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Home My WebLink About2024-09 Town Newsletter September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 1 Danby Town News Danby Summer Market Elana Maragni September 20 from 4-7 pm Please join in supporting our local farmers and crafters at the Danby Fire Department pavilion with musician John Petronzio. If you’d like to be a vendor at the market or sign up to have a spot at the community yard sale, contact organizer Elana at elanamaragni@gmail.com. Read to dogs The Cornell canine companions will return to the Danby Library on Saturday morning, October 5th. If your child would like to improve their reading skills, come cuddle up and read to some furry friends. Dogs are patient and nonjudgmental and can help kids with their confidence in reading. September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 2 Notes from the Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon As summer winds down, I am dealing with that glorious time of produce abundance and its associated scramble to process it for storage. Although the birds are getting almost all the grapes, there is such an abundance of everything else that it is almost a relief not to have to deal with them too! Deputron Hollow Road Renumbering By resolution of the town boards in Danby and Caroline the renumbering of addresses on Deputron Hollow Road took place in August. The Brooktondale Post Office will start delivering mail addressed to the new addresses in September. The 911 emergency Response System will recognize the new numbers as primary as of October 1 but will keep both sets in the system for some time while people transition. This fixes a real mess of non-sequential numbers and inadequate provision for future needs. Both towns have tried to make the change as painless as possible, recognizing that changes of address are nonetheless something of a hassle. (See p.7 for photo of signing the resolution.) Speed Limit Reductions Requested As I mentioned last time, the Town Board revisited the list of roads awaiting being chosen to send to the state DOT to request reduced speed limits. The list dates from 2016. Board member Leslie Connors consulted with Highway Superintendent Keith Shipman and others to come up with selection criteria for a new list. Highway personnel have first-hand knowledge of where the biggest problems are with speeding being a safety hazard, and it is on the most heavily traveled roads. The Board concurred and agreed to submit East and West Miller, West King, and West Jersey Hill roads for consideration. In addition, we again will request that the speed limit reduction on 96B be moved to the north side of the East and West Miller intersection. There have been many accidents at that offset intersection. This list of requests will now go to the County Highway Department and then to the State DOT. The DOT sends a team to investigate and evaluate whether a reduction is warranted. It will probably be several years before we know the outcome. Solar Array Purchase Considered The Board has a little over $80,000 left uncommitted of the American Rescue Plan Funds we were given. The Board took a look at possibly using most of that to purchase the solar array at the Highway Facility. We currently pay for the electricity generated by this array and have the option to buy it or continue to lease it. Were we to exercise our option to purchase, the purchase price would be recouped in less than 5 years. After that, the electricity generated for the remaining life would be ours for the cost of insuring and maintaining it. We still lack information on what those costs would likely be. Jim Holahan, former Board member and our energy consultant, is investigating. Retirees Recognized The Board recognized, with statements of appreciation, the service to the town of several recent retirees with the West Danby Water District. Carl Seamon, who served not only in several capacities over 34 years with the Water District but also with the Highway Department, was the longest serving by far and rose through the ranks to leadership in both areas of service. His wife, Marge Seaman, partnered in administering and record-keeping for the water district, and Tod Sukontarak served as Operator (both Assistant and then Chief) for the water district. All 3 served quietly and competently. All 3 were honored and thanked at the West Danby picnic on August 24, where the statements of appreciation were presented to them. September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 3 Notes from the Town Clerk Mariah Dillon Greeting Danby Residents First, I want to thank all of you who showed up for your dog(s) and got them licensed with the Town! Not only is it part of being a responsible dog owner, but it’s also a NY State law. If you still have an unregistered dog, stop by Town Hall and we’ll help you out. At the very least, please make sure your dogs have an up-to-date rabies vaccination. Let’s stay safe out there! Microsoft Office Update: Switching to a new email system, while daunting at first, was relatively easy compared to migrating thousands of documents from our previous proprietary system over to Microsoft Office. File formatting in our previous system was incompatible with Microsoft and many documents had to be fixed or saved as PDF’s, before being moved. The clerk’s office hired a remarkable document fixer, Blake, who has opened and inspected nearly every document! We are still learning the oh-so-many details about posting documents online with the new tools we have, but we are starting to get the hang of it! General Code and CloudPermit