Dryden Is Home

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.

 

The Month that Was

A month with 5 weekends - five 2 day weekends! What a long month and many highlights.

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2 - Oktoberfest party in Etna

3 - Spent the day with Ravi Walsh of Paradigm Shifts Coaching doing an intensive day of energy work with 11 others at Nature's Song Retreat Center.

4 - Training on referrals with members of the SEEN leadership team

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8 - My cousin Jennifer's wedding in Lake George

9 - Drove from Lake George to Ithaca, entertained mom, aunt and uncle in Ithaca with Arjan

10 - Mom, Uncle Leon, Aunt Jan, Arjan and I toured Ithaca including Varna Pancake Breakfast, Cornell, Ithaca Farmer's Market, The Dog Park, and Taughannock. Later that evening Arjan and I saw the Jerry Garcia Band at the Rongo.

11 - I turned 34! Also, full day of BNI MSP Training and Leadership Training

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13 - Business After Hours at the Cayuga Nature Center

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15 - Departed Dryden at 4:30am for the Adirondacks

16 - Returned to Dryden at 10:30pm from the Adirondacks. It snowed, it was windy, it was cold.

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20 - Presentation to the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce on Referrals

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22 - Finger Lakes Bioneers Conference: The SEER meets the SEEN

23 - Trip to the dump, breakfast at Buzz coffee, leaf mitigation

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25 - Diwali festival of lights dinner at Caryn and Cole's

26 - Town of Dryden Conservation Board Meeting

27 - 3rd anniversary Open house at the Dryden Town Hall, sign unveiling, budget hearing

28 - Taught Module 12 of Certified Networker, "Generating Referrals for Life"; Volunteered at the Tompkins Chamber Annual Auction

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30 - Moved my office from State Street to South Hill Business Campus. Celebrated Halloween eve with Dinner at Northstar Public House, Felicia's Atomic Lounge, Da Westy, and finally Vlad the Impaler's party at 666 Aurora. 

31 - The day is just getting started...

 

Town Board: June 16 2010 Recap

Here is brief recap from Wednesday's June Town Board meeting.

1. Three public hearings for three special permits

2. The first was for a resident that wanted to open an accounting business at her home in Dryden. This was approved.

3. The second was for a business owner that wanted to use a warehouse facility to work on cars and store furniture. This was approved with a special condition of keeping the cars out of site.

4. The third was for a couple that wanted to sell coal (rice coal) from their barn. This was approved with a special condition of keeping the coal in a covered building, away from the elements.

5. A resident inquired during citizen's privilege about the intersection of Freese Road and Rt. 366. The town board acted in executive session to take action on the parcel owners to rectify the parcel and to bring it into alignment with the town code and permits.

6. The Recreation Director (Melissa Bianconi) announced the Dryden Lake Festival (Saturday, August 14th, 2010); the reappointment of a Dryden Recreation Commission member; and the presentation of the Town of Dryden Recreation Master Plan.

7. The board approved a  code enforcement agreement with the Village of Dryden where the town's staff will handle code enforcement.

8. The board approved a $25,000 request by the Southworth Library for furnishings for their new addition in the Village of Dryden.

9. The board approved the PACE program resolution - in support of providing town residents with access to funds for energy related projects to be paid back over 10 or 20 years as part of their property tax bill. This was a 'we support' this program resolution - not the kick off of the program in Dryden.

10. The board approved an investment policy to move some of the town's funds from a checking account (earning .65%) to CDs (earning 1% at this time for the first investment period). The total amount to be invested in the next 12 months is $4.5 Million. This action will net the town around $15,000 by the end of the final investment period.

11. The board approved a resolution supporting a gas drilling permit moratorium.

12. The board approved a lease with the Dryden Community Garden

Additional details will be outlined in the town clerk's official minutes coming in a week or two.    

Etna to Varna

Paul and me
Originally uploaded by dmakar

Saturday morning, after a few car related complications, my buddy Paul and I embarked on what was planned as an 8 mile canoe trip from the Town of Dryden's hamlet of Etna to the town's hamlet of Varna. To be a little more exact, our plan was to get out of the river near Flat Rock, just west of the town line in the town of Ithaca, near Cornell Plantations.

