Thank You Dryden

December 30th, 2011

Good morning residents of Dryden,

Thank you so very much for electing me to serve you these last 5 years on the town board in the Town of Dryden. As an eagle scout and as a son of an immigrant to the United States - it has been an honor to be able to give back to a community and country that welcomed me in 2005 and my dad in 1949. 

No one does anything great all alone - greatness comes from a little luck, a lot of doing the right work, and a strong network or community around you.

It has been an honor to work with Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner, Supervisor Steve Trumbull, with Marty Christofferson, Steve Stelick, Joe Solomon, and Jason Leifer. It was also an honor to be able to have competitive elections in 2006 and 2007 with Dan, Walter, and Stanley. Their contributions as candidates made me a stronger and more active representative.

I also have to thank the incredible staff at the Town of Dryden - Bambi and Patty; Dan, Kevin, David, Josh, Jane, and Joy; Melissa and Andrew; Deb, Deb, Judge Joe and Judge Chris; as well as Jack Bush and his department. It has made my time in helping residents far easier to know we have the best and most competent hired staff working with us and for you.

I want to thank the unpaid members of the town community too - including the members of the planning board, recreation board, zoning board of appeals, and especially the conservation board who I was fortunate enough to work with month after month for most of the last 4 years.

In speaking to Dave Vieser this morning I thank him and Geoff Dunn for their work in covering the Town of Dryden. I also want to thank all of the other local media that covered Dryden while I was on the board - including Jim and Jay from Tompkins Weekly, Matt Cooper (Dryden Courier), Anthony Hall (Tompkins Weekly), Nick Babel (Tompkins Weekly), Brendan Callahan (WHCU), Aaron Munzer (Ithaca Journal), and Stacey Shackford (Ithaca Journal). 

For those that will come next, listen to everything the people have to say; ask a lot of questions to get clarity; ask for help to understand; Be curious; Be unbelievably nice; Listen; know and understand that most people act out of providing for their family, themselves, their friends, their neighbors, and their community.

Some highlights (just a few):

• Taking a position of leadership on fracking in Dryden
• Working on our broadband initiative (which should go live any time now)
• Recreation: funding for community associations and centers on the westside, expanded programs, additional staff
• Zoning support for new commercial ventures
• A balanced common sense and bipartisan set of budgets for 5 years
• New Town Website
• New Town Hall
• New Logo for the town
• Hundreds of thousands of state and federal grant money
• New partnership with TCAD for economic development
• New partnership with AFCU for economic development
• Annual audits
• Community garden
• Community Center Cafe funding
• Town newsletter
• Trail work (on-going)

Thank you again for inviting me and asking me to serve. It has been a remarkable 5 years.

 

Comments

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Thank you for sharing your articles, I hope you have an interesting and creative new year.