software implementations are still in their infancy. I will report more on those efforts next month. Hunting and fishing license sales are ramping up! The DEC has switched to paper licenses which you can purchase and print online. If you don’t have a printer, stop by Town Hall to buy your licenses. Waterproof license holders have (finally) arrived! You’ll get one free with a hunting license, and for those of you who have already purchased a hunting license, we have a license holder for you. I want to report how great it is to work with the wonderful people at the Town Hall and Highway Department, as well as with the Town Board! My take is that the governing body in Danby cares so much for the residents - and works extremely well together. So far, this Town Clerk position has been a great experience. We are here if you need us! Notes from the Highway Superintendent Keith Shipman It feels good to be reaching out to all of our Danby Residents to report that it has been a great year here at the Highway Department. We are doing well with our budget and things are on target. The town board has had some decisions to make about how to wisely use the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds that were given to the Town of Danby. We are happy to announce that the town board made the decision to fund a new compaction vibrating roller for the Highway Department. I would like to personally thank every board member for their decision to make this happen. This piece of equipment is very important in the daily use of maintenance of the roads. Our old roller is nearing 40 years old and mechanical failures are a risk that can cause catastrophic accidents on the steep grades that we work on. My goal is a safe workplace environment for our highway employees and our residents. Much gratitude to all who decided to make this happen. (Continued on next page.) September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 4 At the August 20th Town Board meeting, the board approved the expenditure for the West Jersey Hill Road paving project. We have been in contact with our chosen paving company, and are in the process of scheduling to get the job done. Many of you will see one or two days of the actual paving, but it does take months of planning, hauling and repairing to achieve a good job. We have been preparing since last year, so things are going well. At our best, with weather permitting, I can say you will be seeing this done sooner rather than later. As we will soon be saying goodbye to summer, I would like to wish you all a great fall season. Please feel free to call the Highway Department with any concerns you may have. My Best to You Notes from the Planner's Desk Greg Hutnik The Planning Board reviewed four subdivision cases at their August 20th meeting: three minor subdivisions (1 lot to 2 lots) at 164 Yaple Road, 405 Troy Road, and 100 VandeBogart Road, and one standard subdivision (1 lot to 3 lots) at 190 Hill Road. Public hearings were opened for 164 Yaple Road and 405 Troy Road to consider final approval. These two hearings will stay open and available for public comment on September 3rd at 7:00 PM when the Planning Board will hold a special meeting to take final action on the proposals. A public hearing was also opened for the preliminary plat review of 190 Hill Road and will remain open for public comment at the regular Planning Board meeting on September 17 at 7:00 PM. The minor subdivision proposal at 100 VandeBogart Road is to separate the existing farmhouse from the farm. The review was a sketch plat review and the applicant would like to wait until next January to seek final approval. If you have any questions or comments on these subdivision proposals please contact me. The Board of Zoning Appeals will meet on August 27 to consider an area variance to the side and front setbacks of 2687 Danby Road. A prospective buyer of this property would like to remove the abandoned home and rebuild a new home. The lot is very small and the 50- foot setbacks of the Low Density Zone District restrict any building on the lot. The applicant is requesting a 10-foot setback from the front property line adjacent to Heisey Road and 20- foot side setbacks. If you have any questions or comments on this variance request please contact me. At long last, the Town is dusting off the 2011 Comprehensive Plan and beginning the process to update it. I will be working with the Planning Board (the “keepers of the Comprehensive Plan”) over the next few months to review the goals in the current plan. The goal of this effort will be to tally the goals that have been met, goals that are actively being worked on, goals that have yet to be started, and goals that may no longer be relevant. This exercise will inform the scope of the plan’s update. More substantial details and a plan of action to complete the update will follow this first round of review by the Planning Board. Stay tuned! If you have any zoning or planning related questions or comments, or would like to schedule a time to meet with me, please call or text 607-592-0417 or email planner@danby.ny.gov. September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 5 Tompkins County Legislature News Dan Klein Last month, the Tompkins County Legislature passed a resolution to set aside $50,000 to hire a consultant to explore raising the minimum wage in Tompkins County. In 1964, NY State courts ruled that only the State can change the minimum wage, not local municipalities. That ruling has been reaffirmed several times over the years. If Tompkins County does pass a local law to raise the minimum wage in Tompkins