The first 23 minutes of the journey (10:14am to 10:37am) moved us swiftly and without much danger from the Etna Lane steel bridge (we launched from the muddy shore underneath the bridge) to the Pinckney Road bridge near Campbell Meadows (an 18 acre parcel perhaps soon to be acquired by the town as an open space and recreation area).

After that we had limited trouble making our way from the Pinckney Road bridge (that had graffiti in many spray paint colors written by some folks that either had limited vocabulary or limited creativity) to the route 13 underpass (where a couple fishermen fished and one asked if we were part of a race - this is probably because, as you might see in the photo, Paul and I were by coincidence both wearing orange t-shirts that we acquired when we competed against each other in 2006 at Auburn's The Great Race).

From route 13 we coasted safely to the old steel bridge that in the past delivered vehicle traffic from Monkey Run extension (near Turkey Hill Rd. and Dryden Rd.) across Fall Creek to where Hanshaw road intersects Lower Creek Road. Our trip was only delayed by a large tree that spanned 95 percent of the creek's width. We landed on shore, scouted around a peninsula, and I decided to make a go of the 5 percent gap on my own. Having safely made my way through, I paddled to shore and picked up Paul.

We passed under the old bridge and found the first place where we had to lift the canoe over a tree that was across the creek. A few hundred feet later, on the other shore, we pulled the canoe through what looked to be a swift and dangerous section of the creek that had a large tree parallel to the water.

The creek is high this time of year, compared to about 10 other months. However it is lower than it was just a few weeks ago - and a lot more rocks poke up out of the water. Some don't even have the height (or honor) to show themselves and we had to read the river to spot where they were hidden. Others were better at keeping hidden and our encounters rocked the green plastic Coleman canoe.

Just before we arrived at the fields on rt. 366 (probably a half mile from the Freese Road bridge) we rocked too far and Paul went over. The creek was only about thigh deep there and his paddle escaped his grasp. I jumped over board and pulled the canoe to shore. Seeing that Paul was easily making his way to shore I went after the black plastic paddle chasing it down the dark sandy beach. There was a couple with a dog a few hundred feet ahead watching all of the action and as I approached them they told their dog to fetch the paddle. In this section of river the width was over 30 feet and the depth ranged from ankle to neck deep. The couple and their dog were playing near a giant felled tree and I ran to the left of the tree to the shore beyond and made my way into the more shallow creek. I used the end of my paddle to hook the handle of the other paddle and a minute later I was back at the canoe that Paul was able to guide downstream with the pair of ropes attached to the bow and stern. We carried the canoe around the tree and embarked on what would be the final leg of our morning trip.

We hit a lot of shallow areas between that giant tree and the Freese Road steel bridge. Where the creek wasn't shallow it was rocky and fast moving. A short distance after the bridge we made our way to shore and started some exit planning. The creek had one major bend ahead, then some fast water near the Park Park (look it up), the Forest Home trailer park on Forest Home Drive, the foot bridge, the damn, and then flat rock.

We guided the canoe downstream and when we arrived in lower Varna we beached the canoe and headed for my car. On foot we found the river looked calm and flat and easy and from our own on the water angle, we now understood how deceptive water can be.

The trip was worth trying, but it would be dangerous to try without more water. Earlier in the year there would be more water, but the air and water would certainly be colder. This same weekend a year from now might work, but with our close to 10 days of limited rain, we would have to have more precipitation to make this journey safe.

Complete set of photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157617061944400/

Dryden's Surplus

The Town of Dryden has been fortunate to conservatively budget (often underestimating income from state sales tax and overestimating expenditure). At the end of each year there is a little bit of money left over. Some of that money is used to fund the next year's appropriation, which reduces the amount that the town needs to collect as property tax.

The Town of Dryden is also lucky to have increased coverage by Tompkins County's only daily newspaper these last six months. As much as we have done to share information on the town website, in press releases, and in talking to neighbors - nothing connects to our 14,000 residents as much as an article in the Ithaca Journal.

