Cathy Wakeman's Dryden Town Talk column reports on the upcoming Magical Evening of Delectable Music and Decadent Desserts, to be held at the Dryden United Methodist Church this Sunday at 4:00pm. The event ($20, $10 for seniors) is a fundraiser for Patti Prince, a 25-year-old mother who is waiting in a Cleveland hospital for a double lung and liver transplant.
Wakeman also notes the Sertoma spaghetti dinner and silent auction on Friday at the Dryden Middle School from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. (The auction goes until 8:00pm.) There will also be a Senior Citizens Bazaar the following Saturday, October 21st, from 9:00am to 2:00pm at the Dryden Fire Hall.
On the opinion page, the three candidates for Sheriff write on "the most pressing challenge". Timothy Little writes about the jail and deputy response time, Peter Meskill writes about the challenges of "insuring the safety and security of everyone in the community within the budget allocated by the County Legislature", and Brian Robison calls for more cooperation among police agencies.
The Journal's editorial on the city budget opens with a swipe at Dryden County Legislator Martha Robertson:
About three weeks ago, shortly after Tompkins County Administrator Stephen Wicher delivered a 2007 budget with a sub-inflation property tax levy increase, we used this space to urge county lawmakers to carefully weigh calls for added spending against the dangerously escalating burden local taxpayers bear. At the Legislature's next meeting, veteran Legislator Martha Robertson chided The Journal, accusing us of writing the same editorial every year.
That may be, Ms. Robertson, but it's a message worth repeating.
While it's a message worth repeating, it's about as far as the Journal really gets. I can't imagine them devoting, say, a two-page spread to the county budget, what's changing this year, and what's changed in past years. At the level of detail the Journal reports, of course it's hard for anyone to see beyond the tax rate. The editorial's rhetoric about taxes as 'seizure' doesn't give me much cause to hope they'll take a deeper look anytime soon, either.
Posted by simon at October 11, 2006 8:44 AM in Ithaca Journal , churches , public finance , senior citizens