County, we will be sued and we will become a test case for NY State. There are some attorneys who have said they might like to take the case for us for free if it ever comes about. I voted against starting down this path. For one thing, I am uncomfortable with the idea that the Tompkins County Legislature would take a step that we know is illegal. I believe that one of the biggest dangers we currently face is the attack on the legitimacy of government itself. A big part of my motivation for my job is keeping our local government strong in this environment of attempts to undermine the credibility of governments everywhere. To have Tompkins County defy the authority of NYS government doesn’t feel right to me. But on a more practical level, this is going to take a lot of time and energy on the part of our County employees, employees who are already stretched thin. Tompkins County government started out the year with 12% of our jobs unfilled, meaning everyone has to work more just to keep up with our current tasks. Our County Attorney has said that in his view, winning this challenge to NYS would be “an uphill battle” and that even with free, outside legal help, it will require “probably hundreds of hours” of time from his office. A lawsuit such as this would likely be appealed to various levels of court, and could easily last 2 years. To confuse things, the term “living wage” appears in the resolution. The living wage in Tompkins County is currently $18.45 an hour. It is predicted to go up to approximately $24.50 an hour in 2025. The minimum wage in upstate NY is currently $15/hour. It will rise to $15.50 in 2025, and $16/hour in 2026. The resolution we passed did not contain a specific dollar figure. There is an alternative to taking an action we know is illegal, and I wish we had tried it first. That alternative would be to simply ask NYS to allow us to raise the local minimum wage. That would avoid the whole lawsuit. This “let them sue us and we’ll be a test case” strategy feels to me like sneaking through the back door. Instead, if this is something we want, then let’s walk through the front door and ask for it. Reminder: If you would like to receive the Danby Town News only on-line or if you know someone who is not getting the Danby Town News (particularly new residents) but would like to, please send an email with that information to: townnews@danby,ny.gov. Thank you!! Thank you!! A big thank you to everyone who has helped and is helping with this newsletter. This includes: town officials, boards, and other groups who provide useful information for all residents and the many who put on tabs and labels. September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 6 Conservation Advisory Council Margaret Corbit The Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) met on Tuesday, August 12 at 7 pm. Here are the highlights of the meeting. Leslie Connors of the Town Board attended and was happy to report that there were several applicants for the part time job that the Town posted. Because the listing through the County Civil Service system was very generic, Connors was asking for input from CAC on the requirements for the job. The Town Board will conduct interviews on August 19. We received updates on a number of conservation easements moving through the drafting process. Conservation easements are crafted in collaboration with the landowners and each is a unique contract. Several should be complete and celebrated by the end of the year. In other areas, Don Schaufler reported that he is meeting with the Highway Department staff this month to get their feedback on the draft Timber Harvest Law. CAC members are considering the best ways for members to work within the new Town digital system. This is an ongoing process for everyone. And, unfortunately, the demands of the upcoming elections are preventing our local State representatives from focusing on the requested amendment to the Tax Abatement program. Our next meeting is on September 10 at 7 pm in the Town Hall. Community members are welcome to attend in hybrid fashion or in person. Danby Seniors Theresa Klinger Come join us for our next dish-to-share lunch on Thursday, September 5th at 12 Noon at the Danby Community Church. We meet the first Thursday of the month, so mark your calendar for Thursday, October 3rd as well. Bring your own table service and a utensil to share your dish. UPCOMING TRIPS: Unfortunately, we had to postpone our overnight trip to Lancaster and the Sight & Sound Theater till the Spring, but you can still view the performance of Daniel over the Labor Day weekend at the Regal Cinemas at the Ithaca Mall. For the first time ever Sight & Sound is broadcasting LIVE into movie theaters nationwide! Join the brand-new original production, DANIEL, as it goes from the big stage to the big screen in this special live event. Google Sight & Sound Theatre Regal Cinemas for more information. Fall Foliage Train Excursion: There are still a few seats available for this train ride scheduled for October 16th. For more information or if you have already signed up and have not paid yet, please contact Theresa at tklinger617@gmail.com Rockettes Christmas Spectacular: There are a few seats still available for this day trip to NYC on December 4th. Contact Tammy at tml24@yahoo.com for more information . September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 7 Youth Programs Heidi Doggett hd289@cornell.edu Danby summer programs wrap up the last week of August. We’ve had lots of fun, including a huge week-long Summer Olympics event at Meyers Park. Check the registration website for updates