Here's the article from yesterday's Ithaca Journal, available online here: http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903190317

March 19, 2009

Dryden debates use for $3.5M in excess funds

Money may go into emergency fund, long-term capital projects

By Stacey Shackford
Correspondent
DRYDEN - While many municipalities are struggling to make ends meet, the Town of Dryden faces an enviable decision - what to do with its excess funds.
Conservative budgets and thrifty staff spending have resulted in end-of-the-year surpluses for the town throughout the past 15 years and an unexpended fund balance that has grown to nearly $9 million.
A portion of the fund balance has been used each year to stabilize or reduce the tax rate, with the amount ranging from 11 percent of appropriations in 1993 to 35 percent in 2008. At the end of 2008, the surplus was $8.7 million, and $1.8 million of that was put into this year's budget.
Even allowing for a generous 50 percent of appropriations to be used from the projected $6,850,721 fund balance at the end of 2009, the town will have close to $3.5 million available, and Town Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner believes this should be specifically earmarked for emergencies and long-range planning.
In a letter to Town Board members, she has outlined a draft proposal on behalf of the board's finance committee to commit $1 million from the fund balance to establish reserve funds and to establish a policy for regular investment into these funds.
"For many years, a portion of the surplus was transferred to the capital reserve fund. But in the past four years, as plans for the new town hall were finalized and construction was undertaken, no transfers were made," Sumner wrote. "It's time to consider a policy to set fund balance targets and establish reserve funds for future needs."
Of the proposed initial $1 million investment, $300,000 would be set aside for emergencies in a contingency fund, $100,000 would be dedicated to as-of-yet undetermined capital projects and $100,000 would be reserved for recreation infrastructure, in anticipation of a Recreation Masterplan recommending the development of several neighborhood parks and a centralized facility.
An additional $500,000 would be used to cover large-ticket equipment purchases by the Department of Public Works.
"Currently highway and DPW equipment is budgeted in operating funds and often drives the fluctuation in the amount of fund balance used to keep the tax rate stable," Sumner wrote in her letter.
"When we need to make preliminary budget cuts, the first person we ask is the highway/DPW superintendent. Jack (Bush) has developed a well thought-out equipment replacement plan. Based on the plan, and on items we asked him to defer this year, we anticipate budgeting $382,000 for equipment replacement in 2010."
The establishment of reserve funds has been at the top of the Finance Committee's agenda for more than a year, and Sumner said they are finally ready to start to formalize proposals.
"It would be a good step in the right direction," she told board members at their March 11 meeting.
The board is not required to consult the public in order to start a reserve fund, but the public would be given the opportunity to weigh in on how its money is spent. The board would have to publicize its spending intentions, hold a public hearing and give residents the chance to ask for a vote.
Sumner said she will prepare a more specific proposal for the board's consideration, possibly at its next meeting on April 8.

Month 25: Dryden Town Board

The Dryden Town Board met this evening for the annual organizational meeting. This is the meeting where we set (officially) the rules of procedure, official advertising (Ithaca Journal), advance payment of utilities and about 30 other resolutions that form the government of the Town of Dryden.

We discussed having a second town board meeting once a quarter - to plan long range strategy. I've found that the town board does a good job at our monthly meetings, but we (the five board members) never get together to really discuss issues and brainstorm solutions. I wouldn't mind if this was held in public - I think that might add to the discussion. However, monthly meetings are often filled with reports from various staff and committees (we are asked to limit committee reports to 3 minutes). There isn't much room for debate in 3 minutes. 

