I had thought it was gone a while ago, but apparently Governor Cuomo signed legislation today ending the Dryden IDA (and 122 other local agencies and authorities)....
They couldn't find new financing after their previous lender was seized by federal regulators, and Greek Peak ski resort has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They say that this won't affect operations, and season tickets will still be honored. Let's...
It looks like Greek Peak's debts to a failed bank may be causing it major headaches. Let's hope they stay open - they're in Virgil, but despite the distance they still create business and definitely recreation for Dryden. (Update: More...
Long long ago I won an Empire State Scholarship, but couldn't accept the money that came with it because I went to college in another state - Pennsylvania. In the long run I did something more important to New York...
The Regional Economic Development Council awards came out yesterday, and the Southern Tier region, of which Tompkins County and Dryden are a part, received the least funds. Per capita, I'm sure our $49.4 million beat New York City's $66 million,...
Cathy Wakeman reports on a variety of holiday happenings and more in her Dryden Town Talk column, starting with the Christmas tree lighting this Saturday, December 5th, on the Village Green in the Village of Dryden. There's also a piece...
Tracy Marisa of the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition (and of the One of Nine blog) has a Guest Viewpoint on how New York's Regional Economic Councils are heading the wrong way. Most of it strikes me as the usual Republican...
It's one of those days when I think One of Nine has an excellent point, something we need to prepare for....
After decades of New York State economic development boondoggles, I'm not entirely convinced that the new Regional Economic Development Councils are going to be a dramatic improvement. Nor is it clear to me - despite growing up in and loving...
Apparently RPM Ecosystems, one of the bigger companies to set up shop in Dryden in the last few years, didn't survive the current round of economic bleakness. I noted a bankruptcy filing last September. One small silver lining is that...
This morning's Ithaca Journal report on an audit that found security issues in the Dryden Central School District, though it doesn't disclose what they are and the district is working to address them. There will be a forum exploring the...
I don't get to agree with the folks over at One of Nine very often, but this time I think they've nailed it: So if upstate NY does decide to stick to its existing [higher education] knitting rather than diversifying,...
This morning's Ithaca Journal reports on yesterday's arrest of a suspect in an armed robbery on East Main Street last week. The Town of Dryden grew 7% over the last ten years, moving from 13,532 to 14,435. The villages of...
This morning's Ithaca Journal examines prospects for a moratorium on development in Varna while the Master Plan is underway. Yesterday, I reported a bit on the residents' petition. What's new here is some perspective from Dryden Planning Director Dan Kwasnowski:...
The Village of Dryden Planning Board unanimously approved a site plan for ten apartment buildings near Dryden High School, "Poet's Landing", including both senior housing and low-income housing. There's a lot to address in the approval: To mitigate safety concerns,...
I'd just noticed the disappearance of Ithaca Produce, but now it looks like that building may soon be in use for its intended purpose once again. Cortland Produce is considering moving to that distribution facility, if they can sort through...
I'd heard that Dryden Mayor Randy Sterling was on WHCU talking about economic development because Stafford Chevrolet had a very empty parking lot - but couldn't find the interview on WHCU's site and missed the Cortland Standard article on it....
As I drive around Tompkins County, whether in downtown Ithaca, Triphammer Road, or along Route 13 in Dryden, I keep seeing "for rent" signs on commercial buildings. Some of that has to do with the economic downturn, some has to...
I know Tompkins County has a more stable economy than the rest of Upstate New York and even lots of other places, but I didn't expect to see this in a report today on income shifts in Metropolitan Statistical Areas...
Yesterday's Ithaca Journal had more of the kind of news I like to hear about Dryden. First, the Town is accepting a 12-acre land donation at the corner of Pinckney and Lower Creek Roads. It's not great land for building,...
This morning's Ithaca Journal has an article on Freeville resident Don Decker's escape from a swindle, and tells the story of a variety of ripoffs. The cashier's check scam, in which someone sends a much-larger than necessary check as payment...
Yes, I know. New York State, once on the cutting edge of American invention and industry, has been losing business, especially manufacturing, to the Sunbelt and other far-off places for decades. We're not the special place we once were when...
I'm posting this mostly because I haven't seen it in the Ithaca Journal, though it was in the Cortland Standard. Borg-Warner laid off around 200 employees earlier this month. I'd heard 175 from people talking at Agway, but saw a...
I missed an interesting article in this morning's Ithaca Journal - thanks to David Makar for pointing it out. Borg-Warner will be moving 174 jobs from Oklahoma to their Lansing plant thanks in part to a $400,000 incentive from NYSEG....
