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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025 06 June Newsletter June 2025 Town of Danby, New York
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Danby Town News
HISTORIC EVENT BROUGHT
INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
submitted by M.A. Barr
One significant historic event that still
resonates in our country today occurred
237 years ago: the Constitution of the
United States was ratified. All these years
later large cities, small towns like Danby
and even individual people are impacted
by what happened in 1778.
This coming JUNE 14 there will be a
public reading of the Constitution at the
Tompkins County Library (at the corner
of West Green Street and South Albany
Street) from 9:30 AM until 10:30 AM. It
will truly be a public reading since anyone
can volunteer to read a line. Each person
who reads will get a picture, on their own
phone, of themselves reading (taken by
specified volunteers) and everyone who
attends will get a copy of the Constitution.
Danby Youth Commission
We are thrilled to announce that Jorin
Clougherty has signed an offer letter to serve as
the Youth Educator for Danby. He will begin his
training on May 22nd. Because of previous work
obligations, Jorin will begin his full time work with
us in the 4th week of August and we hope to have
fall programs running by the end of September.
We will keep you updated.
Thank you and Welcome Jorin!!
Jennings Pond
MaryAnn Kozak
Reminder!! The swim
season at our beautiful
Jennings Pond
recreational area opens
on July 2 at noon. As
always, swimming is free.
And there still are
opportunities for fishing,
kayaking, canoeing and
hiking.
June 2025 Town of Danby, New York
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Notice of Election - Fire District Sharon Gaden
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a resolution of the Board of Fire Commissioners, a
special election of the qualified voters of the Danby Fire District will be held at the Danby Fire District
Firehouse at 1780 Danby Road, Ithaca, New York, 14850, on June 17, 2025 between the hours of
6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. will be held to vote upon the following Bond Resolution:
BOND RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS OF THE
DANBY FIRE DISTRICT, TOWN OF DANBY, TOMPKINS COUNTY, NEW
YORK (THE “DISTRICT”), AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION AND
EQUIPPING OF A PUMPER TANKER FIRE APPARATUS WITH ATTENDANT
EQUIPMENT AND APPLIANCES AND SERVICES RELATED THERETO;
ESTIMATING THE TOTAL COST THEREOF AT
$656,634; APPROPRIATING SAID AMOUNT THEREFOR; AND
AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF $450,000 IN SERIAL AND/OR
STATUTORY INSTALLMENT BONDS OF THE DISTRICT TO FINANCE SAID
APPROPRIATION
Notes from the Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon
A Frost-free May?
We aren’t quite out of the woods yet, but as
of this writing there have been no below 32-
degree nights in the entire month of May. We
were close several times but saved by
cloudiness. Those clouds are like a blanket,
blocking the cooling that would otherwise
occur. So, while we might grumble about the
lack of sunshine, there is a real upside to it.
Audits
Not the usual stuff of headlines (unless they
uncover evidence of fraud or abuse), audits are
a way to check for proper handling of an
organization’s money and flag potential or
actual problems. You will not be surprised to
hear that local governments are monitored for
fiscal responsibility in several ways. One is via
annual audits conducted by a committee of
town board members. Pat Woodworth and
Katharine Hunter have been doing this on
behalf of the board in 2025. Supervisor, Clerk
and Court are assessed using guidance
documents from the State Comptroller’s Office.
That process is currently under way, with Court
and Clerk completed and Supervisor in
process. Periodically the Comptroller’s Office
does a deep dive into a town’s finances to
check for regulatory compliance and proper
management. The Town of Danby went
through such an audit in 2021-22 (yes, it took
almost a year). There were findings, an
opportunity for response, recommendations,
and an agreed-upon corrective action plan to
address deficiencies. None of the deficiencies
were of great consequence, but we did commit
to adjusting our practices to better conform
with best practices. The Comptroller’s Office
has now come back to Danby for a follow-up
check to see how well we have adhered to the
action plan. While not as thorough as the 2021
audit, it will nonetheless take a couple of
months. Town Clerk is in process; Supervisor
to follow. The results will be made public so
you can see how we are doing.
(More on next page.)
June 2025 Town of Danby, New York
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Community Development Block Grant
Program Facing Termination
The President has proposed to Congress in
his budget negotiation completely ending the
CDBG program. We in Danby have benefited
from this program through our success in
securing 3 grants to help low-income residents
make home repairs that they would otherwise
have difficulty paying for. Without the financial
ability to deal with minor problems in a timely
way, major expenses or loss of houses can
result.
Notes from the Planner's Desk Greg Hutnik
Hamlet Sewer Project
There have been many questions asked
whether the hamlets, both in Central Danby
and West Danby, will have municipal sewer.