Our committee assignments are close to the 2008 assignments. They are as follows:

Bookkeeper to Supervisor: Dawn Bogdan

Deputy Supervisor: Cl David Makar

Finance Comm: Cl David Makar, Cl Jason Leifer, Supv Mary Ann Sumner

Fire Depts & Emergency Services: Cl Makar, Cl Solomon

Infrastructure Comm: Cl Joseph Solomon, Cl Steve Stelick

Technology Comm: Cl Makar, Cl Leifer

Human Resources Comm: Cl Leifer, Cl Stelick

Recreation & Youth Services Comm: Cl Stelick, Cl Leifer

Loans and Grants Comm: Cl Makar, Cl Leifer

Assessment Review Committee: Cl Stelick, Cl Leifer

Insurance Committee: Cl Stelick, Cl Leifer

Representative to Conservation Board: Cl Makar    

Representative to Cayuga Lake Watershed IO: Dan Kwasnowski

Representatives to Planning Board: Cl Solomon

Representatives to Zoning Board of Appeals: Cl Solomon

Representatives to IAWTF: Supv Sumner, Cl Leifer      

Liason Officer to Bolton Point (SCLIWC): Supv Sumner & Steve Lipinski

Next time I'll try to give a description of each of the committees. Our meetings in 2009 will be held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, starting January 14th, at the Dryden Town Hall (93 East Main Street).

Our trip to Ikea

Arjan and I are now in Portland, Maine. Yesterday we drove from Dryden to Cumberland, RI to see my college roommate Joe and his wife Sandy. This is Thanksgiving week, so Arjan and I hit the road to visit with friends all over New England. This afternoon we drove from RI (little Rhody) to Ikea (in Stoughton, MA).

After two hours, $200, and 6 swedish meatballs we were back on the road.

Although Ikea has a STRICT no camera policy in the store - I did manage to take this picture in the Ikea loo.

It gave me the idea that the Town of Dryden should commission some signs like these to explain to the new town hall - to give an overview of the technology and how it works to save money and save the environment. Maybe I'll get to work on that when I get home.

Stay tuned!

WHCU Interview

I was on the radio this morning at crazy:15* talking with WHCU's Dave Vieser. He called me at the end of his workday yesterday (2pm EST) inquiring about doing the interview. I accepted. When I was last on the radio, I had the 6:15am time slot, the crazy:15* was much better!

We touched on 3 subjects in the six minutes we talked. Quick re-cap now, longer re-cap later (perhaps):

1. iPhone & AT&T tower and cell service at TC3, featuring prior town board member Marty Christofferson. TC3 is going to work with AT&T to put up a cell phone tower to improve communication with their students, faculty and staff. The primary services are emergency, security, and academic/educational. This all started just 2 weeks ago (the talks with AT&T), but the technology of messaging has been an award winning program at TC3 for years. Class cancelled? Snow emergency? Security incident? - all will be communicated via text messaging, for instant information delivery. Also GPS! Because of the location - - we can hope for much increased cell phone coverage (AT&T initially) for the village of Dryden, Lee Road, and parts of the Town of Dryden.

2. Trail from TC3 to the village of Dryden (Neptune Drive - near Dunkin' Donuts). Initial talks to put in a nature trail to connect students (and their money?) to the businesses of Dryden Village (Clarke's grocery, Dryden Community Center Cafe, Todi's, Dryden Hotel, Dunkin' Donuts, and more!) and to connect village residents to TC3 (classes, athletic facility, special events) to bridge the town and village to the college. It looks to be a great trail project that may also lead to a spur to the Town Hall. Encouraging the TC3 students to spend money in the village helps local businesses, county sales tax revenue, and walking lowers the number of cars on Rt. 13 which helps with traffic, polution, and use of non-renewable energy resources. Making a better connection to TC3 from the town hall and village can make better use of the asset that is TC3. Perhaps with the trail Dean Marty Christofferson could walk across the street to the town hall from his house and then use trails to walk to his job at the TC3 campus.

3. Brief discussion on SPCA. The ad hoc SPCA committee (Town Supervisor Sumner, Town Clerk Hollenbeck) discussed the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) request for proposal (RFP) for countywide dog control services. The SPCA contract for the town of Dryden for 2007 was about $18,000. The projected cost for 2009 is between $45,000 and $65,000. While it is important for the SPCA to be stable and balance their books, a 100% to 200% increase in any contract has to be looked at closely. We are required by state mandate to have "dog control" and then are limited by the state for how much we can charge for a dog license (fees would only cover about 50% or $20K). We like the SPCA and are happy to have them in Dryden, but we would be doing the tax payers a disservice if we didn't seek out other solutions to see if the cost is reasonable and to protect ourselves from future 100% to 200% increases. The SPCA topic came up last year and we had guests from the SPCA, volunteers, and staff come before the town board. We are very supportive of the job they do, but if we allowed every part of the budget to increase at their rate - we would be out of business as a municipality very quickly.