I wish I could remember who told me this, but there's an ad in the classifieds of the Ithaca Journal (page 8C today) with yellow highlighting that's from someone looking to buy First National Bank of Dryden stock. Anyone know...
As financial institutions keep reporting staggering losses, the strongest financial engine of the state is looking pretty wobbly: Now, economists and city and state officials are acknowledging that 2008 could turn out to be far worse than their already dampened...
NYCO's Blog always does an excellent job of taking conversations about Upstate New York that have gone into endless repeat and looking at them from a different angle. While Dryden may not have a lot of large industrial plants, her...
When the 1940 WPA Guide to New York State wrote of "smokeless factory chimneys," they weren't talking about environmentalism, but rather another long-standing problem here: In every city of the State, and there are 60 of them, the presence or...
Gannett's Jay Gallagher must be spinning a bit. He wrote late last week about the failure of Upstate New York, presenting the Business Council's perspective, and today he writes about the Fiscal Policy Institute's rather different take on the economic...
This morning's Journal reports that the Business Council of New York State's Public Policy Institute gave Tompkins County an "F" for not growing fast enough. We didn't beat the national averages in growth in the total number of jobs, average...
Cathy Wakeman's Dryden Town Talk reported yesterday on scouting and youth activities. She noted that Girl Scouts had planted trees to help stabilize Virgil Creek, and both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are getting ready for more activity with the...
This morning's Journal reports on McLean's Happenin' in the Hamlet party, which celebrate McLean with a special focus on Fall Creek, whose waterpower first encouraged the hamlet's development. In broader news, the Tompkins County economy expanded a bit in June...
I'm behind in covering the June Town Board meeting, and behind in covering the Dryden Courier. Fortunately Matt Cooper reports on the Town Board meeting in the June 20th Courier, so I can manage them together. The Courier leads with...
About ten years ago, I went to a conference on web development. Everyone was talking about 'disintermediation' and how "brick and mortar stores" would get crushed. Consumers would be able to go straight to the manufacturer's web site, or to...
In my earlier post on the May Town Board meeting, I noted that: Peter Schug of Cayuga Press and his attorney Jonathan Orkin came in to discuss the HUD loan that is now in question because the company has moved...
A few years ago, the Town of Dryden secured a low-interest (2%) HUD loan for Cayuga Press to buy some new printers. It was part of the Town's economic development policy, though it came under some fire because of the...
I keep reflecting on something NYCO wrote a while ago: Some will say that upstate’s golden age was in the early 20th century when all sorts of technical innovation and manufacturing was going on; I disagree. Its golden age was...
Ithaca College Professor Elia Kacapyr forecast an economic 2007 much like 2006 for Tompkins County yesterday. His economic activity index showed a decline of 0.1% last year, mostly because of the small number of jobs he saw created in the...
This morning's Journal leads with a story announcing layoffs at Wilcox Press: Wilcox Press is laying off 53 of its 165 employees on a temporary basis as it seeks refinancing to weather competitive pressures in the commercial printing industry, the...
I'm behind on, well, everything, lately, but here's what the Journal's reported this week. On Monday, they reported that the Tompkins County housing market is steady, with the median price of a home sold January-June climbing from $150,000 in 2004...
I was looking through the print version of today's Journal and figured they just hadn't made it to yesterday's 9/11 memorial on the Village Green. The online edition, however, reports that around 80 people were there last night, with speakers...
I was happy to see Dunkin' Donuts come to Dryden, but I've had more thoughts on fast food recently. I found a chain, Burgerville (warning: site seems to be all Flash-based, or try this), which "prides itself in using the...
This morning's Ithaca Journal reports a quiet weekend for Dryden. (Actually, it doesn't report anything on Dryden at all, which I hope means a quiet weekend.) It does, however, include a piece by Jay Gallagher on New York State and...
There isn't much about Dryden in the regular edition of today's Ithaca Journal, but their print edition includes their 2006 Outlook sections, and there are some interesting stories there. In Dryden-specific news, it notes Challenge Industries taking over Finger Lakes...
This morning's Journal is quiet on Dryden specifically, but does have an article on Congressman Sherwood Boehlert's efforts to push Congress in a more moderate direction. Democrats are lining up to challenge him, and he already has a Republican challenger...
This morning's Journal is quiet about Dryden, except for a mention in an article about how Hanshaw Road got its name. In the print edition, Elia Kacapyr looks over September's business activity and calculates that Tompkins County's economy is currently...
It's been a while since I wrote about the 1968 General Plan, but I've finally scanned in the section on the local economy. You can read it in clearer (1125KB PDF) or selectable form (1035KB PDF). Dryden in 1968 had...