As has been reported before, the Town was
recently awarded a $4.58 million grant from the
NYS Department of Environmental
Conservation’s Water Quality Improvement
Program (WQIP) to fund up to 75% of the
construction cost of municipal sewer systems
in each of the hamlets. Residents have asked
why more community meetings have not been
held yet to discuss this enormous (and
enormously complex) undertaking. The simple
answer is that we would like to have ample and
complete information to share before putting
out the call to discuss the possibility of
sewering each hamlet, as well as we would like
to have technical experts available at the
meetings. What is more information that is
needed? The nuts and bolts of the sewer
districts – how they would be formed, where
they would be located, what infrastructure
would be in them, and what the cost per user
would be. All these questions are answered
through the process to create a sewer district.
We issued a Request for Quotes in early May
for an engineering firm to prepare a technical
document called a Map, Plan, and Report.
This document acts as the legal framework to
create a special district. As an example, the
Town went through this process in 2021 to
create Drainage District #1 that encompasses
all the properties on Beardsley Lane and
Loomis Court in order to maintain the
stormwater infrastructure in that subdivision
that the Town owns. We anticipate that an
engineering firm will be selected at one of the
Town Board meetings in June. It is estimated
that the process to create the districts could
take 7-9 months. During that time, community
meetings will be held to discuss the project. As
summer can get busy for many, we may wait to
hold the meetings until the early fall. Please
stay tuned and reach out to me if you have any
questions in the meantime. It is a lot to
process for all of us, but I am committed to
being available for anyone to discuss the
project. The preliminary engineering report for
the sewer project is available on the town’s
webpage: www.danby.gov
Design Connect
At the May 5 Town Board meeting, students
from Cornell’s Design Connect Program gave
their final presentation on the conceptual
redevelopment plan of the “Dobson property”
(the former auto salvage yard at 1675 Danby
Road owned by the late Rick Dobson). The
concept that they presented was a new
neighborhood tucked behind “the mountain”
(the large pile of stone and earth seen from
Danby Road) made up of single-family homes
and townhouses, with a focus on housing for
mixed age-ranges. In front of the mountain,
the students proposed a daycare center and
community center, drawing on feedback from
survey respondents. The concept plan is very
eye opening for what could be possible in the
hamlets of Danby and specifically for that
June 2025 Town of Danby, New York
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property. We are very grateful to the current
owner of the property, Shane Spencer, for his
willingness to engage in the project, let
students walk the property, and welcome ideas
for its redevelopment. We hope it was worth
his while – thank you, Shane!
Planning Board
At the May 20 Planning Board Meeting,
approval was granted for a subdivision at 60
Jersey Hill Road. The subdivision divides the
59-acre acre property into two lots, one being
54 acres, and the other 5 acres. The zoning
for the property of Rural 1 requires a minimum
of 10 acres per lot; however, the Planning
Board reviewed it as a cluster subdivision,
allowing a smaller lot and conditioned the
approval so that no further subdivisions would
be allowed on the 5-acre lot and only up to 4
dwellings or lots would be allowed on the 54-
acre lot. This will ensure that there is a
minimum density of one dwelling or lot per 10
acres, as the Rural 1 zone district requires.
Notes from the Town Clerk Mariah Dillon
Greetings Danby Residents!
Dog Licenses
Heads up! Tompkins County Environmental
Health Division sent out a Health Alert on May
20, looking for a dog that bit a person on a
local hiking trail. The dog was leashed and the
owner shared that their dog was up to date on
their rabies vaccination. But that is not enough
for the Health Department! They have to verify
the dog’s vaccination status by reviewing the
dog’s rabies vaccination certificate and
monitoring the health of the biting dog over a
ten-day period. Yikes!
Don’t risk it! Make SURE your dog is up to
date with their rabies vaccination! If you aren’t
sure – call us at 607-277-4788. We are here to
help. Also, Tompkins County offers FREE
rabies vaccination clinics – check their web
site.
Meanwhile, the town clerk’s office had a
record number of dog renewals this past
month! Thank you, thank you! Danby dog
owners are the best!
NYSTA Conference
Blake Savoy and I attended the NYS Town
Clerks Association Conference and Training in
Syracuse in late April. We carried the
Tompkins County flag for the Parade of County
Banners. It was very last minute, and was way
outside of my comfort zone, but standing with
all those other clerks proudly showing our
county flags was actually a huge honor. It’s
great knowing that being a NYS town clerk is
backed up by a professional organization that
prioritizes training, support and camaraderie.
While Blake focused on new clerk training, I
attended classes on Open Meetings Law, NYS
DEC updates, audit findings, and payment
fraud and risk management. I learned that
there are nefarious actors whose sole purpose
is to get others to part with their money, and
they are getting savvier and stealthier every
day! I’ve got some work to do to tighten
banking processes in the clerk’s office by
adding restrictions and alerts on withdrawals.
Thankfully, Danby has recently acquired cyber
security insurance and has implemented
KnowBe4 training for all danby.ny.gov email
users. This training focuses on recognizing
email spam, phishing and spear phishing.
Danby is looking at additional software, ITDR
(Identity Threat Detection & Response), to
increase email security. It’s dangerous out
there ~ stay safe!
We’re here if you need us!
