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Home My WebLink About2025 06 June Newsletter June 2025 Town of Danby, New York 1 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 2 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 3 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 4 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 5 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 6 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 7 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 8 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