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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-12 Town NewsletterDecember 2024 Town of Danby, New York
1
Danby Town News
Danby Volunteer Fire Company
The cold weather is upon us and Danby
Volunteer Fire Company will be selling warm
Pancake breakfast! Drive-thru or stop in for a
plate of Pancakes, French Toast, Sausage,
Scrambled Eggs, and Homefries, all for $12.
Breakfasts will be the third Sunday of the
month through March 2025, 8-11 AM at the
Danby Fire Station, 1780 Danby Road. Please
join us for our next breakfast Sunday,
December 15! Cash, Card, Check, Venmo,
and Apple Pay are accepted. Proceeds will be
used to upgrade our EMS equipment.
Public Hearing
Monday, December 2, 2024 at 6pm
Change “real property owned by
husband and wife” to “real property
owned by married couple” in the
Senior and Disability Tax Exemption
Law.
Application Reminder
Applications for expiring terms for the
following are due before the town board
meeting on December 2nd:
West Danby Water District Advisory
Board, Planning Board, Board of Zoning
Appeals Conservation Advisory Council,
Town Historian, Danby Youth Commission,
Recreation Partnership
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
2
Notes from the Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon
Thanksgiving Day gatherings will be over by
the time you read this, but the value and even
need to give thanks is worthy of greater
consideration. Particularly in this season of
short days and long dark nights, reflection
comes naturally. Holiday gatherings enable
strengthening community and family ties and
help us realize their importance to our well-
being. Let us use this time to seek and
appreciate what we have in common. Let us
look past our differences and focus on the
good to be found in each and every one of us.
Dare I suggest that our goal should be to be
one in love?
Budget Adopted
The Board passed the budget on November 4.
The adopted budget was unchanged from the
preliminary budget presented at the public
hearing and reported to you last month. The
increase in the amount of money to be raised
through taxes is 3.2% for the general and
highway funds, which are the bulk of the taxes.
That is just under the tax cap.
Regulatory Review Committee Created
This committee was approved and the
membership appointed at the November 4
Town Board meeting. Three Planning Board
members (Kelly Maher, Scott Davis, and
Colleen Cowan) and three Town Board
members (Leslie Connors, Katharine Hunter,
and me – Joel Gagnon) were appointed, along
with the Town Planner Greg Hutnik, who will
serve as Chair. The first meeting will be in
early December via videoconference. There
will be a link on the website calendar if you
would like to attend to observe what the group
does. This meeting will be largely
organizational. I will report on substance as it
develops.
Codification of Our Laws
It might not sound like an exciting project, but
putting all our laws into a code, a project now
under way, will make access simpler and
assure that when someone searches for a law,
they will be directed to the most up to date
version. This benefits both the public and staff
and will make our website even more useful.
Town Board member Leslie Connors is playing
a big role in helping the hired hands of General
Code get this all right. Leslie has kept records
of Board actions for years and is a large part of
our institutional memory. This project will go
much more smoothly thanks to her.
West Danby Fire Department
The West Danby Fire Department is having a
scrap metal drive running from November
11,2024 thru December 11, 2024. There is a
dumpster located in the West Danby Fire
Department parking lot, located at 47 Sylvan
Ln, West Danby.
You can drop off old appliances (no
refrigerators with freon), metal patio furniture,
old BBQ grills, all types of metal, old
lawnmowers, old snowblowers, engines and
transmissions, extension cords and cables, old
motorcycles/parts, go carts/ parts and
minibikes/parts, car parts and pieces, old pots
and pans, bicycle frames.
You can’t leave old propane tanks or
refrigerators with freon in them, no car rims
with tires.
If you have any questions, please message us
on Facebook
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
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Notes from the Town Clerk Mariah Dillon
Greeting Danby Residents
The Clerk’s office is gearing up to start
collecting property taxes in January – I’ll have
the coffee on! (Nobody likes paying taxes – I’m
trying to make it a little nicer!) Tax bills will be
mailed out at the end of December. Full
payments without late fees are due January
31st. Those of you with a mortgage/escrow will
have the tax bill sent directly to your bank.
Look for more updates online at
Danby.ny.gov!
There are hunters in the woods! They have
rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders and crossbows!
Please wear bright colors near any forests (or
avoid the woods altogether) and put bright
colors on any pets that go outside. Deer
hunting concludes for the southern region on
January 1, 2025.
There is such joy with every new face that
comes to the clerk’s office for assistance. What
a beautiful, friendly community we have here in
Danby. With the election finally over, I hope
that we can be united in our acceptance of
those who have been elected to office. It’s not
easy when elected officials are not “our”
candidates, but we live in a democracy (thank
goodness) and must let the process in which
we participated play out.
