March 15, 2005

Village elections today

This morning's Journal reports that there are elections today in the Villages of Dryden and Freeville. Polls will be open from noon to 9:00pm at the the Dryden Village Hall (map) and the the Freeville Village Hall (map). Freeville's election is uncontested, with Rachel Dickinson and Tom Lyson running for trustee. In Dryden, the mayor's race is uncontested, with Reba Taylor running for another term. The race for Village Trustee includes one Democrat, Jerry Carbo, and two Republicans, Robert Witty and Mark Strom, running for two seats.

Mayor Taylor suggests that "In small village elections, it might help draw out voters if there were more open debate." I'm hoping we'll see a lot more debate and involvement in local politics over the next few years, and I agree with her that there could be a lot more.

Freese Road will be closed from Wednesday to Friday at the Route 366 intersection for a line repair, which I'm guessing to be a water or sewer line.

The Dryden School Board is looking into ways of potentially saving up to $300,000 by bringing contracted services for GED preparation and vocational training back in-house. Those savings would come from both contracted expenses and transportation costs.

In the Ithaca district, the school board will be looking at redistricting tonight. I've heard from residents of Turkey Hill Road that their children will be moved under the previous plan, in addition to the residents on the eastern edge of Varna that I'd been aware of previously. Unfortunately the district's redistricting web site doesn't presently have any information, past or present. When that information is available, I'll write more. The board will be meeting tonight from 7:00pm to 9:30pm at the district's administration building (map).

The Journal profiles Dryden native John Cape, who was named Director of the New York Division of the Budget in February by Governor Pataki. Cape graduated from Dryden High School and TC3 before moving to Albany, where he started work at the Division of the Budget in 1980.

County Legislator Martha Robertson is quoted in an article about retiring Human Services Coalition director Marge Dill, saying that "she certainly has a deep commitment to the values of the human services community and to see that we take care of those who have the least among us."

Posted by simonstl at March 15, 2005 08:58 AM
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