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Home My WebLink About2025 12 December Newsletter December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 1 Danby Town News The Danby Resilience Community has been meeting at Danby Food & Drink since March to connect with neighbors, to support each other, and to talk about ways to strengthen our community. Our fall Resilience Fair was well attended and a lot of fun, so we decided to plan more events to bring folks together. Food security has been on our minds lately so we're planning a donation drive to support the monthly food pantry at Danby Community Church, along with a community potluck to get to know one another. All are welcome, bring your good company and feel free to bring a dish to share with your neighbors. Bringing your own place settings is encouraged. We will be accepting cash or check donations to support the food pantry. Let's break bread together! Saturday, December 6th 5-8pm Danby Community Church 1859 Danby Rd. Ithaca, NY 14850 Pancake Breakfast with the Danby Fire Company! Fall is here and the pancakes are warming up! Drive-thru or stop in for a plate of pancakes, French toast, sausage, scrambled eggs, and home-fries all for $12. Join us Sunday, December 21th 8am- 11am! Cash, card, check, Venmo, and Apple Pay are accepted. We’ll be doing this on the third Sunday of the month from October 2025 through March 2026 at the Danby Volunteer Fire Company, 1780 Danby Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850. Proceeds to benefit the Danby Volunteer Fire Company. Fundraising targets include improvements to our equipment for managing breathing problems and to our rope rescue equipment. Danby Potluck and Food Drive! December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 2 Notes from the Town Supervisor Joel Gagnon My mind turns naturally to reflection at this time of year. Thanksgiving is a reminder to include gratitude in my reflections and to reaffirm the importance of love as a guiding force worth embracing. It is what underlies the sacrifices partners make for the sake of their relationship. It is what motivates parents to nurture their children despite sometimes annoying and dysfunctional behavior. The rewards are intangible but nonetheless real; sacrificial love satisfies an innate longing for meaning and connection that materialism does not and cannot. I am grateful for the many who dedicate themselves to serving others – our firefighters and emergency response personnel, our highway workers, teachers and others serving our young people, government workers and the many volunteers that serve on boards and committees. We all benefit from their investment of themselves for the common good and it is good to acknowledge it with gratitude. Positions Open Volunteering to serve on boards and committees does not come without personal sacrifices. The rewards are not always evident. There has to be a willingness to take on this work for the sake of the common good, and it is very easy to “let somebody else do it”. Consider, though, that if you have the talent and the interest that would make you a good fit for the need, your willingness to respond to the invitation can make our little town a better place for all of us. There is one position open on the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Planning Board, the Water District Advisory Committee and the County Recreation Partnership Board (Danby appointed member). The Town Historian is an annual appointment as well and interest in that position or to assist would be welcome. There are multiple positions on the Danby Youth Commission and the Conservation Advisory Council. There are incumbents for many of these positions. We are not yet sure who among them will choose to reapply. Please do not let incumbency deter you! Application is easy using the form on the website. Timber Harvest Law Passed It was years in the making, but the approval was unanimous. The Timber Harvest Law is now in effect for the Town of Danby. Some have said that the Board is ridiculously slow to act on proposed legislation. One could certainly point to this law as indicative of that. You could also see that long process as a good example of careful and responsive deliberation that took us from an initial proposal that elicited strong opposition to a final product that was acceptable to just about everybody. Worth the effort, I think. Zoning Amendments Proposed The Town Board passed an extensive revision of our zoning law in 2022, to bring it into line with the Comprehensive Plan. That revision was a major change, and we have already noticed mistakes and features that we would want to revisit with greater consideration. A Regulatory Review Committee was created to look at what we might want to change at this point and after several months of work an initial batch of recommended changes was sent to the Town Board for consideration. The goal is a local law to revise the Zoning Law. The Board took a first look at the recommendations, with planner Greg Hutnik providing an overview. We didn’t make it past the first couple recommendations . (cont on pg. 4) December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 