With the winter season quickly approaching I
wish you all a joyful and peaceful holiday.
Stay safe out there!
Danby Seniors Theresa Klinger
Hard to believe that 2024 is almost
over. Our final trip of the year will be on
December 4 to NYC to see the Radio City
Rockettes. If you are interested in helping plan
trips for next year, please join the travel
committee by letting Pat Phelps know
at patriciaphelps2.0@gmail.com.
Our annual Christmas party and last
luncheon of the year, will take place on
Monday, December 16 at the Eagles Club
banquet room (161 Cecil Malone Drive, behind
Wegmans) beginning at 12 noon. The cost is
$27 for members. We have a few surprises in
store, so come join us!
All the monthly lunches couldn't be possible
without the help of those who come early to set
up and those who stay to clean. Special
thanks to the Danby Community Church for
allowing us to meet in their Fellowship
Hall. We are always in need of help so please
consider coming early or staying a little later.
The annual election of officers will be held at
the January meeting. If you are interested in
becoming an officer please let Pat Phelps
know. We would love new ideas for the group!
Best wishes from all of us for a wonderful
Holiday season!
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
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Notes from the Planner's Desk Greg Hutnik
“Design Connect
In very exciting news, Danby was just
awarded a contract with Design Connect, an
interdisciplinary, student-run design
organization at Cornell University that provides
practical experience for Cornell students by
delivering impactful planning and design
services for local communities
(https://www.designconnectcornell.org/).
Specifically, a team of about a dozen students
from the planning, architecture, and landscape
architecture programs at Cornell will work with
the Town of Danby in the spring of 2025 to
design a conceptual neighborhood plan on the
54-acre parcel at 1675 Danby Road,
colloquially referred to by some as the “Dobson
property.” The key word here is “conceptual” –
there are no required commitments from the
Town or landowner to move forward with
anything that will be designed. That being
said, the final deliverables of the project could
be used to “shop around” to developers, design
professionals, and funding agencies to explore
making the plan a reality, should the landowner
choose to do so. The purpose of this exercise
is to explore what could be possible on this
property, given the vision of the Central Hamlet
and the zoning that encourages denser
housing and mixed-use development in this
area of town. As for public participation, there
will be multiple ways residents can provide
input on how this neighborhood should be
designed. Many more details to follow on how
the spring semester will be scheduled for this
project. Stay tuned…
Planning Board
At the November 19 Planning Board
meeting, four development proposals were
reviewed, three of which received final
approval. The owner of the property at 202
Jersey Hill Road received approval to
subdivide the 87-acre property into two lots,
one being a 10-acre lot with an existing home
and the other being 77 acres to continue to be
used for agriculture. The owner of 104 Peter
Road, a property in the Rural 1 zone district,
received Site Plan approval to have 464
square feet of accessory structure coverage.
(This is a good time to remind those who live in
the Rural 1 zone district that Site Plan Review
by the Planning Board is required for non-
agricultural accessory buildings totaling more
than 400 square feet but less than or equal to
1200 square feet per lot.) The third approval
by the Planning Board was to grant Site Plan
approval to 1429 Danby Road, a property in
the Commercial B zone district, to operate
Danby’s first cannabis retail dispensary,
Altitude Ithaca. As the business will re-use the
existing building, there were few development
impacts to review. The Planning Board felt that
the available on-site parking, which will be
restriped, is sufficient, but that the building
needs to be equipped with Dark Sky compliant
(downcast) lighting. The hours of operation are
planned to be 12-8pm. The fourth review was
for a proposed three-lot subdivision of the
Ithaca Waldorf School property located at 20
Nelson Road. IWS proposes to carve out two
roughly 12-acre lots while retaining the balance
of the property (~58 acres) for the school. This
process is called a Standard Subdivision and
there will be a Preliminary Plat review and a
Final Plat review (with a public hearing) before
it can be approved. The main discussion item
was on a “conservation area” that was
conditioned for a 2006 subdivision of the IWS
property that created a cluster of lots on
Nelson Road. This conservation area is where
one of the new parcels is proposed, and it is
unclear how that condition from 2006 will
impact this latest proposal. The Town will seek
legal counsel on this before the next meeting.
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
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Tompkins County Legislature News Dan Klein
Potential Future Projects and Programs
Because I’ve been in elected office for 15
years, I’ve been able to see a number of
projects evolve from an initial idea consisting of
nothing but words, and eventually ripening into
completion. This often takes years.
