April 14, 2006
Orchid marvels; Dryden schools budget
This morning's Ithaca Journal visits The Orchid Place, a greenhouse and retail store for an amazing set of orchids. I went over to take a picture of their sign for this site, but found myself invited into the store and into the greenhouse, which was incredible. I especially liked their cooling system, which blows air through wet cardboard, cooling and humidifying at the same time.
Orchid flowers.
The retail store has a delightful collection of orchids, though it's a vast space which they're only starting to fill with flowers. I talked with the owners about their plans to turn that space into a tea house, with a smaller showroom space, and for an Asian garden out front. It sounds like we'll be seeing a tremendous change from the old Boxcar restaurant that was there. I've posted a gallery of photos from this morning's visit. (I posted a gallery of construction photos earlier.)
There's also an article on the Dryden schools budget, which now appears to include a spending increase of 7.39% and a tax levy increase of 9.66%; both of those feel higher than numbers I've seen at other local districts.
Posted by simon at April 14, 2006 12:27 PM in Ithaca Journal , schools (Dryden)Note on photos
The problem with Dryden's budget, besides its being so high, is that they used the legislative $, which I guarantee was one-time, election-year $, for personnel rather than for one-time expenses.