3 Notes from the Planner’s Desk Greg Hutnik Planning Board On November 18, the Planning Board approved a minor subdivision of the former Auto Salvage property at 129 Hornbrook Road. The subdivision carves out a 3-acre commercially-zoned portion of the property where the warehouses are located from the remaining 107 acres zoned Rural 1. NYSEG Electric Transmission Reliability Project — Public Comment Open Through 1/29/2026 New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) is rebuilding the existing 21-mile electric transmission line between the Montour Falls Substation in the Town of Montour to the Coddington Substation located at 340 E King Rd in the Town of Ithaca. The project, known as the Finger Lakes Area Infrastructure Reliability Project (FLAIR), will replace the wooden poles with taller steel poles within the existing right-of-way. FLAIR is anticipated to affect 16 properties in the Town of Danby, all close to the Ithaca town line. Construction is scheduled for 2027 and 2028. More information — including maps, presentations, guides to the process for electric transmission facilities, and opportunity to submit comment — is available on the project website at https://fingerlakesareareliability.com. Danby is a Fair Housing Community The Town of Danby is committed to providing Fair Housing within constitutional limitations to all Town residents. The Federal Fair Housing Law prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of housing based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap or familial status. If any individual or family feels that they have been discriminated against in obtaining suitable housing of their choice or if anyone requires additional information regarding Fair Housing, they can contact Greg Hutnik, Fair Housing Officer, at 607-592-0417 Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Annual Election of the Danby Fire District on Dec. 9, 2025 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual Election of the Danby Fire District will take place on December 9, 2025, between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. at the Danby Fire Station located at 1780 Danby Road, Town of Danby, Tompkins County, New York, for the purpose of electing one Commissioner for a five (5) year term, commencing January 1, 2026, and ending December 31, 2030. All residents of the Fire District duly registered with the Tompkins County Board of Elections as of November 17, 2025, shall be eligible to vote. The Election Officials will meet at 5:30 p.m. on December 9, 2025, to prepare the register for the Election. This notice is given pursuant to Town Law, Section 175(1). November 17, 2025 Sharon Gaden, Secretary BOARD OF FIRE COMMISSIONERS DANBY FIRE DISTRICT 1780 Danby Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 4 Notes from the Town Clerk Mariah Dillon Greetings Danby! The clerk’s office sends out about 25 overdue dog licenses a month. Is your dog on the list? New York State law requires all dogs older than four months to be vaccinated for rabies and licensed annually. Vaccinating a dog against rabies is overwhelmingly safe. Serious side effects are very rare compared to the nearly 100% fatality rate of rabies if contracted. Please keep your dog safe! We seem to have entered the age of misinformation! Nearly every week the clerk’s office receives some sort of phishing or scam email trying to trick the recipient into providing sensitive information. Phishing emails seem like they are from legitimate sources but are truly nefarious. The latest one to me was seemingly from the code officer asking me to send his paycheck to a new bank. Clearly a scam, as I do not do payroll. But other emails have been more cunning, like the Town is overdue on a bill – click this link – only to find out the link is to a malicious site asking for your login and password. Thankfully, the Town has excellent security software that cuts downs on phishing emails and has recently acquired cyber insurance to best protect the Town from these types of attacks. All Town employees attend several training courses a year to learn about the various types of attacks so that we can spot them and evade them. We also get an occasional “test email” from our security group to make sure we stay on our toes! What can town residents do to protect themselves? ·Be cautious of any unexpected or urgent emails. ·Never click links in an email to log into your accounts. Instead, open a new window and log in to the official website. ·Never provide personal information to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. ·Scammers often create a sense of panic to make you act without thinking. You should be suspicious of subject lines and messages that use threats or urgent demands. Humans are wired to react to fear. Scams use fear to bypass critical thinking and create a sense of urgency, which makes people more likely to act impulsively without questioning a scam. You can see this in the current political environment as well as in s ocial media posts. Emotional manipulation is a powerful tactic that makes people more susceptible to being deceived. Stay safe out there. We’re here if you need us! Notes from the Town Supervisor (cont.) Ultimately, we decided to review the recommendations before the next meeting and direct questions to Greg so he can explain the reasoning behind them. If his explanation doesn’t adequately address the questions, then the subjects will be the topic for Board discussion. That process starts with the next meeting and will continue until we reach agreement on what to propose in the local law. I will keep you posted on the progress. Of course, there will be a public hearing when the law is finally ready for consideration. Comments welcome along the way! December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 5 Tompkins County Legislature News Dan Klein This is my last submission to this newsletter as my last day on the Tompkins County Legislature will be December 31. I have been on the legislature for 12 years, representing the Towns of Danby and Caroline. Before that, I served on the Danby Town Board for 6 years. Being in elected office has been an amazing experience, and I have learned so much. Two things I am most proud of: 1. From 2021 to 2025, during a period of high inflation, we kept the County tax levy increase to an average of 1.2% a year. That is an incredibly good accomplishment, especially when compared to most other local governments. I led the charge every year in using some of our large fund balance to offset bigger tax levy increases. 2. Tompkins County owns 550 acres of forested land. For reasons that are still hard for me to understand, we came close to logging these century-old trees. It took a long time, but I eventually convinced enough of my colleagues that as a forever-institution, the County is in an excellent position to steward this publicly-owned land to let it develop into old-growth forest for future generations. One thing left undone for me is better funding of the arts and culture organizations in Tompkins County. Only about 8% of the hotel room tax revenue goes towards these organizations’ operating budgets. There is a group of non-elected people who control this money, and I was never able to break their stranglehold on how these funds are allocated. Party affiliation makes little difference in the Tompkins County Legislature. Votes rarely fall along party lines. That is something we should be grateful for, and which I hope continues. I am proud that I always considered the viewpoints of people with political beliefs different than my own when making decisions. Many years ago, I wrote a column about why being an elected official has made me a better person. I believe that now more than ever. I try to imagine what a good leader would do in any given situation, and then do that thing. This has caused me to strip away as much snark and ego as I could when making decisions, and when communicating with my colleagues and with the public. I realized right at the very beginning that I was just a caretaker for this elected seat. I’m happy to turn over this caretaker position to Irene Weiser. Good luck to her, good luck to all of you, and I thank you deeply for allowing me the privilege of helping guide our common good for a few years. New to the Danby Town News? You’re not alone! We’ve recently redone our mailing list. This newsletter is a critical part of keeping Danby informed about local government matters. The newsletter is also available online at danby.ny.gov/current-town-newsletter. If you’d like to opt-out from physical mailings, please email townnews@danby.ny.gov along with your address. We’ve heard interest in an email mailing list again. Keep your eyes out for any updates on that! December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 6 Conservation Advisory Council The Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) met on Tuesday, November 11 at 7 pm. Here are the highlights of the meeting. We were given updates on several easements that are in the works. Two are very close to completion and we look forward to announcing them in the new year. If you have an interest in learning more about the process and the reasons for donating an easement on all or part of your property, please look online at https://danby.ny.gov/cac/. In terms of approaching potential easement donors, the Council members are currently reaching out personally to landowners, prioritizing properties near or connected to land currently protected. For example, we are in discussion with the owners of a lot off of Deputron Hollow, an area with several existing easements. We were pleased to learn that the Timber Harvest Regulations was approved by the Town Board, and we celebrate the years of effort that went into its generation. Many Danby residents, Town staff, and State local experts contributed. Our December meeting will be primarily given over to Hummingbird's talk on his bird banding project at Lindsey Parsons Preserve at our December meeting. We encourage you to come in person to enjoy this presentation. Our next meeting is on December 9 at 7 pm in the Town Hall. Community members are welcome to attend in hybrid fashion or in person, and a link for Zoom will be posted on the Calendar. Danby Youth Programs Jorin Clougherty ONGOING DANBY YOUTH PROGRAMS Rural Youth Services provides free programming