Here are the bare bones of 3 ideas that may
become reality someday. You can say you
heard it here first.
Housing Grants
The Town of Danby was successful in 2022
in obtaining a federal grant of half a million
dollars to rehabilitate housing of lower-income
residents. Danby is applying again. In both
cases, Tompkins County gave Danby a small
amount of money to hire someone to help write
the grant. Hopefully the grant will be successful
again, and in the next few years another dozen
or more Danby houses will become more
livable.
Transportation
The County recently adopted a Mobility
Vision Plan for 2024 to 2027. Rural residents is
one of the target groups this plan intends to
improve transportation services for. This plan
aims to reshuffle some of the transportation
alternatives that already exist, while adding a
few more elements. A few possible additions
include a “One-Call, One-Click Transportation
Information Center”, a “First Mile/Last Mile
service to get you from your home to the bus
route, and improved Medicaid client
transportation services for medical
appointments. At the top of my wish list is for
public transportation to be restored to West
Danby, which lost the Tioga County Transit bus
in 2014. West Danby is a low-population-
density, large-geographic area, which makes it
particularly expensive to serve with public
transportation.
Code Enforcement
Another idea that may someday bear fruit is
the County Building Code Administration and
Operations Study adopted by the County
earlier this year. What this idea is NOT is that it
does NOT propose eliminating the local code
enforcement powers of the Town of Danby.
Here are the 6 items it does contain, each of
which will be explored further: (1) County
assignment of new 911 addresses, (2)
Countywide or shared services building permit
and code enforcement software management
system, (3) Create a pipeline of code
enforcement and building safety inspectors, (4)
Shared court presentment/prosecution
services, (5) Establish specialized services and
technical assistance programs, and (6)
Municipal to municipal shared staffing.
More information about these items can be
found on the Tompkins County website, or by
contacting me. And remember, you heard it
here first.
NEW CROSSWALK Katharine Hunter
I am very happy to share this news from the Regional Safety Engineer, Valerie Kaiser,
Dept of Transportation, NY. After many years of different approaches and requests for
various studies, we finally hit on the right timing! We have conditional approval for our
crosswalk (which means we have to submit, and have approved, plans for ped ramps
and landings on the Town Hall side and modification on TCAT bus stop side). This will
be accomplished! And,we will have our crosswalk for safer crossings for youth programs
at the Park and Town Hall and TCAT commuters.
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
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Conservation Avisory Council Margaret Corbit
The Danby Conservation Advisory Council
(CAC) met on Tuesday, November 12 at 7 pm.
Here are the highlights of the meeting.
Much of the meeting was given over to
discussion about the Town’s file management
system and how CAC members can and will
work within it when generating and monitoring
conservation easements. This is a work in
progress as the Town transitions its system
and we learn to work with Mariah Dillon, Town
Clerk, and Kristin McCarthy, our newly
appointed secretary.
We then moved on to catching up on the
Council’s progress in monitoring existing
easements. Several properties have been
visited and the responsible Council members
are preparing their reports. Each easement is a
unique contract between the owners and the
Town. Thus monitoring of an easement
requires referencing the original agreement
and prior reports. Again, we talked about how
to keep this information organized. Anne
Klingensmith is taking the lead on this.
We talked about the breadth of kinds of
properties that can be put under
easement. Margaret Corbit shared her report
on the Hanson easement, which is unique in its
agricultural focus. Just that day, several CAC
members had walked a prospective easement
property on Comfort Road. This easement,
when finalized, will include assurances that
members of the *D\RJRKyQ۠ will be able to
access the property to perform traditional
activities such as maple sugaring. We are in
the final stages of developing a new easement
for a property adjacent to land protected by the
Finger Lakes Land Trust. Assuring continuity of
habitat is a strong reason for putting a property
under easement.
Finally, Jonathan Zisk shared his progress
on providing Town officials with guidelines to
use when thinking about calling upon the CAC
for advice. In the past, CAC members have
conducted background research and/or shared
their knowledge about issues relating to
development reviews
Youth Activities
Playing outside at
Danby Town Hall
Puppets playing
Dungeons & Dragons
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
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Youth Programs Heidi Doggett hd289@cornell.edu
One more month of programs left for this
year! As always, youth don’t have to be in
public school to register for our programs.
Homeschoolers are welcome. Register at
bit.ly/41jUwDO or contact Heidi Doggett for
paper forms at (925)240-3572 or
hd289@cornell.edu.
Outdoor Exploration (grades 4-5)
Tuesdays 12/3, 12/10, 12/17 at Danby Town
Hall/Dotson Park, 2:30-5:30 pm
We’ll use every bit of daylight and good
weather to run around outside and jump in leaf
piles. Indoor weather means games or other
projects in the Town Hall.
Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: the
Gathering, and Games (grades 6-8)
Wednesdays 12/4, 12/11, 12/18, Boynton
Middle School, 3:30-6:00 pm
The adventure continues with several youth-
run D&D campaigns (with adult support
provided), Magic: the Gathering, outdoor Gaga
Ball and Basketball, and a wide selection of
unique board games.
Boynton Gift Making and Crafts (grades 6-8)
Thursdays 12/5, 12/12, 12/19
Create gifts or just craft! We’ll have jewelry
making, resin, hot cocoa mix kits, puppets, and
more
Danby Youth Commission Jamie Sorrentino
Danby Youth Need YOU!
The Danby Youth Commission (DYC) is a
warm group of Danby locals who support the
well-being of our youth. We support afterschool
and summer programs through the County's
Rural Youth Service for grades 4 - 8, summer
youth employment (YES), scholarships for
youth activities, and we participate in various
community events throughout the year.
We REALLY need to recruit even more
caring adults to serve on the DYC. We also
need youth representation (at least age 16). I
will be stepping down as Chairperson after two
terms. It has been such a fulfilling and practical
way to serve some of the most important
members of our community - our youth - and I
want to encourage YOU to join us. We are a
kind group of Danbyites who are passionate
about supporting young people and who work
together well. It is a wonderful way to get
involved at the Town level and see your efforts
bear fruit. I know we are all tired and busy but
this commitment is minimal and fun. It will FILL
YOUR BUCKET! We meet once a month via
Zoom for about 1.5 hours. Not much extra work
between meetings.
To serve as a member of the DYC, you need
to apply and be appointed by the Town Board.
Please see the Town of Danby website to
complete an online application. If you have any
questions about the role, please feel free to
reach out to me (jsorrentino@danby.ny.gov) or,
better yet, let me know if you want to sit in on
our next Commission meeting (Dec 12th at 7
pm) to get a feel for it. Check us out!
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
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Danby Community Groups
Danby Community Library
Contact: Cindy Parlett
library@danby.ny.gov
Open Tue 1-3pm,
Thu & 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 And
Park (DCAP)
Website: dotsonpark.org
dotsonpark@gmail.com
Thu 12/7 at 7pm
Danby Rural Cemetery
Contact: Sharon Boda
Sharonboda@gmail.com
West Danby Community
Association (WDCA)
Contact: Pat Curran
pc21@cornell.edu
Danby Seniors
Contact: Pat Phelps
patriciaphelps2.0@
gmail,com
Luncheons: 1st Thur at noon
Danby Tosspot
(Open Alcoholics
Anonymous Meeting)
Wed 7pm - virtual
Danby library News Cindy Parlett
Some end of the year purchases include 2 new series:
Tess Thompson's Emerson Pass series
1-The School Mistress
2-The Spinster
3-The Scholar
4-The Problem Child
5-The Seven Days of Christmas
6-The Musician
7-The Wordsmith
8-The Rebel
Catherine Hokin
1-The Commandant's Daughter
2-The Pilot's Girl
3-The Girl in the Photo
4-Her Last Promise
Louise Penney's latest book, The Grey Wolf
Kristin Hannah-Magic Hour
DVD's-CATS (the Broadway musical),
Ballykissangel, series 1&2,
Set of Charles Dickens novels on DVD.
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
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Monthly Meeting Schedule At-A-Glance
Group Day Date Time Call-in by Phone Meeting ID
Town Board* Mon 12/2 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 882 2697 6101 905098
WDWD Wed 12/4 5:00pm In person West Danby fire station
CAC* Tue 12/10 7:00pm 1-929-205-6099 835 4940 5296 879507
FD Tue 12/10 7:00pm In person Danby Fire Station
DYC Thur 12/12 7:00pm Online- contact jsorrentino@danby.ny.gov
Town Board* Mon 12/16 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 847 9505 5187 308958
PB* Tue 12/17 7:00pm 1-646-876-9923 893 3897 1114 956288
BZA* Tue 12/24 7:00pm TBD 817 1432 4705 398041
FD Tue 12/24 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
December 2024 Town of Danby, New York
10
Town Officials
Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon
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
highway@danby.ny.gov
Jack Shawley
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
planner@danby.ny.gov
Code Enforcement
Hours: Mon-Fri
by appointment
Steve Cortright
code@danby.ny.gov
Documents/
Historian
Mary Ann Barr
mbarr@danby.ny.gov
Bookkeeper Laura Shawley
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