on our first round of after- school programs. They’ll be open by the first week of September. We’ll have Halloween costume programs, outdoor activities, and of course D&D, Magic: the Gathering, and board games on Wednesdays at Boynton. Check for a list and registration at bit.ly/41jUwDO or contact me if you need paper registration. If you encounter any difficulty registering, please email me right away and I will get you assistance! If you have questions, please contact Heidi Doggett at hd289@cornell.edu or (925)240-3572. . Intermunicipal Cooperation Mark Witmer, supervisor, town of Caroline Joel Gagnon, supervisor, town of Danby Signing the agreement to renumber the addresses on Deputron Hollow Road. (See notes from supervisor on p.1 for details) Kayaking at Meyers Park, RYS Olympics Sack race at Meyers Park RYS Olympics Climbing on the lifeguard chair at Jennings Pond September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 8 Danby Community Groups Danby Community Library Contact: Cindy Parlett library@danby.ny.gov Open Tue 1-3pm, Thur & Sat 10am-12pm Danby Food Pantry Danby Community Church Contact: Joan Barber Open: 3rd Thur 4-6 pm Danby Food Scraps Pickup every Sat 9am – noon behind Town Hall Danby Community Parks Association (DCPA) Website: dotsonpark.org dotsonpark@gmail.com Danby Rural Cemetery Contact: Sharon Boda Sharonboda@gmail.com Danby Seniors Contact: Pat Phelps patriciaphelps2.0@ gmail,com Luncheons: 1st Thur at noon Danby Community Council President: Pamela Goddard Website: danbycc.org Meeting: 1st Thur 7pm Danby Tosspot (Open Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting) Wed 7pm virtual West Danby Community Association (WDCA) Contact: Pat Curran pc21@cornell.edu Danby library News Cindy Parlett Time to head back to school! Don't forget to turn in your Reading Challenge Sheets and pick out a prize! The Cornell Companions will be returning to read with us on Saturday October 5, so be sure and mark your calendars! Thanks to a donation, we are featuring Elly Griffiths books this month. Elly Griffiths is a pen name for Domenica de Rosa, a British crime novelist.She has written three series as Griffiths, one featuring Ruth Galloway, one featuring Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens and Max Mephisto, and the Harbinder Kaur series. Ruth Galloway is a forensic archeologist and there are 14 books in the series; we have the first 4 in order. 1-The Crossing Places 2-Janus Stone 3-House at Sea's End 4-Room Full of Bones A new selection of children's books has just arrived from TCPL. September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 9 Monthly Meeting Schedule At-A-Glance Group Day Date Time Call-in by Phone Meeting ID Town Board* Mon 9/9 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 882 2697 6101 905098 WDWD Wed 9/4 5:00pm In person West Danby fire station CAC* Tue 9/10 7:00pm 1-929-205-6099 835 4940 5296 879507 FD Tue 9/10 7:00pm In person Danby Fire Station DYC Thur 9/12 7:00pm Online- contact jsorrentino@danby.ny.gov Town Board* Mon 9/23 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 847 9505 5187 308958 PB* Tue 9/17 7:00pm 1-646-876-9923 893 3897 1114 956288 BZA* Tue 9/24 7:00pm TBD 817 1432 4705 398041 FD Tue 9/24 7:00pm In person at the Danby Fire Station See the Danby calendar for the final, most up-to-date details. (Acronyms in the above schedule are identified below.) *These meetings are hybrid (i.e. both online and in-person at the Town Hall) Boards & Committees Planning Board (PB) Chair: Kelly Maher planningboard@danby.ny.gov Meets: 3rd Tuesday at 7pm Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) Chair: Earl Hicks bza@danby.ny.gov Meets: 4th Tuesday, as needed Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) Chair: Margaret Corbit cac@danby.ny.gov Meets: 2nd Tuesday at 7pm Danby Youth Commission (DYC) Chair: Jamie Sorrentino jsorrentino@danby.ny.gov Meets: 2nd Thursday at 7pm Fire District (FD) Secretary: Sharon Gaden, secretary@danbyfiredistrict.org danby.ny.gov/depts/danby-fire-district Meets: 2nd & 4th Tuesdays at 7pm Danby Volunteer Fire Company (DVFC) Chief: John Gaden, jgaden@danbyfiredistrict.org danbyfiredept.org West Danby Fire Department (WDFD) Chief: Robert McCray rmccray@danbyfiredistrict.org westdanbyfire.com West Danby Water DIstrict (WDWD) Contact: Scott Wendt, swendt@danby.ny.gov Meets: 1st Wednesday at 5pm September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 10 Town Officials Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon, x1010 supervisor@danby.ny.gov Town Board Meets 1st Mon and 3rd Mon Leslie Connors Paul Hansen H Katharine Hunter Pat Woodworth townboard@danby.ny.gov Town Clerk Deputy Town Clerk Hours: Mon–Fri 11am–4pm Mariah Dillon Cindy Katz clerkoffice@danby.ny.gov x8001 Highway Superintendent Deputy Highway Superintendent Hours: Mon–Thu 6am–4:30pm Keith Shipman, x8009 highway@danby.ny.gov Jack Shawley, x1012 jshawley@danby.ny.gov Town Justices Court Clerk Hours: Mon-Wed 8am-11am Garry Huddle Theresa Klinger Diane Gair dgair@nycourts.gov Town Planner Hours: Mon–Fri by appointment Greg Hutnik, x1007 planner@danby.ny.gov Code Enforcement Hours: Mon-Fri by appointment Steve Cortright, x1006 code@danby.ny.gov Documents/ Historian Mary Ann Barr, x1008 mbarr@danby.ny.gov Bookkeeper Laura Shawley, x1011 lshawley@danby.ny.gov Danby, New York From: 1830 Danby Road Ithaca, NY 14850 PRST STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No.428 Ithaca, NY 14850 Phone: 607-277-4788 https://danby.ny.gov Welcome to the Danby Town News! Questions? Email us at townnews@danby.ny.gov September 2024 Town of Danby, New York 11