to Danby residents in 4th- 8th grade. To sign up, visit: https://bit.ly/danbyrys Questions? Contact Program Manager Jorin Clougherty at jc3842@cornell.edu Programs are ongoing through December 19th. Sign-ups end on December 8th, but students can still be signed up for the following programs: Whimsical Winter Wonderland (grades 4&5) Mondays, 2pm—4:30pm Whatever the weather, we will explore outside. Sledding expected. Hot cocoa guaranteed. Edible Art (grades 4&5) Tuesdays, 2:30pm—4:30pm Using cake, spaghetti, and more, we’ll make masterpieces…and then eat them! D&D / Magic the Gathering (grades 6-8) Wednesdays, 3:30pm—5:30pm Join other youth for after-school games. Beginners and pros alike are welcome! Holiday Crafting (grades 6-8) Thursdays, 3:30pm—5:30pm Get ready for the holidays with crafts that you can give as gifts (or keep for yourself)! More programs coming in January – stay tuned! December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 7 Danby Seniors Pat Phelps The December meeting of the Danby Seniors is the annual Christmas luncheon on December 4. Reservations are now closed. If you have already paid your money, we are looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, December 4 at noon at the Boatyard. We are unable to accept further reservations at this time. The January meeting will be held on Thursday, January 8, 2026 at noon at the Danby Community Church. It will be the usual dish-to- pass and hopefully we will have bingo for entertainment. All are welcome to attend. Please bring a generous dish to share with a serving utensil and your own table service. Coffee and lemonade are provided. Dues for 2026 will be $5 per year. Those over 80 will maintain their Lifetime membership, but donations are always welcome. Please remember that we follow the school when decisions have to be made about weather. If the Ithaca City School District is closed, there is no meeting. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! From the Town Historian Mary Ann Barr Barns, Barns, Barns! Like many in Central New York, Danby residents love the old barns and regret their demise. The remaining structures still stand as proud beacons of our history and I often hear, “It’s too bad the barns can’t be saved.” But costs often thwart this kind of endeavor. In the October 2025 issue of the Danby News, Pamela Goddard wrote about restoring old barns and the article has a lot of good information about grants that can put restoration within reach. I come from New England where there is a paucity of the grand old structures so I thoroughly enjoy living where there are still some left to see. Though I am not likely to do any restoration, as an artist and Town Historian, I can preserve the barns in one way –I draw them. Over the past few years, I have done just that. One result is a perpetual calendar titled “Barns of Tompkins County” published by the Tompkins County Historical Commission. A drawing of a barn accompanies each month and has a write up about it by Rick Lazarus. The calendar, just published, is available at Historic Ithaca (info@historicithaca.org) and The History Center (thehistorycenter.net). You can see a sample of the calendar at Danby Town Hall. There are more barns out there and I will be checking them out with drawing pad and pencil in hand! December 2025 Town of Danby, New York 8 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 The holidays are upon us along with the cold weather, perfect for snuggling up with a good book! Many of our patrons express an interest in Large Print books, but these can be quite costly. We would appreciate any donation of Large Print books in good condition. Some new acquisitions to look forward to reading: The Black Wolf - Louise Penney The Impossible Fortune: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery- Richard Osman The God of the Woods - Liz Moore My Friends - Fredrik Backman The Lost Girls of Willowbrook: A Heartbreaking Novel of Survival Based on True History - Ellen Marie Wiseman Tell Me Everything - Elizabeth Strout Looking for a Non-Fiction Book Club in Danby? The first read is How to Think About AI- A Guide for the Perplexed by Richard Susskind (2025). Interested? Contact Bill Keokosky at 607-220-4288 or email evk1@cornell.edu. December 2025 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 12/1 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 882 2697 6101 905098 WDWD Wed 12/3 5:00pm In person West Danby Fire station CAC* Tue 12/9 7:00pm 1-929-205-6099 835 4940 5296 879507 FD Tue 12/9 6:30pm In person Danby Fire Station DYC Thur 12/11 7:00pm Online- kshanks@tompkins-co.org Town Board* Mon 12/15 6:00pm 1-929-205-6099 847 9505 5187 308958 PB* Tue 12/16 7:00pm 1-646-876-9923 893 3897 1114 956288 BZA* Tue TBD 7:00pm TBD 817 1432 4705 398041 FD Tue 12/23 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) Co-Chairs: Anne Klingensmith Jonathan Zisk cac@danby.ny.gov Meets: 2nd Tuesday at 7pm Danby Youth Commission (DYC) Contact: Patty Van de Bogart pvandebogartftc@gmail.com 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 December 2025 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 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