June 2025 Town of Danby, New York
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Tompkins County Legislature News Dan Klein
Roads
Maintenance of roads in Danby is divided
between the Town of Danby, Tompkins
County, and NY State. This year, the County
will be chip-sealing Comfort Road from route
96B to Jersey Hill Road, and all of Hillview
Road, Troy Road, and South Danby Road. The
roads that will be newly-paved are Comfort
Road from Jersey Hill Road to Gunderman
Road, and all of Nelson Road.
It is always possible that plans for these
projects will change due to emergencies on
other roads, weather, and issues with getting
supplies on time.
The cost for chip-sealing a road is $15,000
per mile. The cost for full paving is $200,000
per mile. Both of these costs have risen
sharply in recent years.
Countywide, we will be chip-sealing 58
miles of roads, and paving 25 miles.
The County also maintains 106 bridges and
302 lane-miles of road countywide.
Revenue
Despite the turmoil in the economy,
Tompkins County’s sales tax revenue has
started off 2025 surprisingly well. Revenue for
the first quarter is up 9% over 2024. That
translates to about $1 million extra. I have
heard that the explanation for this might be that
people are stocking up on goods in anticipation
of the higher prices that tariffs will cause. We
do not know for sure what is causing this
phenomenon, and it will be the full-year’s
numbers that will matter in the end
County Transportation Planner Courtney Horner
One year after the original publication of our
Transportation Equity Needs Assessment
(TENA), we have compiled an update from
transportation providers and navigators across
the county. The update looks at barriers that
were documented in the original assessment
and shares what has been done to remedy
those barriers in the past year, in addition to
sharing needs that are still unmet and plans for
addressing those. Please contact Courtney
Horner chorner@tompkins-co.org with any
questions or if you wish to learn more about
transportation equity efforts in Tompkins
County.
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gZLqbuuFrTseV7hx2pcxrQEwsWyppVzW/view?usp=sharing
Conservation Advisory Council Jonathan Zisk
The CAC met on 5/13/25 at Town Hall and
by open Zoom connection. They discussed the
status of the proposed logging law, including
consideration of extensive comments by the
attorney for the Town, which will all be either
incorporated or justified within the current
draft. Don Schauffler and Jonathan Zisk will
continue this work. Greg Hutnik and the group
discussed mapping and GIS at length, for
environmental, zoning, and Easement
purposes. Hutnik also spoke at length about
potential new Easements. The new idea of
using maps as a public relations tool was part
of this talk. Current proposed Easements were
reported and discussed, considering remaining
tasks and modifications. Procedures and filing
systems and protocols were reviewed.
June 2025 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,
Wed 6-8pm
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
Great finds at the Friends of the Library Sale!
John Grisham, Janet Evanovich, James
Patterson, Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths,
Charles Todd, Freida McFadden and Deanna
Raybourn to name a few of your favorite
authors. The shelves are being rearranged
so that MORE books can fit.
There are some talented local authors
among us. Last month I mentioned The Red,
White and Blue by Diane Zimmer, and
illustrated by her daughter. With Flag Day and
July 4th coming up it will be on display for all to
see.
Niki Alling is another of our
local authors and she has
several books for children.
Her book, Your Father's
Love, would be perfect for
Father's Day.
Danby Seniors Pat Phelps
The June meeting of the Danby Seniors will
be held on Thursday, June 5, 2025 at noon at
the Danby Community Church. Please bring a
generous dish-to-share and a serving
utensil and your own table service. Beverages
are provided. The entertainment for this day
will be bingo.
There will NOT be a meeting on July 3 at the
church.
The annual chicken BBQ will be held on
Thursday, July 10 at the American Legion. You
must sign up for this BBQ.
If you would like to be added to our mailing list,
please email: ngould1@yahoo.com
June 2025 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 6/2 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 882 2697 6101 905098
WDWD Wed 6/4 5:00pm In person West Danby Fire station
CAC* Tue 6/10 7:00pm 1-929-205-6099 835 4940 5296 879507
FD Tue 6/10 6:30pm In person Danby Fire Station
DYC Thur 6/12 7:00pm Online- kshanks@tompkins-co.org
Town Board* Mon 6/16 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 847 9505 5187 308958
PB* Tue 6/17 7:00pm 1-646-876-9923 893 3897 1114 956288
BZA* Tue 6/24 7:00pm TBD 817 1432 4705 398041
FD Tue 6/24 6:30pm 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) CoChair: Anne Klingensmith Jonathan Zisk cac@danby.ny.gov Meets: 2nd Tuesday at 7pm
Danby Youth Commission (DYC) Contact: Kate Shanks-Booth kshanks@tompkins-co.org 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 6:30pm
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
June 2025 Town of Danby, New York
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Town Officials
Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon
supervisor@danby.ny.gov
Town Board
Meets 1st Mon
and 3rd Mon
Leslie Connors
H Katharine Hunter
James Tyler Stein
Pat Woodworth
townboard@danby.ny.gov
Town Clerk
Deputy Town Clerk
Hours: Mon–Fri
11am–4pm
Mariah Dillon
Cindy Katz
clerkoffice@danby.ny.gov
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