This morning's Ithaca Journal reports on yesterday's village elections, in which incumbents won their races across Dryden and Freeville. In Freeville, 24 people voted, and Mayor Lotte Carpenter, Trustees Diana Radford and Penny Beebe, and Village Justice Arthur Marchese were elected unopposed. In the Village of Dryden, the current tally for the two Village Trustee positions is 148 for Mary Ellen Bossack, 140 for Dan Wakeman, 138 for Randy Sterling, and 98 for Jim Willer. The Journal reports that there are nine absentee ballots to be counted, but that still leaves Bossack safely in the lead and might only switch Wakeman and Sterling's positions. The Journal quotes Bossack:
I'm pleased that we had a better turn out of Democrats than we have in the past. The more people are involved, the more democratic the process will be.
Total turnout was 264 at the polls, plus those nine possible absentee ballots. Last year's total turnout was 240.
There's also an article on the cowboy lifestyle of Eric Kincaid. I'm pretty sure it was Kincaid I saw riding with a pack horse (or maybe mule?) behind him along Route 13 by Finger Lakes Fresh. I cursed my failure to bring a camera that day, but since he's living on Hunt Hill Road, I may yet see that scene again.
This week's Briefly in Dryden offers lots of events:
Cortland Cooperative Extension will hold a "From the Ground Up" presentation for farmers who want to balance their soils on Thursday from 10:00am to 2:30pm at the Dryden Fire Hall (map).
The Dryden Youth Opportunity Fund will be taking grant applications until April 30th, "to provide resources for the long-term benefit of Dryden area youth through innovative and creative programs and activities that go beyond the basic educational requirements of public education."
Dryden Senior Citizens will meet at 11:30am Monday at the Dryden Fire Hall (map). The program, by Gina Prentiss and Trish Sprague of the Dryden Town Historical Society, will explore the importance of identifying and recording information in collections. (Old photos are great, but photos with people's names or places attached are often more fun!)
The Dryden Youth Commission is looking for a new member.
On the opinion page, Kristie Rice, chief of the McLean Fire Department, adds her voice to the complaints about the Journal's publishing a photo including a state trooper killed in the line of duty. The Journal's editorial looks at flaws in New York State's sunshine laws and ways to fix them.
If you take your own trash to the county's solid waste facility, you'll also want to read a letter from Ken Thompson, Tompkins County solid waste manager, about new flat fees for cars, trucks, vans, and trailers. The online version leaves out the fees, but they are $5 for cars, minivans, and SUVs, $10 for pickup trucks and full-size vans, and $10 for "Altered cars (e.g. trailers).
Posted by simon at March 22, 2006 7:56 AM in Ithaca Journal , politics (local) , politics (state)