January 21, 2008

Methodist Church needs repairs

This week's Dryden Courier is overwhelmingly loaded with Dryden news. If you have a chance, I'd encourage you to buy a copy, since I can only get so much in here. (Rite Aid and the Mobil usually have it in the Village of Dryden, as does Sunoco/XtraMart on the 13/366 overlap.)

They lead with the Methodist Church, which needs $250,000 in repairs, with a total of $750,000 of recommended repairs. The church, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is pretty much the architectural anchor of the four corner intersection in the Village of Dryden. They managed to support the appraisal with grants; I'm not sure how they'll manage to support the construction. The 133-year-old roof is a lot of the problem.

Also on the front page, there's a report on the interactions between the TC3 Foundation's plans for a new dormitory and the Town of Dryden's recently-passed stormwater ordinances. It made for a very long start to the Town Board earlier this month, because the Foundation needed approval to proceed with other funding, and didn't yet have either a variance for a smaller parking lot or a stormwater plan that matched the new ordinance. After a lot of discussion, they sorted that out.

The other issue that was acted on at the meeting was Carlton Ryan's request that the Board ask for a lower speed limit on Fall Creek Road, following an accident he miraculously got through with relatively minor injuries. The Town agreed to ask the state for a reduction to 45mph.

There's an extended interview with Jason Leifer, newly appointed to the Town Board, talking aobut why he came here, the fun of hiking, sports, being a lawyer, and his shift from running for Town Justice to serving on the Town Board.

There's a note on the Dryden Schools Superintendent Search, and their hopes for public input.

The On Campus section notes that Abby Niziol of Freeville was named to the Fall 2007 Dean's List at St. John Fisher College.

In sports, there's a roundup of girls basketball that includes mention of Dryden beating Marathon 31-30 in overtime. The boys basketball roundup notes Dryden's 43-40 loss as well.

In the Calendar, a photo announces a fundraiser for Robbie Busby, a 5-year-old West Dryden boy, to be held at the First Congregational Church in Cayuga Heights at 2:00pm February 3rd.

There's a report on the Dryden school board meeting that explored comparing Dryden with other school districts.

The Dryden Year in Review takes up the middle of the paper, with vastly more than I can present here.

TC3 also gets some additional mention for a hospitality certificate program at TC3.biz.

The Dryden Senior Citizens will be getting together on the 28th at the Dryden Fire Hall. Mark Murphy, owner of Dryden Sport and Spine Physical Therapy, will be speaking. Dinner starts at 12:15pm, with announcements at 11:45pm.

There's a picture of me preparing pancakes at the Varna Community Center's pancake breakfast last Sunday. I have to confess that while I did a fair amount of cooking from 6:00am to 8:30am, I was really pleased that the Probation Department brought us a good crew, including an excellent cook. You're not supposed to take pictures of folks on community service, so I wound up with a picture. (Those were Matt's pancakes, though.)

Matt Cooper's Inside Dryden column starts with mention of the Southworth Library's preschool story time on Friday, January 25th at 10:00am. He also notes that the 2007 Salvation Army's Red Kettle Drive raised $2,950 in Dryden. He closes by mentioning that he'll be retiring his column and someone else will be writing it soon.

Harry Weldon starts Anecdotes & Brevities by talking about the challenge of getting the mail in winter, while Bob Garrison notes that Marie Read had taken photos of snow buntings on Mount Pleasant, which I think may be these.

Posted by simon at January 21, 2008 2:24 PM in , , , , , ,
Note on photos