November 09, 2003
Outer Varna
I spent the morning working at the Varna Community Center's pancake breakfast, serving pancakes, french toast, and coffee to a fair number of people. I've never really done anything like that before, but it went pretty well. (I think I was lucky to start out on a slow day.) Tracey's on the Varna Community Association board, and had to organize the volunteers, so I went along for the ride. It was a great morning, meeting lots and lots of people who live near me who I'd never met before, and the bacon was excellent.
Varna is legally a hamlet - a place that appears on maps and has signs, but isn't formally incorporated. Unlike Freeville and Dryden, Varna isn't a village. This means that Varna's zoning is decided by the town overall rather than by Varna's inhabitants. The Varna Community Association is a non-profit community group, not a governing body.
Varna Community Association Sign
Our house is in what I was describing today as 'Outer Varna', near the furthest boundary that the VCA calls Varna. Baker Hill Road, less than a quarter-mile from here, is the edge on that side. The actual road signs for Varna (what people call 'downtown Varna') are about a mile west of here. In some ways Varna feels far away, but in other ways it makes a lot of sense that this is still Varna. There are a lot of common issues, largely around Route 366 and development.
943 Dryden Road, Varna Community Center (map)
Note on photos