st-December 31st" T-shirt I saw once. The frogs who were on it holding umbrellas are probably pretty thirsty right now.)

Posted by simon at August 12, 2005 8:21 AM in
Note on photos