The Journal finally gets around to the Community Center funding story, putting it in Briefly in Tompkins. The money will go largely toward infrastructure projects, and it was also nice to see a Republican give credit to a Democrat:
Ellis Hollow Community Center plans to use the money for signs, grills, lights, fence repair and hedges. Etna Community Center plans to put it toward programming expenses and heating repair. Varna Community Center will get building upgrades and fund programs for youth and adults. Etna's Houtz Hall will be able to repair and replace a faulty roof, and Bethel Grove Community Center will repair its foundation.
The money came from an existing allotment that had not yet been tapped into. Town Board member David Makar developed a formula to help allocate funds, according to town Supervisor Steven Trumbull.
The rest of today's Dryden news in the Ithaca Journal is on the opinion page. To start with a high note, Darts and Laurels includes a Laurel from Mike Raffe (formerly of Varna) to schools including Dryden and Ithaca for their participation in National Preparedness Month. Hopefully schools are now better prepared to deal with disasters.
There's a letter from Charlie Hatfield of Freeville endorsing Walter Keeney for Town Board.
Finally, there's a letter from Harvey Baker of Dryden about the POW/MIA flag. The first sentence, I think, says it all:
Once again the flying of the POW/MIA flag on the same flag pole along with the American flag in this country has come under scrutiny.
It's the smear that dares not say its name. The only serious scrutiny the POW/MIA flag has received comes from Republicans trying to make an issue out of something that's not even decided by the Town Board, so they can't really say where the scrutiny comes from. About the harshest thing they can claim is that there was a question about flying it on a separate flagpole, which seems to happen other places without incident.
I fear that we Democrats have missed an opportunity to blast the Republican incumbents for failing to ensure that a light was placed with the flagpole when the new Town Hall was built - I'm guessing that will be an expensive (and necessary) retrofit.
Posted by simon at October 29, 2007 5:49 PM in Ithaca Journal , politics (local)