As I said, I hope to recap both the entire meeting in full, as well as the key points that if I had more than 6 minutes I would have told the radio audience about.

*crazy:15 = 7:15am - which isn't too bad for most people, but last night's town board meeting ended at 11:25pm, I talked to Supervisor Sumner for a few minutes and arrived back at my house around 12:10am, and then talked with Arjan for about 25 minutes doing a recap of the day and the meeting. So I slept from about 12:45 to 6:30 or so, then recapped the meeting in my head, on paper in my office, and then quickly on the phone with Dave Vieser . Dave V. gets up at "insane o'clock", which I believe is 3am, 5 days a week (ouch!).

Wireless Broadband Internet in Dryden

Last Tuesday morning I was fortunate to hear that Dryden was selected by the state of New York to move ahead with a program that could bring broadband internet, via wireless towers, to up to 95% of the houses in the town of Dryden.

The grant awards $430,000 to the public-private partnership of Clarity Connect (of Cayuga Heights), The Town of Dryden, and Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3). The grant is then matched by the public-private partnership at a ratio of $1 of grant money to every $1.59 of public-private partnership funds. These funds can and are mostly planned to be in-kind goods and services. This means that there is no out-of-pocket or cash expense to the Town of Dryden to be a partner. Chuck Bartosch, from Clarity Connect, Jason Leifer, from the town board, and Dryden Town Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner played key roles in writing the grant application and developing creative in-kind donations for all three partners. They worked nights and days in the short period of time from the grant announcement to the due date getting the application together and ready for show. I believe I heard there were over 100 applicants, and we were picked for almost 20% of the $2.5M grant fund. A fortunate day for the people of Dryden, who found some people who were willing to give a little bit extra time to find a great return on.

While there is a lot to do and there is no launch date for going live with the first tower, we do have forward progress. I was quoted in the Ithaca Journal article announcing the grant, including:

David Makar, Town of Dryden deputy supervisor, said Bartosch presented the Dryden Technology Committee with the possibility of the grant after he made bringing better Internet and cell phone infrastructure one of the cornerstones of his 2006 campaign for town board. He said the committee has been trying to bring infrastructure for wireless for some time, but that upfront costs were the biggest barrier. Jason Leifer, a town board member, helped Bartosch draft the grant proposal.

“The grant provides a way to build some of that infrastructure with lower out-of-pocket expenses,” Makar said. “The primary reason we wanted to make sure we had broadband Internet access was to help encourage people to do more economic development, whether you are working from home on the weekend or you telecommute. Telecommuting jobs just don't exist if there's no broadband access.”

Makar also noted that access to high-speed Internet will improve education as students currently have limited access in many areas. He said some school assignments require high-speed Internet or picking up assignments online.

He also said that high-speed access will improve the housing market.

The full article from the Ithaca Journal is online here:

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080320/NEWS01/803200337/1002

Good News

Kathy and the votes
Originally uploaded by dmakar

Last night I was re-elected to a seat on the Dryden Town Board. A full four year term in office. A chance to carry forward the work I've started and to continue to represent all the people in Dryden from my neighbors in Besemer Flats to McLean and everyone in our 94 square mile community.

Joe Solomon was also elected to join me on the board for the next four years.

And Mary Ann Sumner made history in Dryden by being elected to be the first female town supervisor in our town's history.

Pictures and posts from all around here:
Simon reports in: http://livingindryden.org/2007/11/democrats_win_town_board_claus.html
Kathy's take: http://drydendailykaz.blogspot.com/2007/11/wow.html
Board of Elections: http://www.co.tompkins.ny.us/boe/2007/Results_Index_GE07.htm
My election day pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmakar/sets/72157602975472616/