There's one Dryden note in today's Ithaca Journal, as a Briefly in Dryden item mentions that TC3 will be sponsoring a trip to Nicaragua this winter, and students can earn credits for the trip. There's also a report on a...
This morning's Ithaca Journal takes a close look at the Town of Dryden's repairing a badly damaged section of Sapsucker Woods Road. It's good to see an explanation in depth of road repair and the problems which demand it. The...
Today's Ithaca Journal has a brief item on Mike Hattery's announcement that he'll run for the County Legislature. (I covered Mike's announcement on Casey Stevens earlier this week, which had a lot more detail.) Ithaca College Professor Elia Kacapyr reports...
This morning's Ithaca Journal doesn't mention Dryden, but there's some county news worth watching. While Tompkins County will have one eventually, final approval for an Empire Zone may not come for another four years. Why? Each of the zones will...
This morning's Ithaca Journal reports that Cornell has decided to stop its study of putting wind turbines on Mount Pleasant, publishing a brief press release to that effect after notifying residents at a meeting Thursday night. According to Simeon Moss,...
Cathy Wakeman's Town Talk column in today's Journal looks at "Heavenly Recipes," a cookbook dedicated to the memory of Michele Longo Ferris. The cookbook is available at Hill's Drugs in Dryden, and all proceeds will be dedicated to education. Wakeman...
Two Dryden residents write to express their opinions in today's Ithaca Journal. Peter Davies writes a guest column encouraging the Ithaca City School District to support rowing as a sport. Maureen Brull writes expressing her concern about Americans' "arrogant use...
TC3 Communications and Media Arts professor Christine Xaver and her husband Scott Weatherby, also a TC3 employee, were both injured in Sunday's tsunami. The couple was vacationing in Thailand while their son attended boxing camp. The Journal also published an...
It's been a quiet week in Dryden, but the Journal reports that the Varna Community Association will be ending that week with a holiday party for kids, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm on Friday in the Varna Community Center (map). Also,...
Today's Journal reports on Governor Pataki's apparently sustained veto of $325,000 in aid to TC3. The article left me wondering if the college aid was included in a list of vetoes the Senate couldn't override because the Assembly hadn't overridden...
There's lots of news about today's election in the Journal, including general instructions for voting and a list of election-day dinners including the one at the Dryden United Methodist Church. The Journal takes a look at how Tompkins County residents...
There doesn't appear to be any Dryden news or opinion in this morning's Ithaca Journal, so I'm hoping everyone had a pleasant and quiet Labor Day weekend. There is, however, a bit of good news on the county level, as...
This week's Dryden Courier looks at the county's efforts to encourage rural small businesses. The Planning Department found that while 35% of the population lives in rural areas of the county, 55% of the small businesses are there. The county...
This week's Ithaca Journal seems to be overflowing with Dryden-related news. This morning's paper brings an article on an upcoming family reunion for Freeville resident Donna Freedline supported by the Fairygodmother Foundation and an article on TC3's 5.4% tuition hike,...
Today's Ithaca Journal takes a close look at the numbers in the revised Dryden school budget, which will increase the tax rate from $21.92/$1000 to $22.56, a 3.39% rate increase. The tax levy increases 10.69%, though spending increases only 7.11%....
The news in today's Ithaca Journal is county news, not Dryden news. The Journal looks at "Creating a Competitive Workforce Advantage," a conference that was sponsored by Tompkins County Area Development, Tompkins Workforce New York, and the Tompkins County Chamber...
The Ithaca Journal reports that Census Bureau estimates find Tompkins county grew 1.6% last year, well above the state's overall growth of 0.3%. Orange County grew 2.1%, and the other counties with major growth were all in the Hudson Valley....
Thirteen people, including four Dryden residents, met last night at Rogues Harbor in Lansing as part of the Sustainable Tompkins project. This was the first meeting of the "salon", which will gather every Monday there through May 3. (There are...
In today's Dryden Town Talk, Cathy Wakeman tells of Kody Kirkland, a fifth-grade student at Dryden Elementary who will be a "student ambassador to Australia and New Zealand" along with sixteen other kids from central New York and a dozen...
There's a lot of Tompkins County news in the Ithaca Journal today, though not much specific to Dryden. The editorial page is largely focused on winter driving issues, including an editorial, a guest column on safe driving, and two letters....
The Ithaca Journal welcomes the New Year with warm wishes to new leaders in local municipalities, including Dryden, and reports mixed results for the county's economy in November....
Cathy Wakeman reports in her Dryden Town Talk that Googer's Bakery and Coffee Shoppe will be opening today at 22 West Main Street. I've enjoyed the food at Googer's Cakes and Things on Route 13 very much, and I look...